I've always felt Asian and African teams respect CONMEBOL teams too much. That has cost them time and again. It was refreshing that in this group Japan didn't show the usual fear, but the early red helped. On the other hand, they seldom seem as impressed with the Europeans. CONCACAF is the opposite.
At least at the start of the day. As of right now, Japan has had 4 yellows in 3 matches, and Senegal have gotten six.
Basically, "next goal wins" (I was one of the few who liked the golden goal, because just about every street ball game ends that way.)
This would be quite bad for CAF: no team through, even though Morocco played some very pretty soccer, and Nigeria was handicapped by a coach who didn't seem to trust his players enough. Even Tunisia had its moments in a very hard group. Egypt was a total bust though.
Poland isn't going to get the ball back. They're standing around and Japan is just passing around the backfield.
Apparently Japan are just kicking it around, not trying to equalize. Gambling on no goal for Senegal.
For the first time since the 1982 tournament, NO African team advances past the first round at the finals. Africa: unlucky or overhyped?
Guy on Telemundo is in orgasm [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] Happy for Colombia but sad for Senegal.Good and fun football they play
Another CONMEBOL team to advance to the round of 16 4 out of 5 conmebol teams in Russia advanced: Uruguay, Argentina, Brasil and Colombia. Save por Peru, that still played really nice futbol, all of them are through Some people said CONMEBOL was finished after 1st day matches.
Yeah. I like Japan, but feel bad for Senegal. Sigh. I'd much rather have Senegal going through than boring sides like Denmark, Croatia, Switzerland. meh.