World Cup Recap No. 2

let's have a little drama

This was meant to go out last night, before the first knockout round match. But once again, I made the mistake of romanticizing public transport and found myself stuck in a train for over seven hours yesterday.¹ This is what I get for trying to be Miss Sustainable Travel Girlie while lacking Greta Thunberg’s Swedish patience. If only I would learn from these little lessons. Catch me on a ten-hour train in a few months, probably.

Anyway, I got home just in time to see Canada score the winning goal in the 92nd minute, taking them into the World Cup’s Round of 16 for the first time. Do you guys think Ontario-born Avril Lavigne was watching? Pop icon and British Columbia-born Carly Rae Jepsen? Congratulations to them and also, I guess, to Canada.

Jonathan David after moving on to the next round. I, too, would be this happy if I knew my performance had likely contributed to making Carly Rae Jepsen’s night. Maybe inspired a song or two. (Photo: FIFA)

We’re here to talk about the second week of the group stage, though. But first, let’s do the elephant/room of it all: Uruguay is out of the World Cup, for which I received a variety of much appreciated condolences messages.

I want to say I’m devastated, and in a way I am, but mostly because there was no way that we, playing the way we were, deserved to reach the knockout stage. It’s not that Saudi Arabia, Cape Verde, or Spain were unbeatable teams, or that they delivered magnificent performances. Every game we played was a draw or a loss because of our own errors. There was no cohesion, no hunger, and a near-total absence of grit. It’s always frustrating to watch us play, for Uruguayans more than anyone, but this World Cup may take the cake.

Uruguay’s uninspired game against Spain—our last group match—caught me in Bilbao, where I had to keep my chill as the Spanish fans who surrounded me screamed semi-justified obscenities at the refs and the Uruguayan players. Shoutout to the siblings who briefly adopted me and walked me back to the hotel at 4am following the match’s conclusion.

But enough about me and my suffering, etc.

If I had to draw a conclusion from the second week of the group stage, I’d say that among the countries considered the favorites to win at the start of the tournament, France is the one best living up to the predictions. Yes, both England and Spain won their groups, but I wouldn’t say they’ve been playing with the comfort and the ease of the French squad, who even among some tough opponents—Senegal and Norway, mostly—have performed with a level of skill and collaboration sometimes absent in these other favorites. They’re playing better than they did in 2022, as a squad with a keen understanding of exactly where each player’s strengths lie. Suffice it to say it does very much pain me to compliment les bleus, but what am I gonna do, lie?

Between Dembélé, Olise (not pictured, but I’m still thinking about his assist from France’s first group match), Koné, and Mbappé … yeah, I do fear they might be taking it, babes. (Photo: FIFA)

A few moments I’ve been thinking about from the second week of the World Cup:

1. Mexico’s excellent performance.

Prior to the start of the tournament, you wouldn’t have seen Mexico on many of the Favorites To Win the World Cup lists, but they are one of three teams to have won all three of their group matches. The other two? Argentina and France.

The host country is facing Ecuador in the Round of 32 this Wednesday, and after the way Ecuador managed to eke out a win over Germany and cement its spot in the knockout rounds for the second time in its history … well, I think it’ll be a fascinating game, folks!

2. The chaos following the Uruguay-Spain match.

Sadly and unsurprisingly, I’m not done talking about this. Uruguay rendered a mediocre World Cup performance this summer, and on Friday night’s match against Spain, it felt like every error we made was coming to the fore. We created some opportunities, yes, but we also committed too many unnecessary fouls, lacked the energy required in what was essentially an elimination game, and allowed nerves to manifest themselves in regrettable and costly mistakes.

Mistakes such as:

Fernando Muslera at the Spain-Uruguay game. (Photo: Fernando Llano/AP)

There was enough time to regroup in the second half. To make some changes and deliver better chances. Was it a good idea to sub out Muslera, who’s been beset by increasingly weak wrists the last two weeks? To this day, I don’t know if it helped or if it simply added to the chaos and anxiety among the Uruguay squad. And then the aftermath … my god. Bielsa’s post-match meltdown. Uruguay’s football federation reportedly punishing the team’s loss(es) by canceling their charter flight. The rumors that have emerged of the arguments and tension in the locker room. It’s just all a hot mess.

Uruguay has already begun the search for a new head coach, and I just know that this performance will haunt national football for years to come.

3. Argentina and Messi.

There’s a running joke in Latin America about how Argentina always manages to be placed in relatively easy World Cup groups. And although I do hesitate to call any group easy, given the heroic performances we’ve seen from countries such as Cape Verde and DR Congo and the lackluster ones we’ve witnessed from countries like Belgium and, ahem, Uruguay, I do think there’s something to this, which is why it’s difficult to predict how Argentina will fare against more experienced and more skilled opponents.

Good for him, etc. (Photo: FIFA)

There’s also the fact that of Argentina’s eight goals thus far, six of them were scored by Messi. Like, yes, he’s still playing at a level that Cristiano Ronaldo can only dream about, and congratulations to him on that, but when faced with a more challenging opponent than Jordan, Algeria, or Austria, will that overreliance on Messi prove itself a problem? I doubt—respectfully—Cape Verde will be much of an issue for Scaloni’s squad,² but the quarterfinals are likely to be a different story.

4. Do not sleep on Colombia.

Thanks to whatever FIFA devil was in charge of scheduling the group stage matches, I haven’t been able to watch as much of Colombia as I’d have liked. That being said, I’ve loved what I’ve seen. Maybe because they were in a group with Portugal, who a lot of (respectfully!) delusional folks insist on calling a real contender because they’re stuck in 2010,³ but sharing the spotlight with Cristiano Ronaldo is never easy, and I suspect that is a large part of why their participation thus far has flown slightly under the radar. But it shouldn’t! It’s a confident and experienced team with a solid chance to go deeper into the knockout rounds.

5. Everyone reacted super normally to South Korea’s group stage exit.

So South Korea also saw a group stage exit, and they’re also not taking it particularly well. Head coach Hong Myung-bo has resigned and taken responsibility for the disappointing results, which seemingly was not enough, as:

[T]he national team’s official fan club Red Devils issued a statement calling on Hong to “kneel before the entire nation and leave the football world forever”. (BBC)

President Lee Jae Myung, meanwhile, said:

“I sincerely apologize to the public for the deep disappointment caused by this absurd situation. We will move swiftly to reform sports administration to ensure this does not happen again.” (AP)

As someone who occasionally relies on hyperbole and histrionics to process personal crises, I found this approach charming and relatable and not at all problematic. Well done, everyone.

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P.S. I urge you to watch DR Congo’s Yoane Wissa’s last goal against Uzbekistan from last night. Insanity.

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1. Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy has a lot to answer for.

2. To be clear, I’d love to be wrong about this!!!

3. I swear to God if Luka Modric and his Croatia side don’t go full 2018 on July 3 and I end up having to eat my words …