Brazil V Norway and Here We Go, Mexico v EnGerLand

Welcome back, so we now know who will play in the first of the quarter finals and it promises to be an epic, as the Froggies will face the Fez Heads in a repeat of the semi final they played in Qatar 22. The Fez Heads duly dealt with the Lumberjacks by a three goal margin, and Les Bleus beat a very dirty and anti football Paraguay by a single goal. The Uzbeki referees' performance in this game was scandalous as he did not show one yellow card to Paraguay, despite their incredibly aggressive performance.

Tonight we have two mega ties to look forward to. In the first game the Samba Kings will take on the Vikings. The Samba Kings have not impressed so far, they scrapped past the Samurai in the last round, their midfield is old and slow. The Samurai fell into the trap of playing the legend that is Brazil and wasted an opportunity to beat them. The Samba Kings like Ze Shermans is a fading force but our perspective of them is such that we always expect them to win.

The Vikings did not find it easy against the pianists from Cote D'Ivoire but found a way to utilize the talents of the most lethal of forwards in modern day football when it mattered most to win the game. Haaland has now scored in thirteen consecutive international games, an amazing level of consistency. The Samba Kings will struggle to contain him. The Vikings look like they are having fun, there is a great team spirit in the war band. When the Viking were rampaging across Britain and France, the standard method of battle was known as a shield wall. In reality it is not much different to what we may see tonight.

One of the main focal points will be the clash between Haaland the Viking and the Samba Kings enforcer, Gabriel, they have had a number of English tussles in the English Premier League. these are the two to watch out for.

Gabriel needs to stand firm

Haaland will have his Axe ready

Interestingly enough, the two have only faced each other in one competitive game back in the world cup in 1998 as you can see here.

 

I really do not think that a victory for the Vikings would be so much of a surprise. Against the Samurai, I opted for the Samba Kings because I believed that their experience would be too much for the Samurai warriors especially with the manager that the Samba Kings have and I was proved correct. 

On a side note, I am sure if you watch the games, that you have noticed that before a free kick close to the goal, the players standing waiting to take the kick, put their hands over their mouth as they confer what to do. The Samurais did not need to do that as no one understands Japanese anyway. Just an observation.

Back to the matter in hand, the Vikings will not fall into the same trap, they have too many players who have big match experience and like true Vikings will not be awed by the reputation of their opponents.

This brings us to the second game and what an intriguing game it is.  The hometown Sombreros against EnGerLand, the 10^th ranked team in the world against the 4^th ranked team. The two, last faced each other in the 1966 world cup, so the shoe was on the other foot so to speak regarding home advantage and all that.

 

 

The game is set to be played in the Azteca stadium in Mexico City, a massive advantage to the Sombreros.

The first advantage is the altitude of the stadium. It is at 2,240 meters (7300 feet) above sea level. This means the air is thinner and for players not used to that, it is difficult for them to breathe and they will tire quicker.

There is another problem for players who are not used to the altitude and that is that the ball travels further in the air, so often passes are overhit by the teams not used to the conditions.

The second advantage is the home crowd, they are fanatical in their support, and the stadium will be like a seething cauldron. There is no doubt that the fans would have been trying to disturb the sleep of the Gringos, by making as much noise as possible outside the hotel where EnGerLand are staying.

The Sombreros employ a high press, the Sombreros will be playing as if they are ten speedy Gonzales, trying not to give the EnGerLand players a second to dwell on the ball.

Another statistic which has been banded about is that the Sombreros have only lost two out of their previous eighty nine matches in the Azteca stadium, but I want to debunk that a little bit.

Their last defeat there was in 2013 against the US of A, and they have played twenty six matches since then, but only one against a top ten ranked opponent in Portugal. Other teams they have faced include the Reggae boys from Jamaica, the Kiwis, Honduras, El Salvador to name but a few, just to give you a feel of the level of opposition they have faced.

This is the third world cup since 1970 that has been played in Mexico and EnGerLand do not have fond memories of the country. In 1970 they lost to the West Shermans 3-2 after leading 2-0, there is a conspiracy theory around this game that the CIA poisoned the English camp as they wanted the Samba Kings to win the tournament. Gordon Banks the legendary EnGerLand goalie was ruled out of the game due to "illness".

The most famous event of course happened in 1986, when EnGerLand faced the Argies in the same stadium, which is being used today, in a game not long after the Falklands war, with "the hand of God" incident.

This is the type of incident that has led to the introduction of VAR to stop these travesties of justice, although I imagine that with the level of VAR we have seen in some games this tournament, they probably would still have allowed the goal.

As they say in boxing, pound for pound EnGerLand is the better team, but they have not played well apart from in the second half of their opening game against Croatia.  Can they overcome all the things mentioned above and beat the Sombreros? If they can manage to not concede an early goal, and take the sting out of the crowd, they may be in with a chance. I think they need to do so within the regulation ninety minutes, because an extra half an hour at that altitude will be problematic. My heart says EnGerLand and I am trying to convince my head to think the same way.

Hey Jude

Jimenez to lead the line

The weather forecast is for heavy rain which may delay the kickoff. As Lord Nelson is famously supposed to have said before the battle of Trafalgar, EnGerLand expects that every man will do his duty.