We just had our first off day for the World Cup in almost a month?!…
But the break gave me more time to get another post up about the next round of the tournament: the quarterfinals!
The quarterfinals have weeded down the expanded field of 48 and 5 of the top 8 in FIFA rankings remain, including the top 4. How will this next round play out? Let’s discuss.
Round of 16 Roundup
In the last post I rated my performance for the groups and who would make it to the knockouts. You can review that here but overall I think I did pretty well, getting 84.4% of the knockout teams correct. I didn’t get a post up before the Round of 32 but I estimated I would’ve missed on German and Ivory Coast, while I would’ve taken Morocco over Canada because of Brahim and Portugal over Croatia because of Leão. I was torn on Switzerland and Algeria but was leaning Switzerland.
That would have given me 14 of the 16 Round of 32 games correct (87.5%). Impressive? Not really. Most of the games were lopsided towards one team but I did get the 2 more evenly matched games correct (Netherlands v Morocco and Portugal v Croatia). So I will take credit for that! But my picks for the Round of 16? Yikes…
- France over Paraguay ✅
- Morocco over Canada ✅
- Spain over Portugal ✅
- USA over Belgium ❌
- Brazil over Norway ❌
- Mexico over England ❌
- Argentina over Egypt ✅
- Colombia over Switzerland ❌
Only 50% correct. No bueno. I admitted I was being a homer with my USA over Belgium and Mexico over England picks, with the USA over Belgium being more of a stretch. But I thought Brazil would have just enough to get by vs Norway and I thought Colombia would muscle through Switzerland. Considering the Colombia-Switzerland game went to penalty kicks, I guess that was a toss up and I barely missed that one but I was DEAD WRONG about Brazil v Norway.
Norway gave one hell of an effort and they are proving to be team you don’t want to have to play. Big, fast, some playmaking ability in the midfield, an of course the giant Viking leading the line. I have always been less enamored with Erling Haaland than most, as I think he often disappears vs good competition and lights it up vs minnows, thus inflating his numbers. Either he’s starting to change that narrative or Brazil were indeed minnows and a shell of what they normally are.
One last thing on the Round of 16 games. Wow. That Mexico-England game was special. What a spectacle all of us got to watch and a tip of the hat to England. To take control of the match but then to hold on to the lead after going down a man and having to endure that crowd and the elevation. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a more tired club at the end of game than England was in this game. Truly an effort for the history books.
Round of 8
Now we’re onto the quarterfinals! Here’s what I got:
- France over Morocco
- Belgium over Spain
- England over Norway
- Argentina over Switzerland
These are some tough matchups. Truth be told, I’m rooting for all the underdogs this round – Morocco, Belgium, Norway, and Switzerland. But in terms of picking the winner, I’m really torn over Belgium-Spain and Norway-England. I really want Morocco to win (Brahim!) but I think France is the best team in the tournament. Doesn’t mean Morocco can’t win but I think they have to toughest hill to climb. I can’t stand Argentina but I don’t think Switzerland can do enough to win.
I do think all 4 games should be really good and close. I don’t see a blowout but if there is one it’ll be Argentina over Switzerland…although I think Argentina is the weakest of the top 4 and despite their comeback against Egypt, they don’t inspire a lot of confidence in me.
Red Cards and Politics
I’m not going to say a whole lot as I spoke about this in the last post (I did think Balogun’s red card was justified based on how the current rules are written), but I do think it’s important to say something about what happened.
I generally don’t talk about politics here because this site is about Milan. I’m sure many of you have gleaned my political leanings, and it’s not something I shy away from, but I try to keep the focus on Milan.
Politics, however, touches all aspects of life and it has in this World Cup when it comes to travel visas and the Iran team and how they were treated (shamefully) and even ticket prices. And now it touched the play on the field with Balogun’s red card.
No national leader from any country should put their finger on the scale when it comes to sports but especially the playing field/court. Donald Trump did that and it put a taint on the game and how the world viewed the US (I know, the rest of the world didn’t need help in that). It undoubtedly gave Belgium extra motivation and it disserviced the US team by putting extra light and scrutiny on them. They didn’t ask the president to intervene but they had to answer for it anyway (Belgium also took it out on them with the rest of the world cheering them on).
The US has a solid team, and although not world beaters, they’re better than that 4-1 score line. I wish the focus would’ve just stayed on the pitch and the red card intervention prevented that from happening. I think we should all be at least a little bugged at that.
Wrap up
QUARTERFINALS. Let’s get it. I hope all the Milan players do well (but I’m still rooting for Brahim and Monocco against Maignan, Rabiot and even Theo!). Enjoy the games.
gillis