Tales in transition: From Cavani to Courtois

Heavyweights France and Brazil have come into their own but after a brilliant opening day, the round of 16 ended with a scrappy EnglandColombia game

When England — I mean the country, its media and fans — come back to earth after breaking the curse of the penalties, they will realise it followed an underwhelming show in the two hours before that. And so the way the pre-quarter finals ended was a study in contrasts to how they began.

What stood out in the first day’s games was how swiftly teams transitioned from back to front. There are few sights in football more pleasing than a team switching from defence to attack in the blink of an eye. Kylian Mbappe’s gazelle-like strides exploited Argentina’s lack of pace and helped France take early control. Control they didn’t yield, something that wouldn’t be evident from the 4-3 scoreline. France overran Argentina, suffocated Lionel Messi and are growing in Russia just like a team tipped to go all the way should. Ditto Brazil and I’ll come to that.

Later that night, Edinson Cavani brought together his experience, endurance and incredible abilities in one swift move that he started and ended. After the ball travelled from right to left what stood out for me was how Cavani followed it, breezing past some of his teammates who were further upfield. This is what a true striker’s instinct is all about. The move also showcased everything that is right about the CavaniLuis Suarez partnership.

Japan too showed how smart their football has become with Genki Haraguchi’s goal exposing the chinks in Belgium’s threeback system. The kind of self-belief Japan showed along with their ability to stick to a plan against superior opponents is something they will build on. Belgium will take a lot of heart from the character they showed but their winner too was a lesson in transition and with Thibaut Courtois showing goalkeepers can be the first line of offence.

Brazil again looked the strongest team and what I liked was how they lined up defensively to suffocate Mexico. Suffocating is what Russia did to Spain and I am still having trouble getting over their ouster. They never settled down and maybe a lot of it has to do with what happened before their tournament began.

England were disjointed. It was known that Colombia without James Rodriguez would try to disrupt them, but what could worry England is their lack of creativity. So, if it’s England-Croatia in the semi-final, I would fancy Luka Modric’s team to better what their predecessors achieved in 1998.