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World Cup 2018

5 shots from World Cup 2018 Day 4 - Can Germany bounce back?

Mexico's Edson Alvarez celebrates after the match against Germany 1-0.
Mexico's Edson Alvarez celebrates after the match against Germany 1-0. Reuters/Carl Recine
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  • Achtung Baby

U2, Brute? Yes, the daily review has gone so retro as to be Bono fide Shakespearean. The Caesar of the teams has been vanquished. Is there nothing sacred? Germany lost to Mexico 1-0. Oh, what a falling off was there! Hirving Lozano got the winner in the first half. The Germany team have two more games to salvage the situation before they can – in this column at least – become known as Die Mannschafted. The defeat continues a recent trend of incompetence from defending champions in opening games. In 2010, Italy drew their first group stage match against Paraguay. Spain lost 5-1 to the Netherlands in 2014 in Brazil and Germany have added their name to the triumvirate.

  • There are no easy games

France struggled against Australia before winning 2-1. Iran mugged Morocco and now the Germans slip up. That was in Group F. In Group E, Brazil started brilliantly against Switzerland in the Rostov Arena. Philippe Coutinho scored a wonderful goal for the tournament favourites. But blow my Matterhorn, the Swiss equalised and though they surged forward, the boys from Brazil could not force the winner. So it ended 1-1. Serbia lead the group after a 1-0 victory over Costa Rica. All to play for. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if neither Brazil nor Germany advanced out of the group stages?

  • You have to plan, mein Mann, for random

Germany boss Joachim Low said his side did not have any luck as they went in search of an equaliser against Mexico. They seemed shocked at the audacity of opponents not going out of their way to let them win. “It’s very disappointing and very unusual,” said Low. “In so many tournaments before we won the first game.” Juan Carlos Osorio, his Mexico counterpart, was altogether more Latin about the victory. Well, he would be, wouldn’t he? “For the players today the phrase was to play for the love of winning and not the fear of losing,” Osorio said.  “And that is exactly what they did. They played with real bravery.”

  • Russia is doing better than Brazil

And we don’t mean this just from the footballing point of view. What was quirky about the 2014 World Cup in Brazil was the lack of TVs showing the action at the myriad cavernous airports. We remember going through lounges and not being able to see the thrills and spills going on around the country. During a voyage between Kaliningrad and Volgograd, there were no end of screens at the departure point and also at the transfer in Moscow. Perhaps all the screens have been rapidly installed since Russia’s 5-0 drubbing of Saudi Arabia on day one.

  • The decorum has gone … it ain’t the same

Of late, there’s been an awful lot of piling on top of a player on the floor after he scores. It’s the group stages for heaven’s sake. Get a grip, lads. There was, for the review, an unseemly scene after Serbia’s Aleksandar Kolarov whipped his free-kick over the Costa Rica wall and into the net. It was an excellent strike. But it did not call for a mass of twitching limbs on the deck. Not quite the galley scene from Ben Hur but near enough. Keep it simple chaps or do a Cristiano Ronaldo thing. But falling over and a heap? If in doubt go back in history. The Brazil 1970 squad scored 19 goals on their way to the Jules Rimet trophy. Someone would simply lift a player up as he punched the air. When skipper Carlos Alberto thundered in the last goal in the 4-1 destruction of Italy in the final, he ran behind the net with his arms raised while Tostao, the man who started the move back in his own half, kicked the ball into the net again before going to join him and Pele and Jairzinho and the others from the best World Cup winning team ever.

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