Steven Rubio's World Cup

grant wahl

day eighteen

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.

death is a natural part of life

"Qatar World Cup chief Nasser Al Khater on migrant worker casualty: ‘Death is a natural part of life, at work or in sleep’"

Adam Crafton reports for The Athletic.

The Qatar World Cup’s chief executive Nasser Al Khater responded to a question about a recent migrant worker casualty by telling reporters that “death is a natural part of life”, as well as saying journalists shouldn’t “bang on” about the topic....

Earlier on Thursday, FIFA general secretary Fatma Samoura refused to answer questions on the incident.

Samoura said she did not think the question was “appropriate” when she was asked to comment on the death.

“We’ve already elaborated long interventions on what we are doing with Qatar,” she said.

“I don’t think that’s appropriate when people are coming here to learn things, that we are talking about things that we’ve already discussed months and months and months and time and time ago.”

names

Time for the stupidest post of every World Cup: the list of great names. Stupid, because the list always looks like it was chosen by a 12-year-old boy. Stupid, because its assumptions are U.S.-centric. But I do it, anyway.

The criteria for making the list? Well, I like names that don’t seem to fit the country. I don’t really know this, of course … that criteria is based on my ignorance about the world. I also like names that seem funny to my ears … this is the stupidest of all, really, people don’t choose their name based on what sounds right to someone from the USA (I know that “Steven Rubio” sounds silly to someone out there).

Australia: Aziz Behich, Miloš Degenek, Garang Kuol, Jamie Maclaren, Marco Tilio.

Brazil: Gabriel Jesus, Fred, Vinícius Júnior.

Canada: Sam Adekugbe, Milan Borjan.

Costa Rica: Jewison Bennette, Joel Campbell, Keylor Navas.

Denmark: Alexander Bah, Jonas Wind.

England: Bukayo Saka, Raheem Sterling, Kieran Trippier.

France: Kingsley Coman, Hugo Lloris, Steve Mandanda, Kylian Mbappé.

Japan: Daniel Schmidt.

Mexico: El Cachorro, Charly, Chucky, El Machín, Memo, Principito, Henry Martín.

Netherlands: Wout Weghorst.

Poland: Matty Cash.

Portugal: André Silva, António Silva, Bernardo Silva. João Cancelo, João Félix, João Mário, João Palhinha.

Qatar: Ró-Ró.

Senegal: Alfred Gomis, Nicolas Jackson.

South Korea: Kim Jin-su, Kim Min-jae, Kim Moon-hwan, Kim Seung-gyu, Kim Tae-hwan, Kim Young-gwon.

Serbia: Grujić, Kostić, Lukić, Maksimović, Milenković, the Milinković-Savić brothers (Sergej and Vanja), Mitrović, Pavlović, Tadić, Veljković, Vlahović, Živković, Nemanja Gudelj.

Spain: Gavi, Koke, Pedri, Rodri.

Switzerland: Xherdan Shaqiri, Djibril Sow, Ruben Vargas, Granit Xhaka.

Tunisia: Dylan Bronn.

United States: Sergiño Dest, Yunus Musah.

Uruguay: José Giménez.

 

day seventeen

After Spain put up seven goals against Costa Rica, I wrote, "Before they won a World Cup, I used to bristle when people said Spain's soccer team was boring. Post-championship, I don't listen to those people any more. Of course, they're right most of the time. But not much was boring about this match for a Spain fan." From that point on, Spain scored two goals in 300 minutes, went winless in three games, and crapped out in a penalty shootout to end their Cup. They dominated possession (64/36 vs. Germany, 82!/18 vs. Japan, 77/23 vs. Morocco). They passed efficiently (91% success rate over the course of the tournament). They got excellent performances from individuals (especially Rodri). And they were boring.

Meanwhile, Portugal scored six against Switzerland with Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench for most of the match. His replacement, young Gonçalo Ramos, became an instant World Cup legend with three great goals and an assist. A bit of "beware what you ask for" ... Morocco-Spain was dull, so here comes seven goals, but in a match that was pretty much decided by halftime.

Two days off now before the quarter-finals begin: Croatia-Brazil, Netherland-Argentina, Morocco-Portugal, and England-France.

A continuation of a theme: players I mentioned at the beginning of the competition ... did I know what I was talking about?

Spain: Pedri and Gavi (one goal) were OK. Ansu Fati only played 45 minutes.

Switzerland: Xherdan Shaqiri. I'm a longtime fan of Shaqiri's, and he had a decent tournament, with a goal and an assist in the two Swiss wins, although he only played in three of their four games.

day fifteen and si(cks)teen

For a variety of reasons, most related to the starting times of some of the matches, I have struggled to keep up with my desire to see every match. Finally, the 2:00 and 5:00 are gone, but meanwhile, I've been under the weather for a while. So I watched France-Poland with painful sinuses and half-closed eyes, didn't wake up until England-Senegal had finished a half. And, of course, I missed a day on this blog.

For today, Japan goes out via the cruel penalties. They deserved their halftime lead, but Croatia outplayed them in the second half, held on in extra time, and ... well, Croatia never seems to lose a penalty shootout. Luka Modrić gets at least one more game for his national team. Meanwhile, Brazil-South Korea was such a blowout that Andrés Cantor started talking about Xuxa.

Tomorrow, the final Round of 16 matches. Spain should have no trouble with Morocco. Portugal will be favored against Switzerland, but that could be a tricky one.

A continuation of a theme: players I mentioned at the beginning of the competition ... did I know what I was talking about?

Poland: Robert Lewandowski had 2 goals and an assist while playing every minute and was probably the best outfield player on the team. 20-year-old Nicola Zalewski only played a total of 65 minutes.

Senegal: Kalidou Koulibaly was one of Senegal's best players, and scored a goal.

Japan: Junya Ito had a decent tournament, and picked up an assist, but there were a handful of better Japanese players, most notably Ritsu Doan and his two goals off the bench.

South Korea: Son Heung-Min had a great match against Portugal, wasn't up to his high standards otherwise.

messi

Gabriele Marcotti explains "The seven tendencies Lionel Messi displayed in Argentina's win over Poland: Some familiar, some less so".

day fourteen

Netherlands-USA. The second Dutch goal in first-half extra time was the crusher, but the Americans had looked pretty bad throughout the half.  The U.S. looked better in the second half, and when Haji Wright scored, it seemed anything might happen. Dumfries' goal five minutes later took away any suspense. The U.S. didn't embarrass themselves ... they were beat by a better team. And least Gio Reyna got some playing time. And, as many pointed out, this is a team with a future. In 2026, Pulisic, Adams, and McKennie will be 27 years old ... and they are the old guys!

Argentina-Australia. Argentina was coasting, Messi had scored, and then, in the 77th minute, Australia got on the board via an own goal that made it 2-1. The match was hot and heavy after that, and Australia never gave up, but honestly, both teams looked tired by then. Great ending, great Messi, I'll take it.

A continuation of a theme: players I mentioned at the beginning of the competition ... did I know what I was talking about?

USA: Yunus Musah, 20 years old, great promise for the future, had excellent match vs. Iran but fell off significantly against the Netherlands, likely because he was exhausted. Fellow 20-year-old Gio Reyna only got 52 minutes over two games, and it's hard to know why. If we are giving grades, he gets an imcomplete.

Australia: Garang Kuol. Another youth story. Kuol is only 18. He got 35 minutes during the tournament. Remember his name.

Tomorrow:

France-Poland, England-Senegal. France and England are favored. I'll miss the Senegalese fans when they are gone ... nothing against England, but I wouldn't mind seeing Senegal get the upset. No surprise that Kylian Mbappé has been France's best (3 goals and an assist), but Antoine Griezmann has been almost as good. Poland has only scored two goals so far ... they will rely on goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny. England has several players doing well so far ... Harry Kane is goalless, but he has 3 assists, and Marcus Rashford has 3 goals in only 107 minutes. Ismaïla Sarr and Kalidou Koulibaly have been among Senegal's best.

how am i doing

16 teams have been eliminated. Here are the players I mentioned at the beginning of the competition ... did I know what I was talking about?

Ecuador: Piero Hincapié, Moisés Caicedo, Gonzalo Plata. Caicedo scored a goal, none of the three had great Cups.

Qatar: Forward Akram Afif played every minute for Qatar, and did nothing, managing only 2 shots in 3 games.

Iran: GK Alireza Beiranvand only played 110 minutes before being injured. Mehdi Taremi was Iran's best player, with 2 goals and an assist.

Wales: Gareth Bale had one goal, got progressively worse, stunk vs. England.

Mexico: Chucky Lozano played well but didn't score. Orbelín Pineda got only 77 minutes of playing time.

Saudi Arabia: Salem Al-Dawsari scored 2 of the Saudis' 3 goals.

Tunisia: Anis Ben Slimane only played 67 minutes.

Denmark: Christian Eriksen played all 270 minutes, first game was good.

Germany: I didn't mention any of their players. Maybe there's a reason.

Costa Rica: Jewison Bennette was arguably their worst player.

Belgium: Kevin De Bruyne played every minute, but was a disappointment.

Canada: Alphonso Davies was their best player, scored one goal. Jonathan David was a huge disappointment.

Cameroon: Goalkeeper André Onana had a terrible Cup. He was sent home after the first game.

Serbia: Dušan Vlahović and Strahinja Pavlović had so-so tournaments. Vlahović scored a goal.

Uruguay: Luis Suárez played about half the time, had an assist. Federico Valverde played every minute and was one of their best. Darwin Núñez was a complete dud.

Ghana: Another team about which I said little or nothing.

 

day thirteen

This will be quick. I spent part of the day at a memorial service for a friend, missing the last two matches in the process. South Korea beat Portugal on an extra-time goal, and even though Uruguay beat Ghana 2-0, the Koreans advance because they scored more goals than the South Americans. Cameroon are out, as well, although they beat Brazil with their own extra-time goal. That goal resulted in one of the more delightful moments of the Cup. The scorer, Vincent Aboubakar, celebrated by removing his jersey, which is a yellow-card offense. Aboubakar already had a yellow, and two yellows means a red. So Aboubakar scored the winning goal against Brazil in a World Cup, and was immediately sent off.

Tomorrow:

Netherlands-USA, Argentina-Australia. The Dutch and Argentina are favored, Argentina especially so. Dutch players to watch, based on their form so far in the tournament, are Frenkie de Jong and Cody Gakpo. American hopes lie with Christian Pulisic, who may be injured, and goalkeeper Matt Turner. Argentina revolves around the inevitable Messi, while the surprising Socceroos have benefitted from the defensive play of Harry Souttar.