ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- Four-and-a-half months ago, Vincent Aboubakar caused shockwaves by volleying a marvellous winner to give Cameroon an unlikely Africa Cup of Nations title in Gabon. It was a goal from nothing, the kind of bolt from the blue that bears replaying for years. Faced with a much simpler chance in St. Petersburg, after 56 minutes and with his side a goal up against Australia, he blazed a shot off-target from in front of the posts. With that opportunity, his country's Confederations...

KAZAN, Russia -- Earlier this month, Joachim Low was forced to defend himself against accusations of "making the heart of football fans bleed" by choosing to tackle Germany's Confederations Cup campaign with an inexperienced squad in Russia, rather than the stars who helped lift the World Cup in Brazil three years ago.

It was Alexey Sorokin, head of Russia's World Cup organising committee, who claimed that Low's decision went against the whole idea of a fan attending a football match -- to watch...

SOCHI, Russia -- Three quick thoughts from Mexico's 2-1 win over New Zealand in the group stage of the Confederations Cup on Wednesday.

1. A win to forget for Mexico

Mexico 2-1 New Zealand. It certainly doesn't read like the convincing scoreline El Tri fans were hoping for and there was very little of comfort for them, apart from Mexico scraping by and earning the three points.

Chris Wood put New Zealand into the lead three minutes before half-time and there was nothing fortunate about the...

SOCHI, Russia -- The clock at Sochi's Fisht Olympic stadium read 89:41 when Australia went up to take a corner. Germany were leading 3-2, and Joachim Low was more touchy and fidgety than usual in his technical area. The Socceroos' fans -- sparse but noisy -- howled in anticipation. They were joined by the Russian neutrals, at least those who weren't spending the last 20 minutes of the second half trying (unsuccessfully) to start a wave.

The corner was cleared away, but the moment was in itself...

MOSCOW -- On a night that could have ended up being defined by three letters -- VAR -- it's probably a good thing that ultimately it was a "V" and an "A" that made all the difference. "V" -- as in Vidal (Arturo)  -- who kangarooed at the far post to tuck in a cross from the "A" -- as in Alexis (Sanchez) -- past Cameroon goalkeeper Fabrice Ondoa.

There were nine minutes left at the time, and the goal saw a heavily pro-Chile crowd -- the total attendance was 33,492 in a stadium that holds 45,360...

KAZAN, Russia -- Man-of-the-match awards at major tournaments are not renowned for their originality but it still seemed a questionable move when, amid a chaotic finale to Portugal's 2-2 draw with Mexico, FIFA announced that Cristiano Ronaldo had been voted the game's stand-out player.

Ronaldo had not been bad at all; he created one goal and was involved in another and also hit the bar in the first half. But singling him out simply brought him into focus -- where none more was really needed -- and...