Argentina's Lionel Messi celebrates scoring against Australia. Photo / AP
Argentina's Lionel Messi celebrates scoring against Australia. Photo / AP
NZME’s world-renowned football blog Goalmouth Scramble is back. Our rotating stable of football writers will offer daily hot takes on all the action from the World Cup in Qatar. Today, Michael Burgess wonders if this World Cup is already one of the greatest of the modern era.
OPINION:
Whatever happensover the rest of this Fifa World Cup, it’s already one of the best of the modern era.
It’s very difficult to put aside all the issues around the host country and the human cost required to stage the event in Qatar, but from a pure footballing perspective, the tournament itself has been spectacular.
There has been an attacking verve to most of the football, plenty of goals and a sense that teams are prepared to chance their arm more than many previous editions.
The pool stage delivered drama like never before.
Instead of one grupo de la muerte, there were several.
Group E, with Spain, Japan, Germany and Costa Rica was the obvious highlight, especially with the extraordinary scenarios on the final day, where at different times each of the four teams were progressing, including Costa Rica for a few crazy minutes.
But there were similar scenes in Group C, with the agonising permutations for Mexico and Poland.
Perhaps the best was saved for last, with the Group H grudge match between Uruguay and Ghana and Korea Republic’s extraordinary late winner against Portugal, which eventually sent the South Americans home, but only after almost 10 minute of added time.
South Korea's players celebrate. Photo / AP
It was the first World Cup since 1994 where no team managed three wins in group play and the sense of the unexpected was refreshing.
In 2014 half of the group winners had 100 percent records while in Russia there were three teams that banked nine points.
The presence of three Asian teams and two African nations in the round of 16 (after one and none respectively in 2018) was also a bonus, as was the 28 goals delivered in that bracket, the most since 1986 (26).
Australia’s heroics was a boost for the game in this part of the world and even some of the teams that fell at the first hurdle, like Ecuador, Cameroon, Canada, Mexico and Ghana had their memorable moments.
Saudi Arabia’s defeat of Argentina was an upset for the ages while Morocco’s vibrant win over Belgium and Tunisia’s victory over France will be remembered for a long time in those North African countries.
The storylines accompanying Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar have added fascination, along with the stunning form of Kylian Mbappe.
France's Kylian Mbappe celebrates. Photo / AP
Portugal’s Goncalo Ramos became the youngest to score a World Cup hat-trick since Pele in 1958, while teammate Pepe, who is almost 40, is now only behind Cameroon icon Roger Milla among the oldest goal scorers at Fifa’s quadrennial event.
There are some classic quarter-final matchups, with a repeat of the 1978 final between the Netherlands and Argentina (and the 2014 semifinal) and the engrossing spectacle that will be England versus France, meeting for the first time in a World Cup knockout match, after group phase encounters in 1966 and 1982.
Perhaps the best thing about the upcoming 10 days is the glorious uncertainty, as no one really knows who will lift the trophy next Monday.
That certainly wasn’t the case in 2002, when Brazil’s victory seemed assured by the semifinal stage, with Turkey, South Korea and a inexperienced German team in the last four.
In 2010 Spain seemed destined for the title, while Germany had a commanding presence from an early stage in 2014 in Brazil.
And four years ago in Russia France looked a class above the rest throughout.
This time, there is more mystery.
Brazil and France might be seen as the bookmakers favourites, but there are at least three other teams that are good enough to go all the way.
That’s a rare situation, perhaps only comparable to Mexico 86, when Diego Maradona’s Argentina, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge’s West Germany, Zico’s Brazil, Michel Platini’s France and Gary Lineker’s England were part of the last eight and genuine contenders, and to a lesser extent 1998 in France, where four heavyweights were in good form coming into the quarter-finals.
