Difficult Saturdays

Qatar - Switzerland 1-1

Oh, man, Saturdays were always going to be difficult. And I'm getting a bit lost in these start times. Honestly, it's weird having the World Cup across multiple time zones, or a mandatory ads break disguised as water break. But that's USA for you.

So I didn't see much of the 4 games yesterday.

I've seen nothing of Switzerland - Qatar. Noticed it was 1-0 for Switzerland all the way until the dying stages, and I thought, well, one way or another the Swiss squeezed it through. But an own goal in the 4th minute of injury time? It must be the bad Switzerland who showed up. Hard to make sense of this group now. Canada might actually win it, spurred by home advantage, and leave Switzerland and Bosnia battle it out for second.

Brazil - Morocco 1-1

I only saw the last half hour or so, which was good witrhout being outstanding, and by that time the final score had been established, and the commentators couldn't stop talking about how much better the first half has been. Good on Morocco for scoring first and for getting a point. Not sure they can recreate the semifinal from 4 years ago, but it's good to not squander that legacy and give a good account of themselves. 

Brazil look solid, despite not destroying Morocco, but it feels like their time hasn't come. I'd hate it to come at the expense of Scotland.

Haiti - Scotland 0-1

I did watch this (almost) integrally, and I thought Scotland was the better team and should have won more emphatically. I didn't understand why the fans would be afraid of Haiti, but this was very much the mood in the camp before the game, and with 3 points in the bag they can hopefully rest a bit easier, while approaching the Morocco game from the first place in the group. And if they get a good result there, the Brazil game might be redundant.

Australia - Turkey 2-0

3 am start was a bridge too far for a long day so, while I remember the beginning of the game, I can't say much about it. Except I have no idea how this result came about. I would've never expected it, I trust Turkey, and whether it was a fluke or if this is Turkey now, or whether Australia has a solid team... I'll need to wait for the next game to see. Is USA gonna win it? Looks like ti based on the first game.

Which means my prediction for the group were far off, but I love that about the World Cup. I don't love that people keep trying to get me to work during the World Cup, but we'll do our best.