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We are just past the round 1 of the World Cup and we've already seen a lot of bizarre things already. The hosts slammed 5 past the Arabs. Portugal and Spain played out a 3-3 draw and Iran ended up topping the group after Morocco lost their first game after over an year. A country with a population of about 3 lakhs held Messi and co. Defending champions Germany were shocked by the Mexicans, France and Uruguay barely managed to beat what seemed like comparatively easier opponents. 5 own goals have been scored already and we are yet to see a goalless game.VAR has been really handy, referees decisions have not created controversies (yet?). Belgium and England did not have it easy against supposed minnows Panama and Tunisia. Japan became the first Asian tea to beat a South American team and Poland were shocked by Senegal both in a span of 5 hours. MSN are yet to get their name on the scoresheet and Ronaldo scored 3 against one of the best keepers in the world. Brazil, for all their firepower, were second best against a Swiss team who were unlucky to draw after a dominating first 65-70 minutes. A lot of things aren't really adding up. Here's 5 takeaways from what we've seen so far.
#1 There are no favourites
Building up to the World Cup, everyone had their "favourites" to win the cup. The tier 1 favourites were Brazil, Germany and maybe Spain. Then you could probably put your money on the likes of Argentina, France, Portugal and maybe Belgium. However, only Belgium managed to produce a convincing win. Argentina, Brazil were held by resilient European sides in Iceland and Switzerland. Spain and Portugal played out an entertaining draw, Germany were shocked by Mexico and France barely scraped through Australia.
It seems like we're back to square one. This can be anyone's tournament. The fact that the scorelines in these games are definitely a reflection of the game is something for the top-dogs to worry about.
#2 Defense. Defense. Defense.
Attack wins you games, defense wins you trophies. And the first round has been a testament to this.Uruguay could manage with a last gasp winner against the Egyptians but teams like Argentina, Brazil, Germany and to an extent Columbia, France and Poland were subject to sublime defensive masterclasses.
The key here was that the teams that shocked these "giants" held a really good shape and closed down attacks by shrinking the space and suffocating the front-line. This is not exactly a case of "parking the bus" but rather really intelligent defending by means of really good positioning. Only in the closing moments of the game did they defend in numbers and understandably so.
#3 Post Lopetegui Spain, anyone?
After the Spain head coach Lopetegui was sacked one day prior to the World Cup's opening game, huge doubts arose on whether it was a good decision and if Spain's chances will take a blow due to this, given what an amazing record he had in the qualifiers. We don't have the answers to this yet but one can say that the consequences are not as dire as people made of it.
Despite conceding a hat-trick to Cristiano, Spain looked really dominant on the pitch. All 3 goals were a result silly mistakes which don't tell the whole story. Spain were fluid in transitions and lethal upfront. The left flank of Alba, Iniesta and Isco was a pleasure to watch. They don't seem to have changed their style much, after Lopetegui's departure and if you expected them to under-perform due to the off-field controversies, you might want to think again.
#4 Exceptional Goalkeeping
Although the goalkeeper is a part of the defense and that has already been discussed, the goalkeeping at this World Cup has been tremendous.Only 3 out of the 16 games has seen a team score 3 goals or more. We have seen some acrobatic saves, point-blank reflexes and even a penalty save against the very best.
Egypt's Mohamed Elshanawy and Iceland's Hannes Halldorsson also won Man Of The Match awards for their heroics and deserve a mention here. But that doen't take away how well the other keepers have performed. There has been just a couple of howlers but the keepers have showed up and made a statement for themselves already. They mean business.
#5 VAR? VAR.
There were talks on how VAR is not required. Although it might correct a few decisions, it will disrupt the flow in the game and it didn't look like it was worth the pain. However, we had a pretty smooth week with VAR coming to the rescue on 3-4 ocassions. France could overcome Australia only due to VAR's intervention and it also helped Sweden get past South Korea. There were no signs of VAR threatening the smooth running of the game and it's safe to say that VAR is here to stay.
