It’s official. Panama will be the 2018 World Cup last place team, finishing 32nd out of 32 teams in Russia. Los Canaleros were in the World Cup for the first time, but other than a goal against England, it was a tournament to forget.
In a tournament with surprising parity throughout, Panama was the lone outlier, piling up poor results and not exactly bringing pride to the Concacaf region.
The presidents of the United States and Portugal sat down for a bilateral meeting on Wednesday. Beforehand, Donald Trump and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa held a joint press briefing, with comments that ventured into the realm of soccer, the World Cup and Cristiano Ronaldo. The Trump Ronaldo comments were just about the most bizarre thing the U.S. president has said while in office, which is saying something.
If England and Belgium had played in the first match day for Group G, it probably would’ve been one of the best matches of the group stage. Instead, as the final match of the group stage, it turned into a bit of a bore. Belgium forward Michy Batshuayi perfectly summed up the feelings of fans everywhere with a celebration gone wrong.
With one thrilling upset and a few hearty dances, Senegal quickly became a fan favorite at the 2018 World Cup. Sadly, after a 1-0 win for Colombia vs Senegal, the Lions of Teranga are going home in the most excruciating way possible — FIFA fair play points.
Senegal and Japan finished tied in every way imaginable except for one. The two finished with the same number of points, goal differential, goals scored and head-to-head tiebreakers.
There’s a bar that is giving out shots every time Neymar takes a dive. After the absurd Neymar roll against Serbia, they’re probably all dead now.
For the second straight match, Neymar has made a fool of himself. Against Costa Rica he made this horrible dive. It inspired a bar in Rio de Janeiro to offer free drinks every time Neymar falls over.
Diego Maradona is having himself one hell of a World Cup. And you know what? It might be just what Argentina needs.
Maradona lived and died with La Albiceleste on Tuesday. Facing elimination, Argentina survived with a 2-1 win over Nigeria thanks to an unlikely savior, though the scapegoat was the same as usual. It was just enough to see Argentina advance in second place in Group D, well behind Croatia, which put Iceland away 2-1.
An almost evil Peru fan almost became the most despised man at the World Cup as he nearly stole a shirt that was being given to a young fan by Tim Cahill, the Socceroos striker.
The 38-year-old Cahill, appearing in what is almost certainly his final World Cup, walked over to a group of young fans and was just about to give them his shirt.
One of Uruguay’s nicknames is La Garra Charrúa. Garra meaning claw in Spanish, the nickname signals Uruguayans' relentless disposition; the fact they are willing to use nails, teeth and claws to get what they want.
Former Uruguay player and international star Diego Forlán once told the following anecdote referring to Uruguay’s traditional tough play.
Manager Óscar Washington Tavárez would sometimes tell his players “let’s end this match playing with 11 men,” in an effort to prevent them from playing too harshly and getting a red card.
Today marked the begining of the end for the group stage. Groups A and B played their final games, which is always a cause for drama because most of these games will decide who advances to the Round of 16. There was an enormous amount of people claiming that the refs and the use of VAR was very one-sided in almost every match, which goes to show how big these games were today.
Group B went batshit crazy on Monday, but when the dust settled and the VAR screen had been flicked off, nothing had changed over the course of 90 overly dramatic minutes in Russia: Spain finish top and will play Russia, Portugal finish runners-up and take on Uruguay. One major talking point is that the European champions could’ve been preparing for that game without Cristiano Ronaldo, who was given a VAR-inspired yellow card for an off-the-ball elbow.