World Cup update: England entertain, Scotland struggle

Quick update on the World Cup which is now into the second round of the group stage.

If I gave the impression in a recent post that I’m far less invested in the tournament than I was when I was younger, that’s still true, but I am following it, although the number of games I’ve watched from start to finish can be counted on one hand.

One issue is the kick-off times. Several matches, including Scotland-Haiti, have kicked off at 2.00am. I made an exception and stayed up for that, but I’m not going to stay up late at night and into the early hours of the morning to watch teams I have little or no interest in (which is most of them, frankly).

Things might change when we get to the knockout rounds and there is far greater jeopardy involved. Likewise, if some teams are playing consistently well and there’s a good chance I’ll be entertained, I am willing to sacrifice several hours’ sleep. So far, though, it’s a bit early to single out any team that has passed that threshold. Fair play though to England who, to my great surprise, were arguably the most entertaining team in the first round of matches although, as I say, I’ve only watched a few games in full.

England-Croatia was one of them and although it wasn’t a flawless performance it was certainly entertaining and I can’t remember the last time I’ve said that about an England match. Aside from the goals, the 10-15 minutes at the start of the second half – during which England went 3-2 ahead and then laid siege to the Croatia goal – was almost unique from an England perspective because it’s decades since I remember England going ahead in a match and trying almost immediately to score again. The mindset is usually ‘hold on to what you have’, which is exactly what happened in added time at the end of the first half when defence and midfield retreated, allowing Croatia to score a well-worked goal.

Although Croatia aren’t the team they were a few years ago, they are still ranked #11 in the Fifa world rankings so it will be interesting to see how England progress from here. I would be very surprised if they were to win the World Cup because one or two teams (at least) are probably a level up, and several are on the same level – which means England will need a fair slice of luck to navigate every knockout round – but if they play well and entertain us for as long as they’re in the tournament I will be happy with that, although others will no doubt judge them differently if they are knocked out early.

Scotland will definitely be judged differently. Success for Scotland involves qualifying for the knockout stage for the first time in World Cup history. No team has qualified for the World Cup finals as often as Scotland (eight times) without getting past the group stage at least once, but a 1-0 win (and three points) against Haiti got them off to a reasonable start. Last night, against Morocco, it looked like they were set up to get a draw (and another point) because four points would be enough to guarantee qualification for the knockout round of 32.

Unfortunately, losing a goal after 70 seconds rather torpedoed that plan, and the way Morocco started the game I thought Scotland might be in danger of a heavy defeat. Yes, they did eventually get back into the game but it wasn’t pretty and they only threatened in the last ten minutes when knocking long balls forward, and they still didn’t have a shot on target.

Nevertheless, with eight third placed teams going through to the knockout stage, and three points in the bag from the first game against Haiti, the odds must be on Scotland progressing, regardless of the result of their final group match against Brazil on Wednesday. England meanwhile play Ghana on Tuesday and Panama on Saturday, following which we will know every qualifier including the eight third placed teams.

Watch this space.

PS. A Scottish friend who paid $1200 for a ticket for the Scotland-Morocco match tells me he was so high up in the stadium it was ‘like being on a helicopter … 65k crowd and almost no real atmospheric noise’. Given the result, I hope it was worth it.

Above: Gillette Stadium, renamed Boston Stadium for the World Cup, is the home of the New England Patriots American football team and is located in Foxboro, Massachusetts, 22 miles south west of Boston.