The World Cup Boot Battle: Day 3
After last night’s Iberian thriller, it would take a lot to top the drama, the entertainment, and the GOATiness. Luckily, today saw four World Cup matches, another GOAT contender in Lionel Messi and a whole lot of VAR drama.
An absolute ‘VAR’ce as France and Denmark get lucky and Messi misses a penalty
France 2-1 Australia – An absolute ‘VAR’ce
France 2-1 Australia – An absolute ‘VAR’ceThe quality of the French squad is emphasised when looking at the calibre of personnel that has been omitted. A combination of the ‘rejects’ would comfortably beat half of the riff-raff in this tournament. So, for the ones who did make the trip to Russia, there was a lot of hype and expectation for them to succeed.
All they succeeded to do in the first half was to bore and disappoint, with the Aussies more than holding their own and maybe even being the better team.
Cue the VAR pantomime, always there to liven up even the worst of matches and bring the game into complete disrepute. Antoinne Griezmann raced through and was deemed to have been clipped in the area. VAR confirmed the penalty (although even with video evidence the decision was dubious) and the Atletico Europa League-winner put it in the net.
Minutes later, Samuel Umtiti couldn’t be bothered to head the ball anymore so handled instead. Unfortunately for him and his side, it was in the box. Another penalty, another goal as Mile Jedinak converted.
The Aussies were well worth a point but a bizarre deflection/shot from Pogba denied them even that as his ‘shot’ looped off the bar and just over the line. France unimpressive. Australia unlucky. Pogba’s hair still terrible.
Messi bottles it as Iceland earn first World Cup point
We could write 40 different facts about Iceland and how their population is less than the number of teammates’ wives John Terry has ‘met’ (yes the joke is old but dammit it is still relevant), but we all know it already. We know they have no right to be here, and yet here they are making Lionel Messi look like a chump.
Argentina struggled to break the well-organised Icelandic unit for large parts of the match, despite Sergio Aguero finishing sharply early on to give them the lead. Iceland’s Alfred Finnbogason tapped-in to equalise, and the European’s squandered multiple different opportunities to take the lead.
An innocuous-looking push in the box gifted Argentina an opportunity to lead in the second half, over to Messi. After his rival, Cristiano Ronaldo – wearing his custom Nike Mercurial CR7s, scored a hattrick last night, the pressure was on. But Messi is one of the best players ever. He scores for fun. He eats pressure for desayuno. This man came out of retirement to single-handedly pull his nation from the depths of elimination during qualifying and dragged them into the World Cup finals.
He missed. Iceland got a point.
Even more ‘VAR’ical happenings as Denmark win
That is going to be the last VAR pun I promise. Denmark managed to see off a stubborn Peru side.
The South Americans were backed by enthusiastic support who we have to admit we are slightly disappointed with. The South Africans marked their World Cup with the sounds of those annoying, devil-noise makers sent from hell (some call them Vuvuzelas). Why have the Peruvians not made this World Cup’s unofficial soundtrack a flute noise?
Anyway, VAR took a while but in the end it determined that Christian Cueva was brought down in the box. He stepped up for the resulting penalty and thought anything Messi can do, I can do better. He missed his penalty spectacularly, firing over the bar.
Denmark scored midway through the second half, Yussuf Poulsen finishing a nice move. Peru pressed hard towards the end but failed to find the net. The theme of the day, underdogs not getting what they deserve, continued.
Niger-aren’t very good
We won’t spend long on this one, as clearly whoever wrote the script for today’s final match didn’t either. A dull encounter made worse by Victor Moses’ consistent diving.
Croatia cruised, and you sensed that they could have scored five if they wanted to. In the end, an own goal and a penalty were what separated the two sides, Luka Modric scoring from the spot. And that’s it, if they don’t have the respect to put on a good game for us, I am not going to dignify their poor behavior by writing more than a few sentences on the game. Go away and think about what you’ve done. I expect better next time…
Boot of the day – Adidas Predator 18.1
Adidas Predator 18.1 Football Boots
The Adidas Predator 18.1 boots are that of the first ever Icelandic, World Cup goalscorer. Take a bow Alfred Finnbogason. Not the best goal mind, but any excuse to show the Icelandic clap (HOO).
Goal of the day – Sergio Aguero
In a day full of penalties and own goals (five of the eight scored came from those methods – there’s no way we are not giving Paul Pogba that freak goal), quality goals were scarce. Denmark’s was a good team goal, but Aguero’s was so clinical and ferocious.
Player of the day – Christian Cueva
What? Why? Isn’t that the guy who missed the penalty? Way to go FBG just giving sympathy to the guy who messed up. Well you know what, he had a quality game. He looked full of energy, skillful and made a genuine impact. So you know what, leave us be we are trying our best.
Moment of the day – Australia’s equaliser
You had to feel sorry for the Socceroos (incidentally the coolest nickname for a football team) after our cousins across the other side of the world deserved at least a point against the French. Jedinak’s penalty was satisfying and to see those Aussie fans jumping about brought a little smile to our faces.
Dick of the day – Victor Moses
This is the FA Cup final dive last year.
If we saw him fall to the floor pathetically and then look back at the referee for thirty seconds with his arms out expecting a foul one more time we would have (insert action to emphasise great anger) Pathetic – not us for not thinking of a suitable anecdote but Moses for his diving, just to make that clear.
The World Cup Boot Battle: Day 3
Points Awarded
Scorers
Antoinne Griezmann +4 (Puma) – He scored the penalty that he won controversially, didn’t have his best game though.
Mile Jedinak +4 (Adidas) – Australia’s captain led them well and stayed calm for the pen.
Sergio Aguero +4 (Puma) – Sergio banged in Argentina’s goal, great finish.
Alfred Finnbogason +4 (Adidas) – He scored Iceland’s first ever World Cup goal, what a moment!
Yussuf Poulsen +4 (Nike) – Finished off a nice move for Denmark’s winner.
Luka Modric +8 (Nike) – Converted the penalty with composure and also was MOTM.
Assists +2
Marcus Rojo (Nike) – Didn’t do much for it but a dodgy long-range shot was going out for a goal kick until Aguero picked it up and scored.
Christian Eriksen (Nike) – Nice ball to play Poulsen in. Living up to his playmaker title.
MOTM +4
Trent Sainsbury (Nike) – The defender was solid at the back against a tricky French attack.
Kasper Schmeichel (Adidas) – The Danish keeper made some top saves to keep a clean sheet (+3).
Hannes Halldórsson (Nike) – Another keeper showing his quality. He kept out the best from 12 yards out.
Clean sheets +2
Dejan Lovren (Nike) – Not much to do but kept a clean sheet.
Domagoj Vida (Nike) – See above.
Šime Vrsaljko (Nike) – See two above.
Ivan Strinic (Nike) – Just keep looking on above.
Danijel Subasic +3 (Nike) – Don’t see above. He literally did nothing but gets the three points… Maybe this is not the most scientifically-based research. No, no it is.
Henrik Dalsgaad (Nike) – Lucky to keep it but the sheet was clean.
Andreas Christensen (Adidas) – Went off injured but was on long enough for the points.
Simon Kjaer (Nike) – Got the clean sheet.
Jens Larsen (Adidas) – Again, nothing too special but a clean sheet is a clean sheet.
The World Cup Boot Battle: The best football boots in the world
| Adidas | Asics | Diadora | Mizuno | New Balance | Nike | Puma | Umbro | Under Armour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 189 | 14 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 501 | 78 | 2 | 4 |
This is a big lead for Nike now after that Nike-heavy Croatian victory rallied by Modric.
Tomorrow’s World Cup matches
Costa Rica v Serbia 13:00 (GMT)
Germany v Mexico 16:00 (GMT)
Brazil v Switzerland 19:00 (GMT)
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