Life is not only about the present, but also about poetry and distant places, and this motto of literary youth will not be so useful in a game played this morning. Against Argentina, Poland showed us how to perform in the World Cup.
Messi was in great form in this game, far exceeding his previous two performances, although missing a penalty did not hinder his powerful passing and subtle diagonal pass. However, this has a lot to do with the Polish team's sparse supervision of him.
After losing 2-0, people thought that the Polish team would be wailing, but we saw a lot of joy, and Lewandowski also approached Messi and whispered intimately about Barca. The thick-eyed Lewandowski became like this, really blinding my presbyopia.
After 50 minutes of the game, the Polish team completely lost its desire to attack, and took good care of Messi all the way, for fear of upsetting the king of the ball. After Lewandowski fouled Messi in midfield, he quickly ran back and hugged Messi's chest affectionately, and Messi, who was angry, ignored it, and did not delay Lewandowski's smile, as long as you don't kill me, our whole team will knock you one. Why is the Polish team here? According to Di Renjie, there must be something strange in this.
Polish goalkeeper Szczesny (left) blocks an opponent's shot.
The truth is that in the other game of the group, Mexico and Poland, which are leading by the same points, and the goal difference, total goals, mutual record, and mutual goal count are all the same, then it is very likely to compare the fair play points that are sixth in the rules, which means that whoever has fewer red and yellow cards will qualify. In the 67th minute, when Argentina scored their second goal, Poland had four yellow cards and Mexico had seven.
Therefore, the Mexicans desperately want to score a goal from Saudi Arabia to overwhelm Poland to enter the knockout rounds with a goal difference advantage, and Poland does not want to score a goal against Argentina, but while praying for Argentina to close it, while tightly covering his body, so as not to have any close contact with the Argentines to ensure the yellow card advantage. So we saw a Polish team that was conservative to the point of obscenity.
The most sportsmanlike was Saudi Arabia, which pulled a goal back against Mexico before the end to ensure that Poland entered the knockout round with goal difference and avoided the farcical spectacle of who had fewer yellow cards and who qualified.
Mexico and Saudi Arabia fought until the last minute, but both teams had no choice but to get out.
However, this kind of play is not unique to Poland, and the Japanese team is their ready-made teacher. In the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Poland, Japan and Senegal were drawn in Group H, and Japan and Senegal shared 4 points in the two rounds, and the duel between the two teams was also a draw, with the same total number of goals. In the final round of Japan playing Poland, Poland took the lead in the 59th minute, while in the other game, Colombia scored Senegal's goal, and when the result of the other game came and Senegal was behind, the Japanese players retreated en masse and carried out a back-footing.
Poland seemed to appreciate Japan's good intentions, and no longer stepped forward to press, and the last ten minutes became inverted training time. The fans booed the crowd, expressing their disdain for the actions of the two teams. As a result, although Japan lost, they won to advance to the knockout round with Senegal, who had four points, with fewer yellow cards.
Well, that was an ugly game. If Japan pioneered this style of performance, Poland was the best supporting actor in two consecutive competitions, and together they achieved the goal of qualifying for the group stage with a humiliating way of playing and meticulous spirit. At the time, German legend Mateus cursed the Japanese team and was ashamed of their passivity, which he said seriously affected the spirit of competition at the World Cup.
So far, the World Cup round of 16 has produced the top 10. Most teams are convincing, and Poland's style of play against Argentina is hard to win the hearts of fans. In the Polish team, Lewandowski, the god of Bayern and Barca, touched the ball more than 10 times in the whole game, becoming a 34-year-old middle-aged man who only promised. This kind of meticulousness is not what fans want to see. For the sake of the good looks of the World Cup, I can only sincerely wish Poland not to go far.
Text/Pantsev (writer)
Editor/Zhang Yunfeng
Proofreader/Wu Xingfa