Portugal’s progress is made in Manchester as Uruguay’s demise is a relic to a footballing past
World Cup Diaries: Day 9
World Cup Diaries: Day 9
28th November 2022
Welcome to the ninth day of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the final day of the footballing fandango that is four games a day. From tomorrow onward, us football crazies will be rationed to just two live games a day but with the forewarned knowledge that “every game is a cup final” from hereon in, and we have of course that masochistic pleasure of numerous penalty shoot-outs looming on our footballing horizon.
Today was quite a day!
So without further ado, let’s jump into the World Cup madhouse once again.
Act One — The colour and chaos of the “Indomitable Lions”
CAMEROON 3 (Castelletto 29, Aboubakar 63, Choupo-Moting 66)
SERBIA 3 (Pavlovic 45+1, Milinkovic-Savic 45+3, Mitrovic 53)
Cameroon will forever evoke beautifully chaotic memories of the 1990 World Cup, their beautiful green, red and yellow kit will always feed my childish footballing impulses and they are currently managed by ex Liverpool defender Rigobert Song. So of course I was cheering them on this morning and rather pleasingly, they are still are a passionately crazy bunch who seemingly play for the sheer chaos and beauty of it all. See for example their substitutes streaming onto the pitch to mob first goal scorer Jean-Charles Castelletto after he tapped in at the far post after 29 minutes. He simply couldn’t miss. Easiest chance in the world. But onto the field come rushing a merry band of ecstatic substitutes, freewheeling with joy!
The Indomitable Lions never change, and maybe that’s a good thing.
Witness Vincent Aboubakar and his impudent chip for their second goal on 63 minutes and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting’s equalising goal 3 minutes later. Aboubakar changed the game with his cameo appearance, scoring a beautiful goal to make the game 2–3 before assisting Choupo-Moting with the equaliser in a brilliant sweeping team move that ripped Serbia apart. Prior to this, the Bayern Munich striker (Choupo-Moting) had barely had a kick in a game that he looked completely disinterested in playing! Witness too the fantastic probing, attacking and effervescent performance from Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo. He didn’t score today but was a constant thorn in the Serbian side, so too Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and fellow midfielder Pierre Kunde.
Cameroon may be coached by an ex Liverpool Red with the nattiest of threads and dreads, but they could be coached by the ghost of Arrigo Sacchi and still scamper around like overly eager schoolboys after an immense sugar fix! It’s chaos in action and it’s why they entered the half-time break 2–1 down rather than 1–0 up. They didn’t defend a simple straight ball into their penalty area and left Strahinja Pavlovic (a defensive right back!) completely free to head an unchallenged equaliser before moments later, making a complete hash of another defensive clearance before standing and watching Sergej Milinovic-Savic hit a bobbling shot from the edge of the penalty area that should really have been saved by their goalkeeper, Devis Epassy.
1–0 up in first half injury time. 2–1 down at half-time minutes later.
So chaotically typical Cameroon.
Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic rounded off a brilliant team goal for Serbia that gave them a 3–1 advantage before Vincent Aboubakar changed the game for Cameroon, and it was he and his captain Dusan Tadic who again shone the brightest for a Serbia who should have won today, came incredibly and chaotically close to losing and perhaps the most important and sobering statement of all, they are now all but out of the World Cup.
Regardless of the result in today’s third game between Switzerland and Brazil, Serbia will have to beat their well organised Swiss opponents in their final group game to qualify whilst hoping Brazil defeat the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon.
Act Two — Kudus at the double as Ghana dream of qualification
SOUTH KOREA 2 (Gue-Sung 58 and 61)
GHANA 3 (Salisu 24, Kudus 34 and 68)
After a rather unexciting opening to the game, Ghana strike the first blow.
GOAL! South Korea 0 Ghana 1 (Salisu 24)
After a free-kick routine between Andre Ayew and Mohammed Kudus, Ayew eventually whips in a curling ball into the heart of the South Korea defence causing panic all around. In the ensuing melee, Southampton defender Mohammed Salisu stabs home. Cue pandemonium amongst the all whites on the pitch and the thousands of Ghanians in the stadium.
GOAL! South Korea 0 Ghana 2 (Kudus 34)
The pandemonium became ecstasy just ten minutes later as the dynamic duo of Andre Ayew and Mohammed Kudus teamed up once more. From free play this time, South Korea gave Ayew far too much time to measure a perfect whipped centre into the middle of their defence once more, and Kudus simply glanced his header past a helpless Kim Seung-Gyu in the Korean goal. The team in front of him simply hadn’t started the game at all and Ghana deserved their 2–0 half-time lead.
GOAL! South Korea 1 Ghana 2 (Gue-Sung 58)
Substitute Lee Jae-Sung inspired the crazy and chaotic comeback so eerily similar to the Cameroon game that came before it with first a brilliant and tenacious tackle on the left wing before his brilliantly curling cross was met by a flying Gue-Sung with a pleasingly old fashioned diving header. The goal scorer showed such desire to meet the cross but if you thought his first goal was a beautiful throwback to another time, he had another example to show you just three minutes later.
GOAL! South Korea 2 Ghana 2 (Gue-Sung 61)
The second half comeback was complete, and in just three scintillating minutes. Tottenham Hotspur’s masked hero Son Heung-Min was involved in the move but towering at the far post with yet another headed goal from another footballing era was present time hero Cho Gue-Sung. Clambering over desperate defenders fearing the worst, Gue-Sung powered home his headed equaliser from close in, and cue the screams of delight from the thousands of South Koreans in the raucous crowd.
Game on!
GOAL! South Korea 2 Ghana 3 (Kudus 68)
The teams were level for just 7 minutes before Ghana returned once again to the goal scoring formula of an Andre Ayew cross and a goal from Mohammed Kudus. Ayew’s cross was a tame, bobbling affair that saw striker Inaki Williams miss his kick but not Kudus, who followed in behind him to restore a crucial, game winning lead for Ghana.
South Korea laid a late siege on the Ghanaian goal with Mohammed Salisu clearing off the line and goalkeeper Lawrence Ati-Zigi forced to make a number of smart saves that ensured a Ghanaian victory and thus more than a faint hope of qualification ahead of this evening’s other game in Group H between Portugal and Uruguay. Sadly, and somewhat predictably, a weak South Korea are on the brink of elimination.
Act Three — “The Selacao” qualify with a game to spare
BRAZIL 1 (Casemiro 83)
SWITZERLAND 0
I didn’t see this game live and am dependant upon a 3 minute package of highlights that show ex Leeds United winger Raphinha as a prominent attacking force for the former World Champions in a first half low on highlights! Accompanying the flamboyant winger is another in the guise of Real Madrid winger Vinicius Junior who should have scored a first half goal (denied by a smart save from Yann Sommer in the Swiss goal) before scoring a routine breakaway goal in the second half, only to be denied by that damned VAR system.
But with just 7 minutes remaining, Vinicius Junior combined with Rodrygo to set up an instinctive volley from Casemiro that left Yann Sommer flat footed, and only able to watch helplessly as the quickly taken shot flew into the top corner of his net.
Brazil qualify easily and with a game to spare.
Switzerland are in prime position to accompany them into the knock-out stages but will have to hold off the erratic challenge from Serbia to do so.
Act Four — The “dark arts” of a bygone age
PORTUGAL 2 (Fernandes 54 and 90+3)
URUGUAY 0
The stark headline facts are that Portugal have qualified for the knock-out stages with a game to spare and Uruguay, their dark arts of niggly, tough tackling, physical almost non-football approach and all, are on the brink of an embarrassing early elimination. They now have to beat an in form Ghana team in their final group game, in a replay of their infamous tussle of 2010, and I’m rather hoping they fail. This evening was the same old tired and ultra defensive, no lose Uruguay. They lost, and I hope they lose against Ghana. Their formation this evening may have suggested a 3–5–2 approach, but Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez was only nominally in support of their central striker, ex of Manchester United, Edinson Cavani, and in an ultra defensive 4–5–1 system. This matched with Portugal’s approach (which we’ll come to shortly), but this was a must win game for the South Americans and they treated it as though they were perfectly happy with a single point for a draw.
In a game so resplendent of players past and present from the English Premier League, and another theme I’ll return to with Portugal shortly, Uruguay included ex Liverpool central defender Sebastian Coates but also omitted ex Liverpool talismanic striker Luis Suarez. Uruguay’s best player, and by quite some distance, was Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur. It was he who signalled the break out of an actual game of football this evening with a brilliant mazy run on 32 minutes that should have resulted in the first goal of the game. It was certainly the first intention of any sort of attacking or progressive football from either team, but aside from Darwin Nunez’s tame shot from long range on the hour mark and substitute Maximiliano Gomez Gonzalez rapping the outside of a post on 74 minutes, Uruguay were dreadful.
Portugal meanwhile also sprung a pre match selection surprise which pleased me greatly. I’ve long admired the water carrying central midfield skills of William Carvalho. His giant frame truly stands out in the middle of the field and against his very diminutive team mates, but yet again, Carvalho epitomised the “water carrier” or “pivot” role perfectly. Be a pesky barrier ahead of your defence, be involved in forays into attack, but most crucially of all, be available for a pass, constantly. Give the ball, pass the ball, retain possession of the ball and never give that precious commodity away. Carvalho never did in a superb 82 minute performance.
Whilst Portugal weren’t anywhere near their best, Wolverhampton Wanderers cult hero Ruben Neves impressed with his work rate and energy and Joao Felix was in and out of a game he should have had more of an influence over. But this was a victory made in Manchester, with five of the starting XI representing either Manchester City (3) or Manchester United (2) and all had a major part in this evening’s crucial win. As much as I dislike him, Joao Cancelo of Manchester City is a “baller” who will only get better and he certainly played his part this evening. Ruben Dias had an almost carefree evening in the centre of the Portuguese defence but fellow Manchester City “Blue” ahead of him, Bernardo Silva, was his usual mercurial self.
Made in Manchester should be strictly amended to made in Manchester United, but that’s perhaps a step too far for this particular Red of the Liverpool faith! At the time of writing, Bruno Fernandes has been credited with both of this evening’s goals (a wicked, fizzing free-kick that deceived Sergio Rochet in the Uruguay goal as well as a coolly taken injury time penalty kick), but his now ex club mate at Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo, may well be laying a claim to the first goal as we speak. Fernandes’ free-kick may have lightly brushed the very tips of the great one’s hair follicles as it made its way into the Uruguayan net. We may never know and some of us don’t care!
My old pal “Horseman” called it the “Hair of God” and I’d like to think that draws a brilliant line under the whole matter.
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 6 through 8:
Allez Les Rouge! Viva Espana! And is this Auf Wiedersehen for Die Mannschaft?
World Cup Diaries: Day 8medium.com
Messi to the rescue, Mbappe at the double and Australia threaten to advance at the world’s fair
World Cup Diaries: Day 7medium.com
Heartbreak for Wales as the “Evil Empire” serve up a snooze fest
World Cup Diaries: Day 6medium.com