We're into the knockout stage at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and it's time to reset. It's also time to take a look at the thoughts that I've had over the last two weeks that I really haven't told you yet:
Stop the foolish talk of taking World Cup spots from CONCACAF
I've explained already that I am a staunch defender of CONCACAF while still enjoying great football from all over the world. There are some, like I've already explained, who will drop trow on CONCACAF at every opportunity, all because they feel CONCACAF is inferior. And all week, those people are doing their level best to attack CONCACAF because of Panama's minus-9 goal difference, while ignoring the efforts of Mexico and Costa Rica.
They say that CONCACAF should lose World Cup places because of this, which I think is asinine since they've not been shut out of the Round of 16 since 1982, and Mexico has advanced every tournament since '94 and how the US made the last two Rounds of 16. Can you say the same for the Asian confederation? In '14 and '98, Asia had no teams advance from the group; had Senegal attacked and scored in the last 10 minutes Thursday, Asia would have been shut out again.
Seeing as Asia has had four places in the World Cup since '98 and five this go-around because Australia beat Honduras, where was the outrage over Asia's place count at subsequent World Cups? And why wasn't there outrage when Brazil got its keester handed to it by Germany in '14's semis? Why didn't CONMEBOL lose places? Oh, it's because Brazil is a traditional footballing power, right? What about Poland -- a Top 10 team in the FIFA rankings -- crashing out Sunday? Or what about England's shambolic performance in '14 (keep in mind that Costa Rica and the US finished top of England's group the last two World Cups)? Or Spain's in '14? Or Italy's in '10? Or France's in '02? Or Argentina and Germany earlier this week? Or when Argentina hammered Serbia and Montenegro by twin 6-1 scores in '06?
Heaven forbid we take places away from the European or South American confederations because of their crap play, but no, have at it with CONCACAF because England routed Panama, or because the US didn't make it. Rubbish.
Is it time for the 24-hour channel to learn about other nations’ players?
I mentioned in the OFF THE PITCH section of Monday’s World Cup Report that ESPN pundit Max Bretos had tweeted, “Another World Cup and I have learnt (sic) nothing about Korea. There is a huge Korean community in (US), We as media have to be better storytellers regarding (Korea).” Bretos is 100 percent correct here, but I think we need to go a step further in our soccer educations. I think we know so little about the South Korea team (and have less of a rooting interest in South Korea, except when … you know) is because we know so little about the players.
A majority of the South Korean players -- much like most of the teams in Asia -- play in their own domestic league, and we don’t see their domestic leagues on television. Same with the Russian team, same with the Saudis, same with (insert team here). We get fed a healthy diet of Major League Soccer (natch), Liga MX (on Univision Deportes), the Premier League (NBC Sports), the Bundesliga (FOX), plus BeIN Sports USA’s coverage of Serie A, La Liga, and Ligue 1 on our TVs. We know these players. It makes it easier for us to root for them.
How to solve this? Give us the 24-hour soccer channel which will have game after game, live and tape delayed, to give die-hard fans all soccer, all the time.
Really impressed with certain nations’ resilience
Back on Day 2, I mentioned how Morocco and Iran’s match was a "delete from the DVR without watching it." It was a sloppy game: players colliding with each other, whiffing at wide open one-timers. Seriously, it was bad football, a poor advert for our sport. But you couldn’t tell Morocco had already been eliminated when it played Spain on Monday. You would have thought Iran was done and dusted, but the Melli fought and fought and fought, right to the end against Portugal. The way Panama celebrated after scoring against England. The way Iceland battled and battled against Croatia. Peru beating Australia. South Korea beating Germany late. Tunisia -- TUNISIA! -- coming from behind beat Panama. Some of these teams had nothing to play for, but they played like they were ready to advance in the tournament.
I don't do enough second-guessing on BSJ, so I'm second-guessing the Aussies' deployment
Four years ago, I wrote in the Fitchburg paper how I felt it was right for Jurgen Klinsmann to leave Benedict Arnold -- erm, Landon Donovan -- off his 23-man roster for the ’14 World Cup. My argument: the United States wouldn’t grow as a soccer country if we had a 32-year-old player on the roster when you can fill that spot with a younger player.
Four years later, I’m questioning why interim Australia manager Bert van Marwijk took 38-year-old Tim Cahill to Russia if he would only give him a 37-minute run-out in a must-win match. Apparently, Australia didn’t have a young player to fill in that spot. And again, why only play him 37 minutes? Australia is another federation, much like the United States, which needs to take a long look in the mirror when it comes to player development. The Sydney Daily Herald said it best on Wednesday: "Is Australia's player pool too shallow and did this team do as well as was expected of them? Is the A-League doing enough to aid the Socceroos?" We could ask the same about Major League Soccer and its development academies regarding the US men.
Commercial thoughts
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Belgium, I don’t care about the world’s largest electronic dance festival. Germany, I don’t care for frankfurters; not even at Fenway do I care about them. Iceland, I love your thunderclap in the stands, but I hope that’s not how you all speak. Switzerland, bless your simple Alpine family. Argentina, yes, you’re passionate; get Maradona help. Brazil lady, you are soooooo cocky (I love it)…. Dear McDonalds, Not every American is clueless about soccer, and it would be nice if you didn’t feed this tired 1990’s narrative. It’s 2018, get with the friggin’ program. Sincerely, everyone… I never watched Parks and Recreation, so I have to say I didn't know who Aubrey Plaza was before the tournament; I’m still not switching phones, though… Love that it’s Carli Lloyd going one-on-one with Lionel Messi in the Pepsi commercial… the adidas commercial is good, full of football’s greats. But what would have made that commercial better is if you swapped out the New York Rangers jersey for NYCFC or the Red Bulls, seeing as it’s a football commercial, not hockey; the message in the advert, though, is powerful… Avocados from Peru doesn't have the same ring as Avocados from Mexico, does it?
FIVE PENALTIES:
- I'm not backing down from my predo of Argentina winning it all. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not.
- I really hope Colombian police protect Carlos Sanchez until he returns to Italy for the club season, or that he goes directly to Italy from Russia. We can't have a second needless death because of mistakes at the World Cup. That being said, he's 32; I would think that once Los Cafeteros are out, that's the end of his international career. Take my advice, Carlos: get your family out of Colombia and stay in Italy.
- Even though I'm part German (predominantly Irish, County Mayo twice), I'm not in the least offended by Die Mannschaft getting Das Boot.
- Mexico against Brazil? El Tri better play a tad better than it did Wednesday, or that fifth game is out of your reach again. And if you're Brazil, are you thinking, "Seriously?! We have to play another friggin' team from North America?!"
- We've had a lot of new subscribers in the last two weeks. Here's hoping that you all liked what I did with the World Cup group stages (we will continue in the knockout stages, of course), and continue following our Revolution coverage.