Japan - Croatia 1 - 1 (1-3 penalties)
Brazil - South Korea 4 - 1
The jury is still out on whether this is a flex or not, but I am old enough to remember Romania playing Croatia in the World Cup finals, and Romania being the favorite. Sounds like a fantasy, doesn't it? And yet it was only... 24 years ago?!?
It's ok, I've made peace with the fact that Romania is a country with close to zero footballing achievements, save for maybe that miraculous 1986 European Champions Cup win. It is perhaps more interesting to see how and why a nation as small as Croatia, with less than 4 million people, has become such a powerhouse in world football. Or whether it will continue to be past this tournament where, unfortunately, I think they are heading for a quarter-final exit at the hands of Brazil.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I should probably say that Japan is arguably the most pleasant surprise of this World Cup. Winning a group with Spain and Germany while beating them both is a performance hard to match, especially so for a nation without a tradition of big wins in football. And even after that, I thought 'Oh, well, Croatia are favorites, they will take Japan out easily.' And while taking out Japan they did, it was anything but easy. Not only did Japan score first, but it was also a pretty well-balanced game throughout, with the Asians having spells of domination and being in control of the game.
In the end, it was their biggest strength that proved to be the decisive weakness as well: their selflessness, the hard graft without really minding the result. It's all good and swell, but sometimes you have to be clinical in front of goal, and this is where Japan has fallen short, missing a couple of sitters from positions where more experienced teams would have been a lot more brutal.
Croatia is not only strong and experienced, but they've also been in this situation before, being pressured in a high-pressure game, and it showed in abundance. Especially on penalties, where 3 of the 4 Japanese takers have simply crumbled under the pressure. Yes, Livakovic has saved 3 penalties, and I don't mean to take anything away from him, but they've all been very poor penalties. A trend in this World Cup, but also, don't expect to get it so wrong and be past a penalty shoot-out.
Still, Japan bows out honorably, and with the perspective of coming back stronger in 2026.
A stark contrast with South Korea, who squeezed through to the knock-out stage by chance, upstaging two better teams. The difference in quality between them and Brazil was staggering, with a full-flowing Brazil being 4-0 at halftime. It will take a miracle to stop the Brazilians from winning it, the football they're playing is just scary. Not only are they unstoppable, but they also seem to do it naturally, with very little effort. Serbia put a solid defense and lethal counter-attacking in front of them, and Switzerland showed good discipline and quality players, yet it all came to naught. I'm afraid it will be more of the same with Croatia, which will bring something of the same quality as the game that Serbia did, only with better players.
So yeah, once I collect my winnings after Spain and Portugal come through today, I'll put some back on Brazil winning. The odds will be minuscule though.
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