By David Owen
June 25 – Puma have taken over at the top of the table, but the story of the second round of group matches in Insideworldfootball’s World Cup Battle of Brands was a strong fightback by Nike teams.
After a disappointing start to Russia 2018, six of the ten swoosh-shirted teams managed to win their second-round matches, headed by England, who thumped six past Panama, Brazil, who left it late to notch their first win of the competition, and Croatia, who hammered Adidas’s sluggish Argentina, Lionel Messi and all, 3-0.
This was enough for Nike to win round two of the Battle of Brands, with its teams amassing 63.3% of the points they were fighting for, against 58.3% for Puma and 52.8% for Adidas. The smaller brands present in Russia had a disappointing time of it, with only Hummel’s Denmark avoiding defeat and hence remaining unbeaten at the tournament.
All 32 teams at Russia 2018 have now played two matches, putting us two-thirds of the way through the tournament’s group stage and half-way through the competition as a whole.
As illustrated by the table below, Puma’s reduced contingent is performing most consistently of all and has now dislodged Hummel from top spot. Indeed, no Puma team has yet lost to any other brand, its only reverse coming in what will quite possibly be the only all-Puma clash of the entire competition – Switzerland’s come-from-behind win over Serbia in arguably the best World Cup game so far.
Adidas for the time being retains the edge in the private battle between the two apparel giants. The gap has narrowed considerably, however, with Nike teams having now won more matches than they have lost and scored more goals than they have conceded.
Errea’s Iceland suffered a disappointing defeat at the hands of Nike’s Nigeria, but remain the only minnow other than Hummel to have registered a World Cup point. Umbro, New Balance and Uhlsport have one more round of group matches in which to get on the scoreboard. Thursday’s consolation match in Saransk between New Balance’s Panama and Uhlsport’s Tunisia means that at least one of these brands will do so.
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