Saudi Arabia shake up the world as the holders skip past the Socceroos
World Cup Diaries: Day 3
World Cup Diaries: Day 3
From time immemorial, or since 1930 if you prefer, the World Cup has been synonymous with the magical and the mystical of a shock victory for a rank underdog. But some shocks are so seismic that they are held up at every tournament since they shook the world as a shining example that every underdog can have its day, and David does occasionally slay Goliath. The two most uniformly rolled out examples would be the humiliating 1–0 defeat meted out to England by a still fledgling USA football team in 1950 and 40 years later, the bruising and chaotic 1–0 defeat of the reigning champions Argentina by those beautiful upstarts from Cameroon. North Korea beat the might of Italy in the 1966 World Cup, their southern neighbours did the same to shake up the world, and the World Cup, of 2002.
But today’s hard fought, hard won and thoroughly deserved 2–1 victory for Saudi Arabia over the might of Argentina could arguably be described as the greatest all time shock in World Cup history. That’s for the future. Hopefully another shock will come along and usurp even today’s magnificent achievement?
We’d certainly have a tournament on our hands then Bubba!
Sure lady luck carried Saudi Arabia through a sticky first half but, and this is a very big but, they were organised, tenacious, physical and even at 1–0 down at half-time, they were in the game. Arguably again, this newly installed “greatest shock in World Cup history” shouldn’t have come anywhere near realisation as in addition to Lionel Messi’s 10th minute penalty he also scored another soon after, so too his attacking partner Lautaro Martinez, twice, yet all three goals were ruled out for offside, and twice via the dreaded eye in the sky VAR killjoy. So the underdogs were a tad lucky to still be in the game but they deserved to be and, crucially, despite the evidence noted above, Argentina weren’t playing all that well.
The 5 minutes that shook the world today were set against a cacophonous din from the hordes of travelling fans from Saudi Arabia. It was a real throwback to World Cups of old and that constant barrage of noise, songs, airhorns and drums associated with Argentina in 1978 or Mexico in 1986. I don’t make these comparisons lightly either and nor am I lazily linking an Argentinian defeat today to their two world champion victories of the past and nor am I saying that today’s defeat means they are out of the tournament. They are not.
But Argentina weren’t impressive at all, Saudi Arabia matched them all over the field, were more physical and quicker to loose second balls and through the central defensive partnership of Ali Albulayhi and my “Man of the Match” Hassan Altambakti, they repelled everything the highly favourited Argentina team, Lionel Messi and all, could throw at them.
This win for the ages was followed by two 0–0 draws and games I didn’t watch and for which I have no opinion other than by the very nature of there being zero goals in either game, I clearly dodged a sporting bullet! More important matters were at hand as I had the company of my beautiful son and as he’s the reason for my reporting on France at this particular World Cup, it seems rather apt to conclude with their game today against the brilliantly named “Socceroos” of Australia.
My reason for reporting on France and following either Les Bleus or their victors all the way through to the final in December is covered in the “Countdown” article linked below, as is my “Player Watch” of Liverpool and France central defender Ibrahima Konate. My son picked a random number, that number was represented by France, I’m missing writing about my beloved Reds of Liverpool and whilst I’m reporting on France, I aim to keep a keen eye on the man mountain that is the Paris born defender.
Konate was the footballing vernacular of the “spare man” in France’s defence this evening as without a sustained attacking threat from Australia, he was often left carefree to ping cross field balls in the direction of Ousmane Dembele and Kylian Mbappe, both of whom had very impressive evenings and were the thrust of the interchanging wide attacks from a France team stung into action by the stirrings of the day’s second possible major World Cup upset and a brilliant opening goal from Craig Goodwin on 9 minutes that led to 20 minutes of dreamland for the Socceroos. A heavy underdog against the reigning champions, Australia were worthy of their slender 1–0 lead and could have added a second to the score line had Mitchell Duke’s fizzing long range shot on 20 minutes crept a couple of inches to the left and inside the far post of the France goal guarded by veteran Hugo Lloris. He was beaten and had Duke’s shot flown in for a 2–0 shock lead, we may have been on course to break the greatest shock in World Cup history set just hours earlier by Saudi Arabia.
But Duke’s shot scorched inches wide and France aren’t Argentina. The defending champions, minus Paul Pogba and Karim Benzema (and possibly a long term injury this evening for their left sided defender Lucas Hernandez) still look a slick machine intent on defending their title. Oliver Giroud is no Karim Benzema but he scored twice and led the attacking line like the pest he’s always been and Kylian Mbappe has scored his first goal of the tournament in an impressive overall performance. France ran out comfortable 4–1 winners this evening and will top this qualifying group with ease. With Konate as part of a defensive axis with Adrien Rabiot and Aurelien Tchouameni behind the creative attacking zest of Mbappe, Dembele and the mercurial Antoine Griezmann pulling the strings and opening goal scoring chances for Olivier Giroud, the defending champions should be a real test for anyone as the World Cup progresses.
Even Saudi Arabia.
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 links to my first three articles from this expensive bread and circus in Qatar:
World Cup Countdown — Allez Les Bleus!
But will ball number 13 be unlucky for the European favourites?medium.com
The World Cup is underway, and under the spectre of the all seeing eye
World Cup Diaries: Day 1.medium.com
Bellingham shines for 6 goal England as Gareth bales out Wales
World Cup Diaries: Day 2.medium.com