Heroes and villains
Heroes and villains
The world cup is going great. Studies show that 6am kick off is perfect for enjoying quality alone time in front of the telly, showering and breakfasting at half time and getting the kids off to school without anyone getting too scratchy.
The football's been fantastic too - unless you're a pre-tournament favourite. Germany, Brazil and Argentina have all been as unconvincing as Winston Peters trying to pronounce 'business as usual', and have a lot of work to do. Teams like Belgium, Russia and Mexico are off to flyers and well placed to go through. Even England looked OK. For a while.
Best match
Russia got things off to a cracking start with a wholly unexpected 5-0 win, while Spain v Portugal's 3-all draw on day two was a minor classic. Mexico going one-up against Germany early and hanging on was compelling. At the other end of the scale, France v Australia was disappointing, while England v Tunisia was more frustrating than beer left out of the fridge.
Best goal
We've had some barnstormers so far, like Dries Mertens' volley for Belgium v Panama, and Nacho's low, spinning effort from outside the box for Spain against Portugal, but the best, most significant goal so far is Hirving Lozano finishing a flowing move that began in his team's own box, giving unfancied Mexico a 1-0 win over big gun Germany.
Best use of technology
Unawarded. Football's gone from basically Amish to reviewing everything that moves faster than you can say 'decent idea, poorly executed'. Bet your 1982 All Whites lunchbox there's going to be some massive, massive drama at some stage this tournament caused by VAR.
Ronaldo v Messi watch
The former lit up the tournament with a hat trick on day two and an all-action, all-running, all-smirking performance. The latter missed a penalty and has looked more Stoli than volley.
Best kit
This is tough, as there's a whole lot of 90s retro action happening and your correspondent loves the 90s like House of Pain loves jumping around. Here goes.
Five - Germany away - they got the Italia 90 colours just right, and the design would look sweet on the side of Don Johnson's Testarossa
Four - France away - sometimes less is more
Three - Columbia away - best colour combination going
Two - Nigeria away - forget that over-rated home kit, this green on green is some sharp work
One - Belgium home - faux argyle gets me every time
Check all the kits out here, and here's two fashion types from the New York Times analysing things in exhausting detail.
Most predictable bullshit
Yes, some footballers dive, and it seems to a cue for some rugby-loving New Zealanders to write off the entire sport. Get over it, open your eyes and you'll soon discover why *this* is the world's most popular sport, not the rules-enforced extended training run we had in Wellington Saturday night. Onwards!
Thanks for reading - Richard
The week's best NZ sport writing
Steve Kilgallon and Jason Dorday's story of Les Mills is exhaustively researched and fantastically laid out [stuff.co.nz]
Mark Geenty speaks to Suzie Bates, who's leading her White Ferns to new heights, just as the opportunities in women's cricket are finally being realised [stuff.co.nz]
Podcast recommendation - RNZ's Squeaky Bum Time is regular (ahem), informative and entertaining, with a local flavour. Can't ask for much more [RNZ]
Euan McCabe continues his World Cup Heart of Darkness, and misses Italy, as do I [sportsfreak.co.nz]
Video nasty
This has been voted the worst 20 seconds of football ever played. Hard to argue.
Long read
The cup is such a feel-good time it's easy to forget FIFA is still coming back from years of systemic corruption that makes Putin's Russia look like Kibbutz Of The Year. Here's a handy reminder of the very recent issues from Ken Bensinger's new book Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World's Biggest Sports Scandal.[Buzzfeed]
Selected weekend fixtures
Football! Hipster favs Iceland will go a long way to advancing if they can beat disappointing Nigeria Saturday morning at 3am, while Germany try to get back on track against Sweden in that golden 6am slot on Sunday, both on SKY
Cricket! The White Ferns take on England at 4.40am Sunday in the T20 Tri Series, it's on SKY
Rugby! We give four new guys a crack against France on Saturday night at 7.35pm and hopefully it'll not be a compete waste of everyone's time and that, it's on SKY
Bring back the gif
When the Fit Bit is on 9,560 steps.
