Key events
22 min Portugal working the ball around well as Croatia drop as many blue shirts into the penalty area as they can fit. Not a ton of movement off the ball, though, as we near the end of the first quarter.
20 min Portugal turn it over deep in the Croatian half, then win it right back.
19 min Patient buildup for Portugal now. It’s still hot in Toronto, as odd as that sounds, so slowing things down will be appreciated by all.
18 min Free kick for Croatia deep in the Portuguese half, well cleared.
Incidentally – if you have any thoughts on officiating at this World Cup, please do send them my way. Might not get to them tonight, but I’d like to hear from people.
17 min Yellow card to Ruben Dias. In fairness, it was only a forearm to the face of Budimir. That’s not card-worthy these days, is it?
16 min Pongracic tries to head the ball out for a throw-in but heads it out for a corner. That happened to a team in a game I was reffing a few weeks ago, and it resulted in the game’s only goal. Not this time, as Veiga heads the ball over the bar.
15 min A long diagonal ball from Croatia goes too far, and Portugal will have possession again.
I’ve noticed some email going to spam. The good news is that the thunderstorm does indeed appear to be going south of the stadium.
14 min Croatia manage to coax a foul out of Portugal. Will they be able to cross midfield with the ball, as they have not done in some time?
13 min Pongracic forgot one of the fundamental rules that men must obey when being in a wall on a free kick, and I’ll leave it at that.
11 min Here come Portugal again, and a whistle angers Croatia. (The team, but probably also the country.) Kovacic caught Mendes on the foot after the ball was gone, so the call is legit, and Ronaldo will try his luck from 28 yards or so – I know because a player just walked off the distance.
8 min The Portuguese shirts look like old-school breath mints. Croatia surely don’t find them so refreshing as a cross from Neto goes just over a tangle of bodies that included the uncertain Croatian goalkeeper Livakovic and the ageless Portuguese forward Ronaldo.
7 min Corner to Portugal as the attack continues.
It was Leão who did the good work on the left and centered to Bruno Fernandes, who one-timed it with some venom from near the penalty spot. It slams off Livakovic back to Fernandes, whose second shot isn’t quite as powerful, though Portugal shout for a handball without the answer they wanted.
4 min: HUGE CHANCE for Portugal, and are we holding for a VAR check? Yes, but briefly, and we’re back. Actually a double chance that I’ll describe when the trouble is cleared.
3 min: Perisic up the left, Baturina ahead, centered to Budimir, tame shot saved but good statement of intent from Croatia.
Kick-off
1 min: Croatia in blue, Portugal in white.
Weather and ref
Reader ceri alerts me to an incoming thunderstorm in Toronto. It looks like it might miss?
Espen Eskas of Norway is the ref. Jarred Gillett of Australia is the VAR.
“I guess I’m a different generation to you, as I’ve always thought that Carles Puyol is one of the most easily identifiable footballers in history.” – Liam Murray
Yeah, but Weird Al is one of the most identifiable people on the planet. To some of us.
More pregame mail
“Shouldn’t a good manager/coach be able to design a system in which Ronaldo worked well with the world’s best midfield & Portugal became a team better than the sum of its parts? Or does Ronaldo being Ronaldo make that impossible?” – Gary Stover
Thinking you might have answered your question. I also will probably be compelled to say the world’s best midfield is Malik Tillman, Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams. They’re not bad.
“As far as I can tell, the last (and only?) impressive thing Roberto Martinez did as a manager was win the FA Cup for Wigan in the same year they were relegated (against Man City no less). It seems a bit mad that he’s still the manager of Portugal. If Portugal do make it past Croatia, surely he cannot start *that man* against Spain? Or has this become some sort of theatre of the absurd and we should drop our attempts at rational thought and enjoy the spectacle?” – Russell Eberts
Didn’t Portugal win the UEFA Nations League last year? Is that taken seriously in UEFA’s constituent countries?
“Never mind the celebrities, Beau, the VIPs to spot tonight are the talent scouts from AARP (American Association of Retired Persons, for non-American readers).” – Justin Kavanagh
Their magazine is pretty good. So are the discounts. Maybe I can get a sponsorship deal with them …
“I am gutted that Flo will miss the Belgium fixture but it was a red. Imagine if the same thing happened to Pulisic. We would have gone berserk if a red wasn’t issued. So far as Medicare advice, I was born when Eisenhower was President. Try not to get sick or win the lottery.” – Mary Waltz
I have actually spent an inordinate amount of time on the phone with insurance people today.
“If I recall, the man behind Infantino was Barcelona legend Carles Puyol, who for the sake of sticking with the main story tonight can be seen taking on a certain Portuguese forward.” – Liam Searle
Speaking of “then and now,” here’s Puyol at the earlier game:
And here’s Weird Al Yankovic:
OK, one last thing about being old before moving on to more current topics – yes, I distinctly remember following the World Cup on my tiny TV in an apartment in Wilmington, N.C., where the newspaper staff tolerated my fandom of all soccer things.
If you don’t remember the days before everyone was online 24/7 or even 50hrs/month, check out this then-and-now feature.
I don’t have a photo to show it, but the guy sitting behind Gianni Infantino and to his left (our right) in the Spain-Austria game looked eerily like Weird Al Yankovic. I’d like to think Al would get better tickets than that.
What celebrities might we see at this one? Nelly Furtado was born to Portuguese parents who were born in the Azores and emigrated to Canada. Maybe we’ll see ER heartthrob Goran Visnjic. (I did say I was old, right?)
Lineups
Portugal: Diogo Costa; Mendes, Veiga, Dias, Cancelo; Vitinha, João Neves; Leão, Fernandes, Neto; that guy
Leão replaces João Félix.
Croatia: Livakovic; Perisic, Pongracic, Sutalo, Stanisic; Kovacic, Modric; Baturina, Sucic, Vlasic; Budimir
Both teams are estimated to be in a 4-2-3-1 by the agencies that believe everyone is in a 4-2-3-1. Others probably say it’s a 4-4-2. Or maybe a 3-6-1.
The jokes are already coming in …
“Hi Beau! So, Modric vs Ronaldo. There’s going to be a lot of old men jokes tonight, huh? Hopefully some of them won’t be inappropriate. Can we respectfully agree that this qualifies as Clash of the Titans, then? (Because, in the actual myths, the Titans *are* older than Zeus). Sorry, couldn’t resist.” – Vlado
When I made the trip from Troy back to Ithaca (see the movie about that), I helped advise them on how to create the ideal soccer player. But they didn’t listen to me, and Messi popped up in Argentina, which is far from Ithaca. Croatia is relatively close, at least.
“On Saturday we are off on holiday to Spain and Portugal for three weeks, and will be in Portugal for the semifinal and final. I can’t bear the thought of having that insufferable …. (I can think of any number of words to insert here, but poseur is probably the only one which would meet The Guardian’s editorial guidelines) Ronaldo thrust down my throat day and night. So to be on the safe side Portugal had better go out as soon as soon as possible, i.e., tonight. Besides which they need to be punished for leaving Fulham legend Palhinha out of the squad.” – Richard Hirst
Team news coming up next …
Preamble
Welcome to a match that will answer a very important question …
Who gets the honor of losing to Spain?
In the 48-team format (more on that in a bit), 12 of the 16 matches in the Round of Twice 16 are graced with a team that won their group. This is not one of them.
In fairness, Portugal very impressively destroyed Uzbekistan 5-0 in between draws with Colombia and a DR Congo side that seems rather dangerous in hindsight. Croatia lost to an England side that rallied past that DR Congo side earlier in this round, then labored past pesky Panama and beat Ghana 2-1.
And these are star-studded teams. No, I don’t mean that the players involved are older than the galaxy – to answer the question below about 1 March 2006, I was planning my 36th birthday party, so these people all seem young to me.
This match will provide a healthy diversion for us in the United States, where everyone in my social media feeds has opted for one of two messages today:
1. It’s unfortunate, but according to the Laws of the Game, Folarin Balogun had to be sent off.
2. That was the worst call in the history of officiating, even worse than the 1972 Olympic basketball final. (Told you I was old, though I don’t remember that game first-hand.)
Send in your comments, your diet tips and your Medicare advice, and I’ll get through as much of it as I can.
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s more on today’s matchup:
Can you remember what you were doing on 1 March 2006? Perhaps you were at Anfield, watching England beat Uruguay 2-1. You might have seen Switzerland put three goals past Scotland at Hampden Park.
Or you might have watched Luka Modric make his debut for Croatia. They beat Argentina 3-2, with Lionel Messi scoring his first international goal. The same evening, Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice in a 3-0 Portugal victory against Saudi Arabia, no doubt dreaming of the day he would live and work in the country.
While he and Messi have dominated football discourse since then, Modric has been there throughout too. In a more metronomic, less flashy, passing-more-often-than-scoring kind of way, granted, but as another constant presence at the top level.
The trio are in an elite group of four men who have accumulated at least 200 international caps. Claim a bonus point if you can name the other.
You can read the full article below:
