World Cup 2018 in Russia - Live Match Commentary

Everything else
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This is the thread for live commentary during the matches!

For every other World Cup 2018 topic, we’ve got this other thread.

Some useful info:

Here’s the groups in this World Cup.

GROUP A: Russia, Uruguay, Egypt, Saudi Arabia
GROUP B: Portugal, Spain, Iran, Morocco
GROUP C: France, Peru, Denmark, Australia
GROUP D: Argentina, Croatia, Iceland, Nigeria
GROUP E: Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia
GROUP F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea
GROUP G: Belgium, England, Tunisia, Panama
GROUP H: Poland, Colombia, Senegal, Japan

Here’s a guide to the various stadiums, and which matches are being held there:

I’m looking forward to seeing Volgograd, which used to be known as Stalingrad during World War II.

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So this is the one to avoid if you haven’t seen a game yet?

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Yes I think it is.

So if you don’t want the dirty details of how Japan shocked the world and took down Senegal for the World Cup final, back out now ;)

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That’s why Saudi Arabia’s defence isn’t in here. They haven’t seen any of this morning’s game yet.

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ZING!

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Hearing the FOX commentators reference people they’ve never heard of it funny. I didn’t think you could use emphasis in a way to make “Paul Gascoigne” sound weird, but he managed it.

Egypt look ok without Salah - compact without the ball and lively getting forward with speed, but missing the spark that’s going to bring a goal out of nothing.

Foxsportsgo has an elevated camera trying to show something akin to American Football’s “All 22” view and you can see Egypt sitting sometimes three midfielders right in front of the two central defenders.

egypt
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Egypt have got the ball there and the two outright defensive midfielders still haven’t moved. They don’t seem to split until Egypt have had the ball for 20 or so seconds when Elneny will finally trot forward. Be interesting to see what they do against the other teams in the group.

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Based on how they’re playing so far, I’m feeling good about Egypt’s chance to advance out of the group if they manage to draw today (I type as Uruguay nearly scores). I know Russia won big, but Saudi Arabia is probably the worst team I’ve ever seen in a World Cup (only been watching since 2002, so I missed the ’98 US team).

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That is one half-empty stadium for a World Cup match between two pretty good teams.

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Trezeguet can run faster than he can dribble. He keeps picking the ball up, knocking it in front of himself and then running past it and falling over.

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Yeah, it seems like they can’t get a decent attack going without Salah. Great defending though.

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Exactly, doing a great job of defending.

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Damn. Keeper stopped it, but what a cannonball.

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Suarez can’t finish today. He should have at least two goals.

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I wish Egypt would take more outside-the-box shots. It doesn’t look like they have the skill to thread short passes near the goal. Give them a chance for a corner at least.

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Elshewany doing work back there. Best performance of the tourney so far (two games in).

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Oh well.

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There it is. Uruguay pulls one out of their ass.

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Poor Egypt, Uruguay did deserve that though.

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That play didn’t look like bad defense or anything, just a ball into the mass of dudes that bounced the right way. But there were plenty before that should have gotten Uruguay a goal so it’s kinda fitting.

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Is that the first yellow of the tournament?