Heartbreak for Wales as the “Evil Empire” serve up a snooze fest
World Cup Diaries: Day 6
World Cup Diaries: Day 6
25th November 2022
A footballing day in four Acts:
Act One — The Big Let Down
WALES 0
IRAN 2 (Cheshmi 90+8, Rezaeian 90+11)
It was 30 degrees and sunny in Qatar as it was 10 degrees and sunny here in England, and just a handful of miles from the squiggly border that separates the UK countries of England and Wales and I feel for my Welsh footballing brothers and sisters this morning. The big let down wasn’t in the script. It was supposed to be the all red dragons from Wales against the all white “Persian Stars” of Iran. The Welsh “Red Wall” versus the noise and colour from the vast hordes of Iranian supporters. A team desperate for a win against a team who could afford a draw but dare not lose.
Following Wales’ game 1 draw with the USA and Iran conceding 6 to a rampant England, today’s first game was perfectly set up and poised to be a no-lose thriller. Iran simply couldn’t lose and had to win or they’d be eliminated with a game to spare. With a 1 point cushion from their draw with the USA, Wales would’ve taken a draw at worst pre-match but despite the utter heartbreak of losing to two late injury time goals they were thoroughly outplayed by a fitter, quicker Iranian team driven on by their hoards of screaming fans and the audible delight that is the constant din of the airhorns that evoke so many memories of World Cups of the past.
The record books will show a 2–0 win for Iran with two incredibly late goals that broke Welsh hearts but make no mistake, Iran thoroughly deserved their shock win. Whilst Wales, sadly, looked shapeless, dog tired and out on their feet way before the elongated ending to a very good game of football, Iran were sprightly, energetic and far more purposeful than the Welsh dragons. It was as if their 6–2 mauling from England four days ago hadn’t happened. Led by dogged central striker Sardar Azmoun and attacking midfielder Mehdi Taremi, Iran were defensively solid and progressive when in possession and shaded a first half that should have seen them take a crucial early lead. Inexplicably, Ali Gholizadeh strayed into an offside position for a simple tap in goal on 16 minutes that was immediately ruled out by the VAR “eye in the sky”, but Iran were on top and Wales sluggishly running on empty.
The second half sprung into life on 51 minutes as the hard working Sardar Azmoun broke free from a retreating Welsh defence and crashed his shot against the outside of the near post before mere seconds later and in the next phase of possession, Ali Gholizadeh curled a beautiful effort that left Wales goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey stranded again and thankful for his far post this time as Gholizadeh’s brilliant first time shot rattled the Welsh goalframe for a second time in a blink of a footballing eye. Wales were holding on. Captain Gareth Bale was as anonymous and tired as his experienced general Aaron Ramsey beside him and with 5 minutes of normal time remaining calamity struck as goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey was rightly red carded and sent off for a horribly ugly challenge that was eerily reminiscent of the brutish and infamous challenge from West Germany goalkeeper Harold Schumacher in the semi-final of the 1982 World Cup.
Hennessey’s red card was the first of this World Cup and now down to 10 men, Wales were holding firm for an undeserved draw until a lazy clearance from substitute Joe Allen fell at the feet of Rouzbeh Cheshmi on the edge of the penalty area and through a crowd of tired Welsh red shirts, the Iranian brilliantly smashed the game’s decisive goal firmly into the corner of the net. With Wales desperately and tiredly looking for an equaliser, Iran attacked on the break as the clock turned past 100 minutes of normal time and with almost the final kick of the game, Ramin Rezaeian “dinked” a delicate chip over Wales advancing substitute goalkeeper Danny Ward and into an unguarded net for a second goal to cap the big let down, and break Welsh hearts.
Wales have to beat England to qualify and they look a tired, ragged outfit.
Iran have turned around a humiliating 6–2 defeat to England and are remarkably in the hunt for qualification for the knock-out stages. Bravo.
Act Two — The hosts limp out with a game to spare
QATAR 1 (Muntari 78)
SENEGAL 3 (Dia 41, Diedhiou 48, Dieng 84)
I remarked in my first daily diary entry, unfairly but accurately, that the host nation Qatar appeared to be 11 strangers who’d seemingly never played as a team before. Nerves, an emerging football country and the baggage of hosting a tournament of this seismic magnitude against the vacuous politicisation of a world swirling around them has clearly not helped and nor does the stark statistic that the nation as a whole has a talent pool of just 6,000 to choose from and rather obviously, to form a talented enough team able to express themselves and be competitive on the largest footballing stage of all. The number of 6,000 is routinely expressed on the UK commentary streams but no-one seems to remark that this is a mere speck of dust compared to the established and historic football nations they are both hosting and trying to vanquish.
The politics rumble on amid a seemingly very well run televisual extravaganza but sadly and honestly, the team in the all red of Qatar have been poor, sportingly ill equipped for the immense challenge and were thoroughly and comprehensively beaten today. Senegal, shorn of the inspirational Sadio Mane (and such a huge loss to the tournament as a whole — lamenting Editor), were clinical today and deserved of their victory that gives them a fighting chance of progression into the knock-out stages. They had to win and through a fog of appalling defensive mistakes and the most beautiful of gliding headers from Famara Diedhiou on 48 minutes for the game’s crucial and decisive second goal, they indeed won and remain firmly in the tournament.
The same cannot be said for the hosts Qatar. With only 2 shots on goal from a woeful one paced first half they improved somewhat in the second and finally, finally had a shot on target when on 62 minutes striker Almoez Ali forced a fine sprawling save from the giant Senegal shot stopper Edouard Mendy. Almost immediately, the Chelsea and Senegal goalkeeper brilliantly denied Ismail Mohamad from close range and 16 minutes later of an improving performance, albeit losing at this late stage of the game 2–0, the team in all red produced a goal of the tournament, a lasting memory of the tournament and perhaps a lament at what might have been. A brilliant cross field sweeping pass set Ismail Mohamad free on the right wing. Calmly bringing the ball under control, Mohamad’s pinpoint cross meets the powerful leaping header of Mohammed Muntari that flew past a helpless Mendy in the Senegal goal.
Qatar are out even though they have to stay in, as hosts.
Senegal will have to beat Ecuador in their final group game to qualify alongside Netherlands.
Act Three — Worrying signs for “Oranje”
Netherlands 1 (Gakpo 6)
Ecuador 1 (Valencia 49)
A Dutch Review
The immediate worrying signs for the team in the beautiful orange is their lack of pace or penetrative attacking play. Even with the early lead Netherlands wilted after 25 minutes and rarely threatened to add to Cody Gakpo’s brilliantly taken 6th minute strike. The goal itself came out of nothing. Manchester City defender Nathan Ake played arguably the most progressive pass all evening and with Davy Klaassen “ratting around” for the resultant loose ball it broke free for Gakpo who drilled a brilliant shot into the near post top corner of the Ecuadorian net. Whilst Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk was his usual imperious self alongside Nathan Ake and Jurrien Timber in defence, the team in orange in front of him and a team and nation he captains with such pride appear leggy, stunted, uninspired and I fail to see where this team will score the goals needed to progress through the knock-out stages. They will naturally beat the piss out of a poor Qatar in their final group game on Tuesday and qualify for the start of the real tournament, but I can’t see them progressing much into December let alone a week away from Christmas and the World Cup Final itself.
The Ecuadorian Angle
Ecuador were poor for 25 minutes but as they grew into the game they in fact overtook and then outplayed a Netherlands team lacking any dynamism or inspiration. The Ecuadorian inspiration came from their 33 year old captain Enner Valencia. Scorer of two goals in the opening round of games against Qatar, his third of the tournament (and six in just four all time World Cup games) was a well taken poachers goal on 49 minutes after a great initial save from Andries Noppert in the Netherlands goal. Valencia also arguably dragged his team into the game with their first shot on target after 32 minutes that forced a fine sprawling save from Andries Noppert and is now worrying a proud footballing nation with yet another injury that forced him to be taken from the field on a stretcher with just a minute left to play. He hobbled around a little in the first game against Qatar and so I hope, as will several million Ecuadorians, that his injury isn’t serious and won’t prevent his participation in Tuesday’s vital clash with Senegal.
A vital clash it promises to be and a winner takes all game too. With the return of their captain (hopefully), I foresee Ecuador being too strong for a one paced Senegal and I’d love to see “La Tri” in the knock-out stages for three immediate reasons (1) Enner Valencia (2) The dancing feet of Angelo Preciado that bamboozled the Dutch defence to distraction, allowing a beautiful shot from Gonzalo Plata to crash unluckily against the crossbar and away to safety and (3) Pervis Estupinan. The 24 year old midfielder for Brighton and Hove Albion in the Premier League scored a perfectly good goal on the cusp of half-time that was immediately ruled out by a linesman who couldn’t and shouldn’t have intervened and then VAR, that monolith to boredom that I despise with every fibre of my sporting being, didn’t intervene either. All very strange. Looked a good goal and no reasons have been given that I’d ever accept and quite frankly Ecuador were given a rum deal and I therefore hope they qualify along with today’s struggling and awkwardly out of tune opponents.
Act Four — A snooze fest from the “Evil Empire”
ENGLAND 0
USA 0
If you thought I was keeping the best to last then you thought wrong and if I tried to say otherwise then I’d be a liar! This was dreadful, a dog with fleas and England will qualify providing they don’t get heavily beaten by Wales, which they won’t. But this was a long way from their 6–2 mauling of Iran and a performance similar to that of their upcoming British opponents on Tuesday. They were leggy, one paced and completely out of coherent attacking ideas. They corralled the Americans into their own half for large parts of the opening 15 minutes of the game and neatly created their only real goal scoring chance of the evening via a swift interchange between Jude Bellingham and Bukayo Saka that saw Harry Kane’s quick shot on goal deflected away for a harmless corner. Rather than the Spanish way of press, press, press and simply penning a slow USA team permanently into their own half, they allowed the template of the game to breakdown, the Americans to escape from their own half and from thereon in, rarely troubled Matt Turner in the American goal.
During a second half whereby England gradually played even worse than their opening first half gambit, the only notes I made for the “Three Lions” were compliments for the much derided Harry Maguire and his headed clearances from the multitude of corners won by the Americans as their incessant pressure severely troubled England, and my surprise at the use of substitute Jordan Henderson on the right wing!
The Americans grew into the game from 20 minutes onward and on 28 minutes Weston McKennie, he of the red, white and blue stripe running through his hair, ballooned a great goal scoring chance over the crossbar after a brilliant team move that ran rings around a tired looking England. Minutes later, Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic grasped his first real involvement in the game by crashing a shot against the crossbar and as the first half ground to a halt, the USA team were way ahead on points and dominating their more accomplished and heavily favoured opponents.
Whilst my notebook is bereft of anything worthwhile to add from an American perspective in the second half, they “bossed” and “managed” the game perfectly and all through their captain Tyler Adams. Despite the New York born Adams playing for Leeds United here in the English Premier League, he’s rather missed my radar to date, but no more. A real gritty, determined and accomplished performance of simply receiving, passing and retaining control of the ball and thus the game. Aided and abetted by the energetic bursts from Sergino Dest and the calm brilliance of Christian Pulisic, Adams led his team to a deserved draw and a performance that merited all three points.
Ex England defender Lee Dixon said, on TV co-commentary that England were “second best all over the pitch, with and without the ball”. A pretty damning statement indeed.
So qualification from Group B is now officially up for grabs and barring a ridiculous 4 goal margin victory for Wales, it’s a one game shootout between the USA and Iran, the winner accompanying England into the knock-out stages.
Thanks for reading. In addition to the delights that can be found within the cave of wonders that is my archives, I’m penning a day to day diary of the World Cup, and here are days 3 through 5:
Ronaldo announces his arrival as Brazil dance to Richarlison’s tune
World Cup Diaries: Day 5medium.com
Pedri dazzles as Germany are humbled and politics returns to the World Cup once more
World Cup Diaries: Day 4medium.com
Saudi Arabia shake up the world as the holders skip past the Socceroos
World Cup Diaries: Day 3medium.com