World Cup 2018 diary 5 – And so Argentina survived and Lionel Messi shone, at least for 45 minutes at World Cup 2018, scoring a terrific goal and dragging his team towards qualification.
By Dave Bowler
Nigeria 1 Argentina 2 (Group D)
When he took his team into the dressing room at 1-0 up at the interval, they looked well on their way to the win they needed. But the second half was a very different kettle of fish indeed. The young Nigerian side took the game to a suddenly nervous Argentina. They got back on terms with a VAR-awarded penalty, Victor Moses slotting in with no problem at all.
With four minutes to go, Argentina looked doomed. Then, from out of nowhere, Marcos Rojo decided to play centre-forward. He slotted one in like he’d scored 30 international goals rather than three, and Argentina are through. It was desperately harsh on Nigeria, who were probably the better team over the three games. But in the big moments, the big teams can pull games out of the fire.
Are Argentina battle weary?
That comes from years of playing in huge fixtures. From playing against the other top internationals. That is where the likes of Nigeria come up short. They need to play South American and European opponents more often than once every four years. Also, they have to play them in games that matter.
The romantic narrative said that Argentina would now put all their problems behind them. Would they power to the title on a cloud of Messianic magic? After three games, there were too many things wrong with this side for them to do that. There were too many players underperforming, who have gone to one World Cup too many. France wouldn’t be losing sleep ahead of their last 16 tie.
Iceland 1 Croatia 2 (Group D)
Croatia topped the group with victory over Iceland, confirming the sense that they were comfortably the class act in the top half of the draw. A meeting with Denmark was their reward, and you could only see one winner there.
Denmark 0 France 0 (Group C)
The game between France and Denmark emphasised the gulf that exists between those whose living depends on the game and those who watch it for entertainment. The two sides played out the dreariest of 0-0 draws. They barely laid a glove on one another. Social media lit up with accusations that this was 1982 and the Germany-Austria stitch-up all over again.
I doubt that this one had any of the more sinister overtones of 36 years ago. But what happens when you have a game where a draw suits both teams? And when the reward is a place in the next round of the World Cup? It is naive in the extreme to expect the teams to go at one another hammer and tongs and risk all.
That’s even more true if you get into the second half all square. Professionals are going to cast a glance at one another, exchange nods, and agree to keep what they’ve got. Why would you do anything else? “Stuff the watching billions, we want to play in the next round of the World Cup”.
Australia 0 Peru 2 (Group C)
As it happened, the Denmark vs France result didn’t matter after all. Australia busied themselves in getting well beaten by Peru. It was a nice story on which to end the Peruvians’ participation in the competition. They and their ebullient support had contributed plenty. Scoring their first World Cup goals since 1982 was due reward. For Australia, it was time for a rethink.
A new team needed to emerge as old names left the stage. A new approach was required. The negative way they played in the competition was no longer excusable. They’d been at enough World Cups now to be growing up on the international stage and showing a bit more. Time to adopt some of the aggressive, attacking style that has served their cricketers so well, perhaps?
Korea Rep 2 Germany 0 (Group F)
When Joachim Low was given his new contract through to 2022, the German football federation said they were aware a transition would be needed after the competition and that he was the man to oversee it. As it turns out, that transition should have started a whole lot earlier. There were German internationals in Russia who should never have got anywhere near the World Cup. This included Muller, Khedira, Ozil and plenty of others. For them, this one was a competition too far. Even Neuer had a nightmare.
The warning signs were there in the friendlies leading up to the World Cup. Germany struggled for goals, never mind results. But Low trusted in the old guard to enjoy one final hurrah. It turns out that it came in the last seconds against Sweden.
Veterans fail to save Germany
Against South Korea, they had plenty of the ball and did precisely nothing with it. There was no thrust to their attacks, no venom in their forward play. Neither was there any sign of a new goalscorer emerging to fill the World Cup boots of Klose. Instead, they were laboured, predictable, sluggish, lacking in fitness, insipid, and, understandably, increasingly nervous.
Although they only needed to win to progress, they never looked as if they believed they would. They never looked assured. As the game went on, they were increasingly panicked. Had the South Koreans been more clinical themselves, they’d have put the game away sooner. Two injury-time goals added insult to injury for the Germans. A long inquest was looming for Die Mannschaft that wasn’t going to be pretty.
Mexico 0 Sweden 3 (Group F)
In a rare outbreak of footballing justice, Germany’s failure rescued Mexico. They would otherwise have been on their way home after they were thrashed 3-0 by Sweden. The Scandanavians responded magnificently to that late blow from the Germans in their previous game. They absolutely wiped the floor with Mexico in the second half.
Mexico had played such enthralling football in their first two games. Unfortunately, they ran out of steam in this one. So the Swedes went on the rampage in the second half. It might need to be whispered, but they were not weakened by an absent Zlatan. The Swedish team as a whole has come into its own and looks a better all-round proposition. Like plenty of other nations, they’ll be looking at the remaining 15 and thinking, “nothing much to worry about here”.
Serbia 0 Brazil 2 (Group E)
Brazil did what they had to do against Serbia to top their group and earn a tie with Mexico. They were functional again, it’s true. But there was a sense of improvement about them as they dispatched Serbia, a 10-minute wobble in the second half notwithstanding. PhIlippe Coutinho looked the key to their fortunes as they went deeper into the competition. This was despite Neymar desperately trying to make it all about him.
Coutinho had a vision and a deftness of touch that is Brazilian through and through. He was also the consummate team man, everything he did being for the benefit of the collective rather than himself. Along with Luka Modric and Kevin de Bruyne, he looked like the man who could elevate a mundane competition into an art form in the knockout phase. Could he turn Brazil’s efforts at Russia 2018 into something above the ordinary?
Switzerland 2 Costa Rica 2 (Group E)
With all due respect, I doubt anyone from the Swiss side is likely to do that, through to take in Sweden after a 2-2 draw with Costa Rica. They’ve moved through the competition solidly enough, efficient, reliable, metronomic but they are not going to set the pulses racing.
But who knows, if they remake “The Third Man” in a few years, maybe Harry Lime will have to add “the World Cup” to the cuckoo clock in the list of Swiss accomplishments. Stranger things have happened. Ask Joachim Low.
Japan 0 Poland 1 (Group H)
Senegal 0 Colombia 1 (Group H)
England 0 Belgium 1 (Group G)
Panama 1 Tunisia 2 (Group G)
If only he wasn’t unavoidably dead, Kafka would have had a whale of a time with World Cup 2018 and the tangled web of incomprehensibility that the new order was creating.
Once upon a time, you actually had to play football matches to separate equal teams. These were days when travel was tougher, when footballers were supposedly less fit. If sides found themselves locked together at the end of the group stage, they went off and had themselves a play-off game.
In these modern times, of course, such minor trifles over who is the best team are of no importance. Especially when trying to find something as inconsequential as the champions of the world. What matters is the primacy of television schedules. Nothing, repeat nothing, can interfere with those.
A tough break for Senegal
At World Cup 2018, Senegal finished level in all important respects with Japan. They had the same points, goal difference, and goals scored. They were sent home from the World Cup for the deplorable offence of having a marginally worse disciplinary record. No, really.
First off, we can debate endlessly just what a worse disciplinary record is. Football is a game that’s obsessed with “the show”. Note how all the rule changes over the last 20 years have been implemented to increase the number of goals. Isn’t it more fun to watch a team that scythes into every blood-curdling tackle than watching one for whom it’s all about being nice to each other?
What gets more bums on seats, Game of Thrones or Antiques Roadshow? We’re not talking about real life here. We just want some blood and guts, thanks. Give the trophy to the team with the most red cards, and if they’ve severed the head of a centre-forward on their way, they can keep it an extra four years.
The Bitterest Pill
The sour taste is worse yet for Senegal. They had a first-half penalty overruled by VAR. Meanwhile. Japan and Poland played out the last few minutes of their game by simply passing the ball amongst themselves. Japan knew that by not conceding – nor tackling – they would likely go through. That would not necessarily have been the case had Japan known they were facing a play-off with Senegal if things were tied up.
This is no way to run a railroad as they used to say. Surely it has to be addressed for the future? In the meantime, FIFA can think themselves lucky that Senegal, a nation with a healthy dose of perspective about football’s real importance, were involved. There are plenty of nations, including some that didn’t make it this time around, who would have been on the phone to their lawyers the minute the final whistle blew.
Belgium top group after beating England
England and Belgium duly completed their qualification formalities. Belgium won a game that both sides valiantly tried to lose to avoid Brazil. We were down to the last 16 at last. Fifteen days of football to essentially get rid of Germany and Poland. It left us with a knockout phase that lacked an outstanding side. None of the pre-tournament favourites stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Much would depend on the vagaries of injuries and suspensions, as well as a bit of luck with the draw. If you had to pick a winner at this point, they would all come from the top half of the draw. Brazil and Belgium looked the most likely. France and Uruguay were showing potential. But would they punch each other out, exhausting each other before the end? That would leave a space for Spain, Croatia, or England to nip in. Or maybe Colombia, even?
Next up, the round of sixteen at World Cup 2018
Sir Alf Ramsey: England 1973 focuses on the final full year of Sir Alf’s reign as England boss. The nation that won the World Cup in 1966 failed to even qualify for the 1974 tournament. Ramsey was suddenly a man out of time, both on and off the pitch. The failing fortunes of the England team mirrored those of a post-Empire nation heading for its own fall.
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