Watch out for Belgium

Spain - Belgium 2 - 1

One thing I really liked in this world cup is how I decide who I support during the game. Sometimes I start off as fully neutral, and am fully converted by the end of the 90 minutes, usually on the side of the underdog.

For instance, I wanted Portugal to win the tournament, but after a drab game against Spain, I cheered for Merino's late goal, as it meant we won't have to watch another 30 minutes of that game.

Throughout this tournament, I've been fairly indifferent towards Spain, although I was happy to see them draw with Cape Verde, and happy to see them beat Uruguay. Registered with indiffeernce their wins against Saudi Arabia and Austria.

Belgium, I started rather not liking them. A golden generation that has never quite achieved its potential, and now it's a swansong for most of them. Plus, I don't like the players individually. Tielemans and Witsel were always overrated, and de Bruyne is a great player, but surely you can't expect me to like him? 

I was laughing at them when they drew Egypt in the first game, but after seeing Egypt's tournament, maybe I shouldn't have. They did win their group. They didn't deserve to win against Senegal, but yeah, it's just the West African's fault for not being able to hold on to their lead. And I supported their emphatic win against USA due to politics more than anything. 

So for some reason, maybe remembering my hatred fron Spain from 15 years ago, and Belgium growing in my eyes, I kind of wanted them to win. Thought it a bit hopeless, but it costs nothing to want it.

Fabian Ruiz's goal for Spain didn't help my cause. I was wondering if Belgium is able to pull back, after all, for all their faults, Spain is a much more mature team than Senegal. And yet. And yet... I have no idea where Belgium pulled this weird looking Ketelaere kid, but my God, that equalising shot was phenomenal. 1-1 just before half time, and 3 world cup goals for the De Ketelaere kid.

And even though Spain dominated all of the game, it was flowing more into Belgian's hands. After Big Rom came in, danger was looming.

Now, the BBC comentataors made a huge deal of Courtouis having to go out injured, but Lammens is the better goalkeeper. Hugely unfortunate the way Spain's winning goal came in, but it gives ample opportunity to pundits to criticise him now, and we won't hear the end of 'if Courtouis was still on...'. But let me ask you this: it was a powerful shot, hard and low, like the manual says. Lammens keeps it out without emotions, but can't retain the ball. In such a situation, is it not the central defenders' job to get to the ball first? Why is Merino allowed to get to the ball free from any pressure? And what chance does tha fallen keeper has in this circumstance? So, lay off of 'Lammes' fault wagon' please.

Also, weirdly, everyone glossed over very quickly over the fact that Belgium should have had a penalty at 1-1, when their central defender hit a ball with the hand, far away from the body. Not sure why, and in the interest of not gettign too conspirational, let's say I have a blind spot in the rules of football. They changed the rules of handball so much, most refs probably have blind spots too.

I was hoping for a late Belgium equalizer, and Big Rom went relatively close on a cross, plus de Bruyne had a great shot on the turn, but it was not to be.

At the end of the day, it feels right that Spain would progress. I dreamt of a Norway-Belgium final but this is not a fairytale. This is real life, with Mbappe impossible shots, with Haaland the beast dispatching Brasil like it's nothing, and with refereeing decisions always going Argentina's way.

Not yet

Morocco - France 0-2

Well, that was harsh, wasn't it?

I thought Morocco played ok, but France is on a different level. And even if on TV the shape of the Moroccan team looks good, they looked well organised in defense and having some attackin and especially counter-attacking intent, the numbers tell a different story. That momentum graph was all white.

The xG is a stat I still don't understand well, hence I don't trust a lot, but France had 10 shots on target before Morocco's first. 

And you know, all of that is good and swell, you can still frustrate them into 0-0 and penalties, which the Moroccan keeper Bounou has proved a great saver of. It happened in the first half.

By the way, that penalty that Mbappe missed looked soft to me. Not to say there was any favouring of the referee, but also, not sure if Morocco would have gotten it if it was on the other side. Also, weird that Mbappe's execution was so poor. I guess even the best have their off moments.

Not that it mattered in the end. That first Mbappe goal was a wonder. Most forwards take a step on the inside in that position, to make space to shoot. Not Kylian. He curled that bloody shot to perfection. 

And then Dembele killed any hope fo Morocco getting back into the game with another banger which looked effortless. 18 yards out, barely any pendulation of the foot, powerful, precisely aimed shot. Poor bounou had a hand on it, but try and stop that if you can.

It is as predicted in the end, and the last African team goes out in the quarter-final, an all-too familiar story. Morocco have a lot to be proud of, not least showing that last tournament's semi-final was not a fluke, and showing, maybe for the first time, that an African team CAN go all the way. Cameroon 1990, Nigeria 1994, Senegal 2002, Ghana 2010 have shown that African teams should be taken seriously, but it will forever be Morocco the first African team to reach a World Cup semi-final. 

Before the quarters started, I was hopeing for a Morocco-Norway final, now it kind of looks like there's no stopping France, but I would like to see Norway in the final.

And how cool would it be, in 4 years time in Spain, to have maybe a Japan-Morocco world cup final?

Disgrace

First day without football yesterday, and it really felt like it's coming to an end. It would've felt even better if it wasn't for the daylight robbery that was

Egypt - Argentina 2-3

I've said a few times already, the GOAT debate has been settled. But why do they both have to try so hard to taint their legacy? After an amazing tournament, of course the whole planet will want Messi & Argentina to lose now. Was this robbery absolutely necessary?

Light penalty for Argentina (missed), goal cancelled for Egypt for a very light foul way before the goal, in the build-up (is that even allowed to be checked, or did we just need a reason, any reason, to overturn the goal?) and yes, Argentina scored 3 times in the last 12 minutes, but it gets much easier when your opponents have been taught that the lightest touch in their own box will result in a penalty.

This should've been a massive win for Egypt, instead, it's another disgrace for FIFA, and one of the biggest, if you can believe it. Good thing World Cups are every 4 years, so that people can forget the fixes of the last one before we do some more this time around.

A shameful tournament by a shameful organization, and Argentina will carry this shamfeul legacy of cheating in two world cups long after Messi would have died. Bit like Italy 1934 & 1938 if you will.

Switzerland - Colombia 0-0 (4-3 pen)

The internet will tell you this was a boring game. While not having the levels of excitement of the earlier one, it also didn't have its levels of match fixing.

Colombia has specialised in entertaining low scoring goals this torunament, while Switzerland, though never spectacular, plays a very efficient football.

Yes, it was a 0-0, but coming from two teams confronted with the possibility of advancing further in the world cup than they ever had before. And the game was open, there was plenty of attacking intent, as a matter of fact I'm not sure Colombia knows how to play any different.

By the run of play, Colombia should have won it, and they should've also known that it's better to force a win before the penalties, not introduce Yerry Mina in the last few minutes to preserve the draw.

As it happens, they were the most nervous party in the penalties, so they missed two. Poor form from Davidson Sanchez to miss, but Switzerland had a star player missing too, Akanji.

I'm sorry for Colombia, the QF should've been Egypt-Colombia, where Egyptian flair would've probably prevailed after an entertaining 1-0. Instead, we have Switzerland - Argentina, and I'm hoping the Swiss will frustrate the cheaters to a 0-0 draw, then beat them on penalties. Fully expect penalties in normal time too though.

Red

Portugal - Spain 0-1

The Iberain derby is a weird affair. Either a spectacular affair of no consequence, or a drab game that consignes one side to underachievemnt for a generation.

Yesterday's one was one of the latter. The force that can't move anything versus the object that immediately folds. The amount of talent on the pitch is riduculous, including two of what are universally acknoledged as the best footballers on the planet: one of the greatest ever at the zenith of his career, and the 18 year old superstar, mature beyond his years and set to become one of the greatest of his generations. The clash should have been epic.

Well, it wasn't. It was a slow leak of enthusiasm over the course of 90 minutes in which, when normal time was heading to a close, the objectiev viewers were begging for a goal, any goal, just so we don't have to watch another 30 minutes of this. Enter Merino of Arsenal, specifically for this purpose. Good goal, but by that point it didn't even matter.

Ronaldo has been an immense footballer, but never great for his country. They won the Euro in 2008 without him on the pitch, and hopefully they'll have a better run without him in the next world cup, on home soil. I want a good run for Bruno.

USA - Belgium 1-4

This game was meant ot be dominated by the talk around the cancelled red card to Folarin Balogun, but was instead dominated by Belgium, and thank fuck for that.

The issue with Balogun's red card cancellation was not the deed in itself, after all, it would not be the first nor last injustice in football. The issue is the blatant disregard for rules, common sense, or supporters with which it's been done. An affair between two strongmen heading highly corrupt organizations, both highly disliked, and both oblivious to it. People like Trump or Infantino make me wish there was a hell.

And annoyingly, Pochettino didn't have the common sense to keep the American forward on the bench. Had he scored, the scandal would've been even bigger, so thank fuck Belgium dominated in such a categorical manner.

Belgium did not deserve to beat Senegal, but I dare say Senegal would not have beaten USA. So maybe somewhere on a higher plane things are being arranged. Now Belgium will face Spain, and I don't even know. Sounds like a good game on paper, and one that Spain should win. But who knows what the gods of football have in store for us?

Never heard of Ketelaere before yesterday, but kid has done amazing. Happy for big Rom too, 3 goals at a World Cup is not too shabby for a 37yo, and I still don't get why he doesn't start. And a good fucking thing Trump will no longer be president (or alive, God willing) next time USA will play in a World Cup. I tried hard to like them, they tried hard to make it difficult. But now it's over.

Bellingham from Birmingham

Canada - Morocco 0-3

Paraguay - France 0-1

I won't say much about these two games as I couldn;t watch any football on Saturday. The needs of the farm called for more urgency than those of my heart.

People surprised at the big Morocco win have not been paying attention lately. Canada have had an amazing tournament, but Morocco is an established powerhouse.

France needed a penalty to edge Paraguay, strong 1998 vibes. I will watch the highlights, but talking points seem to be how brutal the Paraguayan defending has been. To which I say... what other chance did they have?

It's funny that in this day and age you don't really need to watch a football game anymore. Livescore will show you the goal clips and the internet memes will tell you how it went. That is, of course, missing the point of watching a game of football, though it increasingly looks like we're heading towards a world where we're all missing the point of things, or - more likely - it's just me understanding less and less of the world we live in.

Alright, that went philosophical really fast, let's take a quick look at the magnificent day of football we've had yesterday.

Brazil - Norway 1-2

Even on paper this game looked tight, so Norway defeating Brazil is not that big of a surprise. What's surprising is the relaxed, confident, comfortable manner in which they've done it. 

Brazil is flashy, but Norway has been the better team since the off. Even when they conceded the penalty, Nyland looked calm and secure. Not so Bruno Guimaraes, who did a piss poor job of it. And from here on, the flow was clear.

I was thinking at half time, I should be really supporting Brazil. They have Casemiro and Cunha, whereas Norway have Odegaard and Haaland. But there wasn't much to Brazil's game to draw me their way. Flashiness, but without substance. Norway, on the other hand, always looked comfortable in posesion, solid, composed and calm.

And the goals, poster shots, both of them! The first, training pitch header and I pity the fool who dares jump with Haaland. The guy doesn't even need to move, and it would still be a challenge to match him in height. And you can see in the replay, his body is almost twice as wide as the defender's.

The second looked simple, but there was so much power in that shot, and it went so close to the post, Alisson stood no chance. Big beast didn't even celebrated, this is how routine he thought his world stopping shot was.

Rare to see Ancelotti running out of ideas, but throwing Neymar in the game felt like it's only to shame him. And shame him it did, for even if he scored a questionable penalty deep in injury time when it didn't matter anyway, we've had plenty of time to see that not only has Neymar no fight in him, he doesn't even seem to care all that much. Which, between you and me, it's not even that new. Possibly the most overrated player in the history of the game has kicked his last on the international stage, and I'm hoping that a refreshed Brazil will become the footballing power it once was again.

Mexico - England 2-3

Boy, was this an adventure!

Starting with the one-hour postponement, and the hype on all media channels in England, every aspect of the game has been over-analyzed before the game even started. Yet no one quite got it correctly.

Bellingham hit two almost identical goals 2 minutes of each other, and yet no one was convinced it's enough to see England through. It's been enough. Mexico pulled one back quickly to go into half time only 1-2 down. But this is where it went wrong for them. 

Even though they came out dominating the play in the second half too, and had England play with 10 men in the last 40 minutes, something of the energy from the first half was missing. And this was mental more than anything. Mexico have lost the game in their heads, not in their feet.

One penalty each in the second half made the scoring line look a bit bigger, and there was plenty drama, but none of it helpful to see Mexico through. Good team Mexico, but not good enough to take out the big boys in the manner Norway has dispatched Brazil.

Norway - England is gonna be a really interesting game to watch, and I'm beginning to look like the kid in Sixty Six, always betting against England, but I swear, I'm over my grudge once they got out of the group stage. I genuinely fancy Norway. Besides, England always loses in the quarters, no?

Iconic

Australia - Egypt 1 - 1 (2 - 4 pen.)

Didn't watch this game (couldn't, really), but I thought Egypt was gonna win easily in 90 minutes. I discounted the Aussies pretty hard, but they did come to this World Cup to play. Beating Turkey is remarkable, and yaking Egypt to penalties makes for an honorable World Cup exit for them. See you in 4 years, Oz!

Argentina - Cape Verde 3-2

The most anticipated game of the round of 32 did not disappoint. Of course, we were all rooting for Cape Verde, but the big upset ws not to be. It is annoying when glory is all you take from a game of football, but this is what the tiny nation of Cape Verde will have to contend with.

Still, beyond the Hollywood drama and in pure footballing terms, they are faultless. Pushing the world champions to extra time and levelling them twice is not for everyone, and it's certainly more than just capitulating, which is what teams playing Argentina so far have done.

Messi's first goal was divine. The run, the stop, the shot, everything was perfection. Compare to an attempted Lautaro Martinez stop in a similar position in the second half. It pains me to praise Messi, but I really don't have a choice. I'm actually wondering how many great moments like these I've missed for being a Messi hater for the past 17 years? 

Vozinha is definetly one of this World Cup's heroes, but he could do nothing for the first goal. He did a lot in the game anyway, includign blocking Messi one a few occasions, shots that most keepers would have let in. It's amazing that he's out of contract, but this tournament surely must've won him another year or two on a good contract somewhere in Europe, even if as a back-up goalkeeper. And that would be fully deserved!

I have criticised Cape Verde before for relying too much on individual executions and not playing like a team enough. They did a lot better in this regard last night, but my God, it will be the individual executions that stand out.

The first equaliser is a shot along the face of goal, through Lucha Martinez's legs and stretching Emi Martinez all of his length to no avail. Lukaku and Ronaldo scored similar in this tournament, and that's good company to be in. It bothers me somewhat that it was a United defender who let in the shot, but Lucha Martinez made up for it by scoring Argentina's second, 2 minutes into extra time. And that should've done it, really. Alright Cape Verde, you pushed the World Champions into extra time, 2-1 is an honourable scoreline, let life take its natural course.

Well, Sidny Cabral thought differently. What a brilliant execution for Cape Verde's second equalizer! The kind that only works one time in a hundred, and it would certainly be a contender for goal of the tournament if it wasn't of course for Messi's first goal.

In the end Argentina did win, good, decent goal from a corner with Messi curling the cross in, and a fought out header that neither the defenders nor the keeper could do much about. If I was more into conspiracy theories, I'd say it worked out almost too neatly for the film.

Argentina through, to Cape Verde be the glory, and if Argentina wins the tournament it would be only the second time in history when a team has won it back to back. Plus, Italy in '34 and '38... maybe we shouldn't talk about that. Although word is that the team was good too.

Colombia - Ghana 1-0

In all honesty, I was hopeful, but I expected Argentina to beat Cape Verde, with a thrashing not being completely out of the equation. But Colombia - Ghana is where it's at, and it is what the World Cup is about: two exciting, evenly match teams, battling it out for glory and for the chance to take on one of the giants.

I found it hard to call, but I was leaning slightly towards Colombia. Colmbia have the experience and the football tradition on their side, while Ghana are one of the new footballing powers of the world, have the 2010 elimination at the hand of Uruguay to revenge and get over, and an enormous amount of worldwide sympathy which I don't fully understand (something about the black star?).

In the end, it was an ok game, but fairly anticlimactic for the expectations, and especially when compared to the earlier one. Incredibly one sided, I barely remember Ghana attacking at all, and the keeper is their most proeminent figure in the game. Colombia's goal came early, 14 minutes in, and the Africans had more than 70 minutes to do something about it, but they never seemed willing. Which is probably a sign they were never able. 

Insult to injury, Jhon Arias was completely unbothered when he scored from inside the box, for some reason Yikenikyi completed switches off.

I thought Luis's Diaz goal was phenomenal, the speed and the precision with which Bayern's striker hits the ball is outwordly, but he was clearly off-side and the ref did good to cancel the goal. Shame though.

And then... this was it. Colombia goes through and Ghana has nothing to say about it. I'm sorry for Carlos Queiros, there is a lot of love for him within the United fandom and last night's performance does not speak well for him.

This Colombian team looks a lot less glamorous than others (including the 1994 one with Asprilla, Valencia and Rincon), but a lot more solid and mature. And this is the type of team that brought them the best result - QF in Brazil in 2014. This will probably be equalled this time round - if they beat Switzerland they'll face Argentina in the quarters. I'm rooting for them, I really enjoyed their games so far, especially the 0-0 draw with Portugal. And they have something else on their side. 

Alright, with the round of 32 now over, time for another prediction round? I got 5/12 groups right, which is... ok, I suppose? For the rfound of 16 I'm going with:

Morocco to beat Canada

France to beat Paraguay

Brazil to beat Norway

Mexico to beat England

Spain to beat Portugal

USA to beat Belgium

Argentina to beat Egypt

Colombia to beat Switzerland

Which would result in France v Spain and Brazil v Argentina in the semis. Yep, it's a deja vu, France v Argentina in the final.

Late drama

England - Congo DR 2 - 1

Clearly one for the underdog, it wasn't even my anti-English sentiment that made me happy about Congo taking the lead. They had a couple more chances before half time, and it didn't really look like England was gonna trouble them.

But, of course, pressure intensified somewhat in the second half. A few saves from Mpasi, but it felt like Congo can still fob England off. Well, they couldn't. As soon as the first Harry Kane goal went in, it became a case of Congo needing to hold on until the end. England is not really a team to amp up the pressure, but they did so on this occasion. It was mostly driven by Harry Kane, and it feels right that it was him again who scored the winning goal, 5 minutes from time.

Also, because I saw some debate on the internet: was there a penalty on Mpasi stopping Harry Kane? Easy one. Clearly not. It doesn't matter in the end, but it would have become a national injustice had England gone out. And... it was a correct decision not to award a penalty.

Heartbreak for Congo, who had a great tournament, and they played really well against England, but it is massively important to know how to deal with advantage against a better team. It worked for Paraguay against Germany, it didn't work for Congo. Easy for me to say, but not much more to do now, but wait for the next time.

Belgium - Senegal 3 - 2

Speaking of game management, it did look like Senegal took a sheet out of that book. Cruising comfortably against Belgium, 2-0 at half time and being the more attacking team. Flirting very closely with 3-0 on a couple of occasions in the second half. Them all of a sudden...

BAM BAM! Super-gol from Lukaku, and a keeper goal to draw it level. 86' and 89', 2-2. Lukaku's goal can be forgiven, it's a brilliant execution from Belgium's best player this tournament. It is baffling to me that Lukaku doesn't start for Belgium, he carried them almost single-handedly so far and he'd be in the league with Haaland, Ronaldo or Harry Kane is they'd make place for him in the starting line-up.

The second goal was very much a keeper mistake, coming out but missing the ball, thus leaving Tielemans to send it into the open net. It will be very much a case of FMM Prunea in Senegal in the coming years. But yeah, 5 minutes slip-up and all the good work done in the first 80 minutes of the game stands for nowt.

Belgium did not deserve to go into extra time, but sometimes they squeezed through, and the rest is history. Penalty in the 120+5 minute, and the latest goal ever at a World Cup sends Senegal home. Was it a penalty? Well... kind of. It wasn't given on field, and VAR said it's worth another look. There was contact, the defender touches Tielemans' foot, but by that time the ball has gone. Reason enough for a penalty, but, had it not been a foul, that would have been a ball of no consequence. And, it being the 120th minute of a World Cup knock-out game, I feel more consideration should be given to the idea that the game should be decided by the action on the pitch rather than by official decisions. 

With all the evidence considered, I would not have given a penalty. But the ref did, and Tielemans made it 3-2 with virtually no time for Senegal to do anything about it. More than heartbreak, Senegal will feel hard done by, and not without reason if you ask me. Plus, it further enforces the narrative of FIFA having an agenda against African countries. Not a stretch to believe this to be true.

USA - Bosnia 2-0

This being the late game, like all late games, I've struggled with. So seen very little of it, and only scattered bits, and now I wonder if it isn't by design that we only get big drama for the prime time games. But 2-0 USA, with the second goal scored while haivng played in 10 for 20 minutes, does not say a flattering story about Bosnia. They slogged through the group and capsized in front of half-decent opposition. Not a great story for a team that left Italy home.

Spain - Austria 3-0 

Once again, a game without much of a story. Spain dominating beginning to end with Austria never looking like they stand a change of progressing. Comfortable win for a Spanish team that hasn't yet been properly tested. They will now face Portugal, who is at the opposite end of the spectrum, having been put through the grinder a few times already. That will be am amazing game. 

Portugal - Croatia 2-1

What a game! I have said before the torunament, Portugal are my favourites, and I genuinely believed they can win it. I'm a lot less sure now, but they have delivered some of the best games in the tournament so far, and this one was certainly the most dramatic.

I had lost count of the amount of goals cancelled, and it decided by a VAR call once again in the dying moments. Perisic opened the scoring, only for Ronaldo to have two goals cancelled for offside on either side of the penalty he levelled from. Penalty that, once again, was not given on field, but came from a VAR review.

Then Portugal scores from a cross in the 90'+4' minute. Uncontested by technology, for once. Deep into injury time, Croatia scores again, which is a bit of a house specialty. Then VAR called it off. Debate about offside, and apparently IT WAS offside, but only decided by the sensor inside the ball, explained by FIFA and based on data that is not publicly available.

Talk about hard done-by. To be fair, had the goal had stood, game would have gone to penalties, and that's as much a lottery, as this VAR malarkey. Only that's more out in the open.

But I feel for Croatia, I really do. People slagging them off as a past-it team, all of the 'Modric's last stand' bullshit that's been going on for more than 5 years now, and yet they really did pull some performances! I thought they're past it myself after the England game, but it turns out that was the outlier. If I was to be conspirational I could even say that was a write-ff, knowing they only need 4 points from games against Panama and Ghana. They are tough motherfuckers, always fearsome as an opponent, and they are right to feel done-by. The match with Portugal was pretty even, either of the team could have won it, despite the very different styles of play. It was Portugal on this one occasion, but Croatia will be back. The idea that they're going home while Belgium, for instance, is still in the torunament - pretty hard to digest.

Switzerland  - Algeria 2-0

Another late game, another failed attempt to watch it, though the result was a bit of a given from the off. Algeria only qualified because they had Jordan in their group, one of the weakest teams of the torunament, and because they held Austria to that crazy 3-3 draw that I didn't see. But they couldn't have hoped for much more, even if Switzerland is probably one of the easier draws they could've had. The buck will stop here for Switzerland too, they are to play either Columbia (most likely) or Ghana, and wither of those is favourite ahead of them. 

Round of 32 will be completed today with Egypt beating Australia, Colombia and Ghana offering us a very entertaining and evenly matched game and... how amazing would be if Cape Verde goes through? Vozinha vs Messi is the ultimate David v Goliath fight, and I know who I'll be rooting for.