The Turkish attack tried, tried, tried and tried. Nobody tried so hard among the 48 teams that played in the first round of the World Cup.
In total, there were 30 shots against Australian goalkeeper Patrick Beach’s goal, but Turkey died on the beach. They were defeated 2-0.
One problem was the non-surgical attack of the European team. Of the 30 shots, only 8 were directed towards the goal — enough to make Beach the second goalkeeper with the most saves of the round, just one less than Al-Owais, from Saudi Arabia, with 9.
Interestingly, the runner-up in this statistic also didn’t score. The Spanish team had 27 shots against the goal of Vozinha, goalkeeper from Cape Verde, in the only 0-0 in the first round.
Drawn with the Spanish, the Uruguayan team even scored a goal in the 1-1 against Saudi Arabia, but wasted several opportunities — and turned the Arab goalkeeper into the save champion of the round.
Then, with 26 shots on goal, the German team is the only victor in the top 5, and what a victory: 7-1 against Curaçao, the biggest defeat of the World Cup so far.
Rounding out the quintet that finished the most, Switzerland was another wasteful champion. Against the fragile Qatar, there were the same 26 shots as the Germans, but just one goal. In the end, the European team was punished by conceding an equalizer in the final stretch.
