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I want you to forget about the correct terminology of “Football” and use your best Sean Connery accent and say the title of this post out loud!
Why? Because the 2022 edition of world stage has presented us with just that. Teams have been putting in results that have surprised many, sending some big-name teams home early or relegating them to second place.
In last week’s #1BallZAWorldCupCorner edition, we saw how Saudi Arabia, Iran and Japan had produced some interesting results. This past week has been no different.
Morocco stunned Belgium 2-0 last weekend to put the world’s second-best team in peril of going home early, which Belgium landed up doing as their last game against Croatia ended in a 0-0 stalemate, and a point was all Croatia needed to progress. Morocco’s win over Belgium, coupled with their 2-1 final group game triumph over Canada, saw the Africans top Group F.
Germany, who suffered at the hands of Japan in their opening game, needed a late goal against Spain to snatch a draw, and despite their 4-2 triumph over Costa Rica in their final game, a controversial 2-1 victory for the Japanese over Spain on Thursday saw Japan top Group E, relegate Spain to second place and condemn Germany to an early flight back to Berlin.
Japan’s second goal, which condemned the Germans, came from a VAR decision. The ball seemed to have crossed the by-line and out of play, but VAR ruled that “the curvature of the ball was still on the line” and the goal stood.
Senegal’s 2-1 win over Ecuador sent them through to the next round, setting up a meeting with England, who finished Group B as winners thanks to their 3-0 win over neighbours Wales.
The USA pipped a spirited Iranian side 1-0 to end second, setting up a date with the Netherlands. Wednesday evening produced two stunning upsets in Group D with Australia pipping Denmark 1-0 and Tunisia downing France by the same scoreline.
The victory was not enough for the Tunisians to send them through as Australia’s victory meant they finished on six points along with France but ending second in Group D due to their inferior goal-difference.
Mexico beat Newcastle, I mean Saudi Arabia 2-0 to end level on points with Poland but was not good enough, despite the Polish losing 2-0 to Argentina as the Poles went through on goal-difference in Group C.
Friday evening saw Korea Republic snatch a 2-1 over Portugal which sent Uruguay crashing out of the World Cup. The Uruguayan’s had beaten Ghana 2-0 to send the Africans packing but the injury-time winner from Hwang Hee-Chan sent the Koreans through at the expense of Uruguay on the basis that they scored more goals than the South Americans.
But hey, we will never forgive Luis Suarez for that blocking hand against Ghana during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa!
And so we move on to the knock-out stages of the world’s showpiece. The round of 16 presents some interesting fixtures with Japans taking on Croatia, England against Senegal and two all-European ties featuring France against Poland and Portugal taking on Switzerland.
We have also decided to extend the Predictions game a bit, considering the possibilities of extra-time and penalty shoot-outs. I am not going to explain the scoring format, as it did confuse some people, but the gist of it is that the participants could score a massive 14 points for one game, if they get the full time score spot on going into extra time, getting the extra-time score spot on and then also predicting the penalty shootout spot on.
It may give Chippy, myself and Paddy a chance to catch Woody who has built up a healthy 13-point advantage, especially since no one scored any points from Friday’s encounters. That lead should only have been about five points with Woody not presenting his predictions correctly, but I backed down from the rant and corrected his scores the way he though he wanted them.
There are some interesting predictions for the round of 16 with pretty much all four of us predicting the same winners. But interestingly, Chippy has given Morocco the thumbs up to beat Spain, while I am the only one to go for a Swiss win over Portugal – albeit after extra time.
I am only doing that because I can’t stand Ronaldo and Granit Xhaka plays for Switzerland, and the Swiss Army knives are pretty funky!
