A great new wave
The teams performing best at the FIFA World Cup — Brazil, Spain, England, France — have found a balance between the young and the experienced. See how they stack up
By the time you read this (as letters in the pre-internet age often began), the World Cup’s group stage will have yielded to the Round of 16. Having watched each team play at least twice, we have been given a fairly comprehensive sense of how they stack up: England may bring it home, no joke; France may create history by becoming only the third team to successfully defend a title (after Italy in 1938 and Brazil in ’62); Portugal are great on paper and increasingly finding their feet on the pitch, showing why, for arguably the first time in their history, they have a team that deserve
the tag of favourites instead of underdogs; Spain are a throwback to their astounding tiki-taka days, and — dare I say it? — perhaps even better; Argentina look like they still haven’t figured out how to make their rich talent come together as a juggernaut; Belgium’s defence and offence are ageshaming each other in a sad but funny turn of events for what was once their “golden generation”; and Brazil look like they may dance their way to a record sixth title.
After that Richarlison goal, the midfield magic from Neymar, Casemiro and Raphinha, and with Alisson guarding the goal like something out of the Marvel universe, who can bet against these resurgent South American giants?
Through it all, one thing stood out for me: the best performers at this World Cup are the teams that have found the right balance between the young and the experienced. Brazil, Spain, England and France are all packed with stars of the future (who may well become the stars of now in the course of this tournament), while also being anchored by some of the most seasoned players currently in the game.
Brazil’s outstanding teamwork is as indebted to the searing pace of the 22-yearold Vini Jr as it is to the grounded, reassuring presence of 30-year-old Casemiro.
Sergio Busquets, 34, is doing something very similar for Spain in his fourth appearance at the World Cup. How wonderful, surreal and strange it must be. Once he was the thread that bound the wild genius of Xavi and Andres Iniesta and the rest of Spain’s most brilliant generation of players, winning the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 Euros. Now he is playing alongside a generation of players who grew up idolising Xavi and Iniesta.
A personal favourite cocktail of young and old is France. They have a midfield controlled by Aurelien Tchouameni, 22, and Eduardo Camavinga, 20; their star player by a mile (and my pick to win the Golden Boot), Kylian Mbappe, is 23 and already a World Cup winner and a scorer in a World Cup final. But it’s the forever-unsung journeyman, 36-year-old Olivier Giroud, who is the heart of the team. Giroud, who didn’t play for France until well into his 20s; who does the unselfish and often thankless job of holding the ball in the opponent’s box so he may roll it onto an onrushing colleague to score. Giroud, who has now surpassed Michel Platini and levelled with Thierry Henry as his country’s highest goal-scorer.
Of all the young talent on display though, perhaps the best and most belongs to England. Here is a team that has trouble giving starting places to Phil Foden, a generational talent and one of the finest attacking players in the world right now.
This is a World Cup that began with the story of two of the world’s greatest-ever, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, playing their swansong and hoping to make it count, after four unsuccessful attempts at the title. Ronaldo, 37, has become the only player to score in five World Cups, and Messi, 35, is the only player to provide assists in five World Cups. But I suspect the story in Qatar will end with the world celebrating a new hero.