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.
BACK TO BACK TO BACK TO BACK games, people! Buckle up! We got France and Argentina in action which means Messi, Griezmann and company. Can Iceland frustrate an Argentine side that didn’t show much in qualifying? And don’t you dare sleep on Peru vs Denmark and Croatia vs Nigeria.
The second day of the World Cup was a wild one and gave us two great games and one not-so-great game. Social media was loving all the action and here are some of the best World Cup tweets from Friday.
Rightfully so, the storyline everybody’s been talking about from Friday's fixture between Iran and Morocco is the 95th minute own goal that saw Iran take just its second ever World Cup victory and its first in 20 years (against the U.S.). They will also be going into Match Day 2 leading a group that consists of Spain and Portugal. Football is awesome.