MUM’S THE WORD
Coping with the intensity of a World Cup isn’t easy, especially when your colleagues are always looking to you for inspiration. Enough about The Fiver, though, let’s talk about Him, who was at it again against Morocco on Wednesday. Some players would buckle if they had to carry the weight of an entire nation on their shoulders. For Him, however, the extra load is merely a chance to make His 10,000 press-ups a little bit more taxing every morning. Nothing fazes Him these days – even the prospect of Morocco’s manager Hervé Renard stealing the limelight with his dashing good looks couldn’t throw Him off his stride at the Luzhniki Stadium. There really is no point trying to stop Him.
It’s getting ridiculous, especially when you compare the Portugal forward’s one-man mission to prove some sons of Gollivan wrong by turning José Fonte into a world champion with the early struggles of His great rival, Lionel Messi, whose Ethics World Cup highlight so far is having a penalty saved by an Icelandic film producer. See, single-handedly taking on a country’s unrealistic expectations isn’t as simple as it looks. Pressure can do funny things to people and Messi was already showing signs of feeling the strain during Argentina’s 1-1 draw with Iceland last Saturday. The angst, which is hardly helped by Jorge Sampaoli selecting W1lly Caballero as his goalkeeper, is clear. “His aim is to bring the Cup home,” Celia Cuccittini, Messi’s mother, cheered on Argentinian TV the other day. “It’s one of his biggest desires. We see him suffer and cry at times.”
No, The Fiver’s not crying, you are. It’s just … mum … mummy. It’s enough to make the bottom lip tremble, even if Cuccittini did stop just short of showing the world pictures of a two-year-old Messi in the bath, and hopefully her words of support will have an invigorating effect when Argentina take on Croatia, the new perennial dark horses, in Group D on Thursday night. Croatia are top after their comfortable 2-0 win over Nigeria, who face Iceland on Friday, and it’s unlikely that Argentina can afford to lose to Zlatko Dalic’s dangerous side. Encouragingly, Sampaoli is said to be considering changes, with Cristian Pavón set to join Sergio Agüero up front, but all eyes are likely to be on Messi again. Especially those of Him. It seems a bit unfair. Maybe the other Argentinian mothers can tell their sons to be nice to Leo and buck up their ideas.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We’ve got leeks, sheep and devolution, so we’ll beat any team on Pro Evolution” – it’s Goldie Lookin’ Chain with Wales’s official Ethics World Cup anthem, obviously.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Here’s the latest World Cup Football Daily podcast, with Max Rushden and co, and you can find it in this general area every matchday evening.
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FIVEЯ LETTERS
“As one of the presumably very few Japan-based Fiver readers, I would normally have really appreciated your nihongo-ban MBM report earlier this week. Alas, I am this week visiting London, and instead got to enjoy the match with other English staples – announcers who can’t pronounce foreign names properly and afternoon Tin” – Paul Boyland.
“Japan fans picking up litter after the games (yesterday’s Bits and Bobs) resonates with me and my dad who believe in football karma. We spend the week leading up to a game picking up litter and generally doing good deeds, which we are rewarded for in goals come Saturday. We believe this is one of the reasons (along with Neil Warnock) that Cardiff City have been promoted this season. Let’s see if karma rewards Japan in the same way” – Karen Pearce.
“Further to recent correspondence concerning Harry Kane and Chris Smalling (FiveЯ letters passim), I can confirm that I’ve also scored for England every time I’ve captained the team” – Andy Korman.
Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. And if you’ve nothing better to do you can also tweet The Fiver. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’the day is … Karen Pearce.
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Police in Colombia have launched an investigation into a series of online death threats made against midfielder Carlos Sánchez who was sent off three minutes into their opening defeat to Japan.
This is REAL courage: England manager Gareth Southgate is recovering after suffering shoulder-knack while out running. “It’s better this is me than one of the players,” he tooted. “I am just a bit gutted because I was on for my record 10k time.”
Also: England training notes bingo!
Fresh off their 1-0 win over Iran, Spain heel turn Sergio Ramos had some things to say on Carlos Queiroz’s defensive Iranians and Diego Maradona. “If they go out to waste time, that’s their problem,” he honked. “Maradona is a great, he is a crack and I respect him so I’m not going judge his personal opinion. I think he is a crack but Argentinian football knows Maradona is light years behind the best Argentinian player – who for me is Leo Messi.”
Fifa thinks Morocco’s decision to allow Nordin Amrabat to play in the loss to Portugal only five days after he suffered a concussion was “questionable”.
Sepp’s back, baby and he’s been catching up with old mucker Vlad Putin in Moscow. “I met President Putin yesterday evening,” cheered Blatter. “He invited me to his apartment in the Kremlin. It’s not the first time I’m there.”
France are looking to liven things up a bit by starting Olivier Giroud against Peru.
Non-World Cup dept: Manchester City are close to completing the signing of Jorginho after agreeing an initial £43m fee with Napoli for the Italy midfielder.
And non-World Cup dept II: Marcelo Bielsa’s Nasty Leeds – Marcelo Bielsa’s Nasty Leeds! – kick off their Championship season against Stoke. Get all the Football League fixture news here.
STILL WANT MORE?
The Ethics World Cup. In charts.
How England changed shape. Steve Holland gives the backstory of Gareth Southgate’s tactical evolution to Daniel Taylor.
He is growing a superstitious gap-year-style goatee, but the European champions can only get so far on luck and His goals, reckons David Hytner.
Meanwhile, Argentina’s over-reliance on His great rival could be hindering their chances, writes Barney Ronay before retiring from the internet.
Three South African fans priced out of their tournament in 2010 have finally made it to a World Cup. Ed Aarons has their story.
Russia’s fans have cast aside their pre-tournament pessimism and are now full of it, reports Shaun Walker.
It is time for Neymar to start playing for the team, not himself, reckons Marcel Desailly, in his latest column.
Quiz! Quiz! Quiz! Quiz! Quiz! How much do you know about World Cup songs?
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