Unlikely hero shares spotlight with household WC names

The first week of the World Cup certainly didn't disappoint and fans have been treated to some terrific football. We enjoyed heroics from a hitherto unknown goalkeeper sharing the spotlight with established stars who gave a timely reminder that they are "pretty useful".

Tuesday night saw a feast of goals from the world's best with Argentine legend Lionel Messi leading the way with a brilliant hat-trick while France's Kylian Mbappe and Norwegian Erling Haaland both bagged a brace.

Later in the week Harry Kane also scored twice in an encouraging England performance against Croatia with plenty of attacking football although the defence looked dodgy at times. Most importantly the 4-2 win by Thomas Tuchel's side was hugely entertaining, not something you normally associate with England's national side.

The early drama in the tournament came from a most surprising source. It is not often a goalless draw in football attracts worldwide headlines but that's what we experienced when European champions Spain were remarkably held 0-0 by the tiny island nation Cape Verde.

It underlines one of the great joys of football in that you can never be totally sure how any particular game will turn out. And when an underdog upsets a heavily favoured opponent it is always cause for celebration as witnessed in Atlanta on Monday.

Who would have thought that a hitherto unknown 40-year-old goalkeeper from a West African island would be one of the stars of the first week's proceedings thanks to his dramatic saves which kept Spain at bay. We welcome Cape Verde's Vozinha to the Unlikely Heroes Club.

Also worthy of mention is that the Blue Sharks centre-half Pico Lopes is actually Irish, born and raised in Dublin to a Cape Verdian father and Irish mother. He is an accomplished player and has been captain of the successful Shamrock Rovers for the past two years.

Of course not all of the teams tasting their first-ever World Cup had such an enjoyable experience as Cape Verde. Curacao were unfortunate enough to face four time champions Germany in their opener and were hammered 7-1. Curacao coach Dick Advocaat was realistic enough to be prepared for such a result. "I think we can still be proud of the team," he said. "This is no disgrace."

Other newcomers Jordan lost 3-1 to Austria while Uzbekistan also succumbed 3-1 to Colombia.

Although Scotland made hard work of overcoming 83rd-ranked Haiti 1-0 there were no complaints from their fans who knew that it was the result that mattered rather than the performance in their first World Cup match in 28 years. As always Scotland are experiencing fantastic support from the Tartan Army. An estimated 40,000 Scots poured into Boston and made good friends with the locals with the unbeatable combination of bagpipes, kilts and a few "wee drams".

Other teams that can be satisfied with their opening encounters are hosts USA, Australia and Sweden. In their eye-catching red and white hoops Mauricio Pochettino's team looked very lively in a comfortable 4-1 defeat of a disappointing Paraguayan side. Another happy manager must be Graham Potter. After being sacked by Chelsea and West Ham he saw his Swedish team demolish Tunisia 5-1.

Australia had a good start to the tournament with a hard-fought 2-0 win over Turkey.

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