Round of 16 still exclusive
South America, Europe squads rule last group
The thunder-clapping Icelanders have gone home, along with the Egyptians and Peruvians. Now comes the business end of the World Cup, a Europeanand South American-dominated club that rejects most new applicants as unwanted hoi polloi.
Ten European nations reached the round of 16, matching 1998 and 2006 for the most since 11 in 1990, the record since the current format began in 1986.
Players from the Premier League and the Spanish league scored nearly half of the goals in the group stage. Of the 122 goals in the 48 matches so far, 31 came from players in England’s top league and 29 from players in Spain. Four other goals came from players on teams in those countries’ second division.
Four South American teams have advanced, plus Mexico and Japan. For the first time since 1982, no African team made it past the first round.
History is instructive: Europe earned 41 of 64 quarterfinal berths and South America took 16 since 1986. Among the other regions, Africa and CONCACAF got three apiece and Asia one.
Winnowing becomes even more pronounced after that: Europe filled 23 of 32 semifinal spots and South America eight, with South Korea in 2002 at home becoming the only outsider to reach the final four.
Among 20 previous World Cups, Europe has lifted the trophy 11 times and South America nine.
Germany’s departure was the biggest group phase jolt. Projected by many as the first repeat winner since Brazil in 1958 and ’62, Die Mannschaft became the fourth champion in five tournaments to exit early.
FIFA has favored the bottom of the bracket with far easier travel, with the Russia-Spain winner headed from Moscow to a quarterfinal in Sochi, then potentially a semifinal and the final in the capital. The Colombia-England winner in Moscow goes to a quarterfinal in Samara, then would be on track to finish at Moscow.
Poland 1, Japan 0: Fair play, a newly implemented tiebreaker in the group stage of the world’s biggest soccer tournament, was put into use for the first time Thursday and Japan came out as the beneficiary.
Despite losing to Poland in Volgograd, the Japanese were able to advance to a round of 16 match against Belgium because they received fewer yellow cards than Senegal, which lost to Colombia by the same score at the same time.
Once Colombia had scored in Samara, the Japanese players slowed play down to almost nothing, softly passing the ball back and forth in little triangles in their own end to waste time.
“My decision was to rely on the other match,” Japan coach Akira Nishino said.
Colombia 1, Senegal 0: The “fair-play” tiebreaker doesn’t seem all that fair to Senegal.
The last African team standing lost to Colombia in Samara, leaving it even with Japan on record, goal differential, total goals and headto-head. The next tiebreaker to determine who would move on as the second-place team in the group — Colombia was first — was a new one: which team accumulated fewer yellow cards. Japan had four, Senegal had six.
Belgium 1, England 0: England barely seemed troubled by losing. Belgium appeared to be a reluctant winner.
Such was the curious conclusion to the group stage at the World Cup. Neither team needed to win and there was good reason for neither to even want to win.
Belgium did collect the three points, beating England in Kaliningrad, and secured first place in the group on Adnan Januzaj’s curling shot. But that might not turn out to be the desirable outcome since the victory diverted onto the tougher path to the final.
Although Belgium gets what appears to be an easier match against Japan in the round of 16, it could get trickier with a victory in Rostov-on-Don on Monday. Brazil, Portugal, France and Argentina are possible future opponents. Belgium potential
Tunisia 2, Panama 1: Tunisia captain Wahbi Khazri and Fakhreddine Ben Youssef ensured their nation’s World Cup slump wouldn’t enter a fifth decade.
Khazri’s hard, rising shot in the 66th minute lifted Tunisia over Panama.
“We wanted to snatch the victory, and I wanted to score and I did,” Ben Youssef said. “This is great day for Tunisia.”
Panama is still looking for its first World Cup victory — or draw, for that matter. But it took its first-ever lead in World Cup play in the 33rd minute through an owngoal when Jose Luis Rodriguez’s hard, left-footed shot deflected off of Tunisia’s Yassine Meriah.
Both Group G teams were already eliminated going into the match. Tunisia hadn’t won a World Cup game since a 3-1 victory over Mexico in 1978.
Bullying victim: Online bullying has just cost Iran one of its top players.
Forward Sardar Azmoun, 23, said that he’s retiring from the national team. Azmoun was the target of numerous attacks on social media after failing to score in any of Iran’s three group matches.
He was sent obscene messages and mocked for his perceived lack of impact.