Key events<\/p>\n
Group G is pretty tight. Belgium, who ought to be favourites, are between teams, the old stagers not what they were and younger players not as good \u2013 perhaps yet but possibly ever. They\u2019ll hope to beat New Zealand in their final match and really should, but their attack doesn\u2019t look poised to click.<\/p>\n
Share<\/a><\/p>\n I do wonder if they\u2019ve enough goals in them when it comes down to the biggest matches, but they may only need one to win them. And though it\u2019s true that if you stop Lamine, you\u2019re a long way towards stopping Spain, that\u2019s easier said than done and, if Olmo stays in the team, though he\u2019s not a possession player in the same way that Fabian Ruiz is, he\u2019s a very serious goal-threat.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n France, I think, have the most routes to winning games \u2013 their battery of attackers might be the most ridiculous we\u2019ve ever seen \u2013 but Spain remain the hardest to beat, their control of possession and space meaning opponents need to make a lot out of a little. Their defence is far from impregnable but, though it\u2019s not as hard to get at as when a midfield of xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets, Xavi and Andr\u00e8s Iniesta were in front, Rodri, Pedri and Dani Olmo isn\u2019t bad.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Spain are an entirely different proposition with Lamine Yamal, aren\u2019t they? Apologies if that sounds unacceptably basic, it is, but sometimes, basic is what we need. He gives them width, edge, pace, invention \u2013 and his teammates the confidence they have him so anything is possible.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a003.08 EDT<\/p>\n double quotation markBut hatred of the US as a single entity is also a confusing idea, albeit one that fits a certain monotheistic world view, where there can only be devils and angels. It involves demonising as a single failed entity a hugely diverse and varied nation with elements of every kind of people and every kind of culture, the great human experiment, with all its freedoms and flaws; and doing so based on the actions and pronouncements of a few governing Maga Republicans.<\/p>\n If America has become this single thing in so many people\u2019s minds, it is perhaps because this is the way we experience things now. Everything is flattened, foreshortened, turned into sound and noise. Never underestimate the effect of the hive mind, that constant third space we carry around with us. This World Cup is the first global event to take place so deep inside that online space, experienced in peeled-eyeball detail through a screen as a set of images and shouted ideas<\/p>\n This is how our flow of information works now, and indeed how Donald Trump took power, flooding the zone, shouting the simplest message above the noise. The US may feel like an expression of violence simply in its daily existence, an endless amplification of human talent, greed, desire, cruelty, where nobody is ever really in charge, they\u2019re just out there riding it like a runaway bronco. But the US is also not Trump. Seventy\u2011seven million people voted for him, 272 million did not. A nation of 350 million people with more than 100 significant immigrant cultural groups cannot be one thing.<\/p>\n The US is the world in a very large and varied grain of sand, endlessly rich in all its beauty, energy, flaws and vices. To hate this is a baffling idea. If you don\u2019t like America, what do you like? This is what humans are.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n OK, so before we begin stepping our way through yesterday \u2013 depending, of course on where we live \u2013 let\u2019s begin by throwing things forward with Barnay Ronay\u2019s latest missive.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Preamble<\/p>\n Howdy pardners! So Cape Verde are in with a serious chance of the second phase, likewise Iran \u2013 wins over Saudi and New Zealand respectively will seal it, but a draw might be enough \u2026 but nor are the latter two out of things.<\/p>\n Meantime, Spain are up and sprinting, Uruguay aren\u2019t what they were, and we\u2019ve another set of fixtures but a few hours away, tantalising us with their imminence. So we\u2019ll look forward to Argentina v Austria, France v Iraq, Norway v Senegal and Jordan v Algeria.<\/p>\n Welcome to World Cup 2026<\/a> \u2013 day 12!<\/p>\n