When I was covering the World Cup -- eight of them -- I always welcomed the day between rounds as a chance to sleep, move on to the next town, get laundry done. Stuff like that.
Watching at home, there is an empty feeling to the one-day space between the group stage and the knockout rounds. While sizing up the teams that survived, I want to take one more day to think about the teams that gave me pleasure but have now gone home. I already miss the two African teams that supplied so much energy and charisma, but could not hold on for 90-plus minutes. I will miss the field leader of Nigeria, John Obi Mikel, and the manager of Senegal, Aliou Cissé, who roamed the sidelines with his Richard Pryor eyes, the only African manager of the 32. Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia are also gone. Egypt was the biggest loser of all, making its base in the wild-east Russian province of Chechnya, with its opportunistic leader who glommed onto Mohamed Salah, the pride of Egypt, the star of Liverpool. Being used so blatantly by a regional lord (a friend of Putin) and the moronic Egyptian federation apparently nettled Salah so badly that he is considering not playing for his homeland any more. Nice going. I’ll miss the two vecinos – neighbors of the U.S. – Costa Rica and Panama, who managed to qualify ahead of the hapless soccer giant of the north. And I’ll miss the tireless and combative players of South Korea, who took Germany down in the third and final game. Will I miss Germany? I slobbered all over them after their reflexive comeback against Sweden in the second match, but ignored warning signs that their expiration date had expired. * * * So much for the departed. Of the 16 survivors, I am rooting for two more vecinos, Colombia and Mexico. (How can I not love El Tri, with its opportunistic star nicknamed Chucky, from the movie character with the fiendish grin?) I always love Brazil, going back to the great, failed team of Sócrates in 1982, and I love Spain and Andres Iniesta, trying to hang on, plus France, just because, but also in homage to the glorious final of Zidane in 1998. And then there are the two survivors from Thursday’s last group: England has more energy than I’ve ever seen from an English squad, and Belgium won its third match with its three offensive stars all being rested, and a sub made a jitterbug goal that sunk England. I was conflicted with England-Belgium. My mom, part Irish, was born in England. There’s that. And she mourned her two Belgian-Irish cousins from Brussels who died young after being caught participating in the Resistance. So there's that. I’m rooting for Belgium because of the family connection, and because they have never won, and because I got to see Vincent Kompany, one of my all-time favorite defenders and soccer adults, who was honored with a quarter-hour cameo on Thursday, playing on knees “turned to sand,” as one of my Euro pals put it. * * * Who else won in the group stage of the 2018 World Cup? I’m choosing the Fox broadcasting team of J.P. Dellacamera and Tony Meola, because (a) I know them, and (b) because they are soccer people who do not talk too much. J.P and Tony let the game breathe, like many European broadcasters. They don’t feel the very American need to blather every personal fact about every player that was discussed in the pre-game production meeting. Meola has grown into this profession, dissecting the game, not just the keepers. (And he was a good one, playing in 1990 and 1994, and a backup in 2002.) Honorable mention goes to Jorge Perez-Navarro and Mariano Trujillo, totally bilingual and working in English, who supply just enough Latin flavor to make it different, and enjoyable. Trujillo, a former player from Mexico, has the charming tendency to excuse some players who try something that fails. "But that’s all right,” he says, transmitting the enlightened optimism of players who keep trying stuff and fail, until something works, which, come to think of it, is the essence of this grand sport. Now, on to the knockout round.
George Vecsey
6/29/2018 09:19:04 am
Good day off: Brian raised the question of the tie-breaker, using red/yellow cards. The imperfections of soccer will come up now in the knockout stage, with the dreaded penalty kicks. My answer to that is, you cannot make players continue after 120 minutes, and other solutions, like more subs or fewer players on the field, seem antithetical to the difficulties of real soccer. Penalty kicks have their own lore -- part of the game. Ask Roberto Baggio, who missed, or Briana Scurry, who stopped one shot and won a World Cup.
Brian Savin
6/29/2018 02:33:33 pm
Thanks, George. What I was thinking of is maybe using the off day to call the two tied teams onto the field anew and decide by an enhanced penalty kick contest, say to 21. That avoids a full game. What else? 6/29/2018 11:58:04 am
So far, this has been an interesting World Cup that should continue to please.
Ed Martin
6/29/2018 04:34:36 pm
I sit by the lakeside in Quebec, catching some games and some highlights, in French. (Je ne comprende pas,.)
bruce
6/29/2018 05:13:49 pm
ed,
bruce
6/29/2018 05:06:44 pm
george,
Ed
6/29/2018 11:19:50 pm
Bruce, they are force-feeding us Tim Horton’s donuts and frenchfries covered with gravy and cheese curds unless we claim refugee status. I had to write “I like hockey.” 500 times on am ice rink with skates.
bruce
6/29/2018 11:39:10 pm
ed,
Michael
6/30/2018 09:41:38 pm
How can you not like a small country like Uruguay and it’s two Atletico Madrid central defenders, Jimenez & Godin (captain)? But I’m also for England/Columbia or Belgium!! Comments are closed.
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