Photo by renowned On-the-Road commentor Otmar.
Columbia v Japan at 8am EDT; Poland v Senegal at 11am; Russia v Egypt at 2pm. (Funny how Russia gets the prime viewing time slots, eh? Or is that standard policy for the host country?) FIFA liveblog at the Google link.
JMG
Actually, it is standard to an extent. France was the host country for the Euro 2016 tournament, and almost all its game were in French prime time. Today’s kickoff is prime time for the western part of Russia. It’s also prime time in the opponent’s country, Egypt. But Russia is so big, it’s like 5 a.m. the next day in Vladivostok.
Sab
I love soccer but I don’t follow it so much. I cheer the northern most English premier soccer league team. Silly, since I often have to consult a map to find out who is most Northern.
Also, can’t explain why I like most Northern, except I spent one of yhe best years in my life in Durham, UK forty years ago.
Listen to NPR, so rooting for Iceland and Senegal. How out of touch am I. Informed jackals know so much more than
I do.
otmar
FYI, I was passing through Munich airport last Friday, they are showing the games on a big screen.
(And yes, I have a bunch of new pictures for you. Stay tuned.)
Amir Khalid
@Sab:
My knowledge of English geography is abysmal. Which is the northernmost Premier League team?
JMG
@Amir Khalid: Newcastle.
PS: Today’s opening game is in prime time in one of the two countries involved — Japan.
Frodo
cOlombia, the name is cOlombia with an o
Amir Khalid
@otmar:
Grüße, Otmar. In welchem Flughafen hast du dieses Foto gemacht?
(Still working on my German. Blame any mistakes on me being self-taught.)
Amir Khalid
Mohamed Salah, who plays his club football for the Premier League team I support, will probably start his first competitive match match since Sergio Ramos did him in the Champions League final. I hope he does well.
Anonymous At Work
Even if it’s not an official thing, I’d not begrudge the host team from giving themselves the best local scheduling (in their soon-to-be-superfluous-billion-dollar-stadiums).
otmar
@Amir Khalid: ich bin letzte Woche über München zurück nach Wien geflogen. In MUC haben sie ein public viewing.
Bilder meiner Reise kommen noch.
Chet
Just tuning in at the 75th minute and COlumbia has a red card? What happened?
Mathguy
@Chet: Handball in the box in the 3rd minute. An easy call.
SiubhanDuinne
ColOmbia.
Chet
@SiubhanDuinne: right you are. Phone kept capitalizing the first O, forgot all about the second one!
Went and googled the story. Scandalous!
Chet
Big result for Japan!
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: That looks like München. In fact, I sat at that very bar last month, IIRC.
ETA: I see otmar beat me to it.
Tony Jay
Now this is a damned tight group. Colombia have enough quality to still challenge for one of the top two spots but the Japanese showed that they have game management skills of their own. With both Poland and Senegal basically being sturdy, unspectacular teams built around top class front-men (Lewandowski and Liverpool’s own Sadio Mane respectively) I wouldn’t rule out Japan’s chances of ending this round as Group Winners, especially if the match this afternoon ends in a draw. It’s definitely got goals in it, though. I can’t envisage Poland v Senegal ending 0-0.
Oh, and the qualifiers from this group face the winners and runners-up from England’s group, which means Belgium and (probably, maybe, so far) England.
The evening game could be tasty, especially if Salah is fit to play for Egypt. OTOH, whispers are he’s still feeling the effects of the mauling that scumbag Ramos gave him last month and we can be pretty much 100% sure that Russia’s players will a) target that shoulder and, b) get away with it regardless of how blatant the fouling. Speaking as a Liverpool fan I hope Mo starts on the bench and doesn’t have to be risked. A nice gritty, hard-fought 1-0 win for Egypt, please, with no loud bangs or other shocks.
Victor matheson
Huge error by Colombia. That penalty and red card is maybe worth taking in the last 10 minutes. Certainly worked for Suarez 8 years ago vs Ghana, but playing short for 87 minutes just isn’t going to work for you especially since the pk is likely to score anyway.
Victor Matheson
@JMG: if you have to have games over a 7 hour block anyway, you might as well accommodate time zones as best possible.
In past women’s World Cups they have actually designed the brackets to favor to host country in order to maximize local interest for as long as possible.
Alain the site fixer
@otmar: otmar, apparently some of the text you submitted last time makes WordPress have a seizure so that’s why it never posted. Please do send more, perhaps email German language descriptions?
Sab
@Amir Khalid: I am pretty sure it’s Newcastle United.So far North they are almost in Scotland.