So only one of the powerhouse teams have won. France with that tight 2-1 game against Australia.
Is this down to the attack vs defence nature of modern football? Much easier to hack players down than beat a man with a stunning bit of skill... The Swiss have mastered the dark arts on Neymar this evening.
I'd put part of it down to the lost art of crossing. Every team tries to play an inside ball from the flank before playing a trillion square balls before anyone decides to take a shot.
"
What was [manager] thinking bringing [player] on so early?"
"
You see, the problem with [team] is that they always try to walk it into the net."
This applies to literally every major team these days. Thanks, IT Crowd.
Quick round up of my thoughts on some of the games then:
Germany were rubbish. Özil is far too inconsistent, can't remember the last time he had a fabulous game. Kimmerich should go into the witness protection after that woeful performance and I've said for weeks that it's a crime against football that Leroy Sane didn't make the squad but Marco Reus did.
Mexico weren't brilliant either, they squandered about as many chances as Germany did but they deserved the win.
Delighted for
Iceland but Messi must feel like he's playing on his own in that team.
Argentina are nowhere near the team they think they are; we all know that Messi pretty much got them qualification on his own. Terrible penno from him though.
I watched
Brasil last weekend in Vienna; they played Austria because they're very similar to Switzerland. Brasil tried to play the exact same way, lazily, without much effort but the problem is that although Austria and Switzerland are quite similar,
Switzerland are far more talented and gave them a game. After not leaving 2nd gear in Vienna I was curious to see what would happen when Brasil actually had to try and it was panicky. Brilliant result for the Swiss and thoroughly deserved.
Spain and Portugal? Well, what can you say? A truly magnificent game of football but I'll say that Nacho's goal was better than Ronaldo's free kick. Don't @ me. I'm also delighted, in a way, that it was a draw because it changes the complexity of that group and both teams now need to put a cricket score past Iran and Morocco to probably finish top on goal difference.
Where are the bookings for simulation? They are clearly not using VAR for that...
