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The. Best. Ever

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  As promised in my last post, I left the fawning over Messi to after the final. And just as he had done in EVERY knockout round of the tournament, Messi stood up to be counted, and delivered BIG TIME. Which was very considerate of him to make it very easy to write my final post of 2022 by waxing lyrically about the wonder that is Lionel Messi. Sport in general, and certainly football, is littered with examples of finals being played that struggle to meet the grand expectations bestowed upon it, where two teams nullify each other to the point of it becoming - a still intriguing contest - but more of a chess match. Cagey, tight. No pizzazz.  This was quite simply the best World Cup final of my lifetime. Involving the best player on the planet, playing to the best of his abilities. Dragging his team through to a glorious end. That it also involved his heir apparent who was likely the most miserable recipient of a souvenir match ball at a World Cup is just mind blowing.  It was almost an
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Roc n Roll

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 Well, it’s beginning to feel like the latter stages of the World Cup. England are home and Birchy is turning over in his sleep pondering the fate of Southgate. There’s a comfortable feeling to it that we can finally relax. I agree wholeheartedly, this feels different. No more reaching, no more backs to the wall defending. We went toe to toe with the world’s best and probably deserved to win or at least take the game to extra time. We didn’t. Ruining my extremely close prediction of a 3-2 win AET - had Kane not Waddle’d the pen, I’d say that was a likely outcome. But Brazil didn’t win their game vs Croatia. It happens. But flukey draw and being miles away from all the other teams in the semis (ie 2018) this was not.  Alas, the same outcome though. Home and no silverware. I’m not in England and am able to have pragmatic perspectives on Southgate. There isn’t a magical manager named Jose that could come in and be faultless. Is Southgate perfect? No. Has he been ridiculously more progress
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The Southgate connundrum

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 Ah, that time again. The round of the World Cup after  England have exited. Normally this is the period of the tournament I enjoy the most, as I'm able to enjoy the football without hoping the best teams fail to make our path easier. This time I'm not as excited. Maybe in part, it is an element of hipocrisy - it would be easier now to boycott the climax of the tainted tournament. Indeed this idea did momentarily fleet into my mind, before I realised the raw shit-housery masterclass potential of tonight's Argentina vs Croatia clash. But the bigger reason I'm less excited about this part of the tournament, this time, is because we've gone and blown it. In previous touraments, our national psyche and national press have over-hyped us to a point of frenzy. We usually toil away for a bit, manage to haul ourselves nervously into the knock-out stages, grow wild with enthusiasm before bowing out. That cycle always presents me relief that we can just crack on and watch the
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Crazy Gang

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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
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No surprises

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 The round of 32 is marking a new phase in the tournament, and after the helter-skelter of the group stages, it is going very much to plan so far. With Netherlands, Argentina, France and England all winning in line with broad expectation, the round is looking like it is going to be one of whittling down. I am expecting all of the results to go the way of expectation, and leaving us with a very strong set of quarter finals.  That would see Croatia, Brazil, Spain and Portugal making up the rest of the quarter-finalists - which even without Belgium and Germany is a pretty mighty, mouth-watering prospect. I'd say Japan and Switzerland probably have the best chance of causing an upset, but I think their races are run now. I've already made my plans to go out into the world on Wednesday, when there's finally a day without a game, but certainly by the time football returns on Friday, I will be ready. In fact, thinking about it - maybe I'll use those two days to catch up on the
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Multi-screen

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In a departure from previous tournaments, I've not been embracing the full multi-device set-up for these final group games. So far that is. The frantic experience of last night has changed that - as I hopped madly between channels to see whether Poland would pick up the 2 extra yellow cards that might see them get knocked out, or Mexico on the other channel to get an elusive third. It was compelling stuff for 20 minutes - and certainly enough for me to come prepared tonight, with telly showing the Costa Rica vs Germany game, Japan and Spain battling it out on the tablet, and phone close at hand for any mathemetical calculations or regulations look-ups that might be required along the way. I'll certainly miss having Mexico in the knockout stages, they normally provide good excitement before bowing out in the last 16, no such luck this time. That they have been edged out by the utterly coma-inducing Poland is a travesty. Despite their match against France being billed as a Mbappe
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Poor man's Mbappe

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 Some cracking games the last few days. I'm not going to recap them this evening as I'm getting my game face on for England vs Wales, so thought I'd share my pre-match thoughts. This post therefore has a very short shelf-life and I'll likely look foolish pretty much right after I've hit the publish button. Team selection: not too much to disagree with here. I'm rarely excited about seeing Henderson alongside Rice in our midfield, but I understand why its happened. I'm not massively excited about Stones and Macguire as a CB partnership, but given their form together in the two games so far, I understand why its happened. Swapping out the set-piece threat of Trippier for lockdown punter Walker doesn't massively excite me, but I understand why its happened. The whole selection is a microcosm of the Southgate pragmatism. Its all based in sound logic, but just isn't exciting. Just as with Grealish last tournament, he seems to have begrudgingly come around
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