Redos and Stuggles (7/22)

CATALINA CLASSIC CRUISES, LONG BEACH, CA - Like C1-Spain, E1-USA dominated its opponent yet struggled to score.  The 3-0 win is a far cry from their 13-0 rout vs Thailand in 2019's WWC opener as E2-Vietnam held firm on defense, fouling early (the ref let them play) to frustrate the Americans.  USA held VIE without a shot (soon to be joined by C3-Zambia) and was working at slow speed most of the match, despite having 26 shots.  One of their few pushes forward resulted in a great goal with Alex Morgan making a great flick to Shopia Smith who ran down the ball and put it under the legs of VIE's 5'5" GK, the first of her 2 goals.  Her second goal got through a mass of bodies and also went under the legs of the GK.  Hopefully, goal differential won't be a factor.

C4-Japan also had 26 shots but scored 5 times and also held ZAM without a shot, which on paper was the most uneven match (JPN #11, ZAM #77 -- difference of 66 spots).  JPN's Mina Tanaka had 2 goals taken away via VAR (offsides) but Hinata Miyazawa did score twice.  JPN is currently in 1st in Group C due to goal differential (hint, hint, USA) over ESP.  

Group D completed play with D1-England struggling and needing a retaken PK (also happened for JPN's 5th goal) to edge out #53 D2-Haiti, 1-0.  In the most competitive match on paper thus far between #13 D4-China PR and #15 D3-Denmark, DEN got their only shot on goal in the 90' which went in to sneak out a 1-0 victory.  This was the 9th game of the WWC and first to not feature VAR and the first to not have a penalty kick attempt.  There were 4 VARs in JPNvZAM match.

Didn't think USA needed any help so wore my 2023 Home Inter Miami pink jersey (took them so long to go pink) and watched Messi's debut on Univision live and when he got the stoppage time free kick attempt, like when David Beckham came to the LA Galaxy, you had a feeling he was going to score, and he did (both did it in non-MLS matches, Beckham's first real FK attempt was a goal in a SuperLiga game, this one a Leagues Cup game).  So awesome and great for MLS's profile.

In the pool, 25 went 4-0 with Jolly Old England and ShrimpOnTheBarbie tied for 1st with 8 points.  All 47 barely got ENG, 46 USA, 42 JPN, and 29 DEN.  7 are tied for last with 5 pts.