Game 1: Morocco 0-1 Iran
The “good” news is that I left early and I made it home from work in time to catch most of this game. On the other hand, I used up the rest of this month’s data watching the first ten minutes on 4G on the walk home from the station. Anyway, enough about me - let’s move onto the match.
I must confess that I know very little about these teams. I know more about the match venue of St Petersburg. Off the top of my head I know it was founded by Peter the Great (and expanded by Catherine the Great), is built on a swamp and was the setting for Crime and Punishment, which would have made an apt title for this game.
What a match it was! I’m only joking - it was mostly rubbish and dull. My favourite part (except for when Bouhaddouz became the most hapless Aziz since the story about Aziz Ansari’s bedroom shenanigans - babe.net/2018/01/13/aziz-ansari-28355 - by heading into his own net a couple of minutes before the end) was when the Moroccan medical team responded to a possible case of concussion by taking it in turns to slap/squirt water into the face of the injured player in a misguided attempt to bring him round. With medical staff like that, who needs enemies?
Morocco played like a team of eleven Sofiane Boufals: they have good technique and quick feet but don’t know when to stop running it and pass. They should have seen off this Iran team but couldn’t put away of their early chances. Even when there was a goalmouth scramble and they had three attempts in quick succession they couldn’t get the goal they needed.
Iran were OK but nothing special, except when it came to time-wasting, which they did with aplomb as the match wore on. This was heading for a 0-0 before the unfortunate Bouhaddouz stuck his head where it didn’t belong. Until then, it had been getting increasingly niggly and there was a touchline fracas late on between sexy Herve Renard and Carlos Queiroz.
In summary, Bouhaddouz committed the crime and my punishment was having to watch the whole game.
I must confess that I know very little about these teams. I know more about the match venue of St Petersburg. Off the top of my head I know it was founded by Peter the Great (and expanded by Catherine the Great), is built on a swamp and was the setting for Crime and Punishment, which would have made an apt title for this game.
What a match it was! I’m only joking - it was mostly rubbish and dull. My favourite part (except for when Bouhaddouz became the most hapless Aziz since the story about Aziz Ansari’s bedroom shenanigans - babe.net/2018/01/13/aziz-ansari-28355 - by heading into his own net a couple of minutes before the end) was when the Moroccan medical team responded to a possible case of concussion by taking it in turns to slap/squirt water into the face of the injured player in a misguided attempt to bring him round. With medical staff like that, who needs enemies?
Morocco played like a team of eleven Sofiane Boufals: they have good technique and quick feet but don’t know when to stop running it and pass. They should have seen off this Iran team but couldn’t put away of their early chances. Even when there was a goalmouth scramble and they had three attempts in quick succession they couldn’t get the goal they needed.
Iran were OK but nothing special, except when it came to time-wasting, which they did with aplomb as the match wore on. This was heading for a 0-0 before the unfortunate Bouhaddouz stuck his head where it didn’t belong. Until then, it had been getting increasingly niggly and there was a touchline fracas late on between sexy Herve Renard and Carlos Queiroz.
In summary, Bouhaddouz committed the crime and my punishment was having to watch the whole game.
