Japan, Senegal record their first win, Russian Federation surprises Egypt

The top scorer of the 2014 World Cup is not guaranteed to play in Colombia’s opening match against Japan.

Russian Federation continued their goal-scoring blitz in a rainy game and edged out Egypt 3-1 to temporarily secure the sole lead of Group A’s table. It is also the biggest number of goals for a host nation since 1934, when Italy also scored eight goals at the domestic tournament.

It is football, stupid!

In excellent striking form with Bayern Munich – he scored 41 goals in 48 matches – Lewandowski started his preparations for the World Cup earlier than for the European championship in a bid to arrive fresher.

We will be rooting for the African warriors, believing they will be the first from our continent to make an impact this time round.

He sprinted back onto the field, intercepted a back-pass, nicked the ball past Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and slotted home his side’s decisive second goal, which was also his first in global football.

“What matters is that we still have two games that we will play as if they were finals”, Garcia said.

Okazaki did get in the game, but not until the 85th minute. Then Senegal got past eighth-ranked Poland.

Pekerman went with the youth of center back Davinson Sanchez, but the Tottenham defender was partly at fault in the buildup to the first goal for Japan and didn’t provide much stability at the back. Japan showed their class to beat the ten men on Colombia 2-1.

Poland, on the contrary, looked frustrated – especially at the fact the Senegalese had taken Polish playmaker Lewandowski out of the game through clever marking. “We won thanks to discipline”. “We stumbled, but the team is fine”.

Cissé, who captained the Senegalese side that created wonders at the 2002 World Cup, knows the importance of discipline in tournaments such as the World Cup.

Japan-based football journalist Scott McIntyre told the BBC it was something that happens regularly at matches in Japan, and that it stems from habits drilled into people there from a young age.

“Foreign tourists who have come to support Switzerland called us and said they were looking for a hotel”, local police said in a statement on Monday. “It’s a hard job but we know we can do it”.

To that mindset of discipline, focus, and level-headedness in the face of unexpected challenges, Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly added certainty.