Can World Cup ‘dirty tricks’ stop France? Do spy fears prove USMNT is in the big time? Day 24 recap
Favourites France maintained their perfect record at this World Cup but it was far from serene progress for the tournament favourites.
Didier Deschamps’ team defeated Paraguay to book their place in the last 16, with star striker Kylian Mbappe scoring his seventh goal of the tournament to edge level with Argentina’s Lionel Messi in the Golden Boot race.
But France were made to scrap by a resolute and very physical Paraguay side, whose tactics proved a major talking point in the aftermath.
Elsewhere Canada became the first co-hosts to exit the World Cup with a 3-0 defeat to Morocco. Jesse Marsch’s side spurned some fantastic early opportunities to open the scoring and were made to pay for their profligacy when Morocco clinically scored three times in the second half.
Morocco lost main striker Ismael Saibari to injury but sealed an ultimately comfortable win through two goals from Azzedine Ounahi and another from Soufiane Rahimi, to become the first African nation to reach successive World Cup quarter-finals.
Away from the live action, the USMNT put plans in place to stop potential snooping on their preparations for Monday’s last-16 tie with Belgium.
Yesterday’s results
Canada 0-3 Morocco
Paraguay 0-1 France
Could ‘dirty tricks’ stop France juggernaut?
We were all wondering how on earth this gifted France team could be beaten: did Paraguay give us strong hints as to how it’s done?
After scoring three against Senegal, Iraq and Sweden, and four past Norway, Didier Deschamps’ side were finally muzzled by Paraguay, who refused to let France have things their own way.
Sure, France won and, yes, they’re through to the quarter-finals having only scored 14 goals and conceded two in their five matches. They possess possibly the best and most attractive attack in international football and are deservedly favourites to win the World Cup.
And yet, Paraguay’s robust (to put it mildly) approach largely worked.
They restricted Kylian Mbappe & co to five shots on target and France had to rely on a penalty (from who else but Mbappe) to edge them into the last eight of the competition.
Paraguay essentially tried to engage France in a glorified boxing match, enlisting an uncompromisingly physical approach, constantly disrupting their opponents’ rhythm with fouls, aggression and a stubborn, deep-lying defence.
Kylian Mbappe was on the receiving end of some rough treatment (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)
France didn’t have an attempt on goal in the opening 22 minutes (the longest wait for a shot in a World Cup knockout match since the records of Opta, the football statistics firm, began in 1966). And there were times they looked riled: Mbappe and Michael Olise both struggled to contain their frustration.
Paraguay were helped by Uzbek referee Ilgiz Tantashev, who incomprehensibly failed to award a single yellow card to the South American side. But is that the blueprint for Morocco, France’s quarter-final opponents, to follow?
France showed here they do not need to be at their free-flowing best to win. In the face of extreme provocation, they passed the test.
However, where Morocco differ to Paraguay is that they are not just streetwise, not only can they get down and dirty and do whatever it takes to win, they can also hurt teams via goals, too.
Why are the USMNT worried about spying?
You know it’s a big game when you’re worried about the opposition spying on you.
Giant screens were erected at the U.S. team’s training base at Husky Soccer Stadium, Seattle, Saturday as the team prepared for its last-16 tie against Belgium, seemingly in an attempt to block the view from nearby buildings.
It added a necessary ingredient to the big game checklist. Tickets sold out? Check. Inescapable build-up for days in advance, on television and across the media? Check. People talking it about everywhere you go? Check. Concerns about the opposition spying on you and finding out your tactics? Check. The USMNT has truly made it now.
Screen erected at the USMNT training ground (Henry Bushnell/The Athletic)
As if excitement over the team’s run in the competition couldn’t provoke any more national fervour, Saturday’s July 4 celebrations to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States’ independence whipped the country up into a heightened state of patriotic enthusiasm.
Even France versus Paraguay, given it took place in Philadelphia, became a celebration of national pride.
The USMNT may have reached a World Cup quarter-final before, back in 2002 when Landon Donovan and Brian McBride took them past Portugal and Mexico on the way to a tight defeat to eventual finalists Germany. They may have even reached a last-16 tie on home soil before, specifically in 1994 when they narrowly lost 1-0 to the eventual winners, Brazil, in Stanford, California.
However, given football’s rise in popularity since then and given how so many people across the country are embracing Mauricio Pochettino’s adventurous, attack-minded team, this perhaps feels like the biggest World Cup match this country has ever played. Beat Belgium in Seattle and a quarter-final against Spain or Portugal awaits.
It doesn’t get much bigger than that. But the U.S. are dreaming that it will.
Are Morocco Africa’s best-ever team?
Only one African team has ever reached the semi-final of a World Cup.
Only one African team has ever reached successive World Cup quarter-finals.
That same African team was also awarded the African Cup of Nations trophy earlier this year (albeit controversially).
Morocco, then, are making a strong case to be named the greatest African side of all time.
They were far from their best against a high-octane, aggressive, relentless and courageous Canada, who threw everything at them. Morocco could barely string two passes together during a woeful first half and only mustered five shots in the entire match. They won 3-0.
Morocco celebrate dispatching Canada (Roberto Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images)
Their finishing, particularly via Azzedine Ounahi, was devastatingly clinical, in stark comparison to the all-action Canada who seriously lacked refinement in front of goal. That was the main difference between the sides.
As Brahaim Diaz led the celebrations in front of their ecstatic fans in Houston, it was hard to recall that we’ve seen a more assured, confident and decisive African team at any World Cup, even compared to the Morocco side which reached the last four in 2022.
This Morocco side can control games with the ball as well as without. It can also cope with expectations, which leading into the tournament were probably the highest ever placed on an African nation at the World Cup, certainly back in Morocco.
Their next assignment could not be harder, as they face strong tournament favourites France in Boston on Thursday, but you can make the same point for Les Bleus; they won’t have taken on more difficult opponents than Morocco yet.
As for the question of the greatest African side ever, Nigeria of the mid-1990s (they won the Olympics in 1996 and reached the last 16 of successive World Cups) would stake a claim, as would 1990 quarter-finalists and trailblazers Cameroon, as well as Ghana, who were a Luis Suarez handball away from playing in the 2010 semi-finals.
But for consistency and achievements, Morocco probably edge it, undeniably so purely in terms of World Cup progress.
They will co-host the tournament (alongside Spain and Portugal) in 2030 which, with a younger generation coming through, could be a very special few weeks indeed.
However, for now, 2026 is becoming pretty special too.
What to know about Sunday’s games
The next two World Cup days are mouthwatering on paper. We start with two potential classics on Sunday, first with Vinicius Junior and Brazil taking on Erling Haaland and Norway.
Norway beat Brazil the last time they faced them in a World Cup in 1998 and Carlo Ancelotti’s team have shown enough defensive deficiencies in their matches so far to give Stale Solbakken’s Norwegians plenty of encouragement, as they look to row their way to a first-ever World Cup quarter-final.
Then all eyes turn to Mexico City and a lip-lickingly good last-16 match-up, with co-hosts Mexico taking on England in the Azteca.
As things stand, it’s due to kick off at 6pm local time and some are saying that if England can cope with the ferociously passionate home crowd, the altitude and Mexico’s astonishingly good Azteca record (unbeaten in 26 matches since 2013, with only eight defeats in almost 150 games) it’ll be their finest achievement since winning the tournament back in 1966.
We’re not sure about that, but what we do know is that popular English bakery Greggs has temporarily pulled its Mexican chicken sandwich range. Pettiness we can all get behind.
Today’s fixtures
Brazil vs Norway 4pm ET, 9pm BST
Mexico vs England 8pm ET, 1am BST +1
Crédito: Link de origem