00:00Something strange has been following Ghana's World Cup campaign, and depending on how superstitious
00:05you are, it might be the most entertaining subplot of this entire tournament. There's a man who's
00:11become a bit of an online cult figure, a self-styled spiritual practitioner spotted in the stands
00:17during Ghana's matches, theatrically tossing powder into the air and blowing on his palms
00:22like he's casting a curse on the opposition. Cameras first caught him doing this during Ghana's
00:28opener against Panama. Ghana were goalless deep into that game, looking nowhere close to breaking
00:34the deadlock. Then, out of nowhere, grabbed a late winner to steal all three points. The internet
00:40connected the dots instantly, and clips of his ritual went properly viral within hours. Fast
00:46forward to Ghana's next fixture against England, and reports started circulating that this same man
00:51had gone public, claiming he'd cast a specific spell aimed at Harry Kane. Nothing sinister by
00:57his own account. Just enough to stop Kane finding the net in this particular match.
01:02Here's the thing. Kane, arguably the most clinical striker in Europe this season, with over 60 goals to
01:09his name, and practically worshipped by Bayern fans, went on to miss what should have been one of the
01:14simplest finishes of his career. Watch his reaction back. The disbelief on his face says it all. I'm not
01:20saying Dark Magic decided this match. I'm genuinely not. But I'll admit, watching it unfold live, even I
01:27felt a little unsettled by the timing of it all. Superstition aside, let's actually talk football,
01:33because what unfolded in that game matters a lot for how this group plays out. Ghana walked away with a
01:39point that takes them to four, sitting second in the table, while England stay top purely on goal
01:45difference. Don't let that result fool you into underestimating what Carlos Queiroz's side pulled
01:51off here. This is a squad he's had to piece together in a hurry. Built almost on the fly heading
01:56into this
01:57tournament, and after beating Panama in match one, they came here and produced one of the most disciplined,
02:03organized, defensive performances we've seen at this World Cup so far. Start with the goalkeeper,
02:08because he deserves more headlines than anyone connected to mysticism. 33 years old, his entire
02:15career spent playing domestically in Ghana's own league, never once tested himself abroad, and on
02:21this stage, against Anthony Gordon, a Barcelona-bound winger, against Kane, Madueke, Bellingham, Saka,
02:29Declan Rice, and Morgan Rodgers, he didn't concede a single goal. That's not a lucky night. That's one of
02:35the standout individual goalkeeping performances of the tournament, full stop, and for 90 plus minutes,
02:41he looked genuinely unplayable. Then there's Ghana's number four at center back, 22 years old,
02:48currently plying his trade at Wolfsburg in Germany. Before turning professional, he was actually working
02:54as a painter back home in Ghana. Today, he matched up against Premier League and Champions League regulars,
03:00and didn't look remotely out of place. Composed on the ball, aggressive in his duels, exactly the kind
03:06of performance that gets you noticed by bigger clubs. Add a right back who handled Gordon, then
03:12Madueke, then Rashford in succession, and came out of it with real credit, plus a defensive midfield anchor
03:18doing the unglamorous dirty work in front of the back four, and you start to understand why England
03:24simply couldn't find a way through. Because make no mistake, England dominated the ball. Eighty percent
03:31possession, an expected goals figure of 1.36 that on paper says they should have scored comfortably. Nineteen
03:39shots, but only three actually on target. Thirty-three touches inside the box, and still two genuinely clear-cut
03:46chances went begging. Nico O'Reilly had arguably the best of them, a header from almost the exact spot he
03:53regularly converts for his club, the kind of chance that's gone in countless times against the likes
03:58of Newcastle before. This time, it drifted wide, the ball ricocheted to Kane, and Kane skied his effort
04:05over the bar. Pure waste, and exactly the kind of finishing that gets punished against a low block.
04:11I'll also say this, and I don't throw around referee criticism lightly, there was a moment that needed a
04:17much closer look. An England defender threw his entire body into a tackle on a Ghana forward
04:23already inside the box, took him down clean through the legs, and somehow no penalty was given. What
04:30followed almost immediately was an offside call on the next phase of play, which on its own was correctly
04:36judged, but it completely buried what should have been reviewed as a stonewall penalty just seconds earlier. I was
04:43genuinely shouting at the screen in that moment. Then there's the management side, and Tugel's changes
04:48are worth dissecting properly. The first double substitution came at the 65th minute, bringing on
04:55Sokka and reshuffling the front line, which made tactical sense on paper. Madueke shifted to the left,
05:01Sokka took up the right, the shape adjusted. But the next change didn't arrive until the 75th minute,
05:07and by the time Watkins and Tony were finally introduced, it was the 83rd minute, against a
05:13Ghana side that by then had eight or nine men camped inside their own box for the better part of
05:1820
05:18minutes. If you're bringing on a genuine penalty box presence, someone who thrives purely on crosses and
05:25second balls and aerial duels, he needs to be on far earlier than that. Both Watkins and Tony arrived
05:31with barely seven or eight minutes to make any real impact, and unsurprisingly, it showed. So where does
05:38this leave the group? England's next assignment is Panama, and there's a real possibility brewing that
05:44should worry their fans. If Panama plays the same cagey, deep, low block football Ghana just executed
05:50so well, England could easily drop more points there too. Croatia face Ghana in the final round of group
05:57games, and on current form, that one's shaping up to be genuinely unpredictable. Speaking of Croatia,
06:03they got their own campaign back on track with a win over Panama, settled by a Budimir goal. Not the
06:10most dominant performance from open play, but they created enough quality chances and used possession
06:16far more purposefully than their opponents managed. The real story of that match though,
06:21was Luka Modric reaching his 200th international cap, playing roughly 81 minutes in the process.
06:27That's genuinely rare company. Only a small handful of players in football history have crossed 200
06:34caps for their country, with Messi and Ronaldo among that elite group. Hitting that number at a World Cup
06:40at his age is a beautiful footnote to an extraordinary career. The win also lifts Croatia to third in the
06:47group after their opening defeat, keeping qualification very much alive heading into that Ghana fixture.
06:54Now to a match I was genuinely excited to watch closely, Colombia against DR Congo, because I
07:01specifically wanted to see how Colombia would shape up before their eventual meeting with Portugal.
07:07Colombia were relentless throughout, 20 shots in total, nine of them actually on target, with two big chances
07:14created and unfortunately squandered. DR Congo found some life in the second half, managing seven shots
07:21of their own with one on target, but the real story for the African side was their goalkeeper. He produced
07:28a string of phenomenal, borderline world-class saves, and the one goal he eventually conceded came off a
07:35scrappy deflection, rather than him being beaten cleanly. Colombia set a tournament record in this game too,
07:41becoming the first team at this World Cup to register five shots on target inside the opening 20 minutes
07:48alone, several of them struck from 25 or 30 yards out. Without that DR Congo goalkeeper performing at his
07:56absolute best, we'd genuinely be talking about one of the great individual goals of the tournament.
08:02Luis Diaz actually found the net twice in this game, both ruled out for offside, with a third Colombian
08:08effort also chalked off. Three disallowed goals in total for Colombia in one match, which tells you
08:14everything about how dangerous and slightly chaotic their attacking play was. The eventual winning goal
08:21came from their own fullback, his second goal in just two matches. Always a nice subplot when defenders
08:27start chipping in at a major tournament. That result confirms Colombia's qualification and puts them top of
08:34the group on six points, with Portugal sitting second on four. Portugal will want to avoid finishing
08:41third at almost any cost. If England top their own group, a third-placed Portugal could end up facing
08:47them in the knockout rounds, which is hardly the dream draw. Flip that around though, if Portugal manage
08:54to finish first and Argentina top their group too, we could realistically be looking at a Portugal versus
09:00Argentina quarter-final, and you already know how badly fans everywhere want to see that one happen.
09:07DR Congo aren't mathematically dead yet either, beat Uzbekistan, who looked genuinely toothless in
09:14their last outing, sort out the goal difference gap, and third place is still realistically on the table
09:20for them. All of which makes the final group game, Portugal against Colombia, an absolute must-watch fixture.
09:27Neither side can afford to take it lightly, and if Colombia bring anything close to today's intensity
09:33and directness into that match, this has the makings of one of the better games remaining in the group
09:38stage. We'll break that one down properly once it actually happens. That's the full match day roundup
09:44for now. Link to the next video is below. Go check it out, and if you haven't subscribed yet,
09:50you know exactly what to do. Catch you in the next one.
