England dominate Iran while Netherlands leave it late and USA and Wales draw.
England 6-2 Iran:
England were dominant on the day on a brace from Bukayo Sako, plus goals for Jude Bellingham, Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford, and Jack Grealish in a 6-2 romp over Iran. Iran’s only bright spot was the brace scored by Mehdi Taremi. Team Melli made more headlines by its players refusing to sing their national anthem interpreted as support for anti-government protests across the country after the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police in Iran. Irani captain Ehsan Hajsafi went spoke prior to the match and said the following:
“We have to accept that conditions in our country are not right & our people are not happy. They should know that we are with them. And we support them. And we sympathize with them regarding the conditions.”
Signs supporting women central in the protests were seen throughout the stadium on Monday.
In the meantime, England made their statement early on and look good to win the group at this point.
Senegal 0-2 Netherlands:
The Dutch left it late to down the African champions and the scoreline may even be a flattering one considering Senegal had more chances in this one. That said, it is evident that the Lions of Teranga miss Sadie Mane who could make a difference for them. Cody Gakpo is shaping to be just that for the Oranje now and in the future as he connected on Frenkie De Jong’s cross for the opening score.
It sets up the Dutch and Ecuador to battle for first on Friday while Senegal and Qatar battle to potentially avoid elimination.
USA 1-1 Wales:
Don’t miss Joe Chatz’s take on this match for us at Prost Amerika and David Collins’s story on our sister site Prost International. David is on site in Qatar was on hand to see the match and we are Prost Amerika are proud of him for covering the World Cup in person in Qatar.
This reporter’s take is that USA dominated the first half, but the insertion of Kieffer Jones gave Wales an energy that the USA used up back in the first half and all things cancelled out in the end after Gareth Bale’s spot kick. Tyler Adams was clearly the Man of the Match for the USA. There will be questions about not putting on Gio Reyna as a sub instead of Jordan Morris, but a point, however disappointing given the USA were ahead for 46 minutes after Tim Weah’s strike, is not the worst-case scenario. That would happen if the USA stumble against England on Friday (1pm CT, FOX).
Next up: Our first quadruple header of matches starting with Argentina vs. Saudi Arabia (4am CT, FS1), Denmark vs. Tunisia (7am CT, FS1), Mexico vs. Poland (10am CT, FOX), and France vs. Australia (1pm CT, FOX).
