I tried not to tune in, but of course I failed. Fox is doing its best to drive me away. Their coverage stinks. Derek Rae is the only decent play by play guy, and the color commentators are pretty bad. Warren Barton is fine in the studio, but he gets really annoying in my ear for 90 minutes. Aly Wagner is decent; Tony Meola OK. Everyone else goes on mute. Actually, that's how I usually watch this WC.
Now that Messi and Ronaldo are going home, the only player left that Fox acknowledges is Neymar. It's as though no one at Fox follows football beyond reading gossip magazines.
OK, the games:
I was delighted that Germany crashed out and Mexico moved on. Play was uneven and many games were not exactly thrilling, but most were at least close. There were plenty of late goals. VAR is a success as far as I'm concerned. There was the usual excitement and drama in most of the groups for the third group game. In the knockouts, France 4 - 3 Argentina was really good, I thought. The two games today that were decided via kicks-from-the-spot were fairly dour affairs, especially the Russia win over Spain, which was terrible. In 120 minutes, Spain completed over a thousand passes to Russia's 200, but never tested Akinfeev. Their only score was an own-goal; Russia got a PK after the aptly named Pique intentionally blocked a header with his arm. DaGea was shockingly bad this WC, and he looked awful in the shootout. I'm thinking Belgium has as good a chance as any team to win it all, and if Mexico can't do it, I'll be rooting for them. But if England or Switzerland can be champion, great. I can't get behind Russia; I hate the way they play.
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