This is my new series covering the World Cup. I will pick talking points from each gameday to write about. I will most likely write one or two daily posts until the final. Today, I will be talking in general about last night's matches as only a few things happened worth highlighting.
Some Teams Are Already Out
South Korea, Cameron, Ghana, Uruguay, Tunisia, Belgium, Qatar, Wales and many more teams are already out, not in the technical term for some, but in terms of having a chance to win even if they miraculously advance to the next round. Some teams went into this tournament ill-prepared to a funny extent.
Gullible mistakes were made by these teams on and even off the pitch in terms in Belgium's infighting and Wales odd aim to join the "OneLove" fight along side England and Germany. You can't be this ill-prepared and do well, and you can't be this distracted off the pitch and expect to win matches. When I hear coaches and players say stuff like "We have discussed taking the knee" or "We talked about wearing the armband", or anything within those lose lines, the questions that comes to me is "When?".
Like, when did all the players sit down and have a chat about those things? Marcelo Bielsa once gathered journalists and explained how a single report about a team could take days to prepare for, therefore, having time to discuss these things means that you took away from time you could have spent preparing. These talks should hours when taken seriously, unless, they weren't really discussed and it was the players being told what to do as a protest to being told what they should do?
The group stage can be defined by two words, efficiency and focus, without one, you might not win, but without neither, you will definitely lose.
Brazil's Unthreatened
Brazil's offense without Neymar wasn't the best, it didn't look in control, and it definitely wasn't as scary and tough to face as many hyped it to be. However, their defense might actually be what wins them the World Cup.
Despite facing stubborn teams so far, Brazil's sheets are still clean. Their keeper wasn't even threatened, and their keeper is Alisson among all people. Everyone is focused on Brazil's attacking names but their defense is a weapon that we still haven't seen the best it can offer. Switzerland and Serbia combined had zero shots on Brazil's goal. This might be Brazil's year once more.
Portugal Still Lacking That Umph
Once Portugal won and once again I feel something missing in this team. Uruguay has come off as a dead team this tournament so far, so I was expecting a better performance from Portugal.
I am not saying Portugal should have won 6-0, but I am saying that maybe better control of the midfield was required, especially when you have such quality in the midfield. I am still not filled with faith in having both Felix and Cristiano on the pitch at the same time.
Talking about Cristiano sounds like a broken record but I think @acidyo summed up my problem with him perfectly in this tweet yesterday.
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There were more than a few times when either Bruno, Felix, or Silva run to the side and have to wait for someone to be in the box. Cristiano is only in the box when after the entire Uruguayan team is back, and by then it is usually too late. Unless you're facing out-of-shape Uruguay, such a performance won't get you far.
Once again, Cristiano creates a problem out of nowhere with the goal controversy. You simply can't just keep doing that, it's childish and immature. But, that's nothing new for Cristiano, he's always been this way. It's just getting to a very sad point. To settle the debate though, there's a technology used to determine whether it was touched or not, not just another man watching the goal so that whole farce was meaningless.
Overall, Portugal might want to try out different tactics in their third match which don't involve Cristiano, or even Felix if I am being honest. But, I actually believe Portugal can become the new top force in a few years.
All the talk about Cristiano leads me to my next and last point:
Football Doesn't Owe Anyone the World Cup
Whether Cristiano or Messi fans, lately I have heard and read a lot of arguments saying that Messi deserves to win the World Cup or Cristiano is owed the World Cup, but that's just wrong.
I would actually love to see Messi win the World Cup with Argentina, the reason I didn't do a prediction post for the World Cup is that I logically couldn't predict any other team than France and Brazil to win it, Argentina isn't even in the top 5 teams to win it, in my opinion. Still, I couldn't get myself to write that in an official prediction post as that's how much I wanted Argentina to win.
However, if Messi doesn't end up winning the World Cup or he doesn't perform, I wouldn't really sympathize that much. Whether Messi or Cristiano, they both had repetitive chances to win like everyone else, and honestly, it was only once that an argument can be made that one of them was actually the best player in the tournament, Messi in the 2014 World Cup.
That fact is, the pair weren't that good in the World Cup to justify them "deserving it". The only way for either to actually deserve it is if they actually get the ball and score the number of goals required to win a match regardless of what their teams do.
Yes, there are certain players who were held back by their nations, like George Weah in Liberia, or maybe Haaland, but most of the players being mentioned to deserve a World Cup title do play in big teams, surrounded by above average players. Cristiano did under perform against Uruguay in 2018. Messi could have won the World Cup he "deserved" in 2014. I know the chance wasn't as easy as it looked but wouldn't scoring that mean that he did deserve it.
Football doesn't owe anyone anything. The argument is more poetic than anything else, but in real life, it is utterly meaningless. Messi can't carry Argentina into the title on his own, no human can, not even Maradona, Pele, or Zidane, despite how much their fans love to pretend they did. If they could carry their teams singlehandedly, only then we could say they deserve to win the title.
Deserve is defined as
do something or have or show qualities worthy of (a reaction which rewards or punishes as appropriate).
If you are in an exam and you answer wrong, then you don't deserve to pass. If you answer right, then you deserve to pass. You don't deserve to pass the final exam because you answered right in the midterms. And Messi doesn't deserve to win the World Cup just because he had legendary performances against Real Madrid or the UEFA Champions League final in 2009.
If Messi can't perform against Poland tomorrow then he doesn't deserve to win to qualify, thus, doesn't deserve to win the World Cup, simple as that. If France somehow loses to Costa Rica should Costa Rica qualify then why should France deserve the title? Just like why shouldn't Gotze win the World Cup in 2014, since he is the one who scored.
There's logic and limits to everything, I will be sad for Messi or Cristiano if they lose, just like I would Modric, or one of the Kims in South Korea. You either do win, or you don't. You can't score zerp goals instead of two goals against the team that scored one goal and still say you deserved to win.
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