World Cup Recaps and Previews, Wednesday June 17: The Bigs Score in Bunches

About Yesterday's Games

France 3, Senegal 1

MaximumSam: France looked completely uninterested in the whole enterprise in the first half. The second half? Slightly different story.

Kind of...: It was a big day for the world's elite players. And obviously Messi stole the show later on. But Mbappe's second goal was a thing of beauty. Mbappe is only two goals behind Messi at the World Cup, so odds are good Messi is only renting that record he tied last night. Also: France looks absolutely frightful on offense. Senegal is a much better team than Algeria. Didn't matter.

Norway 4, Iraq 1

Kind of...: Norway did what they were supposed to do. They lack the depth of some other sides in that 9-24 mushy middle, but their high end talent is enough to make a deep run if they gel as a unit. They take on Senegal next Monday. Senegal will be desperate. Big time implications for the knockout. Good stuff. And, yeah, obviously Haaland is a beast. True finisher. 6' 5" people shouldn't be as fluid as he is.

AlmaOtter: I missed most of the games yesterday, but I did catch this. Delightful stuff from the Norwegian fans.

Argentina 3, Algeria 0

Kind of...: Time to step out on a ledge...last night was so perfect for Messi--first hat trick in the World Cup for him, ties Klose for the all-time goals record--that I think it felt too much like a farewell. Argentina is going to win their group, and that should get them a solid draw in the knockouts. But Messi is 38. He looked amazing against Algeria, but it's easy to see a deeper team keeping him (mostly) locked up, and Argentina losing 2-1 on a mistake, or 1-1 on penalties. R16 could be Colombia or Croatia (or Portugal or England if things get wild). Only a fool would short sell the defending champs right after a three goal win to open their defense, but...

Austria 3, Jordan 1

Kind of...: This match happened. Austria got their first World Cup win since before the last time the US hosted (they beat...the US in 1990). Austria is better than you think and probably should beat Algeria for second in the group. Which would mean they (likely) play Spain in R32. Enjoy it while it lasts.

AlmaOtter: If no one in the US watched it, did it actually happen? Good on Osterreich. I spent a few months there (many years ago) in my misspent youth interning for the US government. They're soccer-mad, but the team tended to get their shit kicked in on the international stage. They'll be ecstatic to make it out of the group.

Today's Matchups

Portugal v Democratic Republic of the Congo

NRG Stadium. Houston, TX. 1:00 PM ET, 12:00 GTZ.

MaximumSam: Ronaldo is 41. This has got to end at some point.

Kind of...: I'd say Portugal looks likely to crash out except: 1) expansion to 48 makes that less likely generally, and 2) Portugal has, I think, kind of already moved on. They're not counting on Ronaldo that much. Test will be how much he plays in the knockouts. 75th minute sub seems right to me.

England v Croatia

AT&T Stadium. Arlington, TX. 4:00 ET, 3:00 GTZ.

MaximumSam: Happy "Harry Kane!!" Day to all who celebrate. You may all answer any question at all by shouting "Harry Kane" in an English accent.

AlmaOtter: Hairy Cane! Am I doing it right?

Kind of...: Kane is a world class player in his prime (though any of us could score 10 goals for that Bayern Munich team), but I'm going to celebrate Luka Modric. They were actually kind of teammates on Tottenham for a few years a long time ago (Kane was 19 when Modric left and didn't get any EPL caps with Modric).

Anyway, Modric is 40. He's one of the best midfielders of all-time. And, aside from the fact that he played for Real Madrid, almost nobody has anything bad to say about him. Complete class. Check out this suitably dour Guardian article about how much Modric has tormented England over the years.

Anyway, imagine Ronaldo at 41 is Kobe Bryant's farewell tour. Then remember that Tim Duncan retired the same year and it was barely noticed, mostly by design. That's Modric. And, like Duncan, he actually won more league titles that his more famous counterpart.

But, also, Modric is 40, and England is stacked. Give Croatia some love today because England is almost certainly going to be around longer.

Ghana v Panama

BMO Field. Toronto, Canada. 7:00 ET, 6:00 GTZ

Kind of...: Ghana isn't what they once were (a missed PK away from making the semifinals in 2010), but Panama has never hit those heights. Rankings have Panama absurdly high. Vegas says Ghana is the favorite and a draw is as likely as a Panama win. That makes more sense to me. Even though 8 or 12 third place teams will get through to knockouts, it wouldn't stun me if neither of these teams do. But I might still be too emotional from my Modric encomium.

Uzbekistan v Colombia

Estadio Azteca. Mexico City, Mexico. 10:00 ET, 9:00 GTZ

Kind of...: James Rodriguez is generally viewed as not quite living up to his potential. But that perception is largely because his club play hasn't matched the best of his moments of international play with Colombia. He scored one of the best WC cup goals I've ever seen in 2014 as a 22 year-old wunderkind and then started a time at Real Madrid that could never possibly live up to that (and the transfer fee). But he was fabulous for Colombia in 2014. In 2018, an injury forced him to miss Colombia's R16 matches with England that they ended up losing on penalties. He's 34 and can still be impactful for Colombia. This is too many words already to say that Colombia is capable of winning their group and doing some damage.

AlmaOtter: Remember that time in the 2014 WC when a COLOSSAL grasshopper just hitched a ride on Rodriguez's back for a good chunk of the match? This is the level of analysis that I provide here.