Crazy Gang

Aaaaaaand breath. The most dramatic day of World Cup quarter final action since 1986 (the last time both games went to pens), has nudged me out of my blogging lull that had made it appear I had been strangled by a well drilled Moroccan defence. In reality, endless action, life and responsibilities & unwelcome time differences have made me prioritize actually catching the action versus the keyboard. So I’ve a lot to catch up & we’re going to have to do it in double quick time: 

Group stage musings

A wonderful collection of sparkling performances by the top teams with goals galore, underdog shocks aplenty and excessive drama on game 3 days where any and every eventuality seemed possible, epitomized by the 60 seconds of disbelief at the prospect of Costa Rica joining Japan in the round of 16, before being firmly shut down by an ultimately futile German resistance with the damage already done. I haven’t researched too much yet on the format for 2026, but with 48 teams I can’t help but worry that FIFA has already robbed us of similar group drama at the next one as Spain tap in their 10th goal against Trinidad and Tobago (with a 52 yr old Dwight Yorke upfront). 

The United States

An expected showing from all of the main Concacaf participants. I expected Canada to give a good account of themselves and surprise people - and they should have come away with 3 points vs Belgium, but ultimately a lack of cutting edge and defensive naivety resulted in a limited return. Talking of limited, a poor Mexico team woke up 2 1/2 games too late to do anything (although great drama game 3). A rebuild is needed. Which is the opposite for the US. Groundwork has been laid for 2026, a young squad performed adequately and gained valuable experience. It appears it is a North American curse upfront as similar to Canada, the US don’t seem to be able to produce a striker much more adept than promising Canadian youngster Junior Hoilett. The midfield were by far the strongest component, Tyler Adams outstanding, and shout out to Pulisic’s pelvic contusion. But LVG put on a tactical masterclass, shutting down the middle and the US just weren’t good enough to adapt on the field or tactically from the coach. Which made the spontaneous combustion of Alexi Lalas and the Fox Sports team here in the US pre-game excitement to not age well at all. The coverage in 2026 may be utterly unbearable, as it is quite plausible the trend continues and they will be armed with more promising youngsters to supplement the core of this team in 4 years time. 

Engurland

Tomorrow’s game vs France is a huge test. Mbappe looks unstoppable but momentum is definitely building and I’m expecting goals for both teams. The anxiety for the game comes from the shakiness of the first 30 mins vs Senegal and the clear road map provided to France to bring pace and pressing to Harry and the rest of the back line to open us up. Here’s hoping Walker has used the last game to get some of his rustiness out. On the flip side, the hope for the game is raised by the attacking intent, a balanced midfield which I hate to admit but has been improved with Henderson, and an embarrassment of riches to bring on from the bench that France simply don’t have. I’m going 3-2 AET to England and the loss of many fingernails. 

Messy, messy Messi

On to today’s quarter final action. Simply brilliant. Not necessarily in terms of football played but storylines and drama of the highest level. 

In the Brazil game, it seemed everyone accepted Croatia’s fetish for getting some extra game time in and it seemed both teams approached the game as a 120 minute contest from the outset. However narratives were made, match reports written as Neymar finally found his stage and delivered at just the right time. Job done. Alas, while they can adeptly perform a 26 man samba on demand, professionally shutting down a game with 5 minutes to go was beyond them. I still can’t understand how they found themselves in such a stretched defensive shambles to watch Croatia’s first shot on target deflect into the corner. From then on, you knew it was done. Credit to the ageless Modric, whose protection of the ball and spin created the space for their break, and credit to one of the most accomplished executions of a penalty shootout since errr, Croatia in the last 16. Beasts.  All that said, I’m a little downhearted we were robbed of an Arg v Bra semi by a team who didn’t have a shot for 115 minutes, but there you go. 

As for game 2… wow. An unbelievable watch. The entire tournament has been a thrill to watch Messi play like…err Messi! Too many WC’s have seen him play as if the world was on his shoulders. He seems relaxed and at ease, and is playing magnificently. His pass for the first goal a thing of beauty, and his penalty was expertly dispatched. Of course he’s 35 and not charging around the field and eluding players with sheer pace, but that almost adds to the magic that he’s able to walk around the pitch and pick his moments as to when to explode with perfection. Simply the greatest and a true joy to watch. And that was the game, an ode to Messi and a very underwhelming Dutch side who offered nothing at all. Hang on? What’s LVG up to? He’s bringing on Wout, Peter Crouch and John Fashanu… clearly leaning on some detailed research of Plough Lane 1980’s shenanigans, the Dutch went full on LUMP IT mode, with VVD kind of drifting upfield with the same desperation of the most famous staggering drunk impersonator Manuel Neuer. Commeth the hour, commeth the Wout! Scoring as many goals against Argentina as he did for Sean Dyche, he totally changed the game, with huge balls to execute the training ground free kick routine in the last dregs of the 90 minutes (or do we now have to start calling it 100?). Ridicule would have been widespread had that gone wrong. 

Unfortunately, LVG couldn’t complete a late transfer of Harry Soutar from Australia to throw up front also, so abandoned his desperation hoofs and sat back for the entirety of extra time. This void was more than filled with epic levels of shithousery, the Spanish ref completely losing control and outright chaos. How everyone stayed on the pitch is beyond me. I had not caught it at the time, but LVG basically said pre-match that Messi didn’t defend at all when the opposition had the ball. I hope to read in his autobiography in a few years how having the gigantic ego to call out Messi pre-game was a monumental mistake (even if he was kind of right). Clearly the entire Argentinian team played with an intense rage for all things Orange and Messi made a point of yelling at Van Gaal after the game… Ultimately, the best player and the better team progressed, while Emi Martinez evoked memories of the Copa America to suggest the Croatia firing squad may finally meet their shootout match.. 

Ok, I think that’s me caught up. Time to rest up for another intriguing day. Portugal look a different team ex-Ronaldo. However, with extra planes being laid on from Morocco this week, I’m predicting a Spain-esque demise and 1-0 win for Morocco in front of a huge partisan crowd. Either way, as long as the cameras can pan away from Ronaldo on the bench for long enough, it should be another intriguing watch.