England Hits for 6, Dutch blushes spared, Wales and USA draw – World Cup Day 2 Review
By Jim James
Hello all, welcome back to the blog. Today was the first day of real World Cup action – 3 games to unpack, 12 goals, and the first matchday of Groups A and B complete. And I watched all 3 games. Let’s begin with England vs Iran.
England were phenomenal. They outplayed Iran in every respect. They kept a staggering 78% possession, got 13 total shots, and got everyone involved.
Their best player unarguably was Bukayo Saka, scoring a brace and getting one key pass. Marcus Rashford was also brilliant, scoring within a minute of coming on. Jack Grealish scored as well off the bench, as well as getting 19 passes on a 100% pass success rate, winning all 4 of his ground duels, and drawing 3 fouls all in 29 minutes.
Honorable mentions go to Jude Bellingham, Raheem Sterling, and Harry Kane, with Bellingham scoring the opener, Sterling getting a goal and an assist, and Kane getting 2 assists. Harry Maguire was even great, with 1 assist, one shot off the post, 66 accurate passes on an 89% success rate, and 1 blocked shot.
You can look at the stats but just watching the game, it looked like England had everything under control from the 1st minute. Mind you it’s only Iran, but this could be the confidence they need to go far.
Iran, my pick to finish 1st, disgraced themselves with this performance. 8 minutes in goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand was forced to come off after a nasty collision with captain Ehsan Hajsafi. Backup Hossein Hosseini had a stinker of a performance, and Iran will thoroughly hope Beiranvand is fit for their Wales clash.
Hosseini, of course, conceded 6 of 7 shots on target, and while a few England goals were near impossible to stop, he probably should have conceded 3 maximum. It was as if the Qatar keeper from yesterday snuck back on.
The 5-back ultra defensive system by Iran failed spectacularly today, and while their defence was slightly below average, what got them was their utter lack of any offensive creativity. Despite attempting around 10, none of their crosses connected, and likely due to their defensive system, they just showed nothing to go up the field, not to mention their 22% possession.
Once they could make substitutions, the game was at a point of damage control. The only bright spot was Mehdi Taremi, netting 2 and getting into good positions at times for this Iran team.
The lunchtime game was Netherlands vs Senegal. The game started out fiery between the two teams, and the teams were hotly contested.
Senegal, all credit due, had 0.89 xG throughout the match and seemed the better side for the first 60 minutes. Perhaps if players like Ismaila Sarr and Krepin Diatta had been more clinical they could have come away with points, they just didn’t have the final step.
In the last 10-15 minutes, they just switched off, it seemed. As well as concede 2 goals, they just couldn’t string a chance together.
However, one of the big stories of the game was Edouard Mendy’s disasterclass, mustering only one save, and not being quick enough to gobble up the rebound on Davy Klassen’s 99th minute sealer. Not helping with the Chelsea man’s case is that he conceded 2 on just 0.67 xG.
The Netherlands, in many respects, were lucky to come away with the win in this one. They had less xG, Total Shots, and Shots on Target.
However, their chances were more clinical, and they have put out a warning message to the other nations on just how lethal they can be given the chance.
Sure, Louis van Gaal does have some adjustments to the team lineup-wise and tactic-wise heading into the game vs Ecuador on Friday, but the hard part is mainly done, and they look in a good place.
USA vs Wales was the first draw of the World Cup, and while the USA were in the lead for most of the game, the Welsh side may feel hard done by with a draw.
The USA was the better team in the first half, getting opportunity after opportunity, but the Wales defense held strong, except for the opener by Timothy Weah. Josh Sargent couldn’t create an opportunity and was mainly invisible for the game, the same for Weston McKennie.
Tyler Adams was the glue of the team, with 6 tackles, 2 interceptions, and 4 long balls on 80% accuracy. However, the team did get complacent in the 2nd half, resulting in a penalty given away by Tyler Zimmerman for Wales to get the equalizer.
Wales had to get into the game slowly, and once they did, they also created opportunity after opportunity, but they didn’t shoot to save their lives. It was like watching Barcelona at the San Siro.
Daniel James had a similar performance to Josh Sargent, and the 2 creators for Wales were Gareth Bale and Harry Wilson.
Gareth Bale drew and converted Wales’ penalty for the equalizer, and deep into added time could have capitalized on a huge Matt Turner error, but was stopped by a challenge by Kellyn Acosta which should have been a red card.
The game wasn’t the most memorable one, but still quite the occasion, and my World Cup watching record remains perfect.
That’s all for November 21’s World Cup Action. Tomorrow we see the beginning of Group C and D action, including games from Argentina and France. I’m Jim James, and Until next time!