What You Should Know After the First Round of World Cup Games

Nobody has given the FIFA World Cup tournament a nickname yet…

But after all the drama that has happened so far, it deserves one; something that has the word “surprising” or “shocking” in it because that’s what the competition has been all about so far.

After six days of non-stop action and following all the games and trends, we thought we’d share some of the things we think you should know about the tournament so far. Some you may have noticed, others you may not have.

1. A World Cup of goals

As of the time of writing this, 17 games have already been played. That’s one-quarter of the amount of games to be played during the duration of the event. And of all that has happened, have you noticed that no game has ended goalless since the competition began?

Even when teams like Egypt defended so well against Uruguay, the net was still rattled. Games in group B, G and H featured the most of goals after the first round of group games.

2. Surprising results?

As far as the World Cup goes, there’s one thing that fans can agree on: it has been a tournament of surprising results.

The All-Star Brazil team succumbed to the Swiss. The German machines were gunned down by the Americans. Then there was Lionel Messi’s penalty loss and the two results that have turned Group H on its head.

3. Penalties

Another surprising trend in this World Cup has been the amount of spot-kicks that have been awarded – either via the V.A.R or via the referee spotting the incident himself.

In the first round of group games, which featured 16 games, at least 8 penalty kicks were awarded. That’s one penalty for every two games played.

4. Red cards

For all the feistiness and the complexity of the tournament so far, only one red card has been shown since the first game on Thursday.

Colombia’s Carlos Sanchez became the first player to see red in Russia. His red card was also the second-fastest the competition has ever seen.

This World Cup has been more about the attacks and pressing and defending, rather than harsh, unreasonable tackles. But it’s football and there should be a few more red cards shown before the end of the competition.

Who else is looking forward to the second round of games?