Murad Al-Masry (Dubai)
10 phenomena topped the scene, in the first round of the group stage of the 2022 World Cup, between being the talk of the masses and societies, closely following the details of the event and transmitting them through social media, or technical aspects that caught the attention of specialists.
Saudi Arabia and the positive start of the Arab teams in general led the spotlight, between the historic victory of “Al-Akhdar” over Argentina led by Lionel Messi, where the joy of a tyrant prevailed throughout the Arab world, while Tunisia and Morocco came out with a tie point against Denmark and Croatia, so that the balance would be 5 points for the Arabs, in In light of Qatar’s loss to Ecuador, becoming the first host country to lose the opening match in the history of the World Cup finals.
The most prominent other phenomenon is the resounding fall of Germany, which lost its opening match in the World Cup for the second time in a row, after losing to Japan 2-1. It is noteworthy that the “Manshafts” lost their last match in the last edition against South Korea, to continue to fall in front of the Asian teams.
The tour witnessed the entry of American Timothy Weah in history, by being the first son of a head of state to score a goal in the World Cup finals, as his father, George Weah, currently holds the presidency of Liberia.
While the Swiss Brill Embolo scored a very “special case”, as it is customary for the player not to celebrate when he scores against his former team, but he refrained from celebrating when he scored in Cameroon, because he was born in that African country, before he immigrated with his family to Europe.
Among the phenomena were the negative draws in four matches in the first 16 matches, in the confrontations between Tunisia and Denmark, Morocco and Croatia, Uruguay and South Korea, Mexico and Poland, compared to the previous edition in 2018, which witnessed only one negative draw throughout the tournament.
Attention was drawn to the failure to win any victory for the African and CONCACAF teams, as the “brown continent” came out with two draws and three losses, and the five teams scored two goals through Ghana, while “CONCACAF”, America, Mexico, Canada and Costa Rica came out with two draws and two losses, including the biggest loss in the tournament. Costa Rica fell by seven against Spain.
Injuries were present remarkably in the first round, including, for example, the loss of the Saudi duo Salman Al-Faraj and Yasser Al-Shahrani, and Lucas Hernandez’s career with France ended, and players left with injuries from the matches, with the expectation of their return again, such as the English Harry Kane, the Senegalese Sheikho Kouyate, and the Ecuadorean Ener. Valencia, the owner of the “double”, won his country in the opening match.
Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa continued his usual appearance in the World Cup finals, after he participated for the fifth time in the tournament, and played a starring role by saving a penalty kick carried out by Poland’s Robert Lewandowski.
The Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo lived a very special tour at the start of the World Cup, after he became the first player in history to score in five different versions of the World Cup, when he helped lead his country to victory over Ghana.
Finally, France managed to win a big victory over Australia 4-1, and it seems that it is succeeding in breaking the curse that the defending champion suffers from in the past versions, after the champions left successively in the first round: Italy 2010, Spain 2014, Germany 2018.
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