Key events
Croatia lineup
Croatia also has made one change up front, with Marko Livaja in place of Nikola Vlasic, who left their opener at halftime with an apparent calf injury.
Dominik Livakovic (Dinamo Zagreb) is in goal.
At the back, the name most familiar to Premier League followers is Dejan Lovren, the subject of many a Liverpool supporter’s nightmares. He’s in the center with 20-year-old RB Leipzig player Josko Gvardiol. On the outside, it’s fellow Bundesliga defender Borna Sosa (Stuttgart) and Celtic’s Josip Juranovic.
In the midfield, the star man is Real Madrid’s 37-year-old Luka Modric, who starts again alongside Inter’s Marcelo Brozovic and Chelsea’s Mateo Kovacic.
Yikes. That’s a good midfield. They couldn’t score against Morocco?
Up front: Ivan Perisic (Tottenham), Andrej Kramaric (Hoffenheim) and Livaja (Hadjuk Split).
Canada lineup
One change: Cyle Larin gets the call up front in place of Junior Hoilett.
Alistair Johnston, Steven Vitória and Kamal Miller hold down the back in front of outstanding keeper Milan Borjan, who had little to do against Belgium other than pick the ball out of the net on a superbly taken finish off what you could easily be considered Belgium’s only great chance.
Stephen Eustáquio is the embodiment of a midfield anchor. Captain Atiba Hutchinson is still plugging along at age 39.
Out on the left wing – defender, midfield, forward, wherever – is Alphonso Davies, from the Vancouver Whitecaps via some club called Bayern Munich. The prodigy looked as good as expected against Belgium but unfortunately took a weak penalty, perhaps rattled when the referee took about 45 minutes to set things up. (Mild exaggeration.)
Richie Laryea is out on the right. Up front is the aforementioned Larin, the leading scorer in the last round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, with Jonathan David, the second-leading scorer (tied with Christian Pulisic) in that round, and Tajon Buchanan.
Davies and Johnston are on yellow cards.
Belgium-Morocco fallout: Fox just aired part of a postgame interview with Belgium manager (for the moment) Roberto Martinez. I have no idea what he said. He was just shouting with the panicky voice of someone who knows he is feeling much more pressure than he was an hour prior.
Already getting email, and I haven’t even finished my chai latte.
Travis Giblin: “I’m in line waiting for Costco to open and there is 5 of us in line watching the end of the Belgium vs Morocco game. We’re all here early, hoping to get our stuff and get home for the Canada game. This group is wide open if Canada can bring the same effort they brought to Belgium! Here’s to a good one!”
This group is open and Costco is not. The world has gone mad. Dogs and cats are playing together in harmony. Pickleball is the sport of the future. Rachel Homan and Tracy Fleury are curling together. What next?
Preamble
Hi folks, Beau here, and I’m lying on the floor in an existential and epistemological panic.
What do we make of any of these results? Can we be sure of anything? If Japan beat Germany, and then Costa Rica beats Japan, then is Japan good? Is Germany that bad?
So what do we make of Canada, which dominated Belgium and still lost. Canada also beat Japan in the last friendly before the Cup started. But Belgium just laid an egg against Morocco. So is Canada better than Germany? Worse than Morocco?
And why did I major in philosophy? (And music, because I collect useless degrees.)
Maybe we’ll know more in three hours. Or maybe we’ll just be more confused …
Here’s a look at how the teams did in their first matches in Qatar. Croatia’s draw with Morocco looks a lot better now after the way they played against Belgium today, while Canada may wish they had been more aggressive against a team that clearly has problems.
