Since the turn of the century it’s happened without fail: every World Cup, three nations that began the tournament ranked in FIFA’s top 20 have been unceremoniously dumped out at the group stage.
Lionel Messi celebrated his 31st birthday today with some light training at Argentina’s camp in Bronnitsy, Russia. The camp has been the subject of wild speculation and remarkable rumors over the last couple days with stories spreading regarding an Argentina player revolt staged in the early hours of Friday morning.
England’s putting on a finishing clinic versus Panama to begin Sunday’s World Cup group play. John Stones sent a precise downward header beyond Jaime Penedo to open the scoring, Harry Kane added England’s second with an emphatic penalty and Jesse Lingard added the third with one of the best goals of the tournament so far. A second from Stones and another Kane penalty has England up 5-0 at the half.
Here’s the opener from Stones.
Croatia has just showed us how to win the World Cup. After demolishing Lionel Messi’s Argentina, the Balkan side lectured the planet on how to play the perfect game.
Croatia’s 3-0 victory over Argentina was one of the tournament’s biggest upsets matched only by Mexico’s 1-0 defeat of world champions Germany.
However, El Tri’s victory was nothing short of miraculous.
As the Argentina vs Croatia highlights show, Lionel Messi and company collapsed against an altogether superior opponent on Thursday in Nizhny Novgorod, 3-0. Spearheaded by the influential play of the sublime Luka Modric, Croatia is through to the Round of 16 while Argentina is on the verge of a shock group stage elimination.
Neymar net worth and salary is pretty astounding for a 26-year-old. According to Forbes, the Brazilian forward takes home an annual paycheck of roughly $90 million per year. The former Barcelona attacker shocked the world with his record-shattering transfer to Paris Saint-Germain, and he’s taking home massive wages from both his club side and his bevy of sponsors and endorsements.
I’m making this up — this could’ve happened at the 1934 tournament or something — but I’m pretty sure that Tuesday’s match between Colombia and Japan is the first-ever World Cup game in which a player has been sent off in the third minute, resulting in a successfully taken penalty, only to be followed by a 39th minute equalizer in which a player strokes a free kick under the wall.
I just have a good feeling that we’ve never seen anything like this before.
Colombia will be without attacking midfielder James Rodriguez when it opens group play against Japan Tuesday. The latest James Rodriguez injury update says the 2014 Golden Boot winner is still struggling with a left calf injury that he sustained during training, and he’s since been omitted from Colombia’s starting eleven to face Japan.
TEAM NEWS | #COLJPN
The original game plan for Brazil had to have been work an opening with Neymar on the ball, twist and turn into some space and then put it in the net. That almost happened in the game’s opening stages, but Paulinho somehow missed from a couple yards out. This is probably the miss out the tournament so far (from open play).
SO. CLOSE.
Paulinho *just* misses wide for Brazil! pic.twitter.com/vxIPwa4wVr
No player appeared more devastated by Jose Gimenez’s 89th minute winner for Uruguay than Mohamed Salah on the Egypt bench; no player could’ve been more elated than Luis Suarez. The Barcelona striker had a nightmare match for La Celeste, spurning three glorious chances while also getting globally ridiculed for an atrocious dive/feigned injury combo.