So there we have it, the World Cup has come to an end. I must say I have really enjoyed it. The goals, the moments of magic and madness and even the VAR. It's been a real spectacle and I have to say Russia 2018 might be my favourite World Cup. It's been the World Cup of penalties, set pieces and the rebirth of England's love affair with the beautiful game. As with most of my posts/blogs/rambles/whatever you want to call them. There's no great deal of structure or professionalism. Just the ramblings of someone who thinks he knows what he's talking about.
Russia 2018: How I saw it
I think like most people I before the tournament was fairly certain that we'd see a tournament of little surprises. Obviously there's always one or two that surprise you but I felt most of the established teams were strong enough to deal with the threats of the other nations simmering under the surface. Then Germany go out, Argentina make hard work of the group before being knocked out in the last 16, Spain and Portugal make like difficult for themselves from the off and both crash out at the same stage. Even the likes of Poland who maybe aren't the super power that the others are didn't do anything. It was fast becoming the tournament of the new blood. I imagine most people reading this will be aware of how the tournament panned out so I wont go over too much detail but I want to pick out a few matches that really stood out for me. Firstly Portugal 3 Spain 3, an electrifying draw on the banks of the black sea in Sochi. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat trick and Spain at times played some beautiful tiki taka football that had us all thinking it was 2010 again. It was a game to really ignite the World Cup and make everyone sit up and take notice. Germany 2 Sweden 1 (again in Sochi) gave us a stand out moment when Toni Kroos curled his free kick beautifully into the goal to keep the Germans alive. It was a moment that although meant nothing in the grand scheme of things was something to savour. Into the last 16 and France 4 Argentina 3 might be the best game I have seen in a long time. It was as good a football match as you will ever see and is one of those games where I can imagine a child watching and falling in love with football. It's the kind of game you'd want to run out and re create in the back garden or the park. Breath-taking goals and another stand out performance from Kylian Mbappe who in my opinion will go on to be the best player in the World. France have a gem of a player there and PSG must keep him from their point of view however I don't see them doing that beyond next summer. Overall I felt it was a fabulous display of football, even the games that didn't have a lot of goals still had a lot of talking points. VAR has been a major talking point and as someone who is a big fan of the idea I was interested to see how it would go. While there were always going to be slight problems I feel it has been a success. There will always be an element of human error (it's humans controlling the technology) the only way you eliminate that is by tightening up the rules so much and the powers that be aren't going to do that. Take the Neymar penalty against Costa Rica that was overturned, that was exactly what VAR was brought into clear up. CLEAR AND OBVOIUS ERRORS. Yeah there have been some that haven't been so clear and some that might appear clear that didn't go to a full review but I think more that they got more right than not and for a first tournament that is a success. It will get better, the fact of the matter is VAR is needed in the game but that's a debate for another blog. As for the rest of the tournament I think we ended up with the two best teams in the final. France to some maybe didn't quite entertain as much as expected but they won 6 of their 7 games and blew teams away in quick bursts. Pragmatic and deadly lead by Mbappe and Griezmann with the midfield shield of Kante and Pogba who in my opinion gets as much unfair stick as England's Raheem Sterling. While Croatia were the best team of the Group Stage and passed most test they faced, they just simply didn't have enough to deal with that kind of quality for 90 minutes. They were worthy runners up though, Gary Lineker used the phrase "Europe's version of Uruguay" and he was spot on. Overachievers for the size of country. I hope they kick on personally, although some in that team may be coming to the back end of their careers, they will have inspired a nation. France on the other hand will be hard to stop, the talent that didn't even go to Russia will be eager to join this bunch and earn their own recognition.
England
As someone who in all honesty doesn't care a great deal for the England team this World Cup has been interesting. I've seen the country lifted by football, England flags for a short time at least seen as a sign of pride rather than some sinister protest. Prior to the tournament it was 12 years since England had won a knockout game, they'd won 2 in 28 years since the Semi Final appearance of 1990 and had never won a penalty shootout. It was unrealistic to see England progressing as far as they did and all involved deserve immense credit. Gareth Southgate was seen as a 'yes man' appointment following the departure of Sam Allardyce. He's changed that image to a bright coach who's shaped a young England team playing to their strengths. They are far from the finished article but they have progressed further in a major competition than the teams of 02,04,06 and 10. Where plenty of world class talent was among the England team. Did the draw open up for them? Yes but you can only play who you are scheduled to. Could they have done things differently against Croatia in the Semi final? Yes but it's hard to be critical of them when most thought they'd be coming home much earlier. They got through the group with ease before a strange situation against Belgium where it was effectively a reserve game. Colombia offered a good test and the penalty curse was lifted. Southgate's celebrations after to me showed a man who'd exorcized his own personal penalty demon. Sweden was comfortable, never has an England knockout game looked and felt quite like that. Croatia were the best team England had faced at that point, Luka Modric is arguably the best football in the World at the moment. His 2nd half performance changed the balance and England found themselves out. A 4th place finish is great progression two years on from Iceland where I have to be honest in the aftermath of that game I doubted our capability to even reach this World Cup. I also doubted it 14 months ago after we snuck a draw against Scotland. Fair play England, onto Euro 2020.
Coverage
The final thing I'd like to touch upon is the coverage of this year's tournament. The BBC and ITV were once again the two who would transmit all 64 games between them across the UK and both I feel did a great job. I appreciate that to some this isn't important and as long as they can see the game it doesn't matter what channel it's on or who's offering an opinion. A good selection of pundits for both including impressive debuts for Cesc Fabregas, Didier Drogba and Pablo Zabaletta on the BBC. It was so good for Cesc he even came back after he'd officially finished. On ITV they'd added Gary Neville to their usual international team as well as the likes of Patrice Evra and Henrick Larson. Martin O'Neil as well added his usual wit and knowledge. One thing that has been in the news has been the addition of more female pundits and commentators. Why this is a debate in 2018 baffles me but I'll give my thoughts on it. You could have a trained monkey commentating on a game, if they know their stuff and can allow the view to enjoy the game then they are doing their job. I thought Vicki Sparks did well as the first woman to commentate on a game at the World Cup live and I hope more follow. As for the pundits, Eni Aluko was excellent on ITV, good research, well thought out opinions. She was one of the best on their. Put certain others to shame at times. On the BBC Alex Scott was in my opinion the best pundit for most of the games she covered. Again good research and informed opinions. As opposed to Phil Neville's "Shaqiri was a disgrace for Stoke last season" which was based on precisely sod all and lead many Stoke fans to rush to Twitter to defend their Swiss winger and call out Neville for his lazy punditry. We live in a world now where pundits can't just turn up and spout whatever. Phil Neville, Matt Upson and the grandmaster of boring, negative nonsense Mark Lawrenson, Along with Patrice Evra on ITV weren't good enough. It's a phrase often overused but I genuinely believe it, I could have done a better job than these mentioned. Long gone are the days of a pundit being able to spout whatever nonsense without being pulled up on it.
Thanks for reading,
Tom
