Russia’s tournament looking really good on television

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This article was published 26/06/2018 (2951 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For television viewers, the 2018 World Cup has made for happy watching.

Aesthetically, the stadiums look terrific — even the quirky Ekaterinburg Arena that seats thousands of spectators in risers extending outside the circular ground — and the sunshine has been plentiful. This has been the World Cup of clear sky and summer warmth, and the swarms of insects in Volgograd have only provided matches there a sort of Manitoba lake-life quality.

This has also been the World Cup of fans, inspired by the Japanese in 2014, tidying up as they exit the stadiums. It’s the World Cup of Group C captains Hugo Lloris (France), Simon Kjaer (Denmark) and Mile Jedinak (Australia) appealing for rival skipper and Peru striker Paolo Guerrero to have his suspension overturned in time for the tournament. It’s a World Cup where it seemed like there would never be a scoreless draw. (Thanks for nothing, France and Denmark.)

The goals have been good, too. And they’ve come in myriad ways: thunderous penalties, curling free kicks, long-range drives struck by the outside of the foot. No Jabulani here. (By the way, would Spain have won the World Cup in 2010 without the help of that terrible ball? I wonder.)

This has, so far, been a World Cup of moments, many of them of the feel-good variety. So, let’s ignore the Neymar tantrums, the VAR confusion and Nikola Kalinic’s disgraceful return home and dwell briefly on the cheery stuff. There’s been a lot of it, but following is some of my favourites:

Egypt

Mohamed Salah scored both of Egypt’s goals at this competition. His second, a lovely chip over Saudi Arabia goalkeeper Yasser Al-Mosailem, was the Pharaoh’s first World Cup goal from open play since a 4-2 loss to Hungary in 1934. Additionally, 45-year-old Egypt ’keeper Essam El-Hadary became the oldest player to take part in a World Cup match when he started against the Green Falcons..

Panama goal

England ran riot over Panama on Sunday, thumping its Group G opponents 6-1 in Nizhny Novgorod to book a place in the round of 16.

But while numerous pundits were lazily criticizing Panama’s MLS contingent and CONCACAF’s World Cup allotment, Los Canaleros delivered one of the highlights of the tournament to date. In the 78th minute, and trailing 6-0, 37-year-old Felipe Baloy, who plays his club football at Municipal of Guatemala City, stabbed Ricardo Avila’s free kick past Jordan Pickford.

The Panama fans were thrown into raptures, having witnessed their country’s first ever World Cup goal, and will no doubt remember the moment long after the trophy has been raised.

Senegal training

Ahead of their Group H encounter with Japan, the Senegalese players were filmed dancing, clapping and singing during training. The 2-2 draw that followed was one of the more fetching matches of the group stage, and on Thursday, Senegal will look to put in a similar effort against Colombia.

They’ll likely need a result in order to progress to the round of 16. That said, they’ve already won fans with their energy on the field and their performances off it.

Beiranvand’s save

Iran was a few inches of side-netting away from eliminating Portugal and finishing atop Group B, but it only got to that point because of goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand’s save of Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty in the 53rd minute.

Beiranvand was born to a family of sheep farmers who moved their flock throughout Iran’s northeast Lorestan province, in the Zagros mountains. As a young teen, he ran away from home to pursue a career as a footballer, but before being signed by Naft Tehran, and eventually Tehran giants Persepolis, he worked odd jobs and slept outside.

On Monday, the 25-year-old, who has been named the Persian Gulf Pro League’s goalkeeper of the year on three occasions, dived to his left and denied the spot kick of one the sport’s greatest players. World Cup stories don’t get much better than that.

Argentina supporters

Lionel Messi and Argentina went into their final Group D match against Nigeria needing all three points in order to book a spot in the knockout rounds. That they managed to secure them following lethargic performances against Iceland and Croatia and five chaotic days that saw an attempted mutiny of manager Jorge Sampaoli is, perhaps, because of the backing of their fans as much as anything else.

On Monday, a group of Albiceleste supporters showed up outside the team’s St. Petersburg hotel. They cheered, sang and banged drums, and eventually several Argentina players ventured outside to join them. Just like that, it seemed as though some of the pressure was released. And what pressure. The two-time champions could still win it all in Russia, but you get the feeling they’ll need a few more feel-good moments to help get them there.

Lozano goal

Mexico might be the happiest team at this World Cup to date.

Drawn in a difficult bracket alongside South Korea, Sweden and reigning champions Germany, they got off to a flier when Hirving Lozano scored against Di Mannschaft in Moscow. After Sami Khedira gave the ball away, Hector Herrera played a neat one-two with Javier Hernandez, who dished to Lozano, who cut inside Joshua Kimmich and beat Manuel Neuer at the near post.

El Tri haven’t stopped smiling since. They smile during the anthem, they smile when they score, and they smile when they play with more joy than they have in a generation.

jerradpeters@gmail.comTwitter: @JerradPeters