The Great, the Okay and the Ugly

Well that was some mixed viewing.  Three unqualified successes (France-Argentina, Uruguay-Portugal and Belgium-Japan), two pretty decent matches (Brazil-Mexico and Switzerland-Sweden) and three sketchy to downright awful contests (Spain-Russia, Croatia-Denmark and England-Colombia).  Okay, the fact that there had to be a winner provided some redemption for those last three matches; at least there was the drama of who would advance.  I'll assume you know all the results and will move onto the things I remember from the Round of 16.


Impossible to Pick YouTubeable Moment

I can think of at least four strong candidates.

1) Pavard's goal that brought France back to level with Argentina in Les Bleus marvelous 4-3 win; the technique here is incredible
2) Cavani's second goal in the 62nd minute that proved to be the game winner in Uruguay's 2-1 triumph over Portugal; his first goal should probably be on the list as well
3) Akinfeev's kick save  (and a beauty) that sealed Russia's shoot out win over Spain; I know from Football Manager that Akinfeev is in fact an awesome keeper, just not as well-known because he plays his professional football in Russia
4) Chadli's game winner at 94 minutes that completed Belgium's 3-2 comeback win over Japan; Lukaku never touched the ball in the sequence but this goal probably doesn't happen without his dummy run

Each moment has such quality and context that I'm throwing my arms in the air and declaring it a four-way tie.


Tiki Taka D'oh

When they are playing well, Spain are fun to watch.  But when they don't want to attack, well, it's death by 1,000 passes.  Seriously, Spain completed 770 passes in regular time and 1,029 passes including extra time.  I realize this is a family blog but a soccer friend of mine once said that "possession without penetration is just masturbation."  Other than maybe in the second period of extra time, Spain seemed content to string together passes in the midfield.  Certainly the Russian plan was to park the bus but they didn't even really have to do that, except late in extra time when they were clearly playing for a shootout.  The whole thing left pundits and long-time fans disappointed and new fans wondering what the hell was so great about this sport.


Just Putin It Out There

VAR reviews whether Ramos was pulled down in the box

By the extra time, I found myself rooting for the hosts in spite of myself.  I mean, Putin had nothing to do with this, right?  Just because Russia benefited from two close calls by Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers doesn't mean the match was fixed, right?  Dennis and I seem to be in the minority here but neither of us think that Pique should have been called for handling in the box. His back was to the ball, there was no movement of arm to ball and Pique was jumping so his arms could go anywhere to provide balance.  Others think he had deliberately put his arm straight up in a desperate attempt to block the shot, pouring cold water on the conspiracy theorists.  And then late in stoppage time, you could argue that Ramos was wrestled to the ground in the box on a free kick; Dennis and I agree that while there have been worse (much worse) transgressions in the box that haven't been called, this was probably a penalty.  Again, others don't agree.  That one even went to VAR (see the picture above) so if there is a conspiracy, it must run deep.


An American in Moscow

Geiger gets an earful from Falcao (AP photo)

Or, depending on your view, The Ugly American.  The Colombia-England match turned out to be a very difficult refereeing assignment for Mark Geiger.  Post-match he's taking criticism from both teams, though especially from Colombia (details here).  I'm not going to argue that Geiger (who is from New Jersey, as announcer Derek Rae noted about a dozen times) had an awesome game; I think he got to the point where he had to issue some yellows that maybe you could argue were justified on the grounds of persistent fouling but really didn't look that bad to me.  The real problem here was a borderline disgraceful display of what Mackenzie calls male posturing from both teams.  The head "nuzzle" by Barrios on Henderson was ridiculous.  There was no force applied by Barrios but what the hell is he doing?  Similarly, Henderson then proceeds to go all Neymar after the nuzzle, writhing on the ground in fake pain.  Geiger has been faulted for showing yellow here and they may be right - it's probably red or nothing.  For me it's nothing.  But if anything, in this instance Geiger showed leniency towards Colombia, trying to keep the match at 11 v 11 in spite of the aggressively stupid behavior.  A Colombian assistant appeared to do a mild shoulder barge on Sterling as he's leaving the pitch at half time.  The English weren't blameless here.  Aside from Henderson's terrible thespian performance, Lingard and Maguire could have seen yellow for diving.  And so it went on.  A very choppy match, generally unpleasant viewing. The whole thing left me wishing that Japan could advance in place of either of these teams.   

One thing I feel Geiger definitely got right was the PK.  We've heard all tournament how FIFA instructed referees that making calls for holding in the box on set pieces was a priority and we've seen close to jack squat on that front.  At least Geiger had the guts to make the call when Sanchez arm tackled Kane in the box; he had to know that was going to set off a firestorm.  You could fault him for allowing the Colombian protests to delay the kick for three minutes, though I believe Falcao got a yellow in the process so he did penalize the behavior.

I'll be surprised if Geiger gets another assignment in the World Cup because of the outcry.  On balance though, I didn't see a big problem with his refereeing; I just saw petulant players who maybe believed they had a chance to intimidate an American referee.  I was pleased to see FIFA essentially tell Maradona, who felt the result was "monumental theft," to STFU. You would think after being photographed falling asleep during a match and giving the finger with both hands during another that he would have figured out that a lower profile might be a good idea.

Whoa, I believe that turned into a bit of a rant.  Sorry mates.


One of Your Own

BFS European correspondent Michael B notes that three of the four English PKs were made by Spurs players (Kane, Trippier and Dier).  For Kane, that was his second successful PK of the night.  On a related note, I found this clip of a young Geoffrey Chaucer introducing Harry Kane at a local match.


World Cup Vocabulary 

de·noue·ment

ˌdāno͞oˈmäN/

noun

1. the final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.

   synonyms:

   finale, final scene, epilogue, coda, end, ending, finish, close; More

   • the climax of a chain of events, usually when something is decided or made clear.

     
     

     "I waited by the eighteenth green to see the denouement"

     
     

     synonyms:

     outcome, upshot, consequence, result, end; informalpayoff "the debate had an unexpected denouement"

Derek Rae continues to expand our word power, using this term as the Russia-Spain
match entered its final stages.


Quote of the Week

Bob K: Croatia advanced because they had the "ic" to succeed

or

Rob Stone: The Belgian comeback was real and it was spectacular

or

Dennis: Neymar is asking for someone to Roy Keane his ass so he better be careful



Mackenzie's Fair Play rankings

BFS Resident Historian Mackenzie has taken a look at the eight teams in the quarterfinal from the perspective of their imperialist reputation.  Kind of a Fair Play ranking based on the yellow and red cards the countries have accumulated on the world stage throughout time.  Here's her analysis:

Sweden / England

Sweden

Even though Sweden was a colonial power, it was mostly a failed effort, losing out to larger European powers like England.

Uruguay / France

Uruguay 

Colonizing in 4 continents automatically disqualifies you. Though Uruguay is not very racially diverse, a colonial legacy is a more influential factor.

Brazil / Belgium

Brazil

This is a tough one. Belgium wasn’t a sovereign nation until 1830. The Belgian Congo was basically Belgium’s only colony. Brazil, on the other hand, was a colony, but suffered many years of political corruption. They also see race as skin tone and not heritage, and being mixed race has its own census category, Pardo. If it was just my opinion, I would say Belgium because a) Brazil wins all the time and Neymar is annoying and b)waffles  [ed note: what about the mussels too?]

Russia / Croatia 

Croatia

Because Russia is actively trying to take over the world.

Anybody Watching?

The less said of the Union loss to LAFC (1-4) the better.  They were missing Medunjanin (continuing suspension from Atlanta match) and Dockal (wife giving birth - Lamaze excuse?) and LAFC were unbeaten in six matches at home so the likelihood of grabbing points here was never high.  A bit disappointing to see Trusty and McKenzie beaten so much in one night but I guess that was bound to happen to young central defenders.  More worrisome is Sapong's complete loss of confidence anywhere near the goal.  They take on Atlanta on Saturday night.


Quarters

Friday has Uruguay - France at 10 am and Brazil - Belgium at 2 pm.  Saturday is Sweden - England at 10 and Russia - Croatia at 2.  538 says Croatia, France, Brazil and England are in the 60%+ range to win.  Maybe, but if I were Croatia, I'd check very closely who is in the VAR booth.