World Cup surprises

The qualifying round of the 2018 World Cup was very challenging, but it was also quite funny and unexpected….which lead us to think of other fun happenings that went on this world cup.

Earthquake in Mexico after a goal

Mexico created a sort of worldwide earthquake after it defeated Germany at the beginning of the World Cup. This earthquake was a bit more real after Germany was eliminated, after it lost vs. Korea two days ago.

Talking more seriously, the goal Hirving Lozano scored vs. Germany obviously induced a massive happiness in Mexico. Thousands and thousands of people screamed and jumped to celebrate that goal. As an unexpected consequence, the national public body in charge of monitoring the seismic movements found an artificial seismic activity at 11.32 am. When they were asked why such an “earthquake” happened, the answer was quite simple: “massive jumps”.

The Icelandic way

Should you remember well, Iceland was a very good surprise during the 2016 UEFA Euro Cup. It indeed achieved to reach the quarter-finals, before it was defeated by France.

But Icelandic football was more about atmosphere and passion. Thousands of people had pop down in France, and they also were thousands this year.

But although Iceland is quite a small country in terms of number of inhabitants (about 300 000), many of the citizens were not able to travel to Russia. Those who stayed in Iceland however watched the games. And for the first one vs. Argentina, 99,6% of the TV spectators were watching it!

The second one vs. Nigeria was no exception with regard to national commitment. The post offices indeed closed at 2.30 pm, to allow the employees to watch it. Be Icelandic, be committed!

Vuvuzelas against Cristiano Ronaldo

Although Iran has not been able to pass the qualifying round, which was very hard because it played vs. Portugal and Spain, the national team has been quite a good surprise. The Iranians indeed tied vs. Portugal (1-1), as well as being a difficult challenge for Spain.

While they still could hope to pass the first round before the last game vs. Portugal, the supporters who travelled to Russia had a plan to make their hope real. They indeed popped down near the Portuguese players’ hotels and held a concert of vuvuzelas (the famous ‘instrument’ that became famous during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa) to stop Cristiano Ronaldo from sleeping. It was however not enough to win the game.

Free shots every time Neymar falls down

Neymar, the Brazilian player, is surely one of the star players of the 2018 World Cup. The most expensive player in the World, however, sometimes (or often) falls down to get penalties and free kicks. A barman decided to make use of those dives and had an unexpected idea.

The Sir Walter Pub in Río de Janeiro indeed offered the customers one shot every time Neymar fell down vs. Serbia.

Nobody knew (yet?) whether the bar went bankrupt or earned a lot of money at the end of the game…