World Cup: Day 14 (Guest Post)

Hi everyone, Grace here. Catalina Bush has written the newsletter today, and I will hand you over to her in a second. I’ll be back tomorrow.

The first half of this newsletter will be free, and then the second half will be for paid subscribers only. THIS OFFER ENDS TOMORROW. These newsletters are going to run every single matchday. If you want to come along for the ride, I have a special offer running right now, giving you 20% off for a year. That’s £4.80/$6.40/€5.60 a month, or you can save in the long run by getting a whole year for £48/$64/€56.

Group A

South Africa 1-0 South Korea

Czechia 0-3 Mexico

The group A teams all matched each other’s freak, and by that I mean, they were all kinda bad. Mexico was the exception to that. The hosts cruised to a resounding 3-0 victory over Czechia that cemented their perfect group stage run with nine points, six goals scored, and none conceded. Czechia was fighting for its life here and couldn’t manage a thing. Mexico, meanwhile, created three good-quality chances and scored all three of them. Funny how that works out. I don’t think this game taught us much about the host side, though. Their greatest challenge was South Korea, and Czechia is a far easier opponent than whoever Mexico will face in the round of 32.

We did get to see one thing, though: the return of a 40-year-old legend to his sixth World Cup; Memo Ochoa. The keeper came on in the 78th minute and lit up the Estadio Azteca as soon as he entered the field. The fans were cheering for his every touch. As much discourse has been had about aging stars and what roles they fill in a squad (more on this later), Ochoa’s cameo at the end of an already-decided game was heartwarming and fitting. For now, it’s a fun sendoff for a hot Mexico team that will likely be truly tested soon.

REDEMPTION FOR SITHOLE, REDEMPTION FOR ALL OF SOUTH AFRICA. It was unthinkable two weeks ago that Bafana Bafana could have it in them to come back from such an embarrassing defeat and end second in the group, but that’s exactly what they did. After missing the last game through suspension, Sphephelo Sithole returned to the squad and played a great match in the midfield. Towards the end of the game, as South Korea pushed for an equalizer, Sithole and others put their bodies on the line to perform clearance after clearance, and were rewarded with a cathartic win.

This was a weird one from South Korea. Manager Hong Myung-bo’s decision to drop Son Heung-min betrayed an overconfidence that was exploited by the opposition. Even if Son is fatigued, which he probably is given his issues with playing frequent consecutive games, not starting him is what puts you in a position where you have to rely on other results going your way to qualify as a third-place team. The star attacker was hardly productive while he was on the field, but one wonders how the game would’ve gone if he had started. I guess we’ll never know. South Korea, with or without Son, struggled in this match. It was a poor outing, and the team looked tired as a whole. South Africa deserved the points; South Korea did not.

Ah, Czechia. They can’t go home claiming they should’ve had more points. Against Mexico, the team registered 13 shots, only one of which was on target. They lacked any kind of spark or creativity and kept hopelessly lobbing crosses to no one. While set pieces had proved to be an effective form of chance creation up until now, you can’t throw-in your way to a round of 32 game (at least for now).

Group C

Scotland 0-3 Brazil

Morocco 4-2 Haiti

Last week, Grace wrote in the newsletter that she’d like to see Brazil tested in possession more, as most of their chances up until that point had come in transition moments. We didn’t really see much of that in the game against Scotland, but we did get some kind of clue as to how Brazil plans to make the most of their talent moving forward. It’s no secret that Brazil plays best at a million miles an hour, and against Haiti, as Grace mentioned, a lot of the attack was funnelled through Vinícius Júnior, Raphinha and Matheus Cunha at speed to turn the opposing backline and expose the space in behind. We still saw a good amount of that against Scotland, but Brazil managed to find other ways to create moments of speed in the attacking third. This was done mainly through the press and counterpress, physicality in and around the box to win the ball back and apply continued pressure, and quick one-two passes that allowed for Brazil’s best attackers to reach maximum velocity in tight spaces. Multiple chances arose in the first 45 from the press, with the first goal of the game coming from a defensive error.