It’s the final day of the second group games in this World Cup. What a long way we’ve come. It was a day where we got more clarity on just how good some of these teams are and which teams could make some noise if they advance out of the group. Here are my thoughts on how it all went down:

Portugal 5-0 Uzbekistan

Now that is more like it from Portugal. And Cristiano Ronaldo. It was the main man for Portugal who got the scoring started in just the 6th minute. He was in the right spot in the box to get on the end of a Joao Cancelo cross and swing his right foot through it to put Portugal up 1-0. Nuno Mendes would score from a free kick just over 10 minutes later. Uzbekistan looked like they got a goal back when Azizjon Ganiev hit a rocket from distance but it was ruled out for a foul right before the shot was taken. Ronaldo would get a second in the 39th minute and Portugal would take a commanding 3-0 lead into the half. An own goal and a Rafael Leao blast in the second half would give Portugal their 5-0 win.

This game was always going to be able whether or not Portugal could bounce back from their disappointing 1-1 draw against DR Congo in the opener. They answered those questions emphatically. Sure, they were “only” playing Uzbekistan but they got the job done in convincing fashion. That is what you want to see from a team that should be one of the favorites in this tournament. And to go along with the team performance, it was much better from Cristiano Ronaldo. He got into the right positions and was mostly clinical with his opportunities. That’s the Ronaldo Portugal will need if they want to go far.

Tide Talk had boots on the ground for this one as the Double Pivot’s very own Andrew Quadros took it all in from Houston. It was honestly awesome to live vicariously through him as he told us all about his experience. There was a tongue-in-cheek reference to Ronaldo only stepping it up because he was in his presence. And there may or may not have been mentions of it being the best day of his life. This is how huge the World Cup is.

England 0-0 Ghana

What a funny game that was. At least to me. England came in as heavy favorites and Ghana chose to counter them by parking the bus. They had basically everyone behind the ball and hoped when they got the ball back, they could play it long to their quick and skilled attackers (Semenyo and Williams primarily). The strategy worked perfectly. England were left frustrated and could not break through the Ghana defense. And Ghana were able to get it forward on occasion and had they been more clinical, they may have even come away with 3 points.

At the end of the day, I don’t think this result says a whole lot about how either team will fare going forward. Especially not in England’s case. They’re still one of the favorites and they can go toe to toe with any team in this competition. It just wasn’t their day today. As for Ghana, their performance here was in a way an extension of what they did against Panama in their opener. This was just a more extreme example. They’ll need to come out of their shell more to try to secure results but at the very least, this showed they can frustrate teams who have far more talent.

Croatia 1-0 Panama

This was the result I expected but the way we got there was a bit surprising. Croatia had 64% possession in the first half but couldn’t do much with it. Neither team created any great chances to score. Croatia got better in the second half and eventually got their goal in the 54th minute when Ante Budimir put away a cross from Josip Stanisic. It ended up being enough to carry Croatia through to victory but the overall performance left something to be desired.

I feel the same way about Croatia as I did after their loss to England. Most of their stars and big name players are just old and past their prime. And while these guys are still really good players, they aren’t the huge difference makers they used to be. Assuming they get there, I don’t see this team making too many waves in the knockouts.

When it comes to Panama, I think they deserve a lot of credit. They were in both games they’ve played so far, only losing 1-0 in each. The quality just wasn’t there to create good chances. But Panama competed really well and probably deserved some points at this stage rather than being eliminated already.

Colombia 1-0 DR Congo

Colombia started this game on fire, creating chances right from kickoff. They forced DR Congo goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi-Nzau into making 6 saves in the first half. The Congolese defense was resolute and they were able to hang on to take the game to halftime level at 0-0. The question in the second half was whether or not they could keep it up for another 45 minutes. As time went on, it felt like Colombia were getting more and more frustrated. However, they’d get their breakthrough in the 76th minute when a deflected strike from Daniel Munoz got past Mpasi-Nzau. Colombia, and particularly Luis Diaz, exploded to life right after the goal. Diaz had the ball in the back of the net twice in quick succession but both were called back (one for a foul, one for offside). DR Congo did come close in stoppage time, but were unable to get the equalizer.

You have to give DR Congo credit for being difficult to beat. But this game was dominated by Colombia. They easily could have taken a couple more of their chances and gotten an easier win. Still, the win puts Colombia in a great spot as we’re about to see.

Group Updates

Group K has seen Colombia secure their spot in the knockouts with their win over DR Congo. Portugal are second but can still win the group with a victory over Colombia in the final group match. As for DR Congo and Uzbekistan, they both are still technically alive. In Uzbekistan’s case though, they’d have to score an astronomical amount of goals in a win over DR Congo in the last group game which is obviously highly unlikely. DR Congo can put themselves in a good position to advance as a third placed team with a win over Uzbekistan.

Group L has seen Panama eliminated after losing each of their first two games. There are scenarios where each of the other three teams in the group could finish in any of the top three spots. So it’s still all to play for. The most likely outcome is England finishing first but even a win over Panama in their final group game wouldn’t automatically do it. It would still depend on the result between Ghana and Croatia. Because Ghana and England drew, their tiebreaker would come down to goal difference. Meaning if both teams win, Ghana could still improve their goal difference enough to put them above England and into first. We’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out.

Stray Thoughts

• What happened to the Jelly Roll song? I feel like I remember hearing he did a song for the World Cup and it got kind of trashed on the internet. I haven’t heard anything about it since. I’m not even trying to make a joke here, it just crossed my mind today while hearing the Shakira song
• Darren Fletcher and Owen Hargreaves have been a solid commentary pair. At some point I’ll have to release my rankings of the various commentators. I do find it funny though that Fletcher and Hargreaves go out of their way to make American references. I definitely heard Fletcher bring up Daryl “Moose” Johnston, the former Dallas Cowboys fullback at some point. I don’t even remember in what context. Roger Clemens was also referenced on today’s broadcast, as they had the Portugal/Uzbekistan game in Houston.

So that will be all for the first two rounds of the group stage. I’ll continue to say this in most of the blogs, but I can’t quite believe I’ve made it this far. I’m still having fun though. For me, it’s a great way to follow the tournament and enjoy it to the fullest. I’ll be back tomorrow where we’ll have SIX games to go over. Not exactly sure how that’s going to go but I guess we’ll find out.