The Albion at the World Cup – Match Day One Round Up
It’s not been a particularly good start for Brighton and Hove Albion’s three World Cup participants as Maty Ryan, Jose Izquierdo and Leon Balogun were all on the losing side from their opening games in Russia.
For Ryan, he was at least part of history as Australia’s 2-1 defeat against France was the first ever game in a World Cup finals to be affected by the Video Assistant Referee.
That came when the Socceroos Josh Risdon slid in on Antoine Griezmann and the officials watching on television decided it should be a penalty with the Atletico Madrid striker dusting himself down to beat Ryan from 12 yards to make it 1-0.
Ryan had looked fairly comfortable until then, making all four of his saves in the opening eight minutes. The next two shots he faced both went in, Griezeman’s penalty and then Paul Pogba’s effort which deflected off Aziz Behich and was deemed to have crossed the line by goal line technology which proved to be the winner.
Ryan cut a frustrated figure at that, probably because he had believed that playing for his country would mean he finally escaped the chances of conceding ridiculous own goals with no Lewis Dunk in front of him.
Australia’s goal was also VAR assisted and another penalty, former Crystal Palace man Miles Jedinak equalising from the spot after Samuel Umtiti handled Aaron Mooy’s free-kick.
The Albion’s new signing Balogun meanwhile played the entire 90 minutes as Nigeria lost 2-0 to Croatia in Kaliningrad. Having seen the defender withdrawn at half time during the Super Eagles recent friendly defeat against England at Wembley in which his side were absolutely woeful, this was a much more encouraging display from Balogun.
Nigeria were even less of an attacking threat against Croatia than the Albion were away at the big six last season with Balogun ironically having one of their best chances when he went close with a header from a Victor Moses corner in the second half.
Croatia’s goals came from Oghenekaro Etebo’s own goal and a Luka Modric penalty while most disappointing of all was that Nigeria didn’t wear their fantastic new home kit. What’s the point in owning a Picasso if you decide to display a finger painting from a two-year-old?
With James Rodriguez out for Columbia, Izquierdo was handed a surprise start in his country’s 2-1 Group G defeat to Japan.
Columbia made an absolutely brilliant start to the tournament, having a man sent off for deliberate handball and conceding from the resulting penalty inside of three minutes. Thanks for coming, Carlos Sanchez; Shinji Kagawa duly netted the spot kick.
Despite having to play for the remaining 87 minutes shorthanded, Juan Quintero equalised just before the break for Columbia with a clever free kick that went under the wall but Japan netted what proved to be the winner 15 minutes before the end through Yuya Osako.
Izquierdo had been hauled three minutes before Osako’s header having looked lively throughout.
The bookies still rank Izquierdo as the most likely of the Albion’s trio in Russia to be lifting the World Cup in the Luhzniki Stadium come July, with Columbia available at a best priced 100/1. Australia and Nigeria are both priced at 1000/1, which makes it extremely unlikely that we’ll be welcoming back any World Cup heroes to the Amex come the end of tournament. Still, if you fancy a bet on any of the Albion’s representatives then check out these best Coral Bookmakers offers for 2018.
One other player of interest to Brighton supporters in the opening round of games was Iran’s Alireza Jahanbakhsh. The winger rejected a move to the Amex in the summer of 2015 despite flying in to look around the clubs facilities, instead choosing to move to AZ Alkmaar from NEC Nijmegen for £1.4m.
Jahanbakhsh hit 21 goals and notched 12 assists as Alkmaar finished third in the Dutch League last season, with reports that the Albion are going to back in for him at a cost of £22m.
These should be taken with a pinch of salt given that they conveniently came out on the eve of the tourament and are no doubt agent led in an attempt to start a bidding war, with Napoli one of several clubs said to be monitoring Jahanbakhsh’s situation.
In any case, his performance in Iran’s 1-0 win over Morocco made that look like an eye wateringly high fee as he struggled to make an impression against limited opponents, with Iran becoming the first side since 1966 to score a goal in a half of World Cup football without having a shot on target, Morocco’s Aziz Bouhaddouz putting through his own net in the 95th minute for the games only goal.
