The international break was supposed to start with a marquee match-up from South America, but the weather gods had something entirely different in mind: monumental rains at the Monumental.
OFFICIAL: Argentina-Brazil #WCQ postponed for tomorrow due to torrential rain https://t.co/7ipu8YacyR pic.twitter.com/TDsjOuT3gy
— FIFAWorldCup (@FIFAWorldCup) November 12, 2015
Just a bit wet, you might say. Certainly no conditions to conduct any sort of competitive action. The match now adds to an already super busy Friday match calendar from a Chelsea perspective, as well as reducing the rest time between both teams' matches during this international break. On Tuesday, Brazil will be taking on Peru, while Argentina will travel to Colombia who found a late equalizer against Chile on Friday to manage a very credible 1-1 draw (neither Falcao nor Cuadrado were called up due to injury and suspension, respectively).
IMPOSIBLE. Así está el estadio Monumental en Buenos Aires. Se especula que #Argentina y #Brasil jugarán mañana pic.twitter.com/2ZCBo2RLKe
— Pasión Fútbol (@PasionFutbolFC) November 12, 2015
The only other Chelsea involvement in Friday's internationals was young Bertrand Traoré for Burkina Faso, who began their journey to the 2018 World Cup in the second round of CAF qualifiers. Africa revamped their qualifying process for this tournament to include two preliminary rounds rather than just one as in 2014, which means that every nation first has to navigate a two-legged elimination game before reaching the qualifying groups. Awesomeness? Weirdness? Madness? This. Is. Africa!
Burkina Faso, as the higher seeds, were away in the first leg to Benin. Bertrand Traoré started and played the full 90 minutes in the 2-1 loss. I'm assuming the away goals rule is in effect, so at least they got that courtesy of the exquisitely named Préjuce Nakoulma and some rather horrendous goalkeeping. Benin's first goal came from the penalty spot (converted by a man we're all familiar with, Stephane Sessegnon) thanks to what looked very suspiciously like a dive in the corner of the area, while their winner had a large helping hand thanks to plenty of hilarious defending.
Here are some highlights, filmed with a potato. Good luck telling who's who.