Czeched out

Switzerland - Canada 2-1

Bosnia - Qatar 3-1

Morocco - Haiti 4-2

Scotland - Brazil 0-3

Czechia - Mexico 0-3

South Africa - South Korea 0-1

I watched bits of every game, I think there must more people who are trying to figure out how this 6 games in a day malarkey works.

We've had 4 in a day in the previous world cups, but with two hours breaks one could have watched some games on catch up, and some would not matter. But 6 games does feel excessive, and it also feel like we should start being selective. Because otherwise, don't get me wrong, I've always been a fan of an expanded World Cup format. I'd make it 200 teams if it was me, but obviously you do need to fit all of the games in a month, and can't go much higher tham 8-9 games in a month for the winning team. It's 7 at the moment.

How many points, Patrick?

Let's take the groups in alphabetical order then: Group A brings the biggest disappointment and the biggest surprise. I'm happy for Mexico to have won all 3 of their games, and they'll be formidable opponent for whoever they'll play in the knockouts. As it stands it looks like it's Scotland, which would be ironic, but Scotland keeps falling down in the 3rd placed teams league. However, massively disappointed with Czechia. To have only won one point from this group is a crime. I thought they'd win it. Not sure what happened, they have some great players, and are certainly a better team than South Africa, but sometimes it's not enough. Sometimes you have to get down and dirty, and the case might be that the Czechs thought that being favourites is enough. Well, it's not.

South Africa beating South Korea is a massive surprise. I was really impressed with South Korea when they beat Czech Republic, and the game against Mexico, even though lost, was a hard fought one that could've easily gone their way. South Africa, on the other side, had a really poor showing in the first game, then stole a point from Czechia. Them beating South Korea is a mix of lcuk, and the Koreans maybe taking the foot off the pedal a little bit.

Group B was pretty clear, and that's because Qatar was useless. Baffling they managed to get a point, really, and from Switzerland nonetheless. Switzerland is the strongest team in the group and have done well to win it. Canada played ok, and they get South Africa in the knock-outs, so they might go one more, but they're a mediocre team really. They only finished second becasue Bosnia was disappointing. But because of Qatar, even they had 3 points in the bag, and the draw against Canada will be enough to see them through.

And Group C... oh, Scotland! Of course Brazil was always gonna be a tough game, but you can't let them walk all over you! Vini's goals were opportunistic rather than well constructed, but Scotaldn played with fear, attacking very little and having a pretty permeable defense. With 2-0 at half time, nothing spectacular was gonna happen, and I'm only sorry I didn't watch Morocco - Haiti, 2-2 at the end of the first half. I switched at half time, and Morocco took full control of it.

In terms of early predictions, I only got one out of three right so far, but no matter. It's a good World Cup, bar the organisation. Looking forward to Japan - Sweden now. Money's on Japan.