Ecuador all over Qatar and 2 nil at half time.The South Americans moving the ball quickly and Qatar not coping.

I’m not impressed by the commentary of Martin Tyler so far. He really needs a co-commentator with him.

I’m hoping FIFA or the referees explain the offside for the disallowed goal after the game. I haven’t been able to see it yet on the limited replays shown.

Qatar would've been better off had they kept their league going. Training and playing friendlies against Nicaragua won't work.

The first player to head it made contact while the next Ecuadorian to touch the ball was offside with his lower leg. The keeper became the offside line and the Ecuadorian was beyond that. Impossible to see in real time. 

I hope we play with the same vigour and concentration as Ecuador. That at least will make me happy. If we put out this slow and poorly concentrated Qatar effort I'll be livid. They're just going through the motions. 

Thanks, I’ll look for that if I see it again.

It was the knee, got it on UK feed

Utter garbage from Qatar tonight. Reminiscent of Australia vs Germany in 2010. Zero cohesion and just absolutely nowhere. An unmitigated disaster.

Ecuador hit the intensity when they needed. There we some moments where I thought they may not be able to get away with such missed balls in the final third against bigger teams but it's all building up to something. Good games ahead. 

We go on to tomorrow.

England 3 Iran 0
Netherlands 2 Senegal 0
Wales 1 USA 1

Chris Beath will officiate Poland vs Mexico. Congratulations and do well!

Ecuador looked a lot better than Peru -much quicker ball movement and better pressing.Conversely we looked heaps better than Qatar-they had no idea how to get the ball into Ecuador's third.It is a pity Qatar aren't in our group .They are a shadow of the team who won the Asian Cup

Qatar really couldn't handle the high press, stifled their go forwards.probably should have pushed to a 442 or a 433, the 532 meant there was no impetus from the middle third to the final third. It also meant route 1 became a whole lot more riskier.
Also man management was atrocious by Qatar.

Well that was embarrassing for the Qataris.... :)  Both on the pitch and in the stands with the mass exodus of robed fans escaping into the balmy night ....... Maybe the criteria for hosting a world cup should be revisited ?

watched the 1st half - who would have expected anything different.
Glad I went to bed at HT, was a dire opening game for a cup in any case they were never going to avoid being 1st hosting nation loss from when the draw was annouced.
Sick of all the politics etc, infact I got to stop reading the crap, can't wait for these coming games so we can just focus on football, get on with it and enjoy.

on a lighter note, thought this was too funny the other day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akSds2p442s

Is there bigger pea hearts in world sport than arab teams? How quickly do they drop their bundle?

Also, whenever they are in front they spend the rest of the game rolling around trying to waste time. Really bad mentality.

Even if they rigged the match Qatar wouldn’t of won they were that bad 

I know that many here want Iran, the Saudis and the Qataris to go well in the tourney but I want them ALL to be humiliated :)
How Iran is still allowed to play when they are currently slaughtering their own citizens wholeseale while Russia was banned from competing is ANOTHER story for another time btw......

Qatar made Ecuador look good.  They're not that great either, looks like Netherlands will have no trouble with either of those teams. 

Wish England kicked off at 9pm tonight midnight is anooying when I need to wake up for Wales vs USA at 6 am  

4hrs sleep is plenty between the 2 games :)

Kids these days think they need to sleep.   Sleep when you're older, trust me.  

its funny watching the arab goalkeepers bahaha 

hehe EG......

On another front I look forward to Muz's qatar report - for this fan one doesn't bode well.
https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/world-cup/fifa-world-cup-2022-fan-zone-riots-what-it-was-like-in-qatar-during-opening-match/news-story/3d5fd2c48e57cdce45d6282e167fefdc

and a good storey despite it for the Welsh its a feel good one. I do like Wales making it after all that time for them.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-63208053

hey that Valencia 2nd goal header was pretty darn good from that distance might I add.

My attitude will swing on whether the Iranian team (as has been mooted) protest in front of the world or not.  I remember their women here supporting at the Asian Cup.
They were amazing.

Sadly I wouldn't blame the team for not protesting though. Can you image the repercussions to family and friends back home if they did? 
You brought up another insight btw... Where were the Qatari women on the broadcast this morning? In the past, world cup tv operators have a field day focusing on all the beautiful supporters of the fairer sex around the world.... 

I was speaking to Iranian friends today. For them they are usually so excited but cannot support the team during this. 
They realise the players might be scared, but as they said at the moment some are acting as puppets of the regime while many back home are sacrificing. Tough situiation,

Personally I hope they don't sing the anthem, come up with a creative way to show solidarity with their people and then put a few past the poms.

But he didn't touch it, did he? Not until it bounced back and forth a couple more times and he'd been played back onside. Didn't affect the play (is how I remember it).