Just keep this hot Cup steaming along
With the group stages over in a blink of an eye, the soccer world took a collective breather Friday preparing for the knockout stages to start on Saturday.
The World Cup to this point has been brilliant — one of the best in recent memory. It’s had everything fans could have asked for. We’ve had minnows punch well above their weight, and we’ve had one of the biggest shocks in tournament history with Germany’s group stage exit, with plenty of tension and late drama in between.
And thankfully, there have been no reports of any racism or fan aggression, which goes to show that these tournaments usually bring out the best of people.
With so much still to look forward to, however, there’s no point reminiscing about the group stages when the knockout rounds are here, and there are plenty of matchups to look forward to.
France vs. Argentina kicks off the Round of 16, with Lionel Messi and Co. trying to keep up the momentum gained from scraping out of their group in the final game. France has flown predominantly under the radar, having gone about business quietly and efficiently but not yet showing the world just how good they can be. Either way, Argentina is going to have to do more than rely on Messi to dig them out of a hole if they’re going to beat a superior French side.
Another team that has quietly gone about their business is Croatia, whose players fancy themselves to beat Denmark in their Round of 16 game. This could set up a potential clash with Spain in the quarter-finals, in what would be a much closer game than many people may realize. Croatia has been one of the strongest teams in the tournament so far, and Spain still isn’t playing the kind of football we’ve grown accustomed to. Spain also has to find a way through a surprisingly good Russian side in their Round of 16 game, but with aspirations to win the whole thing, they should in theory be able to beat Russia pretty comfortably.
England vs. Colombia represents a real opportunity for one of them to make it to at least the semifinals. The winner of this game has to face the winner of Sweden vs. Switzerland in the quarters, and you’ve got to believe that England or Colombia would feel very confident against either team. What this World Cup has shown us is that nothing is decided on paper, and there are no guarantees of victory when each team is as motivated as the other to win.
Just looking at the Round of 16 fixtures gives an indication on how competitive this year’s competition is. Belgium, Croatia and Spain look like the teams most likely to progress thanks to their easier matchups. For every other match, though, it’s anybody’s guess. Brazil should in theory beat Mexico but, with the way both teams have played so far, that’s far from a given, while the remaining matchups look so even that it really is anyone’s guess.
Such competitiveness is what has made this World Cup one of the best in living memory. The lack of an obvious favourite has meant that smaller teams have fancied themselves a lot more than in previous competitions. Croatia, Belgium, England, Colombia, all have legitimate chances to make a run, and they will have been buoyed by seeing the underwhelming performances of the big teams so far.
This is not to say that this feelgood, underdog story is going to continue right through to the final. In fact, history tells us that the excitement levels do tend to drop off a bit when we reach this stage of the competition — understandable when one wrong misstep can be enough to send your team home.
But with this increased tension and caution, comes the chance for those star players to make their impact. These knockout games are so often decided by the finest of margins, and the bigger teams do have the better players, and these players have the potential to turn a game on its head with a moment of magic.
The likes of Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, Griezmann can all drift out of games at times, but they all have the ability to snatch a halfchance and stick it in the net. This is something that all the smaller teams will be aware of — and jealous of — but over-compensating by paying too much attention to those players gives the rest of the team more space to operate, so it’s a difficult balance to make.
Either way, the Round of 16 has got some excellent games to look forward to, and the only hope from neutrals is that the excitement in the group stages translates similarly to the knockout stages. If it does, then we’re all in for a treat.
David Lewis is a sportswriter from Manchester, U.K., with a focus on international and European club soccer.