Let’s be honest here. Panama was bad on Sunday. Really bad. Los Canaleros embarrassed Concacaf and every Concacaf nation that didn’t qualify, although no specific nations immediately come to mind. The 6-1 loss for Panama vs England was the worst performance of any team thus far at the World Cup.
The riff on “Seven Nation Army” is good, but it’s not so good that it should set the barometer for stadium energy levels at every major international tournament for the rest of time.
Worse noise blaring at the World Cup: Vuvuzelas since 2010 or Seven Nation Army since 2006?
— Travis Yoesting (@TravisYoesting) June 21, 2018
If Miguel Layun manages to bury any of his six total shots over in Russia, he’s one of the stories of the World Cup. Of course Chucky Lozano has been excellent. Of course Carlos Vela has taken his game to a level that even the most ardent of Vela supporters couldn’t have anticipated. Of course Andres Guardado is a wizened midfield wizard.
Peru’s the best team at the World Cup.
Technically, only one team can win the tournament. Only one team will have its name engraved on the Jules Rimet trophy (2.0) come mid-July. But there’s more than one way to win the competition.
A massive Mexican contingent of fans at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow (Fox’s Kasey Keller went as far as to say it was 80 percent El Tri fans vs. 20 percent German) was on hand to watch Mexico defeat defending world champions Germany 1-0 thanks to Hirving “Chucky” Lozano’s goal in the 35th minute.
Iceland goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson led his island nation to an improbable 1-1 draw against heavyweight Argentina, sparking Fox play-by-play man John Strong to say "Iceland beats Argentina, 1-1."
Halldorsson came up with six saves against an Argentina side that controlled 78 percent of the possession. His stop on Lionel Messi's penalty will play on World Cup highlight reels for years to come.
Russia crushed Saudi Arabia 5-0 in the World Cup opener on Thursday, a perfect result for the host nation. So was Russia that good or Saudi Arabia that bad? Let’s just say Russia vs Saudi Arabia was a mix of both thanks to Russia’s two stoppage time goals.
If every country has it’s own lesser version of Lionel Messi (“The Alpine Messi”, “The Egyptian Messi”, etc.) then Russia’s is certainly Denis Cheryshev. The 27-year-old has spent his entire career in Spain (including coming through at Real Madrid and making two appearances for the club before joining Villarreal in 2016), and he demonstrated his talents Thursday after coming on as a 24th minute substitute for the injured Alan Dzagoev.
19 minutes after coming on, Cheryshev doubled Russia’s advantage with a sweet strike in the 43rd minute.
After being spotted training alongside his Egypt teammates at yesterday’s training session in Grozny, manager Hector Cuper has today revealed that star forward Mohamed Salah is almost certain to feature against Uruguay on Friday in Yekaterinburg.
Every World Cup, there seems to be the story of a nation that's given little to no chance of making any progress, but somehow ends up actually gaining fans along the way. For the 2018 tournament, we're here to tell you why Australia should be the team that you open your heart to.
The Socceroos are in Group C, alongside France, Denmark and Peru. A tough group, but the Aussies could shock plenty of people if they play with no fear.