Anthem time…

Our teams are ready … and here they come! Our knockout stages are almost ready to begin, and if they’re of similar drama to the groups, we’re in for a treat; hell, we’re in for a treat regardless. Football, my friends, is unstoppable, undeniable and undefeated.

It’s a big night for Jonathan David, a player lots of big clubs looked at adn passed on before he joined Juve. Can he push himself into the elite? A big performance here would be a statement.

“Talking of Celine Dion,” says Peter Walker, “did you know she had come out in support of farmers by removing all the consonants from her name?”

Badabing!

Tangentially, as I’ve done every time I’ve covered SA, I’m posting a playlist of favourite South African tunes. I’d be shocked if you didn’t find it some of the most thrilling music imaginable – though it fully comes to life in the club, not the headphones.

“Quick note to say that sorry, yes, Celine Dion is an icon here in Canada,” writes Scott Maynard in Yukon, Canada, “especially in Quebec and other French-speaking parts of the country. You may not agree with it, but that doesn’t make it not the case! Suggested reading, ‘Lets talk about love’ by Carl Wilson, which is part of the 33 1/3 series of books on music, and explores the nature of taste in the context of, you guessed it, Celine Dion – as in I hate this music, millions of people love it, what am I missing type thing.”

Ha, I pitched write one of those on Goldie’s Timeless, one of my all-time favourite albums, but someone else had got there before me. Otherwise, no need to apologise, I’m not at all opposed to the principle, just eager to understand the reasons why.

My TV feed has just shown a selection of the best goals so far. I think Promise David’s for Canada against Switzerland might be my aesthetic favourite – but there are loads I’d pick above it once factoring in importance.

Canada, meanwhile, will look to dominate in wide areas, their full-backs supporting the wide midfielders and helping serve the front two. Marking two strikers a man each – is a lot harder for centre-backs than sharing one between them, and I expect that to be the difference in this match.

Anyway, back to our game, where is it? I assume South Africa will sit deep, the two in front of the defence not moving much, especially at the start. But the full-backs will get forward, especially Mudau on the right, with Mofokeng prompting around the fringes of the box and, as the game develops, Mokoena and Sithole will look to move forward, hoping their 4-3-3 wins the midfield numbers-game against Canada’s 4-4-2.

In Tuchel’s defence, I think he’s picked a squad he thinks is best-placed to beat the best teams – by running and powering them off the pitch – but even within that, you need options and variety. Otherwise, teams know exactly how to prepare for you and you’re essentially saying if things go badly – they suss how to handle the formation, say – the problem is still the players, who are replaced like for like.

On UK TV, they’ve been talking about England, noting that DR Congo play a low block. A bit of a problem if your manager has picked a team full of big-space players and seems strangely reticent to use his only real small-space expert. I’m not surprised Thomas Tuchel isn’t into Kobbie Mainoo – he’s picked a squad big on physicality and low on craft – but why take him if you’d rather play Jordan Henderson?

A Canada-related question for you: yesterday, my wife and I were discussing Celine Dion and whether she’s an icon; my wife reckoned yes, I leaned no. So went to the OED, which says: “a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol or worthy of veneration.” I guess I need the first arm as well as the first, or we’re letting too many into the category, and I’m not sure she satisfies it; I demand transcendence!

Oh man, my eyeballs are sweating and we’re 45 minutes away from watching the teams come out. Can Stokes play football?

Oh my goodness. Nothing to do with football, but everything to do with humanity: Ben Stokes, what a man. If you’re near a telly with Sky, get it on – it’s montage time.

This is fun:

“A difficult match to call, right?” begins Krishnamoorthy V. “Both are likely to be cautious and hence a 0-0 and extra time looks certain. I only hope this does not go to penalties - I dislike the penalty shootout. It is akin to a coin toss in a way. Let there be positive engaging quality match.”

I fancy Canada, who I think have the greater zest and the better better players, especially as we saw SA freeze against Mexico; I expect them tp attack the situation. But I disagree penalties is a coin toss – it’s a test of technique under awful, wonderful pressure.

Jesse Marsch makes four changes to the side that lost to Switzerland. At centre-back, Moïse Bombito replaces Luc De Fougerolles; in midfield, Stephen Eustaquio is in for Mathieu Choinière; on the left, it’s Tani Oluwaseyi not Ali Ahmed; and up front, Liam Millar is preferred to Cyle Larin.

One change for SA, Teboho Mokoena – for my money, their best player in the first two games, an admittedly subterranean bar – returning from suspension, so Thalente Mbatha drops back to the bench.