Mexico’s Raul Jimenez Seizes World Cup Second Chance as Group Play Continues

Round two of the World Cup group stage , let's get rolling. With the greatest of respect to our readers in Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada and Qatar, we aren't exactly bursting out of the traps with the best possible games. Then again, after draws in each of the two opening games, Group B is at least fascinatingly poised with two games left. It really could go in any direction.

After that, it is the turn of another of the hosts and there is plenty for Mexico to look forward to in Guadalajara. If Czechia do not beat South Africa in Group A's early game then a win over South Korea would guarantee them top spot in Group A and afford Javier Aguirre an opportunity to rotate his squad for the final group game. That is not something to be sniffed at in such a gruelling tournament, particularly when one of Mexico's star men has just turned 35.

Raul Jimenez, seizing his 'second chance'

If anyone deserved a dream start to the World Cup it was Raul Jimenez. Less than six years ago the idea of him even playing a game again seemed unimaginable after a sickening head injury suffered when he collided with Arsenal's David Luiz. For a time, it seemed a triumph that he was even back on the pitch. Even now, Jimenez has to wear a skull guard to protect a titanium plate and the fracture that remains.  It need not matter that he was not that good, forced to settle for a substitute role at the 2022 World Cup as he had been four years earlier. Just the fact that he was there qualifies as a sporting miracle.

And yet a move to Fulham brought back something like an approximation of the player who had terrorised English defenses when he first came to the country with Wolverhampton Wanderers. He left Craven Cottage as a free agent at the end of this season with 28 goals from 98 appearances, ranking 35th in the top flight for goals per 90 minutes and averaging 0.4 combined non-penalty expected goals and expected assists. In the toughest league, these are really good numbers.

How Mexico star Raul Jimenez overcame skull fracture, loss of father to see World Cup goal dream come true Chuck Booth

All the more given that the trying circumstances did not end. In March his father Raul Jimenez Vega passed away. Nine months earlier he, like many others in the football world, had been rocked by the death of Diogo Jota, a former teammate of his and "great friend" from their time together at Wolves. So yes, Jimenez deserved his goal, one typical of his career so far as he found space at the back post to head home a cross.

He would, however, have deserved that goal for his performance alone. Jimenez was excellent in his first World Cup start, a comprehensive 2-0 win over South Africa which he ended with four shots worth 0.84 xG. He excelled at linking play together, of his 27 touches 22 of them were what Gradient Sports terms to be only one touch possessions. The ball came to Mexico's No.9 and it moved on, all the more valuable given that no one received more passes in dangerous areas (as is to be expected of a center forward).

In the international game, it is hard to develop intricate build-up play in time for a major tournament. It helps no end if you have a guy at the top of the pitch who can win possession (Jimenez won 60% of his duels), keep the ball and move it on quickly. It was no wonder Brian Gutierrez and Julian Quinones looked so excellent with Jimenez as their reference point.

Speaking after the game, Jimenez described this as his "second chance". He has grasped it.

A set-piece battle between Switzerland and Bosnia?

Through the first round of fixtures, Switzerland and Bosnia and Herzegovina are two of the tournament's leading exponents of set-piece threat. How much of that was down to the particular matchups with their opposition, and how much their own qualities with dead balls? We may well find out when the two sides face off in Inglewood.

We're looking at a sample size of one game so a lot of this could go out in the wash, but the corner kicks Bosnia were launching into the Canada box in their opener felt pretty replicable. Jovo Lukic got his side's only goal in the 21st minute when Sead Kolasinac fizzed a ball to the near post, begging for a flick on that eventually beat the Canadian goalkeeper. They could have had more from deliveries that drilled into the box, Tarik Muharemovic not quite getting over one as he met the ball in a central location. All those chances meant that Bosnia ended that game with 0.95 xG from set pieces alone. That's more than 15 teams' total xG at the World Cup so far.

Switzerland weren't much worse off in set-piece xG terms either, though they did drop 3.2 xG in total on Qatar, 0.79 of it the penalty that Breel Embolo converted. In this case, we're looking at two prime chances more than a great volume of openings, Manuel Akanji and Nico Elvedi both coming close to doing something off whipped crosses by Ruben Vargas. From corners, Murat Yakin's side are trying something more on the lines of England in 2018, a train of attackers around the penalty box, ready to break off in all sorts of directions.

In the set piece above, two head to the center of the box, a trailing runner in Nico Elvedi almost using Manuel Akanji as a moving screen so he can get a move on his defender. Towards the back post, two Swiss players are doing similar, but with Granit Xhaka primed beyond them for a corner that is overhit, as this one is. Ultimately, Ricardo Rodriguez's delivery is not good enough to pick out any of them and a Qatar head meets it first.

Watching Switzerland's set pieces back the sense that there was more on the table for them repeats itself. Vargas knocking a corner short and getting the ball back to him at an awkward height. Another that he puts into a good area but without the pace and movement to really discomfort Mahmud Abunada. Given a few more reps on the training ground Switzerland could be an even better set piece outfit.

Perhaps not against Bosnia though. There is one other factor that might just be the easiest explanation for why these two teams got joy in dead balls: they were just markedly bigger than their opponents. Bosnia have the joint-highest squad at the tournament with Norway and had on average a two-inch height advantage over Canada. Switzerland's squad stand at an average of 185.2cm, barely a shade below Thursday's opponent, but enough to tower over Qatar, the third-shortest team at the competition. Both these teams have good set-piece routines, enough that they are worth keeping an eye on as the tournament progresses. This time around though, expect to see two of the World Cup's big boys cancel each other out.

Add CBS Sports on Google Join the Conversation comments

_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/world-cup-day-8-mexico-raul-jimenez-second-chance-battle-of-set-piece-giants/)._