We’re chugging right along with this World Cup.  And today we had a Matchday of star players, with France, Norway and Argentina making their 2026 debuts.  Did they live up to the hype?  And how did the other teams fare?  Any surprises?  Let’s take a look:

France 3-1 Senegal

What a way to start the day.  A rematch of one of the more famous upsets in World Cup history, when Senegal beat France in 2002.  This time around, we had an absolutely loaded French side and a Senegalese team that are the champions of Africa (no matter what CAF tells you).

France started this one really slowly.  Senegal were the better team in the first 45 and probably should have been a goal up by halftime.  The French improved in the second half but still didn’t look dominant.  However, Kylian Mbappe is just inevitable.  He put his team ahead in the 66th and Bradley Barcola made it 2-0 in the 82nd.  After a goal for Senegal from 18 year old Ibrahim Mbaye 5 minutes into stoppage time, Mbappe would score just a minute later to put an exclamation point on a 3-1 win.

My big takeaway from this one is just how good France really are.  Senegal are no slouches but France were able to come away with a 3-1 win while never really getting out of first gear.  If you give their attackers any space, you’re going to get burned.  And that’s what happened in this one.  I do think Senegal will be ok but their next game against Norway is going to be huge.

Norway 4-1 Iraq

After Mbappe got his World Cup off to a great start with two goals, it was time to see what Erling Haaland could do.  Haaland ended up matching Mbappe with 2 goals of his own. The first came in the 29th to give Norway a 1-0 lead.  Iraq would equalize on a great header 10 minutes later but Haaland got his second right before halftime to restore Norway’s lead.  It meant Iraq would need to regroup for the second half and really push hard for an equalizer.  They did just that and looked likely to get it to 2-2 before Leo Østigard scored from a corner in the 76th to give Norway a two goal lead.  They’d add another right before the final whistle to secure a comprehensive victory.

I thought the scoreline was pretty harsh on Iraq.  For long stretches of the game they looked like they could fully compete with Norway.  The issue ended up being that Norway just had better attacking talent and were more clinical.  Great way for Norway to kick things off but Iraq showed they’re not going to just roll over.

Argentina 3-0 Algeria

What a statement that was.  Argentina put together a complete performance and earned a comprehensive victory.  There was nothing Algeria could do.  They did think they had an early 1-0 lead when Fares Chaibi found the back of the net in the 8th minute but it was correctly ruled out for offside.  After that it was all Argentina.  And this one guy called Messi took over.

After global stars Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland each scored a brace earlier in the day, it was up to Messi to show what he can do.  It should come as no surprise that he surpassed them.  With goals in the 17th, 60th and 76th, Messi recorded his first World Cup hat trick.  It puts him first in the golden boot race for the tournament.  More importantly, he has now tied Miroslav Klose for most World Cup goals in history.  A record he will surely have all to himself soon.  We are witnessing greatness.

Austria 2-1 Jordan

I really had no expectations coming into this one. Austria are making their 8th appearance but first since 1998.  Jordan are in their first ever World Cup.  Argentina are clearly winning this group so this game was just about whether or not one of these teams could put themselves in a good position for 2nd.  Unsurprisingly, in the end it was Austria who got it done. But that was surprising was just how it happened.

When Romano Schmid scored in the 20th minute, I was sure this was going to be a simple Austria win.  But shame on me.  It’s like I haven’t been watching this tournament at all.  Jordan got back level with a brilliant strike in the 50th from Ali Iyad Olwan.  However, Austria did go on to get the winner from an own goal off a corner in the 76th.  Jordan did well to push for an equalizer and for a moment looked like they might get one.  But it wasn’t meant to be.  Austria got a late penalty to get the 3-1 but it’s another scoreline that flattered the winners.

Stray Thoughts

• Tunisia have hired Herve Renard to take over as manager to replace Sabri Lamouchi, who was fired after their opening 5-1 loss to Sweden.  Renard has the looks and experiences to be the next “most interesting man in the world”.  I could write a whole blog about his career but all you really need to know is he bounces from national team to national team.  He managed Morocco in the 2018 World Cup and Saudi Arabia in 2022 when they famously beat Argentina.  He should’ve been managing Saudi Arabia at this World Cup too but was fired in April after ensuring their qualification.  And now he’s back.  At least for two games.  Great stuff
• Seeing Erling Haaland earlier in the day got me thinking about different world class attackers who rarely got to play at World Cups.  One of my favorite players, Polish striker Robert Lewandowski immediately came to mind.  Poland missed out on 3 of the 5 World Cups he likely would have played in.  But even bigger than that, historically you have players like George Best (Northern Ireland) and George Weah (Liberia) who never played in a World Cup.  Currently I think about Georgian winger Kvicha Kvaratskhkelia and wonder if he’d ever see this stage.  My point with all this is we’re lucky as fans that Norway got things together around Haaland.  This is only their fourth ever appearance and the last one was back in 1998.  Haaland never playing in a World Cup was well within the realm of possibility.  I’m glad we get to see him here.
• I’ve talked a lot about the broadcasts (mostly negative).  But I do have to say that I like the lines on the scorebug that show how many subs a team has left.  It’s a good edition that I had never thought of before.  It’s a small thing but a good edition to the broadcasts

That is that for Matchday 6.  It was a day of superstars…and then Austria and Jordan.  But hey that game turned out to be pretty entertaining.  So I have to again say that this tournament has been unreal so far.  And now tomorrow we finally get to see England and my second team Portugal play.  I’m USMNT all the way but being half Portuguese, I always root for them heavily in every tournament unless they’re playing the US.  I can’t wait to see what Matchday 7 brings.  See you then!