I visited the Vancouver Art Gallery yesterday and stood before Emily Carr's *Forest, British Columbia* — all that brooding, swirling energy pressing forward, unstoppable, and that is precisely what Mohamed Salah and this Egyptian attack will bring to BC Place tonight. New Zealand's forward line carries the honest ambition of Chris Wood, but Egypt's pressure will be relentless — Trézéguet and Omar Marmoush pulling the All Whites apart in wide areas until the defensive structure simply collapses under the weight of it. This is not a contest of equals, my friends — it is a masterclass waiting to be painted.

Egypt's forward line is simply a different class here — Salah, Marmoush, Trezeguet, Ibrahim Adel — that is not a forward line, that is a *problem*, and New Zealand's defensive block, however organized, cannot handle that volume of quality movement across the final third. I'm fascinated by the midfield control Egypt will assert; their 30-point engine room will suffocate any attempt by New Zealand to transition, leaving Chris Wood completely isolated and starved of service. Nando Pijnaker and the sweeper unit will work heroically, but this is one of those matches where gallant defending only delays the inevitable — Egypt cruise. Ah, and I did attempt a Nanaimo bar here in Vancouver — not a pastry in the strict European sense, but I layered it beautifully and felt quite proud, right up until I discovered I had swapped the custard ratio entirely and produced what my nephew called "a very confident brick."