Four conclusions after the first round of play in the group stage

It is always dangerous to draw firm conclusions after the first matches of a long football tournament. Didn’t reigning world champion Argentina lose the first match to Saudi Arabia at the previous World Cup? And wasn’t the Soviet Union too strong for the Netherlands in the opening match of the 1988 European Championship, after which the Dutch team ultimately won the only main prize ever? Yet there is already quite a bit to say after the first round in the US, Mexico and Canada, in which no fewer than 24 matches were played. Four things that stood out.

1Football dwarfs appear to be no laughing matter

Before the World Cup, there was a lot of criticism of the new format with 48 countries. What do insignificant football nations like Curaçao, Cape Verde, Haiti, Jordan and Uzbekistan do at a World Cup
Cape Verde gave the clearest answer to that question by holding Spain, one of the favorites for the world title, to 0-0. Congo, which is only participating in a World Cup for the second time, also pulled off a 1-1 draw against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal. And even Curaçao managed to make it difficult for Germany for half an hour, despite the eventual 7-1 defeat.

Haiti, Uzbekistan and Jordan lost, but none of them were outplayed by Scotland, Colombia and Austria respectively.

2Messi and Argentina impress

Naturally, world champion Argentina was again one of the favorites prior to the World Cup, but bookmakers and many analysts still rated France and Spain higher. But in the first match against Algeria (3-0), star player Lionel Messi with his hat trick and the whole of Argentina made such an enthusiastic impression that a second world title in a row has become much more realistic.

Editor-in-chief Mariano Dayan from the Argentinian sports newspaper Olé said on Spanish radio that even in Argentina no one expected Messi to reach such a level at this age.

3The big names deliver

In addition to Lionel Messi with his three goals, other intended star players such as Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane also got off to a good start. They all scored twice in their first match.

Messi is now the joint top World Cup scorer of all time with sixteen goals in total and Mbappé has surpassed Olivier Giroud as France’s top scorer of all time with 58 international goals. For Haaland it was only his first World Cup match, so he is two on one.

Dissonants in this list are Cristiano Ronaldo who was hardly involved during Portugal’s 1-1 match against Congo, the not yet fully fit Lamine Yamal who could do little during his substitute against Cape Verde and to a lesser extent Luka Modrić who, on behalf of Croatia, caused the penalty from which Harry Kane could score his first goal at this World Cup.

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4The Dutch team has no fast attackers on the bench

National coach Ronald Koeman received a lot of criticism for his substitutions in the Netherlands’ opening match against Japan (2-2). By exchanging fast players such as Donyell Malen and Crysencio Summerville for the slower and less explosive Memphis Depay and Teun Koopmeiners, the Netherlands posed much less threat in the final phase. With speed, the Dutch team should have been able to take advantage of the spaces that would arise in the Japanese hunt for the equalizer.

Although Koeman did not seem to regret his substitutions afterwards, it seems unlikely that he will do the same in a similar situation against Sweden or later in the tournament.

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