Keeping Up

Match Day 3 was crammed into four days of six matches each.  You are forgiven if it's largely blur.  I feel that way.  Let's see what I remember.

No Need For the Fainting Couch

Yes, the US lost to Turkiye on a last second goal. The match had no relevance in the standings or future match ups.  The US held out nine first team players.  Here are my takeaways:

- the second string played a good match against a strong side and were seconds from getting a draw

- Pulisic returned from injury and looked dangerous in his second half minutes

- the US may be a little thin on the back line

- I don't see this as a momentum killer

Relax.

Back to The Linc Philadelphia Stadium

Four Yanks in a sea of Croats and Ghanians
From l: Jim, Rob, Mark, Steve

One more trip to South Philly, this time to see Croatia - Ghana.  Since both sides would advance with a 0-0 draw, we were a little concerned about the pace of play in the opening minutes.  A first half goal from Croatia offered some hope of more lively play.  It certainly shook up the Group L standings, moving Croatia to the top ahead of England (who were stuck in a 0-0 draw with Panama) and dropping Ghana to third.  

The second half featured much more action and Ghana leveled the match at 73 minutes, moving them back into second.  Croatia responded 10 minutes later with another go-ahead goal.  Unfortunately for them, England had moved ahead of Panama so this only got them to second.  It ended that way with both advancing to the knockout stage.

Great atmosphere again.  Both teams had huge fan blocs at either end of the stadium but partisan fans were out in force throughout the stadium.  

On the Whole, They'd Rather Be Playing in Philadelphia

Yeah, I know that's not the quote but hopefully Ivory Coast will be singing the praises of the City of Brotherly Love after getting two wins and six points from their matches at The Linc Philadelphia Stadium.  They move on to face Norway in the Round of 32

Plus The Coach Wore Jeans

Cape Verde coach Brito goes dress down Friday
Photo: AP/PTI

Cape Verde is a cool story from the group stage.  Ranked 64th in the world, the Blue Sharks snatched second place in Group H by drawing each of the more highly ranked opponents, including Spain and Uruguay.  This from a nation of just over 500,000 people.  It's like if our Congressional District (PA-3rd covering NW Philly, West Philly and parts of Center City) was a country and we had an international soccer team competing against all the big boys. And their coach, Pedro Leitao Brito, hopefully started a new fashion standard for managers by wearing jeans; takes me back to my CHYSC coaching days.

When Things Are Going Bad

The final match of group stage featured Algeria vs Austria.  Winner would advance, loser would go home; if it was a draw, both sides advanced.  Which meant somebody would get bumped from the last third place spot.  That would be Iran.  So Austria goes up 1-0.  We're in! Algeria levels it.  We're out.  Austria goes ahead again.  We're in! Algeria equalize again.   We're out.  Now neither team looks very interested taking any chances so Iran is most likely done.  Except at 90+3, Algeria stunningly take the lead 3-2 and Iran are back in and with maybe 1-2 minutes to play, surely they are in to stay.  Not so fast.  And please don't call me Shirley.  At 90+6, Austria leveled things again with this goal.  So Austria are in, Iran out.  It's been that kind of year for them.

That'll Leave A Mark

Rules Analyst Mark Clattenburg has been unsparing in his criticism of his former brethren.  He does not hesitate to point out mistakes and what he sees as poor judgment, especially with respect to managing the level of physicality through calling fouls and using cards.  I've already forgotten which referee he was assessing at the time but the quote was "they know the rules but don't understand the game."  Ouch.

Oh No He Dint

We better see this kind of stuff from Wissa when 
he puts back on his Newcastle kit

This is really starting to piss me off.  Newcastle disappointment Yoane Wissa scored two for DR Congo in their dramatic comeback win over Ubekistan.  In three matches, he's tripled his Premier League output for the Magpies.

Who's Out

So sixteen teams are done.

It Was Always A Long Shot - Haiti, New Zealand, Curacao, Jordan, Qatar, Iraq, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan

A "Son-in-law Experience" (as in you were hoping for better) - Czechia, Panama, Scotland, Iran

Heads Will Roll - Uruguay, Turkiye, South Korea

Not All Round of 32 Fixtures Are Alike

In theory the groups were seeded with the proper distribution of good, bad and ugly teams.  I don't know exactly how the first knockout round matches were set but there are some "interesting" fixtures.  If they were truly seeded, you'd see teams with the better rankings facing those with worse rankings.  Sometimes that's the case, but not always;  Here are the matchups with their FIFA rankings:

South Africa (54) - Canada (32)

Brazil (5) - Japan (17)

Germany (12) - Paraguay (37)

Netherlands (7) - Morocco (6)

Ivory Coast (30) - Norway (23)

France (1) - Sweden (36)

Mexico (9) - Ecuador (24)

England (4) - Congo (41)

Belgium (10) - Senegal (18)

US (15) - Bosnia & Herzegovina (61)

Spain (3) - Austria (22)

Portugal (8)- Croatia (13)

Switzerland (16) - Algeria (29)

Australia (28) - Egypt (26)

Argentina (2) - Cape Verde (64)

Colombia (11) - Ghana (65)

One of these is clearly not like the others.  The Netherlands vs Morocco is a match up involving two sides that both could arguably have been quarterfinalists.  Brazil vs Japan and Belgium vs Senegal look pretty tough too.  In the opposite direction, you have South Africa vs Canada, Ivory Coast vs Norway and Australia vs Egypt that ensure some teams with weaker rankings will at least make it to the round of 16. I think the US sort of benefited in this way as well.  Also, it seemed kind of weird that by finishing second in Group J got you Spain but third got you Switzerland.  

These 16 matches play out over the next six days.  Sunday is light with one but then three a day through Friday.  We have a day off coming on July 8 so hang on until then.