Honestly, this is the first time I'm not feeling World Cup fever even though the tournament has already begun and  it all boils down to the 10h+ timezone difference between the US and India which means most games are at early morning hours.

Zee5 has broadcast rights for this edition, but 2 days in and I still can't find full match replays on their platform. Which is even more absurd than the pricing they announced a few weeks ago.

So I'm watching SBS On Demand via VPN and it's an excellent experience. Production quality of live games is insane (just tuned into AUS v TUR) and full replays are available almost immediately after the final whistle.

Thoughts on Ons Oranje

My heart is with the Netherlands ride or die, but I'm not very optimistic about their chances this time primarily due to poor form entering the tournament — most recently losing to Algeria and just scraping past Uzbekistan.

The squad looks solid at the back (even after Timber missing out). Virgil, van Hecke, van de Ven and Dumfries are great. But Koeman needs to sort out the midfield combination to play around Frenkie de Jong. Summerville was great in both friendlies he started so far.

My doubt is mainly with the lack of striking options. Malen was poor in the last two games, Depay & Weghorst are past their prime; which means Brobbey is the last roll of the dice for Koeman. And Koeman has shown to be very rigid in his ideas and doesn't really know how to switch things if matches don't go our way.

That being said everyone always underestimates the Oranje before major tournaments. Their squads in 2010 and 2014 featured largely unknown players at the time but they went the distance. Their QF loss to Argentina in 2022 was the game of the tournament for me.

Praying that things go our way against Japan tonight!