FIFA Men's World Cup

You know in FIFA when you strike the perfect ball and the goalkeeper really shouldn’t even have time to react but instinctively leaps sideways and backwards and claws out your shot with a preposterous bit of animation that makes your blood curl? Well that just happened to Poland’s Kamil Grosicki but in real life.

The Polish attacker really should’ve scored with this perfectly placed header, but Japan’s Eiji Kawashima sprinted across his goal-line, went full extension and pawed it out with a monstrous right claw. This is what’s referred to as slamming the door shut.   

After Argentina versus Nigeria, a journalist approached Lionel Messi and asked him a question. A few days previous, the same man had given the player a piece of red thread, a good luck charm passed along by his wife. In the aftermath of the forward’s fantastic goal, helping Argentina to qualify for the next round, the journalist asked whether Messi remembered the gift.

We will have no back-to-back champions. We will have no Germany 7 — Brazil 1. We will have no Thomas Muller doing silly things at the Munich Hofbräuhaus. Everything is different now. 

How time flies when you're having fun. Thursday is the last day of the group stage, which means Groups H and G are in action! Group G is already wrapped up. England and Belgium have already advanced but will need to duke it out for the honor of winning the group (let's be honest, you don't want to win the group with the way the bracket is looking). Group H on the other hand sees Japan, Colombia and Senegal vying for the last two spots.

Mexico vs Brazil will be no doubt an attractive match come the Round of 16.

El Tri and the Verde amarelha have met several times in diverse tournaments.

The Mexico vs Brazil record is currently 22 victories for La Canarinha, seven draws and 10 victories for El Tri.

Brazil is a football powerhouse and is also the only national team to have won five world cup trophies.

The great news for Mexico is that South Korea’s shock upset of Germany kept El Tri in the tournament. The bad news is that it’s Brazil lying in wait in the Round of 16. The even worse news? That right-hand side of Mexico that just got torched by Emil Forsberg and Ludwig Augustinsson now has to stop Neymar and Philippe Coutinho. The only real news of comfort for the backtracking Miguel Layun is that Marcelo might not be there. 

Costa Rica lost two tough matches to start the 2018 World Cup. The 2014 quarterfinalist was a few moments away from earning two draws but instead took two losses. But the Switzerland vs Costa Rica match finished 2-2, giving Los Ticos a deserved point from their stay in Russia, even if it came thanks to an odd own goal.