World Cup 2022

I would guess there's not a single bracket anywhere that had Japan beating Germany and Spain and losing to Costa Rica.

 

For Mitro’s sake, I would’ve liked to see Serbia go through. For our sake, I’m glad he now has three weeks to rest up.

 

My thoughts exactly. I told my wife that it’s good to see Serbia going for it but he needs to be ready for Boxing Day.

 

The WC has a lot of parallels w/March Madness. Early upsets, great stories, and surprises making the Sweet 16…then the blue bloods take over. 5 round of 16 games played, 5 heavy hitters advance (Brazil should make it 6 for 6 in a few min).

 

What everyone else said. Lots of drama at the end of group stage play. I’ll be surprised if it’s not all chalk from now on. Did the the Japanese even practice kicks from the spot after extra time? If they did it sure didn’t look like they spent much time on it. Either that, or Croatia did a helluva job scouting their penalty takers. How do you get that far and look so bad at what should be the easiest shot to make in the game? I’ve shot video of Louisville City FC practicing penalties and I can tell you almost unequivocally they would have fared better than Japan did today. Inexcusable at this level.

 

The Brazilians did a lot of scoring and a lot of dancing against a clearly outmatched South Korean side this afternoon. We’ll see if they’re still jovial after Friday morning’s clash with defending runners up Croatia. I’d give the Croats a better than average chance of beating A Seleção, one of the pre-tourney favorites. I’m not sold on Brazil’s defense yet, although it’s been pretty good. Croatia, and specifically Modric, have a way of slowing excitable sides, kind of like the Dean Smith four corners Carolina before the shot clock. Celebrate appropriately…don’t show up or embarrass your opponent. What goes around comes around. Richarlison is making his English employers, past and present, look like they’re wasting his talents. If Antonio Conte is paying attention, he’d best redeploy Richarlison into a more central striking role. Get him the damn ball people.
Unless, perhaps, you’re Kylian Mbappe. I don’t believe France is as good as they were four years ago without Kante and Pogba, but they may not have to be. Mbappe is as close to unstoppable as a footballer can be. But Deuce called him out on something that could jump up and bite the French: Mbappe “cheats” toward the opponent goal on his side. A lot. Isn’t diligent in tracking back at all. Eventually that comes back to bite you.

 

Wow..incredible drama. Brazil brain cramps and 6 guys are caught in Croatian half w/barely any time left, give Crotia credit (Luka Modric even at 37 is the heartbeat) they took advantage, and you knew the shell shocked Brazilians were toast in PKs.

Argentina blew the 2 goal lead, but I’ve never seen a free kick executed like that (that’s all scouting/film work by the Dutch) to tie it. Argentina at least had another 30 to regroup and almost won it multiple times before PKs. From the They Don’t Pay Me Enough Dept.; The ref trying to keep both teams on the rails (17 yellow cards) in as feisty an affair as I can remember.

 

Regardless of how today’s second day of quarterfinals go, you gotta agree that Morocco
has been the surprise nation thus far. A bunch of no-names, aside from Scum’s Ziyech, getting it done. Refreshing.

 

I really want to root for Morocco, but I can't. I'm channeling my inner Grinch here, but the issue is that I can't stand the noise, Noise, NOISE from their supporters! The constant boo-birds while the other team has possession is just grating for me - I hate it as much as those damn vuvuselas from South Africa 2010. So I'll be pulling for France in the next round to at least save the final from the noise. Or maybe the Christmas season will make my Grinch heart grow between now in the semi-final so that I end up loving the whistling - but I doubt it!

 

You just had to bring up those damn vuvuzelas, didn’t ya?’ I hadn’t really noticed the booing during opponent possession, but I guess you’re right. To me, it’s no more irritating than the mass chorus of whistling, common in many European matches during similar passages of play. It would be comparable, maybe even well beyond comparable, to Leicester City’s 2015 Premier League championship, should the Moroccans accomplish it. Few would have picked Croatia to reach the final four years ago but, given their history and talent level, it may not have been that big of a surprise. History shows that most of the biggest WC upsets have occurred during the group stage…no real surprise there. The biggest knockout stage upset ever appears to be West Germany beating a heavily favored Hungarian side (yep, Hungary) in the 1954 final at Berne, Switzerland 3-2. Hungary had dispatched the West Germans 8-3 in the group stage, but the German manager started his second stringers to save his first stringers for their next match against the Turks, which they won handily to advance. The West Germans bore little resemblance to today’s reunified side, having only been reinstated before the 1950 World Cup after the end of WWII. As we’ve all been told, ad infinitum, by the TV mouthpieces, this is the farthest any African side has advanced in the planet’s most watched event. They’ve already raised the bar for their continent to a heretofore unthinkable, unreachable height. There’s no guarantees that what they’ve done will happen again in any of our lifetimes. First time high level atmosphere inhabitants routinely come a cropper of some calamity, whether it be through inexperience, pressure, or just plain bad luck. And the list of truly shock upsets in the semis at the World Cup is, well, non-existent. Still, I will respectfully disagree with my right honourable friend and root for the underest of underdogs this week. Since our lads are out, I have little to no interest in who might win amongst Croatia, Argentina or France, although the prospects of the Croats winning their first or Messi finally getting the Cup with Argentina are intriguing.
Not intriguing enough, however, to imagine the bedlam that would ensue at the Lusail Stadium and in such exotic places like Rabat, Marrakech and CASABLANCA! The ensuing festivities would qualify automatically for the Party To End All Parties status.

 

Much love to the Moroccans and their supporters. They brought it every time they took the pitch and wrote a new chapter for African soccer. At the end, they fell victim to what usually befalls otherwise very good sides, the lack of one or two world class goal scorers.
France and Argentina do not have that problem. I still think both are suspect defensively, but I doubt you’ll find many takers for a 1-nil scoreline on Sunday morning. You must give the edge to France. Not only have they just been here, they’ve got more weapons to augment the insane talents of Kylian Mbappe. But…the Argies have the greatest footballer of our generation, arguably of all time, and he’s a man on a mission. Whether or not Lionel Messi can get his nation over the hump for their 3rd World Cup, and first since 1986, he’s settled any lingering debate about his superiority to the “other” Ronaldo. Comparing Portugal and Argentina during the respective reigns of each player, CR7 has more goals, being two years older, and more international trophies, with Portugal having won the 2016 Euros and the inaugural 2018-19 UEFA Nations League. Messi’s Argentina famously won the 2021 Copa America, their first major trophy in Leo’s tenure with the national team. They were runners up in 2007, 2015 and 2016. And, of course, they were runners up to Germany in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The Portuguese have never won the World Cup in 8 finals appearances, finishing 3rd in 1966, well before Ronaldo’s 2003 debut.
Does Messi have enough magic and adequate team talent support to lead La albiceleste to an upset of the defending champs? He just might. Some of his Argentinian teammates have somewhat come of age during this tournament. They’ve spearheaded an overall team improvement that’s pretty evident since they reached the knockout stage. You can’t shut down Messi without one of his mates doing you in. The Croats learned that harsh lesson by being denied a rematch with the French.
I expect France to prevail, but I’ll be rooting for the amazing diminutive wizard wearing the #10 in sky blue and white stripes. He’s the best I’ve seen since I became a soccer fan.

 

We’ll find out how much chutzpah this edition of Les Bleus has after that first half. Wow. Perfect plan and perfect execution by Argentina. What kind of odds would you have gotten on this match’s first non-injury subs being Marcus Thurman and Randal Muani for Ousmane Dembele and Olivier Giroud IN THE 41ST MINUTE? Or ZERO shots by the defending champs in the first half? Fair to say it won’t end 2-nil. Can the Argie defense hold? History says no, but we’ll see. Going to be a very interesting second half.

 

Wow ain’t gonna cut it.
In fact, no words are gonna cut it.
Except these.
Messi is the G.O.A.T.

 

Great game. Argentina getting the W despite their best efforts to lose it. Fun watch for the neutral.

 

I went into this a neutral, but found myself rooting for Argentina even before France evened the match. They came out with more spirit and were more fun to watch. Was anyone on the French side showing the range of emotions that Di Maria showed? Crying when he scored! Crying when France drew level! Crying and crying and crying when they won! What an amazing finish to the game and for the international career of Messi. I'm also happy that Martinez, who's worked away anonymously as a solid goalkeeper for most of his career, finally got some adulation.

And as for this memorable event being held in Qatar, I'm consoling myself with the following point of view: I went into the World Cup selection for 2022 having an uninformed but generally positive view of Qatar - Weren't they supportive of the US in the Gulf? Didn't they manage a nice airline? Well, they revealed their true colors during this event. That was the real Qatar all along. They may have wanted the World Cup to raise their stature in the world, but for me (and I'm sure many like me) the opposite happened. They got the spotlight they wanted, but I didn't like what I saw. Time will tell if the World Cup ends up being a net positive for Qatar.

 

Don, I watched the entire tournament via Telemundo on Peacock. I don't understand much Spanish, but hearing the emotion in the voice of Andres Cantor (an Argentine himself) was certainly better than whatever was being said on Fox.

 

Have been playing in same Fantasy Football (pointy-end as HD would say) league w/college buddies for nearly 30. Two of us follow world Footy (poor guy is a Aston Villa fan), and even the other 10’guys on our group text were commenting on how great a sporting event that was. From the second France got the PK till the end was insanity.