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On the same day Germany kicked off their World Cup campaign with a 7-1 trouncing of Curacao, Anton Stach was sharing his latest YouTube video of him playing darts against a Leeds fan on his Instagram stories. Playing darts and generally being good company off the pitch has been enough to earn the likes of Conor Coady a place in a World Cup squad in the past, but Stach’s snubbing from Germany manager Julian Naglesmann meant he was watching from home — no doubt one eye on his Instagram notifications — as Lukas Nmecha’s little brother Felix set the former champions on their way with the opening goal against the smallest nation to ever qualify.
It set the tone for a weekend of embracing the most tenuous Leeds United links to ignite a personal interest in the tournament. A Scotland shirt bearing the Billy Bremner quote “side before self every time” on the inside of the collar was about as good as it got. Brenden Aaronson didn’t get off the bench in the USA’s win over Paraguay, nor did Noah Okafor in Switzerland’s draw with Qatar or Ao Tanaka in Japan 2-2 Netherlands. Crysencio Summerville might have scored in that game, but he hasn’t played for Leeds in ages. Jesse Marsch’s Canada, meanwhile, are best avoided, if only for the sake of my own blood pressure.
While the weekend was a Leeds United write-off, a new week brought a new promise, with Sweden beginning their campaign against Tunisia in the early hours of Monday morning. A chance to see Gabi Gudmundsson, perhaps? It was only a chance, given Gudmundsson has made a solitary appearance since being injured in the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea, playing just over an hour in a warm-up friendly against Greece. Since then, he’s been in bed, isolating in Sweden’s hotel due to illness. In the words of their press officer, “He is still in a bad state.” As I wrote in Friday’s Daily Email for TSB+ members:
Well, Gabi. I really enjoyed your debut season at Elland Road. But I’m afraid even you can’t outrun the curse of Leeds United left-backs.
Thankfully, Gudmundsson did recover just in time to make Graham Potter’s starting XI. As Sweden’s national anthem finished ahead of kick off, a wicked bolt of lightning flashed over the Steel Giant stadium in Monterrey, which proved a fitting introduction to the villainy of our old friend Hannibal Mejbri in the number 10 shirt for Tunisia.
Hannibal was up to his usual tricks, rolling around on the floor and crying to the referee whenever an opposition player dared to tackle him. The main problem for Gudmundsson, however, was trying to avoid Tunisia’s own roughhouse tackling. Within the opening two minutes, he cleared a ball deep in his own half and was caught late on the ankle. I felt like a concerned parent watching their kid being picked on by some bigger boys. Leave him alone!
Gudmundsson could at least ease himself into the game as Sweden quickly went ahead. A long ball over the top looking for Alexander Isak sent Tunisia goalkeeper Mouhib Chamakh flapping around on the edge of his box. Victor Gyokeres’ goalbound shot was blocked by a defender and fell to midfielder Yasin Ayari, who took his time to leather it into the top corner with Chamakh still flailing around. Half an hour in, more weak goalkeeping let Isak’s shot after cutting in from the left squeeze into the bottom corner.
It was difficult to understand how Tunisia had qualified without conceding a single goal. At least that was until I read how former Notts Forest boss Sabri Lamouchi — remarkably not one of the four coaches to preside over qualifying — has only recently taken over and has swiftly set about upsetting absolutely everybody. Already unpopular having represented France as a player despite being born to Tunisian parents, Lamouchi dubbed the domestic league “really very boring” before dropping a number of experienced players in favour of ten fresh faces, one of which being Chamakh, who was winning only his fourth cap and by the end of the night had conceded eleven goals across those four games (he did keep a clean sheet against Marsch’s Canada, though, so I quite like him.) Just to add to the head-scratching nature of Lamouchi’s decisions, Chamakh plays in the Tunisian league he has rubbished.
They were at least given hope just before the break as Hannibal’s cross from the right flashed past Gudmundsson at the near post and was headed in by Omar Rekik. It was hardly a vintage Gudmundsson performance. There was some neat defending, a few hardy tackles, a couple of important headers, but only once did he attempt one of his trademark Forrest Gump bursts forward, which was swiftly ended by a foul just as he was about to properly break into his stride.
It didn’t matter. Fifteen minutes into the second half Tunisia captain Ellyes Skhiri dallied in possession on the edge of his own box, allowing a sleepwalking Isak to rob him of the ball as it eventually ricocheted towards Gyokeres to make it 3-1, before two more goals in the final ten minutes from sub Mattias Svanberg (with his first touch) and Ayari’s second (another belter) completed a resounding win.
But by that point I’d stopped caring about the football and was back to worrying about Gudmundsson. Shortly after Gyokeres scored Sweden’s third, Gudmundsson was noticeably slow to a tackle and immediately gestured to the bench to be replaced. He spent the next couple of minutes hobbling around trying his best to defend in a repeat of the final minutes at Wembley before limping off, appearing to hold his hamstring.
It was a sight that summed up Leeds United’s luck across the opening weekend of the World Cup and the luck of a Leeds United left-back. In his post-match press conference, Potter said Gudmundsson was simply suffering with cramp. Although given Potter also said yes to the Chelsea job, I’m not sure I can trust his judgement.
Looking on the bright side, if Gudmundsson’s first appearance at a major tournament ends after only an hour, at least there’s less chance of us selling him this summer. And if worst comes to worst and it turns out he’s really knackered, at least we can unite in that famous old refrain of so many previous summers. Sign a fucking left-back! ⬢
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