day eighteen
Friday, December 09, 2022
There's no way I can match today's excitement in words, so I'll just say a couple of things so when I look back on this some day, I'll be reminded.
Croatia-Brazil. It was a decent 0-0 match through 90 minutes. Neymar was good, but Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic was brilliant, keeping Brazil off the scoreboard. Extra time saw the real thrills. Neymar scored one of the best goals of the tournament, but with three minutes to go, Bruno Petkovic equalized, and off to penalties we went. Croatia never loses in penalties, plus Livakovic was having a Man of the Match moment. Croatia go through, while Neymar inexplicably never got to take a penalty.
Netherlands-Argentina. This match had everything. Referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz couldn't control things, issuing so many cards I lost count (18?). He gave yellows to guys on the bench, he gave a yellow to someone during the penalty shootout ... it couldn't have been easy, what with a team fight and two cranky teams on the field. Messi was great, assisting on a first half goal and converting a penalty in the second half to put Argentina up 2-0, seemingly putting a cap on the game. But then substitute Wout Weghorst (one of the guys who got a yellow while on the bench) got one back for the Dutch. Mateu Lahoz added ten minutes, and in the last of those minutes, Weghorst scored another on a wonderful drawn-in-the-locker-room free kick to send the game into extra time. No one scored in extra time, although three more yellow cards were given, leading to another penalty shootout. Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez stopped the first two Dutch penalties, Messi was first up for Argentina (no "where's Neymar" this time), the Argentines will go on to meet Croatia in the semi-finals, and Messi still has a shot at that World Cup title.
A continuation of a theme: players I mentioned at the beginning of the competition ... did I know what I was talking about?
Brazil: Neymar had two goals and an assist, and was terrific when he played (he missed two matches in the group stage). Vinícius Júnior was erratic, but he still managed a goal and two assists. GK Alisson wasn't up to his usual form, while Ederson played one match that didn't matter.
Netherlands: Cody Gakpo scored three goals and was the best Dutch player. Virgil van Dijk was OK, although I imagine he's disappointed in his performance, plus he missed a penalty in the shootout. After Gakpo. Frenkie de Jong was the Netherlands' best.