South Korea's manager has admitted that his players have exchanged shirts during training sessions and friendlies in order to mislead the Swedes:
"We are using this tactic because I know that for Europeans, it is difficult to distinguish Asians [by face]."#Russia2018 pic.twitter.com/5GsiSMaOTE
— Seleção Brasileira (@BrazilStat) June 17, 2018
Sweden v South Korea at 8am EDT. Belgium v Panama at 11am. Tunisia v England at 2pm.
FIFA liveblog et al at the Google link.
Mexico’s win yesterday seems to have been quite popular, at least in Mexico, per NYMag:
Mexico’s stunning upset win over Germany in the World Cup on Sunday may have shocked more than soccer fans. At the same time El Tri forward Hirving Lozano scored Mexico’s winning goal at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, at least two seismic sensors detected a minor earthquake in Mexico City, according to a monitoring agency run by Mexico’s Institute of Geological and Atmospheric Research…
SIMMSA theorized that the artificial quake was caused by all the fans in the city jumping up and down in celebration of the goal, and later noted that a similar reading was detected in Lima following Peru’s World Cup goal on Saturday…
Mexico’s fans had every reason to be excited, as the team didn’t just soundly defeat Germany — the reigning World Cup champion — for the first time ever in the tournament, but did so as a +600 underdog in the match. That makes their win on Sunday the biggest upset of the tournament thus far (and a big money-maker for anybody who gambled on them). And Mexico fans are hoping El Tri can build on the victory to ultimately overcome a streak of six consecutive round-0f-16 exits at the tournament…
Lee
Over at reddit it seems that even some Germans are happy for Mexico’s win.
JR
@Lee: Low is going to hear about this a lot
Amir Khalid
The New York Magazine writer clearly doesn’t understand football. A 1-0 win is not “soundly defeating” your opponent. It is a victory but only by the smallest possible margin. Germany’s finishing was poor on the day, but Mexico were riding their luck.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
I’m trying to figure out what a “+600 underdog” is.
kd bart
@Steeplejack: 6 to 1
Amir Khalid
@Steeplejack:
He clearly doesn’t understand probability, either.
Victor Matheson
More intuitively, +600 means a $100 bet wins you +$600 when Mexico wins.
Humdog
Mexican jumping beans caused an earthquake? Ha!
droog
@Amir Khalid:
In this context I don’t think it’s too bad. I would say it is a sound outcome because Mexico had Germany all figured out, offensively and defensively. It wasn’t a miracle win but a surgical dismantling of the opponent. Mexico decided on weathering the weight of German possession in exchange for counter-attacks. But then it seems they cleverly allowed for that imbalance in ball posession whilst neutralising Kroos as the natural playmaker on the German side. So Germany were allowed to feel they had control whilst in truth being prevented from carrying out their mode of operation. Mexico’s defensive line was said to be below average due to injuries, yet they did their job (although I’m sure Ochoa would have been happy with fewer opportunities to save the day).
If an underdog outfoxes a superior rival for 90+ minutes I can see how 1-0 would be described as a sound defeat.
The Ancient Randonneur
@Humdog: Chalk it up to the crackers crumbling at the end.
Amir Khalid
The British media are hyping England to the max, as they do every even-numbered year. England have ultimately disappointed in every tournament since 1966, but this year their strong point is manager Gareth Southgate. Southgate is competent, sane, an able and principled man-manager, and well-behaved. (That is to say, his private life is scandal-free unlike Sven-Goran Ericksson’s, and he’s not about to get caught in a discussion of match-fixing like his immediate predecessor Big Sam Allardyce.) I would like to be optimistic about their chances, but the team’s golden generation of the 1990s won exactly zip so I have my doubts.
Tony J
Yeah. The media will try – because they always try – to hype England’s chances, but this time around the national mood is more along the lines of “We might get out of the group, and anything after that is exceeding expectations”.
The Pale Scot
Amir Khalid, I have a question, your in Malaysia, right? My brother-in-law is wondering where his support staff which is located there went to. Calendar’s and google are no help finding out if a holiday is taking place there today. Is there something going on over there today?
MomSense
I want Mexico to win the World Cup. It would be such poetic justice for Mexico to win when the US didn’t even qualify to compete.
Leeds man
@Amir Khalid: The only British media I read are The Guardian, The Independent, and BBC online, and I’ve seen no “hyping” there. If you mean the tabloids, I suspect most competing countries have the same sort of nonsense.
HumboldtBlue
I’m getting the BBC feed for the Belgium game and they have the worst Neville providing color. Phil Neville was never close to the player his brother was and that followed them to the booth. Coverage is crying out for Gary Neville.
Dries!
HumboldtBlue
@Leeds man:
I agree, the Guardian, BBC, F365 and Independent have been pretty steady. There is optimism (as well there should be, this is a very good team) but nowhere near the over-hype we’ve seen in the past.
HumboldtBlue
Panama misses a golden chance.
Leeds man
@HumboldtBlue: “Coverage is crying out for Gary Neville.”
Would be better, but I’d rather Lee Dixon.
HumboldtBlue
@Leeds man:
Lets go Engerland!
Leeds man
England winning in the last minute? Unheard of! You beauty, HurriKane.
Not sure why Lingard and Sterling stayed on for so long. Start Loftus-Cheek and Rashford next time?