Ecuador Stun Germany as the Knockout Race Heats Up

Geoffrey Ashworth

Two minutes. That was all it took for Leroy Sané to find the back of the net at MetLife Stadium. And if you- if you'd asked the ninety-odd percent of the stadium wearing white shirts at that moment, they'd have told you the German machine was rolling, simple as that. But- but football, real football, it doesn't care for the script, does it? Ecuador... oh, the sheer, honest grind of this Ecuadorian side. Under Sebastián Beccacece, they- they just refused to lie down. By the ninth minute, Nilson Angulo had leveled it, and then, well, in the seventy-seventh, Gonzalo Plata's shot takes a massive deflection, loops over the keeper, and suddenly, the South Americans have pulled off a 2-1 upset. It's magnificent. Julian Nagelsmann was talking after the match about 'process' and 'patience,' and Beccacece was echoing the same, but let's be honest, it was pure, unadulterated grit. Now, Germany do still top Group E, but only on goal difference, because... well, if you weren't looking at Philadelphia, you missed Nicolas Pépé putting on an absolute masterclass. Two goals from him. A 2-0 win for the Ivory Coast over Curaçao at Lincoln Financial Field. It- it was beautiful to watch, but devastating for Curaçao. Their World Cup dream, just like that, gone. If you want a quick way to keep up with all these crazy group stage shifts, by the way, check out Jellypod. It digests daily info into a personalized podcast, which is brilliant when the matches are coming this thick and fast. Anyway, over in Group F, the Netherlands looked... well, they looked like the Oranje of old. Seventy-two percent possession against Tunisia. A comfortable 3-1 win, even with an Anis Ben Slimane own goal helping them along the way. But the real tension? That was at AT&T Stadium. Sweden and Japan. Daizen Maeda puts Japan ahead in the fifty-ninth, and then, just three minutes later, Anthony Elanga unleashes a... an absolute screamer of a volley to make it 1-1. A point apiece, but it leaves Sweden, um, well, they're dangling by a thread, utterly dependent on the cruel, complicated math of the third-place rankings.

Geoffrey Ashworth

Now, if we look over at Group D, it was a proper, old-fashioned battle of attrition at Levi's Stadium. Paraguay against Australia. Just... a gritty, bruising encounter, the sort of match my dad would have called 'honest.' Matías Galarza gets the only goal of the game, a 1-0 win for Paraguay, and they've- they've fought tooth and nail to put themselves on the brink of the knockout stage. And as we speak, the late-night drama is still unfolding at SoFi Stadium. USA versus Turkey. On paper, people are calling it a 'dead rubber' because of how the table looks, but let me tell you, it- it doesn't feel like that. The Americans are chasing program history here, trying to secure a perfect nine-point group stage record for the first time. The atmosphere in that stadium is electric. But- but looking ahead, oh, tomorrow... Friday, June twenty-sixth. We are spoiled. We truly are. It starts at Gilette Stadium in Boston, three p.m. Eastern. France against Norway. Mbappé, Haaland... it's a heavyweight clash. Then, at eight p.m., we go to one of those grand old cathedrals of the game, Estadio Akron in Guadalajara. Uruguay versus Spain. That is going to be a tactical chess match played at a million miles an hour. And if you've still got the energy, eleven p.m. at BC Place in Vancouver, New Zealand take on Belgium. It is the beautiful, cruel crucible of the World Cup, and I, for one, cannot wait to watch the drama unfold. Alright, that's it from me today. Enjoy the matches, everyone.