World Cup 2018 Russia Update for June 18, 2018: Even More Shocking Results, as Germans Lose Opener

The World Cup goes on, and the surprises just keep coming. This World Cup has not been especially favorable to the traditional favorites. After all, Italy did not even qualify. And other sides that are normally powerhouse teams - particularly Argentina, Brazil, and Germany - have yet to win a game. Spain has been very strong in recent years, as well, but they and Portugal battled to a tie. 

Brazil failed to beat Switzerland yesterday and had to settle for a tie, but that was a relatively mild surprise compared to the results with the defending champions, Germany. They were heavily favored to beat Mexico, yet they outright lost their opening game, for the first time in many decades.

Let's review yesterday's games:

Serbia 1, Costa Rica 0 - Not a huge surprise here. 

This was a tight defensive game, and it remained scoreless through the first half. Then, Serbia's Aleksandar Kolarov broke through in the 56th minute for a 1-0.

Costa Rica was unable to do anything offensively themselves, and so that wound up being the final score, giving Serbia the all-important three points from this game.

The win was the first in the opening game since the 1998 World Cup for Serbia. 

Brazil 1, Switzerland 1 - Another tournament favorite failed to win. 

Brazil, trying to bounce back from their disastrous World Cup showing in front of their home fans, when they got humiliated by Germany, 7-1, in the semifinal, and then lost the consolation third place game to the Netherlands by a count of 3-0, started off this World Cup with a disappointing first game, settling for a tie instead of the expected win.

It looked good for Brazil early on, as they pressed, before Philippe Coutinho broke through to give Brazil the 1-0 lead in the 20th minute.

But Switzerland fought back, holding off other scoring opportunities by Brazil. Then, Switzerland's Steven Zuber scored in the 50th minute to tie the game up.

After that, Brazil kept pressing, and had some decent scoring chances. But ultimately, the Swiss defense bent, but did not break, and they were able to hold off and hang onto the tie. This was kind of like a victory for the Swiss, as anytime you walk away from a game against the giants of the sport, and do not walk off in defeat, is a triumph on some level.

As for Brazil, this tie likely feels more like a loss, than anything else. This was the first time since 1978 that Brazil failed to win the opening match of a World Cup tournament. For that matter, it also marks the longest winless streak for Brazil in World Cup history at three games, dating back to their two losses in the last World Cup, and then this tie in this one.

Switzerland, on the other hand, appear to be red hot. They have lost only one of their last 23 matches, and have earned 16 wins during that span. The only loss during that stretch was a 2-0 loss to Portugal.

Mexico 1, Germany 0 - Never before have I seen a team seemingly so certain of it's championship destiny before a World Cup tournament like the defending champions, Germany, seem to be about winning this tournament  and successfully defending their title.

One German "expert" apparently diagnosed every reason why all of the other teams in the tournament cannot win this World Cup and at the end, quite conveniently, he predicted that Germany would win it all again. More recently, in anticipation of yesterday's game against Mexico, a German newspaper taunted Mexico prior to the game.  They had a headline reading (translated from the original German):

 'Sorry Mexico. Today we build the wall.'

Here is a picture of the headline, which seems reminiscent of the "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline, in terms of the level of presumption involved:



Well, maybe. After all, allowing one goal is not bad. But Mexico nevertheless managed to breach that German wall once, which was one more time than Germany managed to do against the Mexican defense.

It made for the most shocking result yet, in a World Cup that has been rather full of surprises thus far. This was a bigger shock than Argentina settling for a tie against Iceland, or Brazil settling for a tie against Switzerland. Germany was expected to get past Mexico, and to more or less easily win their group or, failing that, at least advance to the second round. Both of those things might still happen, of course, and you cannot underestimate the German side. Like, ever.

However, they definitely made it more difficult on themselves by losing this game. It leaves them very little wiggle room, with two games remaining, and a tie-breaker going to Mexico, if the two teams end up tied in the standings.



German newspaper: 'Sorry Mexico. Today we build the wall.'  Alex BakerFC Yahoo, Jun 17, 2018:

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/german-newspaper-sorry-mexico-today-build-wall-153533864.html