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Argentines shocked, saddened by loss to Saudis at World Cup
Tears welled in the eyes of Oscar López as he washed the windows of the Buenos Aires building where he works as the superintendent.
A devoted fan of Argentina, the 67-year-old was visibly upset as he reflected on the bitter 2-1 loss by the national team, delivered by upstart Saudi Arabia on Monday at the World Cup in Qatar.
But the fact that Argentina was favored over the Saudis is no excuse, Lopez said.
“If they’re in the World Cup, no team is easy,” López said. “You always have to be careful.”
Most of Argentina got up early to watch the 7 a.m. match and the long-awaited debut of Lionel Messi’s team. Many walked to bakeries in Buenos Aires wearing the light-blue-and-white jerseys to grab snacks.
Sounds of cheering were heard in the streets at the kickoff. More noise followed when Messi scored early in the game, and the din of air horns penetrated the morning air.
But an eerie silence then set in, as what was supposed to be an easy match turned challenging. Saudi Arabia rallied with two second-half goals, and one of World Cup's favorites instead suffered one of its biggest upsets.
“The truth is, this is a disappointment, a big disappointment,” said Alejandro Pintos, a 36-year-old locksmith who opened his shop later than usual to watch the game. “This was the match that we had no choice but to win.”
Pintos said the national team was “very disorganized” — something he found particularly frustrating, given its 36-match unbeaten streak leading up to the tournament.
Read more: World Cup stunner: Saudi Arabia beat Messi’s Argentina 2-1
Local media quoted Messi as saying he was just as shocked as the fans on how things had turned out.
“It’s a very strong blow,” Messi said. “We didn’t expect to begin this way.”
Other fans took to social media to complain about three potential Argentina goals ruled out on offside calls.
Argentines were counting on the World Cup to bring a glimmer of a hope to a country that has been economically stagnant for years, suffering a nearly 100% inflation rate and where close to four in 10 live in poverty.
“I’m really quite bitter,” said Josefina Licera, a 27-year-old social worker, as she waited to take a bus to work. “I was really sure we were going to win, and it was a big surprise.”
Susana Leguizamón, 55, woke up early, put on her blue-and-white-striped Argentina jersey and was ready to celebrate.
“I was very, very, very surprised,” she said. “The truth is, we underestimated our rival.”
But Santiago Babarro, 40, said he wasn’t too shocked by the loss.
“The same thing always happens to Argentina," the retail worker said. "We say, ‘This is an easy match, we can win it easily,’ and then, bam! They put us in our place. We always believe we’re more than what we are.”
Sebastián Fabre said he woke up with an uneasy feeling and was worried about what he said was overconfidence by Argentina's fans.
“There was way too much unfounded optimism. I didn’t want to say anything but I think we were all way too overconfident,” he said.
Read more: Qatar World Cup: Messi scores as Argentina take 1-0 lead against Saudi Arabia
Leguizamón, who walked to her job at a restaurant still wearing her Argentina jersey, said she could feel the suffering of those around her.
“Everyone is very sad, very sad,” she said. “We all woke up with lots of hope.”
Some fans saw a silver lining in suffering adversity at the outset of the tournament. Argentina next plays Mexico on Saturday in the second Group C match.
“Really, it’s better that this happened in the first match and not in the quarterfinals,” Fabre said. “That’s the positive side to this.”
Leguizamón agreed.
“A trip is not a fall, as we say here,” she said, using a common Argentine expression. “I’m a big fan of the national team and I get in a really bad mood when it loses but my hope is intact.”
The saddest part, said 21-year-old retail worker Florencia Folgoso, "is having to go to work after watching a match that we lost. You already start the day with the left foot.”
Mexico and Poland play out 0-0 in group thrown open by Argentina’s defeat
Poland had to settle for a 0-0 draw Tuesday at the FIFA World Cup after Robert Lewandowski’s second-half penalty attempt was saved by Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa.
It was the second Group C match on the day. In the first match, Saudi Arabia stunned two-time champions Argentina by 2-1.
Before today’s match, Lewandowski never missed a penalty for the national team. Poland’s all-time leading scorer with 76 goals remains without a World Cup goal.
Read more: FIFA World Cup 2022: Messi seeks history with Argentina
The Poland forward was awarded the penalty following a VAR review after Hector Moreno got hold of his shirt and pulled him down. Ochoa, playing in his fifth World Cup, came up yelling in celebration after his stop, sending the crowd into chants of “Memo!”
While Mexico dominated possession, Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny turned away all three of El Tri’s shots on goal.
The scoreless draw was good for Argentina, which was upset by Saudi Arabia 2-1 in an earlier Group C match. The Argentines, led by Lionel Messi, were widely considered to be the favorites to advance.
Read more: Mexico goalkeeper Ochoa joins 5-World Cups club
Saudi Arabia are currently at the top of Group C with one win in one match. Argentina are at the bottom with no points after one match.
Ronaldo to leave Manchester United 'with immediate effect'
Cristiano Ronaldo will leave Manchester United “with immediate effect,” the Premier League club said Tuesday.
The 37-year-old forward conducted an explosive interview on the eve of the World Cup, criticizing manager Erik ten Hag and the club's owners.
Last week, United said it had “initiated appropriate steps” in response to Ronaldo's comments.
Read more: Cristiano Ronaldo gambles on World Cup to restore reputation
“Cristiano Ronaldo is to leave Manchester United by mutual agreement, with immediate effect,” the club said in a statement. “The club thanks him for his immense contribution across two spells at Old Trafford, scoring 145 goals in 346 appearances, and wishes him and his family well for the future."
Read more: Ronaldo's career at Manchester United may be over
‘Now's the time to be more united than ever’: Messi after Argentina's shocking defeat to Saudi Arabia
After a shocking 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia, Lionel Messi does understand that his side has to make a strong comeback in their next two matches against Mexico and Poland, respectively.
Otherwise, the Albeiceleste may well be out of the tournament after the first round. The Argentine captain expects a strong reaction from the players after such an unexpected result.
Speaking to an Argentine television channel, Todo Noticias, Lionel Messi said.
Read more: Qatar World Cup: Saudi Arabia's stunning victory end Argentina's 36-match winning streak
"Obviously we have to win or win now. It's up to us to fix what we did wrong and get back to the basics of who we are."
"We're OK, obviously hurt by the result, very bitter." But people must trust that this team will not let them down, and we are going to go for it in the next two games. We've played games of this nature before, and we're going to perform well.
"Now's the time to be more united than ever, to show how truly strong we are."
Though Lionel Messi wasn't surprised by the threat from a much lower-ranked team, Saudi Arabia. He also mentioned that the current group of players hasn't faced this kind of situation as Saudi Arabia ended their 36-match unbeaten streak in this match.
"We knew they were a team who would play if we let them... "They did not surprise us; we knew they could do that."
Read more: World Cup stunner: Saudi Arabia beat Messi’s Argentina 2-1
"It's a situation that this group of players has never been through; it's been a while since we suffered such a tough blow, we didn't expect to start like this," Messi said while speaking to an Argentinian TV channel after the match.
Argentina will only have four days to recover from this shocking result before facing Mexico on November 27 and Poland on December 1.
Qatar World Cup: Denmark, Tunisia play out goalless draw
The first match of Group D finished goalless as Denmark were held by Tunisia. The African outfit were outplayed by the Vikings, but in a day where Qatar World Cup headlines will be dominated for another match, they held on for dear life.
The Danes took some time to get into gear, and in the midst of their preparation, Tunisia had some good chances. Kasper Schmeichel had a great game for the European outfit, and so did his counterpart, Tunisia's Aymen Dahmen.
Read More: 90 min match turning into 100+ at Qatar World Cup, as FIFA wants to give fans more entertainment
Issam Jebali put the ball into the back of the Danish net in the first half, but that was ruled out for offside, while Andreas Cornelius came the closest for Denmark when he hit the post after a flick on from Andreas Christensen.
Aftermath
The two teams share a point each and await the result of France and Australia's outing to see where they stand in the group. This was the second draw of the FIFA World Cup 2022 and the first goalless match.
Read More: Qatar World Cup: Saudi Arabia's stunning victory end Argentina's 36-match winning streak
Key Performances
Kasper Schmeichel: The Danish number one silenced his critics after an impressive performance, keeping a clean sheet to ensure a point for the European outfit.
Joakim Maehle: The energetic fullback was instrumental in the Danish incursions and created a number of chances for his countrymen.
Christian Eriksen: Denmark's best player, and his quality was on display through his playmaking in this game.
Issam Jebali: Tunisia's frontman led the line well for them, as Jebali managed to cause quite a few problems for the Danes.
Aymen Dahmen: Dahmen was on par with Kasper Schmeichel, and he was instrumental in ensuring the point for Tunisia.
Read More: France vs Australia FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 LIVE Streaming: Where and how to watch online and on TV Channel, predicted XI
Following a goalless draw, both Denmark and Tunisia will be looking to win their next Qatar World Cup group stage matches in order to remain in contention for a Round of 16 spot.
Bangladesh Cricket League One-dayers: South Zone, North Zone win 2nd round matches
Veteran right-handed batter Naeem Islam hit a century in the 2nd round of the Bangladesh Cricket League’s one-day edition and guided his team to a 26-run victory on Tuesday at BKSP.
In the other match of the same round of the league, Fazle Mahmud Rabbi fell short of 10 runs from a ton and guided his team to a 61-run win.
Naeem is playing for BCB South Zone, who batted first on Tuesday against BCB Central Zone and posted 282 for five wickets.
Read more: Warner can return to leadership role as Cricket Australia changes code of conduct
South Zone lost two wickets in just 12 runs as Anamul Haque Bijoy and Zakir Hasan failed to do well. But in the third wicket stand, they added 99 runs on the board thanks to Naeem, and Mohammad Naim, with the latter scoring 63. Naeem ended up scoring 102 for 106. Allrounder Nasir Hossain has also scored 75 off 87 balls.
For Central Zone, Robiul Haque bagged three wickets.
In reply, Mosaddek Hossain Saikat and Ali Jaker Anik scored fifty each, but that was not enough to avoid a defeat. Mehidy Hasan Miraz, the captain of South Zone, scalped three wickets, while Shoriful Islam took two.
In the other match, North Zone batted first against Islami Bank East Zone and scored 216 runs for eight wickets. Fazle Mahmud scored 90, and Mohammad Saifuddin scored 44.
For East Zone, Ashiqur Zaman, Mahadi Hasan, and Rahman Rejaur Raja took two wickets each.
Read more: Saifuddin registers five wickets on Bangladesh Cricket League opening day
In reply, they tumbled for 155 for all wickets. Shamim Hossain bagged three wickets for North Zone, while Ripon Mondal and Shafiqul Islam took two wickets each.
South Zone are currently leading the points table with two wins in two matches. East Zone are right behind them, with one win in two matches. North Zone also have one win in two matches, but East Zone bettered them with a better run rate.
In this league, every team will face each other twice in the league phase. The top two teams of the league phase will take on each other in the final. The final will be played in Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium under the lights.
90 min match turning into 100+ at Qatar World Cup, as FIFA wants to give fans more entertainment
The 90-minute soccer match is turning into 100-plus at the World Cup — and that is what FIFA wants to give fans more entertainment.
The nearly 14 minutes added at the end of Argentina’s shocking 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday meant the five longest periods of stoppage time for a single half of soccer at any World Cup were all played in Qatar since Monday, according to statistics site Opta Joe.
England and Iran went into the 15th minute of stoppage time in the first half Monday and the referee added almost 14 minutes in the second half. A head injury for Iran’s goalkeeper explained the first, but the second raised more eyebrows.
Even more surprising were the Netherlands-Senegal and the United States-Wales games each entering the 11th minute of time added at the end for the myriad types of stoppages in modern soccer. The American game, which started at 10 p.m. on Monday in Doha, ticked over into Tuesday when the final whistle blew.
The pattern carried on Tuesday as the Argentina-Saudi Arabia match went into a seventh minute of time added on in the first half and twice as much in the second, when a Saudi defender was injured and carted off the field.
“The purpose is to offer more show to those watching the World Cup,” FIFA referees committee chairman Pierluigi Collina said in Qatar ahead of the tournament.
Collina insisted the directive to referees “is something not new.” FIFA officials have long been agitated about the dwindling amount of effective playing time in the regulation 90 minutes.
In 2017, a 60-minute, stop-start game clock like in basketball was suggested by Marco van Basten when the Netherlands great was then FIFA technical director.
Read more: Qatar World Cup: Saudi Arabia's stunning victory end Argentina's 36-match winning streak
Five years ago, even Van Basten noted wryly it had become routine for referees to add one minute in the first half and three in the second regardless of what actually happened on the field.
At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the ball was typically in play for about 60 minutes. That was down to between 52 and 58 minutes at the 2018 tournament in Russia, according to one statistical analysis.
“What we want to avoid is to have a match lasting 42, 43, 44, 45 minutes of active play. This is not acceptable,” said Collina, widely seen as the best ref of his generation when he worked at the 1998 and 2002 World Cups.
Video review that was first used at the World Cup four years ago has caused some of the modern delays, with stoppages often lasting about two minutes to check on game-changing incidents.
Goal celebrations that now go on and on have also tested FIFA’s patience.
“Celebrations may last one, one and a half minutes,” Collina said last Friday at a briefing about FIFA instructions to their match officials in Qatar. “It’s easy to lose three, four, five minutes only for goal celebrations and this has to be considered and compensated at the end.”
Five second-half goals in England’s 6-2 win over Iran shows that, plus there was a VAR review to award Iran a penalty at the end of the 10 minutes of stoppage time that were initially indicated.
Read more: Qatar World Cup: Messi scores as Argentina take 1-0 lead against Saudi Arabia
It helped England complete 730 passes — the second most in any World Cup game that did not include extra time.
Still, there was only one second-half goal in the 1-1 draw between the United States and Wales.
While fans are getting used to the new norm of longer games — and broadcasters perhaps adjust their running times of programs — the current solution is arguably better than those proposed five years ago.
Van Basten’s team also suggested research into combating late-game time-wasting by letting referees stop their watch as play paused toward the end of each half. Both ideas were soon shelved.
Ind Cup Football: Bashundhara Kings emerge group champions with all win record
Bashundhara Kings emerged Group B champions with all-win record to reach the quarterfinal of the season's curtain raiser soocer meet Bashundhara Group Independent Cup Football' 2022 beating Chittagong Abahani Limited by 2-0 goal at the Bir Shrestha Fl Lt Matiur Rahman Stadium in Munshiganj on Tuesday.
Bashundhara Kings emerged group champions securing full nine points from straight three group matches after crushing Youngmen's Club Fakirerpool by 14-0 goal in the first match and beating Azampur Football Club, Uttara by 3-0 goal in the 2nd match.
Read more: Women's Football: Barisal FA beat Cumilla United 2-0
The Kings will play the 2nd quarterfinal on Saturday (November 26) against Group A runners-up Dhaka Mohammedan SC while Group A champions Sheikh Russell KC will play Group B runners-up Chittagong Abahani Ltd in the first quarterfinal on the same day.
After a barren first half in the day's match, Brazilian striker Dorielton Gomes put the Kings ahead in the 75th minute (1-0) while local forward Rakib Hossain confirmed the Kings victory scoring one more goal in the 77th minute (2-0).
Read more: Ind Cup Football: Both matches on Sunday end in draws
In the day's other match, Fakirerpool Youngsmen's Club beat Azampur Football Club, Uttara by 3-1 goal at the Shaheed Dhirendranath Dutta Stadium in Cumilla Tuesday afternoon.
Rezzatul scored first for Youngmen's Club in the 15th minute (1-0) while Afzal doubled the winner’s margin in the 31st minute (2-0).
Sakib Bepari pulled the Azampur FC margin one back scoring a goal in the 42nd minute (2-1).Finally, Dalim sealed the fate of the match scoring the 3rd goal for Youngmen's Club in the 76th minute (3-1).
Qatar World Cup: Saudi Arabia's stunning victory end Argentina's 36-match winning streak
Argentina were considered heavy favourites to win their opening match of the Qatar World Cup against Saudi Arabia and equal Italy's 37-match unbeaten record. However, things didn't pan out as expected, particularly for the Argentine side in the second half. They conceded two goals in quick succession and lost the contest to Saudi Arabia 2-1, ending their 36-match winning streak.
Read More: Qatar World Cup: Messi scores as Argentina take 1-0 lead against Saudi Arabia
The Argentine defence was a bit casual at the start of the second half; they seemed to not be taking the Saudi Arabian side too seriously and eventually paid the price. Saleh Al Shehri found the net in the right bottom corner after cutting through the left side of the D-box. With his goal, Saudi Arabia cut the lead to 1-1 in the 48th minute. Five minutes later, Salem Al Dawsari's right-footed thunderbolt shot stunned the Argentine crowd at the Lusail Stadium. The Argentine campaign was in complete disbelief.
Argentina after that tried to find the net by putting pressure on the opposition half, and they were close to scoring a number of times but remained unsuccessful.
Read More: Qatar World Cup: Off-sides frustrate Argentina, settle for 1-0 at the end of the first half
Earlier, Argentina took a 1-0 lead in the 10th minute of the first half. Lionel Messi scored a penalty for his team. At the same time, they also saw two goals disallowed due to offsides.
Argentina continued to put pressure on the Saudi Arabian defense and tried to create attacks from behind. But the Saudi Arabian defenders were focusing on high-line defense, which caused problems for the Argentine forwards.
Read More: France vs Australia FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 LIVE Streaming: Where and how to watch online and on TV Channel, predicted XI
Argentina will now be under huge pressure to put on a strong display against Mexico after ending their 36-match unbeaten run in their opening match of the Qatar World Cup. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia's magnificent victory will give them a realistic chance to move on to the Round of 16.
World Cup stunner: Saudi Arabia beat Messi’s Argentina 2-1
Saudi Arabia scored one of the biggest World Cup upsets ever by beating Lionel Messi’s Argentina 2-1 on Tuesday.
Messi’s quest to win the one major title to elude him got off to a shocking start and brought back memories of Cameroon’s 1-0 win over an Argentina team led by Diego Maradona in the opening game of the 1990 World Cup.