Well, now it’s a World Cup. All three hosts are up and running and none of them have lost yet. After Mexico did their thing on Thursday night, it was the turn of Canada and the dear old US of A last night. And fittingly, given that the Yanks started their campaign in Los Angeles, the stars turned out.
Katy Perry did the needful with the preliminaries – although her dress was as much a star turn as the singer herself. Interestingly, Perry’s boyfriend, former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, chose to support her rather than his own national team, turning up in one of the plush suites in LA rather than being in Toronto for Canada’s first ever World Cup point. Tom Cruise, David Beckham, Ted Lasso – all the big cats were on the prowl.
They saw a riotous display from Mauricio Pochettino’s side, in fairness. The USA ran out 4-1 winners over the Paraguayan lambs to the slaughter, going 3-0 up before the break and finishing things off with a gorgeous goal from Sunderland-born Gio Reyna (son of erstwhile midfield schemer Claudio).
In the early game, Canada got the thing they have been waiting all their World Cup lives for – an actual point from an actual non-defeat. Toronto was exactly what you’d want from a World Cup host, a city that was stone-mad balloobas from early morning until kick-off. But it took a while for them to get their reward.
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They had to wait until the 78th minute for lift-off but the equaliser from Southampton’s Cyle Larin, just a couple of minutes after arriving off the bench, sent Canada into orbit. They deserved every bit of it – Bosnia and Herzegovina had already cleared off the line twice by that stage, one of them a miraculous effort from former Arsenal clogger Sead Kolasinac.
Also, Alanis Morissette sang the Canadian national anthem. So they were one-up on the rest of the world before a ball was kicked, in our book.
Results: Group B – Canada 1 (Cyle Larin, 78′) Bosnia & Herzegovina 1 (Jovo Lukic, 21′)
Group D – USA 4 (Damián Bobadilla, 7′ OG; Folarin Balogun, 31′, 45′+5’; Gio Reyna, 90′+8′) Paraguay 1 (Maurício, 73′)
Question of the day: Former Paraguay goalkeeper José Luis Chilavert scored in a World Cup, true or false? (Answer below)
Goal of the day: The USA were in party mode already before Reyna capped off a perfect opening day for the big-dog hosts with a lovely finish deep into injury time at the end of their 4-1 win. Picking up just outside the Paraguayan box, he took two touches to set himself up before curling a right-foot effort with the outside of his boot into the corner of the net.
Moment of the day: Meanwhile, in Peru, enterprising police officers in Lima were using World Cup fever to their advantage – by dressing up as tournament mascots to sneak up on unsuspecting drug dealers. Donning the disguises of Maple the Moose and Clutch the Bald Eagle, officers used a battering ram to smash into a drug den in the Peruvian capital and arrest a football-mad gang member.
“Thanks to the intelligence work carried out by the team, we were able to establish that the person we were about to arrest was a diehard football fan, living and breathing the World Cup fever,” Peruvian National Police colonel Carlos Fredy Alcántara Obregón told the Associated Press. “So we proceeded to disguise my Green Squad personnel as World Cup mascots in order to approach him without arousing suspicion and make the arrest.”
Picture of the day: America, man. You got your Minion, you got your cold beer, you got your stars-and-stripes pyjama top. Ain’t freedom the best?
Coming up today: Group B: Qatar v Switzerland, 8pm, RTÉ2, ITV4; Group C: Brazil v Morocco, 11pm, RTÉ2, BBC1; Group C: Scotland v Haiti, 2am (Sunday) RTÉ2, BBC1; Group D: Australia v Turkey, 5am (Sunday), RTÉ2, ITV4
Elsewhere in sport: With James Lowe set to leave Leinster at the end of the season, his former Ireland team-mate Conor Murray reckons the IRFU have dropped a clanger in letting him go. Ken Early continues his brilliant dispatches from the World Cup with pangs of regret at Ireland’s absence. Gavin Cooney writes about the FAI’s reluctance to take a stand on the Israel issue.
And in The Irish Times magazine, athlete Ciara Mageean talks about her life, her cancer and the road ahead.
Answer to question of the day: False. The free-kick specialist is the second-highest goalscoring keeper ever and went mighty close a few times, including hitting the post against Slovenia, but he never hit the back of the net. No goalkeeper has ever scored in the tournament
