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Overload and heroics

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 The additional fixtures thrown-up by the 48 team competition is making the group game part of the competition absolutely relentless. If memory serves, we'd normally have 3 games per day at this stage of the competition, rather than the 4 we are getting. And they'd normally be in fixed time slots. This expanded schedule basically means that anything beyond work/footie/sleep needs to give, with the day 100% accounted for by those three things. It is definitely a World Cup where I wish I was still a student.

Since I last wrote, the tournament has been rolling along nicely. My early comments about "zero jeopardy in the group stages" looks to be fundamentally wrong, as some of the token teams are proving to be far more relevant than that. Curacao grabbed a [genuinely] thrilling point vs Ecuador, the Iranian goalkeeper went into beast mode to deny the Belgium onslaught and grab a point in what was a fascinating game; attack versus defence in large parts, but Iran not without threat themselves. In amongst that, Japan carried on playing their nice football to dispatch the hapless Tunisia, Spain woke up and smashed Saudi Arabia. But the main shock has to be Cape Verde's incredible game vs Uruguay, a belting encounter, full of needle, flowing attacks and drama right to the end. What a point in their 2-2 draw. 

The net result of these various results is that actually most of the groups will be very much alive as we enter the final round of games during this week. And that means only one thing...MULTISCREEN. 


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