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 progressively successful than past managers? Absolutely. And we long forget the embarrassments of defeats to Iceland, and a failure to capitalize on the golden generation of Beckham et al. I do get the sense he’s still learning. Not reverting to a back five vs France felt good. Similarly, not overreacting to a drab 0-0 vs USA was measured tournament management when the groans were starting to creep in. Just imagine the uproar had we lost our opening game vs Saudi Arabia….
Which leads me nicely to our first finalists. Having played knockout football since game 2, my pre-tournament pick Argentina just get better and better. I’ve hoped at prior tournaments that Messi can crown his brilliance with a WC. It hasn’t happened, he’s just not got into gear. This time is different. Argentina have had better players at other tournaments, but the balance of the team now is excellent- all working for the team.
Two players have caught my eye the last couple of games. Alvarez clearly showing the premier league is screwed even if Haaland gets injured. It’s the ultimate dream of a pre-teen boy to score a goal in a WC semi final, but it’s another to actually score the goal as if actually in a U13 game. That’s the only way to describe the high speed, bull in a china shop, ricochet bonanza that was his first goal yesterday as the Croatia back line melted like an ice cream in a Qatari car park.
Molina at right back is a beast. All hail Messi’s miraculous no look pass in the quarters, but it’s to no one if Molina doesn’t make the run, neatly controls and finishes like a striker. Similarly, look back at the Alvarez U13 goal. Molina charges the entire full field and drags a couple of defenders to help create the chaos. Lovely stuff.
I’ll keep my powder dry for fawning over Messi until after the final. I don’t need to say anything, it’s just obvious to anyone watching the game, none more so as he led Gvardiol a merry dance for goal #3.
So onto semi number two, and the “surprise” package Morocco. I say surprise, but totally called the 1-0 win in the quarters, just had a feeling. Now similar to England in 2018, I think there’s going to be an element of them being happy to be there. And this will be a stretch too far. France 2-0 is my prediction, but this is a team who have lit up the tournament with their energy and seen off Belgium, Spain and Portugal. Not too shabby. I just think, with Griezmann pulling the strings, France will have the quality at the key moments to get the job done.
My favourite game from 2018 was the Argentina v France game. As long as the result is reversed, I would be ecstatic to see a repeat of that kind of craziness in the final and will have me getting very excited for Sunday…. Let’s see if Morocco have one more shock in them to spoil that narrative. It certainly wouldn’t be down to lack of support, and indeed, a win for them would make the final one between two teams with the largest support in the stands & would be a spectacle also. So we really can’t lose. Just relax and enjoy.
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