Today we saw the return of Mo Salah, but Russia continued its excellent form and destroyed Egypt. Japan pulled off a huge upset and Senegal became the first African nation to get a win in this World Cup.
This game saw the first red card of the tournament and it came in the third minute for Colombia. The early red gave way for Japan to get an unlikely win.
Belgium is ranked No. 3; Panama is ranked No. 55. Yet for the first 45 minutes the two were equals in Group G action at the World Cup on Monday. Then came the Dries Mertens goal vs Panama that completely changed the narrative of the match.
Panama held Belgium at bay for the first half of the match. Near the end of the first half, the favored Red Devils looked to be running out of ideas as the Concacaf side swatted away every attack. Goalkeeper Jaime Penedo looked like a Gianluigi Buffon doppelganger out there.
We get it. The World Cup is eight-straight hours a day of otherworldly goodness that you dare not miss. We’re not asking you to watch anything else (we also know that you’ve got to carve out some time to eat, sleep and potentially bathe in your life), but we’ve witnessed some bangers in the U.S. Open Cup, NWSL and USL over the past week that’ve been hugely overlooked because of the world’s greatest sporting event.
Here’s a little roundup of seven sensational goals that’ve been buried deep in the news cycle by the blitz of footie action over in Russia.