Three Out of Four Ain't Bad

Pre-tournament our short list of preferred sides would have gone something like Belgium, England, Iceland and France.  To see three of these countries in the semis is pretty cool.  France were too much for Uruguay without Cavani while England were just plain better than Sweden.  Russia-Croatia was the expected hot mess that went to PKs; I guess Putin couldn't rig the kicks this time.  Brazil-Belgium was a gem; I haven't been as invested in a match since the US-Belgium classic in 2014.


YouTubeable Moments

Lukaku might not win Golden Boot but has there been a
more valuable performer?

My pick for goal of the quarters is this one from Kevin de Bruyne.  Sure I'm slightly biased here as
this was the difference in Belgium's 2-1 win over Brazil but you have to admit it's a beauty.  Also, don't miss the complete work by Lukaku to set it up - first the hold up play, then the dribble forward, then the pass to de Bruyne.  Great tournament from him so far.

Runner up is the goal by Fernandes in extra time that brought Russia back to level with Croatia.  I was hoping to capture the emotion in the home crowd and this video sort of gets it but on TV the pandemonium seemed even greater.


Exclusive Club

With the departure of Brazil, we now know that this will be just the 7th final out of 21 which did not include Germany or Brazil.  If we add Italy to that list, this will be just the 4th without that trio.  Throw Argentina into the mix and we're looking at just the 2nd final in World Cup history missing one of those four countries.  There's also a chance the final will include first timers for the first time since the second tournament in 1934 when Italy faced Czechoslovakia.  On the other hand, this list of semi-finalists doesn't change the stat that only countries from Europe or South America have ever competed in the final.

Non-imperialists will clearly be backing Belgium and Croatia, as neither England nor France have a particularly savory record in that regard.


Why Bother?

As the Russia-Croatia match ground towards extra time, Dennis and I were thinking that extra time is, well, a waste of time.  Nobody scores in extra time so why not save everybody 30 minutes of tepid attacks and bus parking and go right to the spot kicks?  Then we remembered in 2014 that Belgium scored in extra time to beat the US and Germany did the same to Argentina in the final.  And the 2010 final -same thing; Spain scored in extra time.  So we have a certain perception but what do the data tell us?

First thing though is you can't count matches prior to 1978 because kicks from the spot was not an option; they played until there was a winner.  Since then, I count 49 matches that were tied at the end of regulation.  Of those, 20 (41%) were decided in extra time while 29 went to kicks.  That's a higher percentage decided before kicks than I expected.  Additional research found that both teams scored in 3 of those 29 that went to kicks. So that means there were goals in 23 (47%) of the 49 overtime contests.  I'd argue that the data say the added 30 minutes is not an exercise in futility.


Most Inappropriate Use of a Soccer Move in a Non-soccer Setting

So I'm taking a break from WC, checking in on the Diamond League track meet in Lausanne Switzerland and see this at the finish of the men's 5,000.  At first I'm thinking yellow card for a tactical foul but clearly the correct call is a straight red card for DOFPO (denying obvious first place opportunity).  Kejelcha (the grabber) was disqualified, track's equivalent of a red card.  Balew (the grabbee) finished with a season best 13:02.67 but was probably headed to a sub-13 minute 5k (for non-track enthusiasts, that's a big deal) before the incident.


Three Lions? Meh

Our own big cat Fabbio was clearly not impressed with England's performance against Sweden, keeping his back to the TV for the whole telecast.  Yes, after too many posts in a short period, I am left putting up pictures of my cat.  I graded England's performance somewhat better than Fabbi.  They were better than last time out against Colombia and the 2-0 win does not flatter them.  The second goal, connecting Trippier to Lingard to Dele was nice work.  Some of the players (they know who they are) I've been less than thrilled to see out there performed pretty well.


Mark Geiger Revisited

Happy to see some push back defending Mark Geiger's performance in the England-Colombia match.  First we have this from the Sporting News, suggesting that Geiger's only problem here was that he was American and therefore was viewed as unqualified.  Geiger says as much here in his post match interview.  And from Dr Joe Machnik (FIFA Match Commissioner) we have this longer review of refereeing at the tournament in general which includes the assessment that Geiger's work in that match was fine.


Union Lose

But you guessed that already didn't you?  They weren't awful in some phases of the game but finishing continued to be a problem.  Some well-crafted chances ended up going right at keeper Brad Guzan or missing the target completely.   Blake gave up a PK for one of the goals (although his work was pretty good, keeping the score down) and another defensive breakdown led to the other.  Atlanta are the best in the East so 0-2 is not a totally disastrous result.  But the finishing has to get better.  Hard to watch CJ Sapong right now; nothing worse than seeing a striker with a crisis of confidence.  The Union have a big 6-pointer with Chicago on Wednesday.


Semis and Final

Tuesday has France-Belgium at 2 pm and Croatia-England is Wednesday, also at 2 pm.  Third place match, if you're into that kind of thing is Saturday at 10 am while the final is Sunday at 11 am.