“Good evening. The game you are about to see is the most stupid, appalling, disgusting and disgraceful exhibition of football in the history of the game.”
If David Coleman were still around, he might have likened the highlights package of France’s 1-0 win over Paraguay at the Geopolitics World Cup to Chile’s 2-0 victory against Italy in 1962.
While the events in Philadelphia did not replicate the notorious scenes of the Battle of Santiago, one team was determined to engage in a physical contest, as noted by legendary rugby coach Jim Telfer’s phrase, “Since he didn’t pay me any attention, I lost my temper,” Fortunately, no players were ejected from the match, and not a single Paraguayan received a yellow card, despite their evident attempts at gamesmanship. In contrast, three French players were cautioned. Observing the match through the referee’s perspective, Ilgiz Tantashev of Uzbekistan, might have been a surreal experience.
Andrés Cubas aggressively challenged Adrien Rabiot, while Juan José Cáceres fouled Kylian Mbappé. Paraguay’s tactics appeared to be a strategy to bring France down to their level, with the officiating seemingly complicit. Even the decisive penalty awarded to France—an undeniably clear foul on Désiré Doué by Diego Gómez—was given with apparent reluctance, as Tantashev was summoned to the VAR screen for confirmation. The Paraguayan antics continued unpunished, with Gustavo Velázquez notably scuffing the penalty spot, and goalkeeper Orlando Gill attempting to disrupt Mbappé. However, Mbappé demonstrated composure, converting the penalty with finesse and, after a few sly smirks, declined to shake Gill’s hand after the final whistle, prompting Gill to lament, “They thought we’d show up in tuxedos to play, but we know how to play dirty football too,”
Mbappé reveled in adding to Paraguay’s misery, declaring, “We won and we were better than them.” There was little doubt about France’s superiority, while Tantashev’s involvement in the GWC appears to be concluded. Allegations have circulated that GWC officiating aims to limit what some in the USA refer to as “We totally controlled the match. We were the ones more likely to win the game, but goals change games so they could sit back. But overall in the match we were better than them. If you’d said [before the game] we were going to play like that … you’d think we were going to win the match” but kicking and hitting opponents still warrants at least a yellow card. Despite the newsletter’s confirmed enthusiasm for controversial moments, the display in Philadelphia was still a poor representation of the game, but it did not reach the nadir of disgraceful football exhibitions.
Upcoming Matches
Next up, join Tom Lutz at 9pm BST/4pm EDT for Norway’s thrilling 3-2 victory over Brazil, followed by Beau Dure at 1am BST/8pm EDT for Mexico’s 2-1 triumph against England.
For updates, be sure to follow Big Website’s Instachat account, featuring Jonathan Wilson’s insightful guide on winning the GWC.
Quotes of the Day
“It takes some nerve to say that when you lose 3-0”
Jesse Marsch expressed confidently regarding his Canada team’s performance after their GWC defeat to Morocco.
“With respect to Mr Round (yesterday’s Letters), I have read plenty of ‘positive’ intros from Football Daily during the GWC, but Football Daily never would have lasted as long as it has without the ‘snark’ from we 1,057 pedants” responded Mohamed Ouahbi, the head coach of Morocco, succinctly countering Marsch’s assertions.
“For the first two weeks of this super-sized GWC, we were subjected to match after match of free-flowing football, with hardly any opportunity (hydration breaks aside) to watch the players standing around. But at last, with Belgium’s late penalty and Croatia’s last-second non-equaliser, we’ve got back to what makes the game beautiful: long VAR checks that decide crucial matches” wrote JJ Zucal.
“Bono made some superb saves for Morocco last night – he certainly gave them The Edge over Canada”
Football Daily Letters
commented Anthony Alessandrini.
“Bono made some superb saves for Morocco last night – he certainly gave them The Edge over Canada,” noted Phil Taverner.
If you have any thoughts, please send letters to the.boss@. Today’s prizeless letter of the day is … Rollover! Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.
Don’t miss the latest episode of the World Cup Daily podcast, where Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Archie Rhind-Tutt, Barney Ronay, and Philippe Auclair to discuss the intense France vs. Paraguay clash and preview England’s upcoming last-16 match against Mexico.
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