History and Background
Like Gary Lineker once said, “Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.” It’s no surprise that Die Mannschaft are by far the most historically successful team at this tournament, having won four World Cups and three European Championships.
Chile were the better side from the kick-off today in Moscow as Cameroon quickly found themselves setting up camp in their own half. Chile were eventually rewarded with a 2-0 victory, but not without the Video Assistant Referee system playing a role.
Portugal will lament giving up a 91st minute equalizer to Mexico in their opening Confederations Cup match, but it’s a result that doesn’t greatly harm the aspirations of the two sides favored to advance from Group A. Ricardo Quaresma gave Portugal the lead in the 34th minute, only for Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez to equalize three minutes before halftime for Mexico.
On Sunday, we’ll be treated to only the fourth-ever meeting between Mexico and Portugal and the second-ever competitive fixture between the two nations. The match is also extremely rare where personal records are concerned — it’s not everyday that you see two all-time top goal scorers for their country go toe to toe.
With 47 goals from 92 appearances, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez is El Tri’s record holder, averaging 0.51 goals per game. For Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo has found the back of the net a record 73 times in 139 caps, good for 0.53 goals per game.
History and Background
Since the Confederations Cup began in 1992, Mexico have only missed out on three occasions — making them joint leaders in participation alongside Brazil with seven appearances. They hosted the tournament in 1999 and ended up winning it, beating their arch-rivals the United States in the semifinals and then Brazil in the final.
FIFA is up to some nonsense this week. Like, even more nonsense than usual.
The two men overseeing FIFA's ethics committee investigations and sanctions have been let go, as well as all but two ethics committee members.
Per The Guardian:
FIFA have made it known they plan on including more women in leadership roles and championing the women's game around the world.
This is how they are doing that:
Just asked Mahfuza Kiron who women's world champs are. 1st she said NKorea. I clarifiedworld, she said Japan then mumbled USA. 1/2
— Mani Djazmi (@BBC_Mani) May 8, 2017
Lionel Messi's four-match ban for allegedly insulting a referee has been overturned by FIFA. Messi sat out one match, a 2-0 loss to Bolivia in La Paz, before the FIFA appeals committee made its ruling.
This is good news for Argentina, for whom qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia is still up in the air. La Albiceleste sitting fifth, in the play-off spot, one point behind Chile and Uruguay and two points ahead of Ecuador. They cannot afford any slip-ups, which are much more plentiful when Lionel Messi is not in the lineup.
Richard Lai, president of The Guam Football Association since 2001, pled guilty yesterday to two counts of wire fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. His plea marks the first time that the U.S. investigation into FIFA corruption has indicted an official from outside the Americas. Although Guam is a U.S. Territory, the country competes with others in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Year-long speculation over whether CONCACAF’s bid for the 2026 World Cup, which will almost certainly be awarded to the region, would become a joint bid by the United States, Mexico and Canada has officially been confirmed today.