Asia

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.

Iran versus Morocco was awful. The return of the vuvuzela. The vintage Carlos Queiroz approach. The feeling that I really misguided folks by praising Moroccan attackers Amine Harit and Hakim Ziyech before the match. 

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. 

Back in January of 2016, Tottenham attacker Dele Alli announced his talent to the world by scoring what BBC Match of the Day would later vote Goal of the Season against Crystal Palace. Alli controlled a Christian Eriksen knock-down with his thigh, flicked an audacious sombrero over the head of an onrushing defender, swiveled and struck a 22-yard volley inside the post. 

It wasn’t the style that the USWNT will be looking to impose on nations exactly one year from now in France (qualifying willing), but a set piece delivered by Megan Rapinoe and finished by Alex Morgan, who now has five goals in her last three international appearances, was enough to see the U.S. over China in Sandy, Utah on Thursday night.

A strong crowd at Rio Tinto Stadium also got to see the return of Amy Rodriguez and watch Crystal Dunn play in pretty much every position on the field. 

When it was confirmed that Russia would be opening the 2018 FIFA World Cup with a match against Saudi Arabia at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, the general response was one of deep cynicism: here was a bit of home cooking on FIFA’s end; certainly this was the worst opening match in the history of the tournament.