Fireworks go off on the pitch ahead of the World Cup group H soccer match between Portugal and Uruguay, at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, Monday, Nov. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)World Cup 2022 Highlights: We are at the business end of the Group stages now, with two matches at the same time till the knockouts. First up on Tuesday, we have the Group A clashes with Ecuador facing Senegal and Netherlands taking on an already eliminated Qatar.
In the second half, late into the night, there are two blockbuster clashes lined up with Iran locking horns against USA in a clash having political undercurrents. Plus, it’s a case of neighbour vs neighbour as England and Wales play each other. Both USA and Wales have to win in order to have a sliver of chance in advancing to the next round.
On Monday, both Brazil and Portugal clinched a Last 16 spot after beating Switzerland and Uruguay respectively. In the other matches, Cameroon and Serbia played out a thrilling 3-3 draw while Ghana edged past South Korea 3-2.
Brazil's Casemiro celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during the World Cup group G soccer match between Brazil and Switzerland, at the Stadium 974 in Doha, Qatar, Monday, Nov. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Brazil, who are chasing a record-extending sixth World Cup title, face Cameroon in their last Group G game on Friday with forward Neymar set to miss the match due to an ankle problem. Here is a look at the 30-year-old’s World Cup highs and lows...[Read More]
Germany are not eyeing any high score in their final World Cup Group E match against Costa Rica on Thursday but are just hoping a simple win will be enough to carry them into the next round. The four-time champions must bag the three points if they are to have any chance of advancing, and will simultaneously be getting updates on the other match between Spain and Japan that will decide the final standings. [Read More]
According to the governing body’s guidelines for the World Cup, there are various criteria to determine which team will progress into the knockout rounds. [Read More]
A sensor on a ball that can send data at the rate of 500 times a second. It also helps in detecting a precise kick point. That’s the kind of data FIFA get at this World Cup being held in Qatar. The Adidas ball, called Al Rihla (the journey, in Arabic), comes with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor that also aids in making tight offside calls. The sensor, which is placed at the centre of the ball, constantly sends data to the video operation room. [Read More]
Lionel Messi has already come to Argentina’s rescue at the World Cup. He might just have to do it all over again. Another emotionally charged evening awaits Messi and the soccer-mad south American nation that worships him when Argentina meets Poland on Wednesday for a match with so much on the line. For Messi, who is playing in likely his last World Cup. For Poland striker Robert Lewandowski, who might also be too old when soccer’s biggest tournament rolls up next in 2026. [Read More]
Two of the most intimidating strikers in world football, Argentina’s 35-year-old Lionel Messi and Poland’s 34-year-old Robert Lewandowski, line up against each other on Wednesday with a last 16 place at stake in the World Cup. Messi has scored twice in Argentina’s extraordinary start to the campaign, suffering one of the biggest upsets in the tournament’s history at the hands of Saudi Arabia before masterminding a euphoric victory over Mexico. [Read More]
Uruguay won the inaugural FIFA World Cup after beating Argentina 4-2 in the final in Montevideo.
The first tournament included 13 teams, with only four from Europe. The trip to South America was challenging for many European players because they feared losing their jobs after being absent for a long time. (read more at Reuters)
Hank Steinbrecher was on a bullet train from Marseille to Paris when he got a call from the White House. “We are going to win this game, aren’t we?” the voice on the other side asked Steinbrecher, then US Soccer Federation’s general secretary. It was 1998. “The news is going around the world.”
Mohammad Khakpour, too, received a call; not from a high-ranking government official but from the family members of those who had lost their children in the war between Iran and Iraq. “Fathers, mothers called and said this game really does matter to us,” the former Iran defender says in the BBC documentary, ‘The Great Game’. “You have to go and win this game for us.”(read more)
Cameroon’s first-choice goalkeeper Andre Onana has been suspended due to disciplinary reasons, the country’s federation (FECAFOOT) said, after he was left out of the squad for their 3-3 draw with Serbia at the World Cup on Monday.
Onana was marked as “absent” on the team sheet, with head coach Rigobert Song saying he had to “put the team first ahead of an individual” amid reports of a falling out over tactics. Cameroon are third in Group G by one point and need to beat Brazil in their final group game on Friday to stand any chance of reaching the last 16.(read more)
Former England international John Barnes slammed critics who have questioned World Cup hosts Qatar's treatment of migrant workers, saying detractors of the country had turned a blind eye to their progress on human rights.
Qatar, which was awarded hosting rights for the World Cup in 2010, has faced intense criticism from human rights groups over its treatment of migrant workers.(read more at Reuters)
Victories against the odds by Arab teams competing at the Middle East's first World Cup have inspired their supporters, bringing a rare sense of optimism and unity for fans from the Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean.
Saudi Arabia delivered the early shock of the tournament, defeating two-times World Cup champions Argentina, and Morocco then overcame second-ranked team Belgium - roared on by the vast majority of fans at both matches in the Gulf state of Qatar.(Read more at Reuters)
Somehow, almost inevitably, the Brazilian goal had to come from the boot of Casemiro, the tireless defensive midfielder than the gilded but Neymar-less frontline. To understand the cult following of Casemiro, one just needs to tune in one’s ears — no, the noise will hit you even if you don’t squeeze your ears — when he gets the ball at his feet. The mass of green and yellow begins to chant his name, in rhythmic loudness, they bang their feet on the floor, sometimes so hard that the 974 Stadium, built off containers from ships, could feel an earthquake-like vibration. The beat of drums gets heavier; the music would get louder. The glass barricade risks breaking due to the vibrations.
Even before he scored Brazil’s match-defining goal, a goal of brutal beauty, similar to the ones he has scored for his ex-club Real Madrid and Brazil, he was the most valuable player on the pitch. Sometimes, it takes the profligacy of the forwards to appreciate the value of a midfielder in an attack-oriented team as Brazil. They tend to go unnoticed otherwise.(read more)
A protestor ran onto the field Monday carrying a rainbow flag and wearing a blue Superman T-shirt that said “SAVE UKRAINE” on the front and “RESPECT FOR IRANIAN WOMAN” on the back during a World Cup match between Portugal and Uruguay.
Security officials chased the protestor down and the flag was dropped on the field before the person was escorted away. The referee then picked up the flag and left it on the sideline, where it stayed for a few moments before a worker came and collected it.(read more)
Iran football players have been threatened by their own country. They would take the path of “violence and torture” to the families of the players if they do not “behave” in their game against the United States Men’s national team on Tuesday, reports CNN.
Quoting its sources, CNN reported that Iran has a “large number” of security watching the players whilst their stay in Qatar.(read more)
If England needs any added motivation ahead of its final World Cup group game against Wales on Tuesday, it only has to watch a certain video from 2016.
Footage of Wales players celebrating wildly as their British neighbors crashed out of the European Championship after losing to Iceland went viral at the time. (read more)
Switzerland’s loss made its upcoming World Cup rematch all the more enticing, and with a lot more on the line.
Ever since the match schedule was made in April, the Group G game between Switzerland and Serbia has been one to keep an eye on. Not just because of the talented players on both teams, but because of the political tensions they brought on the field when they met at the last World Cup.
Four years ago in Russia, Switzerland captain Granit Xhaka celebrated his goal against Serbia by making a double-headed eagle with his hands — thumbs representing the heads of the two eagles, fingers fanned to look like feathers. The figure is considered to be an Albanian nationalist symbol. [READ MORE]
Midway through the second half of Qatar’s match against Senegal at the World Cup, the drumming stopped as a man in a bucket hat and sunglasses rose and asked for quiet.
Moments earlier, a section of the crowd — more than 1,000 strong, almost all men, all of them in identical maroon T-shirts with the word “Qatar” in English and Arabic — had been chanting in unison at the direction of four fan leaders. But now the sea of men understood what was expected, and they followed the order and fell into a strange silence as the match noise swirled around them inside Al Thumama Stadium.(read more)
Ecuador: Merely tying Senegal would allow Ecuador to advance. It could also advance with a loss, but that would require a Qatar victory against the Netherlands and would also depend on tiebreakers like goal differential.
Netherlands: No match in the World Cup is a guarantee, but the Netherlands faces 0-2 Qatar next. The Dutch would advance even with a draw, and they could also advance with a loss, depending on the Ecuador-Senegal outcome and if they can hold on to their goal-differential advantage (the first tiebreaker)(read more)
Bruno Fernandes had joined Manchester United in January 2020. By March, he already won his first Premier League Player of the month. By December that year, he’d become the first player to win four of those awards in a single calendar year. Needless to say, he was flying. And just as he was about to make Manchester United his own, Cristiano Ronaldo joined the club in the summer. Once there is Ronaldo, everything becomes about him and Fernandes had to play second fiddle. [Read More]
Two days prior to their crucial group-stage encounter against the United States at the FIFA World Cup, the Iranian football federation called for the disqualification of their opponents. The reason: the US Soccer Federation (USSF) posted an image of a doctored Iranian flag, without the country’s official emblem, on social media. The two posts were later taken down, but per The New York Times, the US confirmed the omission was intentional, meant as a show of support for the women in Iran. Iran’s famed no-nonsense coach Carlos Queiroz shot back in his pre-match press conference. “We have said many times that we have solidarity of all humanitarian causes,” he was quoted as saying by The Guardian. “But we have solidarity with causes all over the world whoever they are. If you talk human rights, racism, kids dying at schools from shooting, we have solidarity with all. But we bring a smile for 90 minutes, that is our mission.”
This came 24 hours after Queiroz called on Jurgen Klinsmann – member of Germany’s 1990 World Cup-winning team with an unescapable connection to the US, coaching their men’s team between 2011 and 2016 – to resign from his position in FIFA’s technical study group after critcising the “culture” of Iran’s team.`` Read More