Hello all, welcome back to the blog. It’s World Cup season! It will be the first World Cup since the blog has been around, and for as many days as I can, I will try to review the games that day. Let’s begin.
Day 1 of the World Cup is complete, and the only game it brought us was Qatar vs Ecuador. Certainly not the headline fixture of the tournament, but the gameplay itself didn’t disappoint anyhow.
Qatar were a wildcard going into the tournament, and we finally got to see how they played today. The answer: Not well at all. The Qatari team stank up the room from minute one, and even conceded 3 minutes in, before it was disallowed.
Danger man Akram Afif utterly disappointed, getting few touches and getting booked, the same going for Almoez Ali. Goalkeeper Saad Al Sheeb was seen out of position frequently and while Ecuador never capitalized on it, a team like the Netherlands would – likely many times. He also gave away a penalty to give Ecuador the lead. Perhaps the correct choice vs Senegal and the Netherlands is Meshaal Barsham.
Even more worrying for the hosts, even though they played a back five, none of them were good and Ecuador were still seen finding large gaps in the Qatari defence. Also, due to the lack of attacking players, they could never really find any threat offensively.
Qatar, while producing 5 shots, didn’t put one on target, and their best chance of the game was a 35-yard volley by Ghanaian-born Mohamed Muntari which would have been one of the goals of the tournament had it went in.
Overall, it was a tactical disaster by Qatar, and serious changes are needed for them to get through the group.
Ecuador, on the other hand, were great. While goalkeeper Hernan Galindez didn’t have much to do, the back 4 was great at incapacitating the Qatar attack, particularly Pervis Estupinan and Angelo Preciado, with a combined 8 tackles and 3 interceptions.
Preciado was stellar, with not just 5 tackles and 2 interceptions, 3 of 3 accurate crosses, 2 of 3 accurate long balls, and a premium assist to Enner Valencia for Ecuador’s 2nd.
Enner Valencia was without a doubt the player of the match, putting the ball in the back of the net 3 times, 2 of which counting, as well as drawing a penalty. This means that for at least 21 hours, Enner Valencia will be the top goalscorer at the World Cup. He was also a menace throughout the game, and I hope the injury that got him subbed off won’t keep him out for long.
This Ecuador side were in complete control the whole time and played Qatar out of the park. Perhaps this momentum will carry over to the Senegal game.
That’s all for today’s World Cup action, there will be 3 games to unpack, and I can’t wait until then. I still can’t believe the World Cup is back. I’m Jim James, until next time!