World Cup roundup, Day 1: Qatar flops, Ecuador soars, Canada exhales

The 2022 World Cup is underway. At the end of every matchday, we'll review the biggest talking points emanating from Qatar and break down all the action on the pitch. Below, we look back on Day 1 at the tournament.

Moment too big for Qatari players

When Qatar lost to Northern Irish club Linfield in a friendly match this summer as part of the nation's World Cup preparations, we should have known.

The Qataris promised things would get better and that they would be ready. They weren't. Qatar looked overawed in its 2-0 defeat against Ecuador in Sunday's tournament opener. Goalkeeper Saad Al-Sheeb, in particular, was all over the place, getting bailed out by an offside call that negated Ecuador's first goal before wiping out Enner Valencia and conceding a penalty shortly after, giving the South American outfit a lead it wouldn't relinquish.

Early jitters are expected, but after the nervous energy of the opening minutes wore off, the passes continued to be misplaced, and the defending continued to be lackluster. The players who were supposed to help carry this team - Akram Afif, Almoez Ali, and captain Hassan Al-Haydos - were anonymous. The latter two were substituted. Afif lasted the full 90 minutes, but his only notable contribution was a yellow card for a bad tackle.

Qatar ended the match with more offsides (three) than touches inside the Ecuador penalty area (two) and didn't record a single shot on target. Fans were seen leaving the stadium early in droves. This was the match Felix Sanchez's team needed to win, in theory, to have any chance of reaching the knockout stage. It only gets more difficult with tilts against Senegal and the Netherlands still on tap in Group A.

Aside from a brief spell of controlled possession to open the second half, at which point Qatar was already trailing 2-0, The Annabi couldn't compete. Strictly from an on-pitch perspective, the Qataris were widely branded as the worst team to ever host a World Cup. That label, on current evidence, certainly appears accurate, as Qatar became the first World Cup host in history to lose its opening match of the tournament.

As good as it gets for Qatar?

Eighteen of the 26 players in Qatar's World Cup squad were developed at the Aspire Academy, a state-of-the-art facility in Doha established in 2004. The ambitious project to make Qatar a global sporting force is believed to have cost billions of dollars.

The focus on improving Qatari footballers ahead of the World Cup even led to a scouting mission reportedly costing over €100 million that targeted African, Asian, and South American players to boost the academy's competitiveness, per John McManus' "Inside Qatar: Hidden Stories from One of the Richest Nations on Earth."

"It's incredible what they have over there. It's a luxury to work in - too much, sometimes," former Aspire technical director Arno Buitenweg told theScore.

The players' schedule was intense, with double sessions on most days squeezed in around games on top of training they'd fulfill with their clubs.

"We got the players to the limit," Jyri Nieminen, who's now a goalkeeping coach with the New York Red Bulls after working at Aspire, shared. "We knew that we are going to train them just more than anybody else and knowing that there is a risk with it, all the overload-related injuries and all that."

He added, "I think the load and heat and everything was quite extreme for these kids."

Winning the 2019 Asian Cup was tangible proof of Aspire's success - 70% of that roster graduated from the academy - but the climax was supposed to be the 2022 World Cup, which has now started with a dispiriting 2-0 defeat to Ecuador. And now that the tournament is underway, there are rumors that much of the huge investment into youth football will be redirected, potentially diluting the advantages Qatar's international teams have enjoyed over their rivals.

"What I've heard from inside is that now that the World Cup will be over, they will put a really heavy emphasis on the local league with big players and coaches," Nieminen said.

It wouldn't be unreasonable to suggest men's soccer in Qatar will struggle to improve further once the World Cup circus leaves the Gulf state.

Ecuador can't get ahead of itself

Ecuador didn't enter the World Cup under the best circumstances. Threatened with expulsion from the tournament for fielding an ineligible player, it needed a favorable decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sport just to keep its place in Qatar.

The national team hadn't even played particularly inspiring football in the lead-up to the World Cup. Ecuador had scored just twice in six matches, and although it hadn't conceded in over nine hours of play, successive goalless draws against Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Iraq hadn't offered supporters much hope.

The mood may have changed after Sunday's opener against Qatar. Besides the clear gap in quality between the two sides, Ecuador's more physical style of play smothered Qatar, reducing the host nation to haphazard defending. Ecuador's full-backs whipped in uncontested crosses, and Valencia wiggled free of his markers with ease. The matchup favored Ecuador and left Qatar with a massively wounded ego.

But the 2-0 win doesn't necessarily give Ecuador a clear path to the knockout round. It still has games against the Netherlands and Senegal, teams stacked with pacy dribblers and physical defenders. Ecuador won't have as much time and space on the ball to do what they did on Sunday. Its defense will soon confront attackers who can create chances through sheer force of will.

Qatar was more of a punching bag than anything else. It mustered a measly two touches in Ecuador's penalty area, looking more like a side loosely assembled at the last minute rather than a team that had previously won the Asian Cup. The result said more about Qatar's shortcomings than Ecuador's strengths. La Tri must proceed with caution.

Quick free-kicks

Valencia eyeing history

With his match-winning brace in Sunday's opener, Ecuador captain Valencia has now scored his country's last five goals at the World Cup. That's just one short of the all-time record jointly held by Eusebio (Portugal), Paolo Rossi (Italy), and Oleg Salenko (Russia). The 33-year-old Ecuadorian arrived in Qatar in red-hot form, scoring 13 times in just 12 Super Lig matches for Turkish giants Fenerbahce this season. Though his performance at the Al Bayt Stadium was aided by some woeful Qatari defending, Valencia has pedigree in front of the net. The Netherlands and Senegal have been warned.

An entire nation exhales

Canadian superstar Alphonso Davies said he's "ready to start" Wednesday's match against Group F favorite Belgium, easing concerns that the hamstring injury he suffered two weeks ago with Bayern Munich would keep him sidelined for the country's first World Cup game in 36 years. "They wouldn't put me on the pitch if it was 50-50. I think they 100% knew that I'll be able to recover well and be able to play this tournament," the 22-year-old said. Canada is quietly confident it can cause problems for Belgium with its pace in wide areas against an aging Belgian backline. Davies is the most talented and explosive player on John Herdman's team, and his availability has the potential to swing the match at the Al Rayyan Stadium.

Deschamps' puzzling decision

One day after suffering another crippling injury blow, this time to striker Karim Benzema, France manager Didier Deschamps decided, in head-scratching fashion, not to replace the Ballon d'Or winner in his squad, even though FIFA rules allow him to do exactly that. The reigning World Cup champion is loaded with attacking talent already, of course, but where's the harm in selecting another player who could potentially help a team that is losing bodies by the day? Especially after Benzema said publicly that he stepped aside, in part, to give someone else a chance in his stead. Is Deschamps so wedded to the harmony he's built - if any - within his team, or is this something that will come back to bite him later on? The latter seems more likely.

England taking knee again

England boss Gareth Southgate said his team will kneel before its World Cup matches in Qatar as a strong message of "inclusivity." The Three Lions took a knee during their run to the European Championship final in 2021 but didn't repeat the gesture for their most recent matches in September. Kneeling has also become less frequent in the English Premier League. However, with Qatar's human rights coming to the fore ahead of the tournament, it's heartening to see players using their platform to try to inspire positive change. Harry Kane is one of a number of captains who'll wear rainbow armbands in Qatar in support of the LGBTQ+ community.

Stat of the day

Ecuador's scoring "outburst" against Qatar was extremely rare.

Tweet of the day

Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and ... Enner Valencia?