Men's World Cup

After getting thumped 4-1 by Germany’s B team at the 2017 Confederations Cup, Mexico manager Juan Carlos Osorio has surprised many by selecting a forward-thinking starting XI against Die Mannschaft to begin El Tri's 2018 World Cup campaign.

A front three of Hirving “Chucky” Lozano, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez and Carlos Vela will look to get after Germany’s vaunted backline of Manuel Neuer, Joshua Kimmich, Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels and obvious “weak link” Marvin Plattenhardt. Usual left back Jonas Hector is reportedly sick.   

You don’t stand in the way of an Aleksander Kolarov rocket. That’s a well-known fact, and if you’re the least bit ignorant about that, you’re dead. Just look at what happened to this ref back in the day.

No event escalates individuals to the status of national hero or global villain as dramatically as the World Cup. The idolatry that follows success and the stigma that follows failure are woven into the fabric of history, and the repercussions will typically follow footballers for the rest of their lives. Daily, we’ll take a look at who played the role of hero and who played the role of villain at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Croatia vs Nigeria was the last match of a long day at the World Cup, one that began at 6 a.m. ET (that’s 4 a.m. for yours truly). We could forgive you if you couldn’t stay awake for the match, which wasn’t quite up to par with the first three — especially if you were following our lead making World Cup cocktails and playing drinking games. 

The Denmark vs Peru match finished 1-0 in favor of the Danes, but the scoreline did little to capture the end-to-end nature of the match. Peru looked the more threatening side during the first half, which culminated in a Christian Cueva penalty kick that landed 20 rows deep behind Kasper Schmeichel's goal.