The Yankees did not go home – Sport – Kommersant
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The winner of group B at the preliminary stage of the World Cup was England. Beating Wales 3-0, she scored seven points. Who will get one more ticket to the playoffs was decided in the Iran-USA match. The Americans won 1-0 and finished second with five points. Thus, the first couples of the 1/8 finals were determined: England-Senegal and the Netherlands-USA.
Before the final third round in group B, no one guaranteed themselves access to the playoffs, but they did not lose their chances to get there either. Formally, even the Wales team, which had only one point in the asset, could climb from rags to riches. True, for this she needed to roll one of the favorites of the British World Cup, and preferably with a plus four advantage, in order to get around them in terms of the main additional indicator – goal difference. Recall that after two rounds they were in the lead with four points, scoring six and conceding two goals. But such a plot, of course, looked absolutely fantastic.
In the event of a draw in the confrontation between Iran and the United States, the Welsh were satisfied with any victory over their neighbors in the UK. However, it was hard to believe that Gareth Southgate’s team, after an unintelligible game with the Americans, would play the next match just as amorphously. Few doubted that the team with the largest transfer value of the squad (per billion euros) would somehow cope with Wales, which is modest in all respects.
So in this group, all attention was focused on the Iran-US pair. A real battle was expected here, which was also mixed with political overtones, given, to put it mildly, the unfriendly nature of relations between these countries. In addition, the press service of the US team splashed oil on the fire by posting an incorrect photo of the Iranian flag without the official emblem of the Islamic Republic on its social media page. The Iranian side was outraged by the fact of such disrespect and, it seems, even turned to the FIFA ethics committee with a demand to disqualify the American team for ten matches.
The Iranians were closer to the play-offs thanks to the victory over Wales and were ahead of the US team by one point. At the same time, their main goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand unexpectedly literally rose from the ashes, who, in a terrible collision with his own defender during the match against the British, received an injury that would seem incompatible with further performance in the tournament. And even there was information that for him the world championship is already over. But Beiranvand returned, which certainly added confidence to his partners.
Based on the tournament situation, the Iranian national team decided to play a rollback in terms of hockey terminology and counted on counterattacks. The ticket to the play-offs of the Americans, as they say, was buried in someone else’s penalty area, and they persistently tried to penetrate it. From time to time they succeeded, and Christian Pulisic even shot with a header, but in the opening Beiranvand only once really saved the team, interrupting Serginho Desta’s cross from the right. Then the right-back of the US national team ventured a solo pass with a shift to the center of the penalty area and also ran into the Iranian wall, and Timothy Weah, although they were allowed to hit, but from where only such great masters as his famous father, who once shone in ” Milan and PSG.
And yet, the Iranians gradually sank too low back, believing in the reliability of their defense, for which they paid. In the 38th minute, the three main stars in the current American team, Weston McKenney and Dest with Pulisic, drew a goal combination. The first one threw the ball in a high arc into the penalty area, the second one threw it closer to the goal with his head, and the third one ran in and delivered the finishing blow point-blank. It was simply impossible to miss there. True, Pulisic was injured in that episode and barely endured until the end of the first half, and did not come out for the second.
This goal immediately changed the alignment in the group and in the match. Now the US team was in the 1/8 finals with one foot, and the Iranians had to drastically change tactics and go ahead themselves. But before the break, they did not have time to reorganize into an attacking way and could even aggravate their situation. First, Joshua Sargent, together with Weah, almost broke the enemy’s defensive formations, and then the same Weah scored from a minimal offside position.
However, in the second half, the Iranian team experienced great difficulties with the development of the attack. Positional attack is not her forte at all. Moreover, the Americans used an active defense system, the first lines of which lined up on the opposite half of the field. Wards of Carlos Queiroz mainly hoped that Porto forward Mehdi Taremi would come up with something, and the former striker of St. Petersburg Zenit Serdar Azmun was replaced during the break. True, it was Saman Goddos, who replaced him, that almost brought the Iranians back to the World Cup. Ali Golizade rolled the ball to him perfectly, but the midfielder of the English Brentford missed the target.
Still, there were too few moments at the gate of Matt Turner. Only in the end, the Iranian team managed to put pressure on the American goalkeeper, and Morteza Puraliganji dangerously beat in the fall with his head after a set piece. At the end of injury time, and the judges added nine minutes, the leader of the Iranians, Taremi, finally got his moment. He found himself alone in front of Turner and fell, unable to really hit the ball, but with all his appearance showed that Cameron Carter-Vickers fouled him. The American defender really touched Taremi with his hand, however, VAR considered this contact insignificant, and Iran was not given a saving penalty. Team USA won 1-0 and advanced to the playoffs with five points.
In a parallel match, England, having played a bit of cat and mouse with Wales in the first half, which ended in a 0-0 draw, then shipped three goals. Southgate refreshed the offensive line and it worked in the end. First-time starters Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden scored, while the Manchester United striker scored a brace. By the way, Rashford joined the players who scored three goals in the group stage. The British scored seven points and advanced from the first place to the 1/8 finals, where they will meet with the second team of group A – Senegal. Well, the Americans in the first round of the play-off will try to wrestle with the Netherlands team.
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