MOSCOW — The World Cup was thrust into the combustible mix of politics and soccer — dangerous ground that world soccer takes great pains to avoid — as a growing number of disciplinary proceedings and a star player’s threatened retirement brought several sensitive international flash points to the tournament’s doorstep this weekend. The crises involved players for several teams and touched on a range of topics: Kosovar independence, Serbian nationalism, a beloved Egyptian striker and a controversial Chechen leader. At least one of the disagreements could potentially force FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, to issue suspensions in the middle of the tournament — possibly affecting which teams advance out of one of the tournament’s first-round groups. Early Sunday, FIFA announced that its disciplinary committee had opened three more proceedings related to Friday’s testy Switzerland-Serbia match — bringing the total from the game to six. Hours later, it emerged that one of the tournament’s most popular players, the Egyptian striker Mohamed Salah, was considering retiring from his national team in the wake of his interactions with a Chechen politician. [LIVE: Follow our coverage of Uruguay vs. Russia] FIFA’s political problems began when the Swiss players Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri both made the so-called double-eagle symbol with their hands after scoring in a 2-1 victory against Serbia. The gesture, made by linking the thumbs and fanning out the fingers on both hands, is a nationalist sign that many with ethnic Albanian roots make to symbolize the black eagle in Albania’s flag. (Both Xhaka and Shaqiri have roots in Kosovo, an ethnically Albanian province that fought a war of independence against Serb-dominated Yugoslav forces in the late 1990s.)<doc-sep>But then the World Cup came along and with it, a cloudburst of unfiltered national happiness. For the first time in 28 years, the national soccer team, known as the Pharaohs, qualified. And they got there courtesy of Mr. Salah, a goal-scoring machine who has rocketed to global fame in the past year, fueled by the love of his soccer-mad compatriots. Mr. Salah is a soccer magician, the ball seemingly glued to his left foot as he weaves around defenders before smashing it into goal. He mostly plays for his club, Liverpool, where he scored a record 44 goals last season in a blazing performance that catapulted him to the ranks of superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. But in this World Cup, he represents his country, Egypt. The streets of Cairo exploded with joy in October when Mr. Salah scored a dramatic last-minute goal against Congo that propelled the national side into the World Cup finals. Egyptians, riven by so much fear, division and bloodshed since their Arab Spring uprising in 2011, had finally found an undisputed hero. “Salah is the king,” said Moataz Badr, a 16-year-old high school student, as he left a street cafe in the Cairo district of Agouza after a recent game. “King of Liverpool. King of England. King of Egypt.” But sport has little respect for fairy tale endings, and intoxicated hopes that Mr. Salah could propel Egypt to the second round of the World Cup crashed to the ground this week. Yet few Egyptians are giving up on Mr. Salah. In a country where hope is fragile, many see him as a once-in-a-generation star — a moral as well as a sporting force, an ambassador for country and faith.<doc-sep>By Associated Press SARANSK: With nagging injuries, heavy marking from opponents and some simply uninspired play, the top stars of the 2018 World Cup have struggled to deliver on the impossible expectations they carried into the tournament, with one prominent Portuguese exception. Aside from Cristiano Ronaldo, who has all four of Portugal's goals in its two games, many of the biggest names are off to a shaky start. No one has had rougher treatment from the opposition than the world's priciest player, Neymar. During Brazil's opening 1-1 draw with Switzerland, the 26-year-old was fouled 10 times, the highest number on a single player in a single match since the 1998 World Cup, when England's Alan Shearer took 11 challenges against Tunisia. Overall, Switzerland fouled Brazil 19 times , with little intervention from the referee, and it worked — especially on Neymar. Brazilians suggested their opponents were too violent; Swiss midfielder Gelson Fernandes thinks Neymar has another problem. "He just falls too much," Fernandes said after the game in Rostov-on-Don. "Out of these 10, only seven or eight were fouls. We have to stop their star, and he is the star." Neymar felt the effects of the Swiss strategy long after Sunday's match ended, limping out of training Tuesday as he continues to recover from a foot injury he picked up before the tournament. He trained Wednesday and was confirmed as a starter for the match against Costa Rica on Friday. Superstar Lionel Messi did face heavy marking too, but he also had two uninspired performances for Argentina, which is now on the verge of early elimination after a 3-0 defeat against Croatia. Throughout the matches against Iceland and Croatia, disciplined defenders and midfielders stopped Messi from making his famous runs and getting one-on-one chances. Against Iceland, Messi saw his penalty spot kick saved by goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson, and the game ended 1-1. Against Croatia, he crumbled with the rest of the team, which now desperately needs to beat Nigeria in the last round of group stage to have a chance of advancing to the next phase. "Messi is human," Aguero said after the Iceland match. "Sometimes things happen for a reason. We need to be with him. This was a bad day, but he can decide a match at any given moment. Hope he is better against Croatia." Croatia was taking note. "You can't stop him with one player, you have to defend like a team. You saw that with Iceland," defender Dejan Lovren said ahead of the Argentina clash late Thursday. Egypt striker Mohamed Salah set a Premier League scoring record for Liverpool and held all the hopes for a deep run by the Pharaohs in their return to the World Cup, until he injured his shoulder playing for Liverpool in the Champions League final in a clash with Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos, of Spain. Salah sat out the opening 1-0 loss to Uruguay in Yekaterinburg, with coach Hector Cuper hoping to have him fit for Egypt's second match, against Russia. He made his World Cup debut in St. Petersburg and scored from the penalty spot, but only after the hosts led by three goals, and his mobility was clearly affected. He barely touched the ball in the first half and avoided physical contact with Russian defenders during the entire game, and Egypt was eliminated with one match left to play. Ronaldo isn't entirely alone in starting strong. Diego Costa has three of Spain's four goals, Harry Kane has both of England's, and Luka Modric scored one goal and set up the other in Croatia's 2-0 win over Nigeria. And there's plenty of time for others to turn things around. Kylian Mbappe, the 19-year-old striker at the center of the second-most expensive transfer in history, managed just one chance in France's 2-1 win over Australia in Kazan, but scored Thursday against Peru in front of an empty net. His famous runs and dribbles, however, were blocked by Australia's physical game. It's early, and the tournament has seen plenty of stellar play from lesser-known players, but many of the star scorers have work to do.<doc-sep>
The tournament isn’t over yet, but we’re happy to call it: After their miserable defeat to Saudi Arabia on Monday, the winners of the much coveted Worst World Cup Campaign award for 2018 are Egypt. And it’s not even going to be close. First of all, the side lost all their games in the group stage and are going home. This is exacerbated a little by the group they were in, one of the weakest at the competition. OK, Uruguay are usually decent, and Russia have surprised everybody. But there’s no excuse for not beating Saudi Arabia, who cannot defend. Like, at all. To the point that it’s not even clear if they really want to. Now, Egypt dropping out at the group stage isn’t as bad as, say, Spain last time, or France in 2002. They weren’t defending champions; they didn’t have quite such a high bar to crash into. But true disasters are made both on and off the pitch. And in this regard, Egypt set themselves apart. This summer, Egypt have spent much of their time between games at the side of Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic, a man who collects accusations of human rights abuses at a dizzying and horrifying rate. Kadyrov is probably most notorious outside Chechnya for his comments regarding gay men, who apparently don’t exist in Chechnya, but should all be deported to Canada anyway, except they can’t be because he’s allegedly having them rounded up and tortured in concentration camps. Allegedly. But beyond that, there’s ... well, pretty much anything awful you can imagine, and plenty that you probably don’t want to. His Wikipedia page includes the sub-heading “Mixed martial arts tournament involving child fighters”. Do not pop along for a quick meal and some honorary citizenship. It’s tough to blame the players here, since footballers on international duty generally go wherever their FAs tell them to. And presumably, in the moment, Kadyrov is a very hard man to turn down. It’s interesting to note, however, that FIFA’s crusade against the politicization of football won’t prevent Mohamed Salah posing next to a man who allegedly maintains a 300-name murder list. Anyway, apparently Salah’s now decided that he doesn’t particularly enjoy being a bauble for the Egyptian FA and their dubious friends, and is considering retirement from international duty. Hard to blame him, if true, though the FA have denied the reports. But even the rumour is enough to cap the horror show. They’ve lost all their games, they’ve laundered the image of one of humanity’s most notable bastards, and they may have driven their best player out of the side. All in a couple of weeks. As a coda, one of the World Cup’s saddest and strangest records has been preserved. Egypt are one of the most powerful nations in the African confederation. They’ve won the Cup of Nations seven times, more than any other country. But they simply cannot do World Cups. This is — was — only their third, following on from 1934 and 1990. And they’ve never won a single game.