NEW DELHI: Hello and welcome to OFFSIDE, a new daily column on the football World Cup where we will track the highs and lows of the day, or night gone by, and what to expect in the next round of matches.In BBC’s United, Jimmy Murphy, Manchester United’s assistant coach during the Busby Babes era, played by the brilliant David Tennant, explained football better than anyone has ever heard: “Football is a simple game. You win the ball. You pass the ball. You score a goal. All else is embellishment. Thank the good lord we don’t embellish on natural beauty. The ball’s round to (go) around.” That was said long before this World Cup, where war, logistics, hydration breaks and immigration checks have added a layer of complexity to the beautiful game.Yesterday was a Day of Draws, which saw all four matches end in stalemates, something we are told last happened in 1958. But as any football fan knows, not all draws are equal. Iran vs New Zealand was a lively affair, as were Saudi Arabia vs Uruguay and Belgium vs Egypt. Spain vs Cape Verde, on the other hand, put severe marks on the question of playing tiki-taka with more mediocre players and, at times, was borderline soporific.First off, Uruguay vs Saudi Arabia.The latter remain the only team to have beaten world champions Argentina in 2022 and hoped to claim another South American scalp. Uruguay were anything but passive and had 29 shots, with Saudi keeper Al-Owais making nine saves, six in the second half, though his goalkeeping error did gift Uruguay the goal and the point. But more than the match, the bigger talking point was the horde of empty seats in Miami, which FIFA tried to explain as the result of a highway crash, but which could also be blamed on iShowSpeed haranguing A-listers in VVIP areas.But the true talking point came after the match when Uruguay manager Marcelo Bielsa, the man who inspired Pep Guardiola and is known as El Loco, ranted at reporters who dared ask him about his portrait, where he is simply staring down: “I’m not a model. I don’t have to give any explanation, the picture was taken the way it was taken. Should I also explain why I don’t look to the people who are speaking to me at this moment?”Going further to question the inquisitiveness of modern journalism, he ranted: “There is a limit in terms of what we need to explain. If I’m wearing glasses, why am I wearing glasses? You look somebody in the eye, why do you do that? There is nothing wrong about wearing glasses or looking into somebody’s eyes or looking down.”Speaking of models, the Spain vs Cape Verde match, like Arsenal vs PSG, would make Big Pharma very happy because it was a model of boredom that could be used to make soporific sedatives. The hero, though, was Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha, who stood like a rock, making seven saves against the storied Spanish side that are the reigning European champions and one of the tournament favourites.Cape Verde is an archipelago of 10 volcanic islands off the coast of West Africa and employed a rather odd recruitment tactic that is more corporate than coaching: LinkedIn. That was the medium of instruction to reach out to former banker Roberto “Pico” Lopes, who was born in Ireland and played for Shamrock Rovers. When he received his first message from the Cape Verde team, like most of us, he ignored it before realising that it was a real call to action to turn up for the country of his father’s birth. Not many players from the League of Ireland turn up for the World Cup, but Pico was there and made a crucial block in the 89th minute, and will be thankful he didn’t block the sender on LinkedIn. Speaking of Spain, since their last World Cup goal against Japan in 2022, they have managed 49 shots and completed 2,500 passes without scoring.Belgium vs Egypt, meanwhile, was a match that could have been headlined: Large Belgian man ruins King’s birthday party. Salah turned 34, set up Egypt’s opener and looked briefly like he was about to hand his home nation their first World Cup win before former Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku crashed his party. No European has more international goals than Lukaku other than Cristiano Ronaldo, and it looked like he had added another one to his tally after coming on 20 seconds earlier before it was chalked up as an own goal.The liveliest football of the day came in Iran vs New Zealand, which saw Sarpreet Singh become the first Indian-origin footballer to start a World Cup game for New Zealand. Iran, which has the misfortune of playing a World Cup hosted by a nation that it is at war with. The “most oppressed team”, a term that evokes a debating hall in a liberal arts institution discussing who is most oppressed, will have to immediately leave for their base in Tijuana from Los Angeles, but not before they played out a pulsating draw against New Zealand, whose all-black kit was very reminiscent of their cricketing gear.New Zealand went ahead twice thanks to Chris Wood, who made both assists to Elijah Just, who just kept calm and scored. Iran had to play their match without their media officers, their analysts or even their federation president. They also had to deal with many Iranian-Americans who want the downfall of the current regime and want the current team to lose, since they view the team as being “propaganda for the current regime”.But all in all, it was the best match of the day, and if the fates are cruel, there is an outside chance the two could end up meeting on July 3 in Texas. There is also another chance that the US could face its former colonist England on July 4, which would really give a nice twist to America’s 250th Independence Day celebrations.But let’s not look that far into the future because we have some biggies tomorrow.First up is France vs Senegal, at 12.30am IST on June 17, which will immediately bring up memories of 2002, when the plucky African nation handed Les Bleus one of their most shocking upsets in footballing history, four years after they won the Cup. Senegal coach Pape Thiaw was on the bench that day and he would love a repeat, but this will be a difficult ask given the amount of talent Les Bleus can call upon. Didier Deschamps will have to pick from Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Michael Olise, Bradley Barcola, Rayan Cherki, Désiré Doué, Marcus Thuram and Jean-Philippe Mateta for his starting line-up. Mbappe, in particular, will be raring to show off his dictatorial tendencies, a joke only football Twitter aficionados will get, after a downcast season with Real Madrid.The late-night fixture of Iraq vs Norway, at 3.30am IST on June 17, will see Iraq having to deal with modern football’s version of a weapon of mass destruction, namely the big Thor-like object called Erling Haaland, who has scored 16 times in eight matches and is approximately the size of Saddam Hussein’s felled statue.Of course, Iraq’s coach is the Aussie Graham Arnold, who has seen his team survive war, penalties, playoffs and hounding by the FBI. Arnold has made some remarkable adjustments, putting a remarkable spin on the left-right debate by packing his left side with English-speaking players and his right side with Arabic speakers.For a lot of Bengalis, though, the World Cup begins properly with Argentina vs Algeria, at 6.30am IST on June 17, when Lionel Messi will look to make his 200th appearance for La Albiceleste. The defending champions will take on a team that will certainly look to upset the applecart and pull a Saudi Arabia, something that coach Scaloni has been quite vocal about.And finally, the morning match, at 9.30 am IST on June 17, will give Manchester United fans some vivid flashbacks as Ralf Rangnick’s Austria take on Jordan in the final fixture of the day.So that is the menu after the Day of Draws: France trying not to relive 2002, Iraq trying not to be eaten by Haaland, Argentina trying to begin another Messi chapter without stepping on a Saudi-shaped banana skin, and Austria trying to prove that the Rangnick experience works better outside Old Trafford. The ball is still round. The tournament, thankfully, is already refusing to stay that simple.