By Tim Stannard

Hierro hopes to end pain in Spain with Ronaldo rout

In a way, Spain is doing the sports world a service with this bold managerial experiment that could launch studies in years to come.

Does the person sitting on the bench and boring players to death while pointing at a tactical white board make a blind bit of a difference at a World Cup? Or is the motivation of an iconic shot of the trophy being lifted and the subsequent meaty financial bonus act as the real driving force for a team, no matter who is in charge?

That’s what La Roja will be discovering in a few hours in Sochi with the side’s opening World Cup clash against Portugal, just two days after the country’s federation head fired Julen Lopetegui in what is increasingly looking like a rather petulant fit of pique.

That was certainly the vibe from an irate Florentino Perez who put the blame entirely on Luis Rubiales for the mess when presenting his new coach for Real Madrid in a strangely hostile, grumpy event on Friday.

The media mood from the Spain camp was fairly jolly considering the events of the previous 48 hours. “This looks like a funeral parlor, and tomorrow the World Cup begins,” joked Sergio Ramos, probably because he was just a day away from being able to tag team with Gerard Pique in kicking Cristiano Ronaldo around the pitch, for a blast.

Tune into the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for our daily XTRA Russia 2018 show – all you need to know about the day gone and the one to come.''

Uruguay pull-off late win against Egypt

Egypt and Uruguay kicked off what is the real start to the World Cup – with all due respect to the rampant Russians on Thursday – in the first of three matches. Mohamed Salah started the game from the bench and remained there for the rest of the match in what turned out to be a defeat after a late, late booming header by Jose Gimenez.

Coming up later in the day we have Morocco hosting Iran in what will be a 2-1 victory – the former being an opponent of the US in terms of winning the 2026 World Cup and the latter apparently being an opponent to the USA in general.

A quick bit of rework was needed on the marketing front in Iran with a giant billboard in the capital city portraying the good folk of the country supporting their players in Russia. "Together we are champions: one nation, one heartbeat," was the rousing message. The problem was that there were no women featured. That has since been adjusted. Spain’s 3-0 win over Portugal will wrap up the day.

Head to our Facebook page at the half-time of all games for a truly magnificent experience as our beIN SPORTS team breaks down every game in magnificent 360 smell-o-vision.

Rooney faces Griezmann style Decision Day

TRANSFER TRACKER!

A day later and much of the world is still quite angry at Antoine Tease-mann for a truly ludicrous LeBron-style decision video in which the Frenchman spent half-an-hour talking to his horses and showing how rich he was while deciding whether to be paid tens of millions a year at Atletico Madrid or be paid millions a year at Barcelona.

First world choices to say the least. In the end, the Frenchman decided to fulfill a contract that he had signed. How nice.

Another player who might be making a ‘Decision’ video is Wayne Rooney – and that could be worth watching for a very different reason. The Everton man was supposed to be with MLS outfit, DC United, by now. But reportedly, the Englishman is going to spend the next two weeks musing on what to do. Top tip – go visit some horses.

Arsenal continue to be linked with some interesting moves – Mario Gotze is apparently a target with the Borussia Dortmund man struggling for form and left out of Germany’s World Cup squad despite hitting the winner for his country four years ago.

Need more rumors? Well, the Transfer Tracker on the XTRA has you covered every day at 7PM ET / 4PM PT.

Deschamps lauds Antonie Freed-man for France

Time for a sneaky peak into a super World Cup Saturday which features four…four! World Cup games kicking with France taking on Australia. That clash takes place at 6AM ET and it was a relieved Didier Deschamps talking on Friday easing that his player had “freed his mind for the World Cup, and it's certainly a very good thing for us."

That game is followed by Argentina taking on Iceland – one of the most storied teams in the tournament against the debutantes. Lionel Messi is playing in that one and apparently there is a rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo that can only be ended by the Argentinean lifting the World Cup.

A buoyant Peru are back at the World Cup for the first time since 1982 – with the most of the population of the country in Russia as well – but a Denmark side is looking to poop that particular party. And wrapping things up is Croatia taking on Nigeria. Tune into the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for full predictions of those four feisty football clashes.

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The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. Sports Burst is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.