dpKey events
63 min The graphic is … oddly drawn.
Let’s see if we can get all the subs. Bernardo Silva, Semedo, Ramos and Conceição in.
He was off? No he wasn’t! I don’t care what some contrived graphic says. If that’s offside, I’m typing this from the pool.
No goal
It was a lovely finish by Ronaldo … oh wait! He looks on!
FOUR subs are up for Portugal. Martinez reacting or overreacting?
60 min Modric with the foul to slow down Portugal, and that’s a yellow card.
59 min SHOT ON GOAL FOR CROATIA! Sucic from just inside the penalty area, foot save out for a corner.
58 min OFF THE BAR FOR PORTUGAL! Leão rips a shot from the top of the box, easily beating Livakovic but off the woodwork near the far post.
No goal!
But Croatia have it in the net again! Vlasic raced onto the ball and centered, but he was well offside. No VAR or anything needed here. Clear-cut call.
56 min: Portugal possess, still reeling from the shock.
Perisic is a sprightly 37 years old, incidentally.
Goal! Portugal 0-1 Croatia (Perisic 53)
Croatia attack. Vlasic drifts right, passes to overlapping Stanisic, Matanovic challenges in the air against Dias, it goes over both of them, and Stanisic settles before drilling it into the net.
53 min Enough of the crowd has returned that we can no longer see the maple leaf in the stands.
52 min Portuguese attackers have opted to eschew passing the ball in favor of trying to dribble through everyone. That doesn’t seem to be working.
50 min Some midfield battles and some giveaways. Choppy couple of minutes after that electric start.
49 min Another shot for Croatia! This one’s wide from Vlasic.
Croatia catching up on xG, now down 0.97 to 0.37 for those who follow such things. (I sort of do.)
48 min CHANCE FOR CROATIA! Matanovic, just introduced, wins a fierce duel, and Kovacic races onto the loose ball and shoots. Well saved. Corner to Croatia.
47 min Croatia break, Sucic has tons of space on the right, but his cross is picked off.
46 min We’re back. Well, not all of us, as there are tons of empty seats in the lower level, and Matanovic has replaced Budimir, who probably fell asleep awaiting service.
More mail (not counting the mail on officiating, which I appreciate and may be able to get to later)
I’ll start with an actual tactical observation …
“For all of the praise Portugal’s team have gotten, it’s not often spoken about that they lack good off-the-ball movement and, somehow, basic football intelligence when it comes to movement. Some of that is Ronaldo and his constant slow strolls but João Felix and Pedro Neto are also bad at stretching the play with runs or pushing defenders out of position.” – Jose Casares
And now back to the age question …
“Does Medicare cover longevity medicine? Asking for a Portuguese pal.” – Justin Kavanagh
Alas, he went to a different post-Europe league than Messi did.
“See if you can shoehorn the cover image of ‘Worse’ into your thread. We don’t need more shots of Ronaldo.” – Bruce Brooks
I nominate Weird Al for the halftime show at the final.
“Brad Pitt wouldn’t be offended by you not recognising him, as he himself has prosopagnosia (face blindness). It was an interview with him which prompted me to get tested and confirmed I have it too. Luckily I’m not a football commentator!” – Martin Burley
That’s why they wear numbers.
“The Nations League offered Sweden a route to this world cup even though they finished bottom of their qualifying group with no wins, two draws and four defeats. So it definitely should be taken seriously.” – Andrew Goudie
OK, here’s one response to the topic of officiating at the World Cup …
“I’d love to. But I’m too old and don’t understand the offside rule.” – Daniel Brint
Neither does the coach of the second-to-last game for which I was an AR this spring. And he gets paid to coach that team.
Miss the earlier game today involving Portugal’s neighbor? We’ve got you covered …
Miss the late game today? We’ll have that covered as well. Will link when the commentary starts.
Meanwhile, a note on US viewership:
I’ll check – that’s more than the population of many countries in this Cup.
“Funny you should mention Nelly Furtado, as her big hit ‘Promiscuous’ came out in the spring of 2006. Does that make me feel old? No. Being old (closing in on 69) makes me feel old. Hell, I’m older than Medicare, now that I think about it.” – Joe Pearson
“Jarrod Gillet is probably the best referee Australia has, he is also the best Australian referee not refereeing in Australia, the English Premier League having stolen him.” – Phil Withall
In fairness, they need the help. I think we’re still waiting on a VAR decision from a Burnley-Sunderland match this past season.
“Hope you’re well! I’d like to give a shout-out to the Portugal kit; I think that’s a lovely number. Do you happen to know if teams in the World Cup are subject to similar rules as in club football where teams have to wear their away/third kits some number of times per season to satisfy contracts, etc.? Or is there another reason why neither team is in their home kit?” – Adam K
There’ve been some complaints about not wearing traditional colors at times, but yes, these are sharp. I also liked the DR Congo shirts.
“With all due respect to other email contributors, surely footballers with, how shall we say, “less hair” are more easily identifiable? Zidane, Henry, Tim Howard, Andres Iniesta, Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben … okay, okay maybe not. But I think the long flowing locks do sometimes make it harder to identify certain players (as any Arsenal fan will unhappily remember from when David Luiz and Matteo Guendouzi were in the squad together. My apologies for forcing them to remember those days…) As an aside, I’ve always had much more confidence in American goalkeepers who are bald. I feel like it should be a necessary criteria to be the #1 on a USMNT team.” – Russell Eberts
I once interviewed a US keeper and started a question with, “Is it coincidence that all US keepers these days are …” and he injected with, “… follically impaired?”
“I am broadly in agreement in feeling that Martinez seems to be low on trophies in face of the jobs he lands, but then I compared his managerial achievements to Bielsa’s and – there’s really not much in it. I’m always hearing that Bielsa is a managerial genius so … Maybe Roberto is a genius?” – James
I think Martinez had a full head of hair until he started managing Ronaldo.
Halftime: Portugal 0-0 Croatia
Passive ending to that half on Croatia’s part. Puzzling. They’ve seen very little of the ball and almost none of it in the final third.
45 min +3 Ruben Dias gives away a foul on Budimir, and something is wrong with his shorts. The foul is just past midfield, but Croatia show little interest in progressing any further. They win another free kick, Sutalo absorbing the gentle foul this time.
I see the bulging mailbag. Will get there soon …
45 min +2 Dangerous cross from Portugal, not cleared well, but Leão flubs the shot well high. Not the easiest angle, to be fair.
45 min +1 Four minutes of stoppage time. Sukic believes Mendes went to ground a tad easily.
44 min Shot of Gianni Infantino … oh, wait, that’s Roberto Martinez. (See, I only recognize hair or lack thereof.) Portugal possess.
43 min It’s been a clean game, but we’ve had more than the seven fouls that have been actually called. Croatia have it again. Baturina’s pass is deflected high and won back.
41 min Croatia trying to build from the back despite some significant Portuguese pressure. They break across midfield, lose it momentarily, a player is upended but surely the referee played advantage, and now … how was that not a foul? The crowd are not happy.
40 min Corner to Portugal, so I’ll check the completed-passes count: 250 to 89. Less of a margin than I would’ve thought.
The kick goes over the penalty area but must have had some help from a Croatian defender, because we’ll do it on the other side now.
39 min I’ll look at the passing stats at some point. Safe to say which team has the lead.
37 min When your star forward is a quadragenarian, being able to control the ball without having run at all can only be a good thing. Portugal continue to possess.
Livakovic collects a cross, and Croatia try to break with their own elder statesman, Modric, who has the wheels but not a precise pass to receive.
36 min Better from Croa- … oh, never mind, they’ve given it away again.
34 min Off the corner, Croatia try to break, but Portugal get multiple players around Baturina, and the referee sees nothing wrong as the Croatian attacker falls. Looked like a trip, but what’s a foul these days?
33 min CHANCES FOR PORTUGAL as a long ball is kept in play and recycled for Fernandes to shoot from an acute angle. Rebound stays in play, and it takes a timely intervention to concede only a corner.
32 min Back to patient Portuguese possession. Croatia intercept, try to pass, lose it again, and we’re back to patient Portuguese possession.
30 min CHANCE FOR PORTUGAL – in fact, two of them. Cancelo crosses, and the ball barely gets through without being redirected on net by Ronaldo or Fernandes.
29 min Croatia drift backwards and lure Portugal forward, and then they go long. Too long, though, because the AR has raised the flag. Close but likely correct call.
28 min Croatia come out the break and manage to complete some passes in the other half of the field.
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