Jaspa

Why are all of the crowd wearing hi-vis?

Meanwhile we bounce from Dallas to Boston to NY/NJ to Atlanta to Mexico City, then possibly Miami and back to Atlanta. With our team base in Kansas. France will have to fly across to play in Dallas once in the Semis. Apart from that everything on the doorstep of their base, compared to everyone else. It was actually quite nice seeing them have to play in high temperatures for a while yesterday although the shade quickly closed over the pitch.

BBC Comms wetting themselves. No-one was hurt, France are far from innocent. Rarely see teams being as firm as Paraguay these days. France have lucked out with travel commitments and locations of their matches. They need testing or they'll walk this entire tournament. Paraguay keeper is top class aswell.

Amazing goalkeeper

Yup, sod France

Eurgh

This Orlando Gill surely gets a European move.

Quality work from the Paraguayans

Stars on blue, vs red and white stripes. 4th of July, Philadelphia. Almost like a script

Paraguay France looking like it'll be played in 36\37°c heat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FIFA_country_codes It is their official FIFA 3 letter designation, I'm not sure exactly why. This is what Google's AI says "This abbreviation comes from the French name for the country, Maroc. While "MOR" might seem more intuitive for English speakers, FIFA historically assigns codes based on the country's French moniker due to the nation's colonial history and French language influence."

Surely no-one has placed any money on Canada to win here, anywhere. They're very very physical

Fireworks aswell, it's ridiculous. Hotel staff should've been well vetted

Mexicans know where the team hotel is now anyway, so England players aren't gonna get a wink of sleep before the game

Tried a Maguire and instead skied it

Looks good on TV. The drama©, the emotion! ™ They've been doing it since 2018 World Cup where France would ball on. Could even maybe blame Mourinho for running on at Old Trafford. Austria once gave us an absolutely fantastic LB but apart from that have they ever done anything in football?

Braindead Austrian CB's at the end there, ball dropping on both, neither call for it and a second later the goalie is having to pull off another worldie. Either they give up from the bombardment and let Spain mutilate them or they sort their shit out, pathetic Austrian CB's

...and a tactical foul on specific areas of the pitch after losing possession. Can't think of Pedro Porro as anything other than Argentinian, despite the Spanish kit. Looks, behaves and has a name which suits an Argentinian.

I was firmly on Senegal's side with the Morocco AFCON situation but that was pathetic. Surrounding the ref, feigning injury on the penalty spot, surrounding the ref at will, for about 10 minutes. Try not flying into tackles in your own box unnecessarily.

Those instruments at the start of this Senegalese anthem do not make a very nice noise

Congo looked so vulnerable before the second goal, allowed space. You'd look at playing Rice at RB if James is crocked. Rashford, Madueke and Spence drop for being crap. Kane is a proper striker, knows how to contact a ball so sweet, as soon as he's found space with a sight of goal he's absolutely lethal. Levels above Rooney. On that performance we're out in Mexico. No acclimatisation, Azteca baying for blood, 3 days, 1700 miles, 7000ft altitude.

Messi probably doesn't even know what Walkers is. Walkers is a branch of Lays, Lays is a trunk of PepsiCo. Both teams were absolutely shattered from the heat and travel demands. Baresi had actually missed alot of football in the run up to that final after a knee operation, yet he looked like one of the best players on the pitch. They said it was better to play injured in that final than it was to be tired.

Decent montage of Gyokeres throwing himself to the floor there. Can't blame him tbf, refs keep giving him freekicks for it.