Consider Peru coach Ricardo Gareca the foil to Morocco coach Hervé Renard. As much as Twitter loved Renard on Friday, the lovely people of the internet were not so kind to Gareca on Saturday.
Renard was the lone bright spot for his country in a disappointing 1-0 loss to Iran on Friday, winning fans over across the globe with his undeniably good looks.
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.
It’s not a World Cup without Diego Maradona. Whether he’s playing, coaching or just being himself on the sidelines, Maradona is such a massive character in the beautiful game he makes headlines wherever he goes. Diego Maradona at the 2018 World Cup is no different, and he clearly doesn’t give a f*ck about anything but himself.
Iceland’s first trip to the World Cup is off to a pretty fantastic start. The smallest nation to ever qualify for the World Cup won 1-1 against Argentina to start Group C play on Saturday. Alfred Finnbogason scored the equalizer for the underdogs and the call from Iceland announcer Gummi Ben showed just what it meant to his country.
Iceland has a population of about 334,000, smaller than more than 50 cities in the U.S., but the team qualified for its first World Cup two years after thrilling at the 2016 Euros.
Cristiano Ronaldo had himself one hell of a game on Friday against Spain. He scored two first-half goals and finished off an incredible hat trick with a late equalizer in a 3-3 draw. The Ronaldo free kick vs Spain will go down as one of the greatest group-stage moments in World Cup history.
Group C is off to a wicked start folks. I’m going to get this out of the way early.
I never understood why Gonzalo Higuain got time over Sergio Aguero on the Argentina national team. That decision really personifies the shit show that is the Argentine FA. Sergio Aguero, who's been out with a knee injury since the end of April, made his return and showed just why he’s more valuable than Higuain. He can make something out of nothing in an instant and finish. (Now watch Higuain come in a score the game winner.)
France defeated Australia without entirely convincing, and the same sort of analysis could be applied to its myriad of attacking talent. Ousmane Dembele and Kylian Mbappe are both absolute spectacles in full flight and Antoine Griezmann is the spice that is the variety of life, but the three just couldn’t combine with the sort of intricacy and understanding that fellow frontrunners Spain and Brazil enjoy.
While the action has been heating up in the days of World Cup play, Belgium has been gearing up for its opener against Tunisia on Monday. Ranked third in the world and boasting big names such as Eden Hazard and Romelelu Lukaku, Les Diables Rouges have the elements to make a significant run in Russia — that is, assuming these stars do not recklessly become their own worst enemy.
Manchester City golden boy Kevin De Bruyne undoubtedly caused some anxiety and dropped jaws during training on Friday with this flying, two-footed tackle on teammate Adnan Januzaj.
France meandered around the pitch for about 55 minutes without creating much in way of scoring opportunities. Then, with the help of the very first use of World Cup VAR, Les Bleus took the first lead of the match against Australia on an Antoine Griezmann penalty kick on Saturday.
The World Cup is the greatest spectacle in sport. But Fox decided it wanted to cut costs by not sending a full crew to Russia — instead broadcasting a majority of matches from a studio in Los Angeles. So, we’ve decided to keep an eye on how the Fox World Cup coverage stacks up to previous ESPN broadcasts, particularly what comes out of the Foxhole in LA.