Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Time for some new blood
Nontraditional powers making noise on 1 side of the bracket
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — From a World Cup bracket that looks like a bright, imaginative, bighearted child might have drawn it, maybe even in crayon, and especially if that child were Russian, one of the following four teams will appear a week from Sunday in a rare and motley final: Croatia, Russia, Sweden or Eng- ... That’s Eng- ... Uh, Eng- ... That’s England. This reality stands ahead of the quarterfinals that begin Friday, with only two previous final berths sprinkled among that foursome. That will mark a departure from the penchant of the World Cup final to spotlight titans, with Spain in 2010 the only finalist since 1966 without multiple finals all time, and nobody deemed Spain an upstart. Twentynine of the previous 40 berths have gone to Germany (eight), Brazil (seven), Italy (six), Argentina (five) and the Netherlands (three).
Somehow, only one of those five stands among the final eight, with that one (Brazil) on the caviar side of the bracket alongside Belgium’s golden generation, France’s soaring talent and Uruguay’s all-pitch competence.
That leaves ample room to note things such as that, when two teams walk out for the final in Moscow, Croatia could forge an astounding achievement for a country only 27 years old and with 4.2 million souls, or England ...
In one of those statistics that seems impossible until its plausibility rises with careful viewing, England, home to the world’s most popular league, has reached only one World Cup semifinal in the 52 years since it won the 1966 World Cup at Wembley Stadium.
That seems an eternity ago because England long since took both its proclivity and reputation for disorder and snuffed out both — systematically, decisively and impressively. By now, anyone still mentioning England in this vein deserves to be asked how long their coma lasted.
By now, the foremost risk from England fans might come from having one faint in your direction after England won against Colombia in the endeavor that had haunted it for a generation: penalties.
“I’m so proud of the way we played,” manager Gareth Southgate said in a FIFA TV interview afterward, “because coming into a knockout game, everybody knows our history in the last 10 years with knockout games, so to play with the authority that we did and the composure that we did was really top.
“And then,” he said, referring to Colombia’s smashing equalizer in the 94th minute, “we had to show incredible resilience to come back from such a hammer blow right on the final whistle.”
Sweden also has played in one World Cup final, in 1958 at home against Brazil and a 17-year-old Pele, who scored twice that day. Croatia and Russia have played in none, yet the triumvirate of England, Sweden and Croatia did thrive in a 1990s corridor.
England had 1990, when it surpassed tournament darling Cameroon 3-2 in a quarterfinal in Naples behind penalty kicks in the 83rd and 105th minutes from Gary Lineker, by now known to a fresh generation as a television presenter with a natural omnipresence. England lost its semifinal to West Germany in Turin on penalties before well-behaved fanatics.
Sweden, in a matter that became a poster you could buy in Stockholm later that summer, finished third in 1994 in the United States, playing knockout matches at the Cotton Bowl (a 3-1 win over Saudi Arabia), Stanford Stadium (a win over Romania on penalties) and the Rose Bowl (a 1-0 loss to Brazil on Romario’s 80th-minute goal).
And Croatia, then only seven years old as a country, placed third in France in 1998, coursing through Romania and Germany before losing a semifinal to eventual winner France. As a signal of the geopolitics of the era, Croatia’s Robert Prosinecki became the only player to score in World Cups for two countries, having scored for the vaster Yugoslavia, prebreakup, in 1990.
“What we have demonstrated,” manager Miroslav Blazevic said, “is that our very, very small — perhaps unknown — country is able to show with great elegance what it is capable of. Hopefully more people will learn about our country because of this team.”
Certainly more people have learned how to find its players, 14 of whom play in Spain, England, Italy, Germany or France and two of whom, including captain and best player Luka Modric, just celebrated a third straight Champions League title with Real Madrid.
All 23 prepare to play Russia, with its world ranking of No. 70 stashed beneath Cape Verde, Finland, Albania, Jamaica and Burkina Faso, to name a smattering. Even though it emerged from by far the easiest group and got thrashed in there by Uruguay, and even though it has benefited from Mohamed Salah’s injury and Spain’s odd fecklessness, further passage wouldn’t feel so unprecedented. Location matters. South Korea made an unexpected run to the semifinals as a co-host in 2002, and the United States reached its first round of 16 in 60 years in 1994.
“There are many good teams, and a lot is at stake,” Sweden’s Emil Forsberg said. “It can be nerves” that help explain the unexpected. “It can be anything.”