Putting the World in World Cup

Thank you to Morocco for upsetting Portugal to make this year's World Cup semis one of the most international of all time.  Gripping set of quarterfinal matches that should have entertained even the Grinchiest of viewers.  Well, except maybe those that don't like kicks from the spot to decide who advances in case of a draw.

A Lost Voice

Tribute to Grant Wahl at his spot in the press box

Before diving into the quarterfinal results, we need to take a moment to mourn the sudden passing of Grant Wahl, America's premier soccer journalist.  He had been feeling sick, likely with bronchitis, but collapsed during extra time in the Argentina - Netherlands match.  At this point, the cause of death is unknown.

There's a great summary of what Wahl meant to journalism and soccer here.  Money quote for me:

 He was a constant thorn in FIFA’s side, and once in Qatar he seemed to be a magnet for controversy. 

He'd already had two run-ins with authorities at this World Cup - once for refusing to delete picture he had taken of the tournament logo when requested to by a security guard and a second time for wearing a rainbow shirt.  Just because he loved the game didn't mean he would shy away from fighting sportswashing in all its forms.  

Riding on the Marrakesh Express (apologies to Crosby Stills and Nash)

Walid Regragui goes higher than En-Nesyri did on goal

All aboard the train bandwagon.  While you can characterize Morocco's approach in their 1-0 win over Portugal as defensive, you really can't say they parked the bus.  That bus made it's fair share of trips across the center line.  Portugal did have massive edge in possession (65/13/22) but shots were 11/9 and shots on target were even at 3/3.  And Morocco did have a 1.37-.82 xG advantage.  Two metrics available from FIFA do suggest the defensive efforts by Morocco were intense.  They caused 88 forced turnovers compared to Portugal's 44 and had 373 "defensive pressures applied" compared to 165 for Portugal.  I'm new to these measures so I don't know if it was just a consequence of Portugal having so much possession.  Sigh, a study for another day.

Maybe the key metric should be how high En-Nesyri got up to make the header for the game's only goal.  Check out his elevation here.  A fearless challenge in the box for sure.

But let's go back to defense.  Morocco yielded exactly 0 (none, nada, zilch, rien) goals against Croatia, Belgium, Spain and Portugal.  The only goal they've surrendered in the tournament is an own goal to Canada. 

One Aw Sh** Moment Wipes Out 10 Attaboys

I'll eat my shirt if Kane misses a PK
Markus Ulmer/Teamfoto/Imago Images

That philosophical gem was offered up by BFS Contractor Charlie O.  He made the point somewhere in the second half of the France-England match; he was referring to Hugo Lloris's habit of making a series of great saves and then letting an easy one go by.  In the end, it turned out to apply to Harry Kane.  Kane had converted his first PK (against Spurs teammate Hugo Lloris) at 54 minutes to level the match at 1-1.  At 84 minutes, with England now down 1-2, he had another chance.  This time he skied it over the bar.  France held on from there for the victory.  

Fortunately, while there is some fun on the internet at Kane's expense, his reputation doesn't seem to be taking too big a hit over this.  And it shouldn't.   At least he's not in danger of being subject to the racist abuse that teammates Saka, Sancho and Rashford received after high profile PK misses in last Euros.

The worst thing about the miss was that it deprived us of another 30 minutes of the captivating football these two sides offered.  England matched, or maybe surpassed, France's vaunted offense.  Well, except on the scoreboard.  They had the possession edge (54/10/36), took more shots (14/9), had more shots on target (6/5) and better expected goals (2.54-1.21).  Oops, there's a problem with that last one.  A PK is worth about .8 so from the run of play, England's xG is more like .94.  Plus they missed one of the PKs. Final third entries were 39 each.  

The difference came on another goal from Olivier Giroud, seen here in his second consecutive YouTubeableMoment; yeah, the cross from Griezmann was pretty sweet too.  For Giroud this is the most unlikely redemption.  If not for the injury to Benzema, he likely would have spent the tournament as a late match substitute.  As it stands now, with four goals, he's tied for second with teammate Messi, just one behind teammate Mbappe.  We're big fans of his and glad to see him get his due.

No consolation for England but they played really well against a great team.

Nobody Scores in Extra Time

Seems that way but there were Brazil and Croatia each grabbing a goal in the over time periods.  The two sides had battled through a 0-0 90 minutes which was even in possession though Brazil had more scoring chances; Croatia didn't get a shot on target.  Neymar did some nifty work and managed this goal near the end of the first overtime period.  Cynical observers might suggest that the old Neymar would have gone down in attempt to win a PK rather than continue on trying to score. Surely this would be enough to see Brazil through.  Apparently not, and please don't call me Shirley.  Croatia scored in the 117th minute - with its only shot on target - to send the match to a shootout, where they prevailed 4-2. 

What kind of team can't protect a lead with mere minutes left in extra time? Certainly no team I'm aware of.

You Want Drama?

Not sure exactly what to highlight from the Netherlands - Argentina match that ended with Argentina winning 4-3 on PKs after playing to a 2-2 draw.  There was the Dutch comeback.  Down 0-2 after Messi put away a PK in the 73rd minute, they got one back in the 83rd minute, then got the equalizer at 90+11.  Wout Weghorst got both, the second one on a "novel" set piece play seen here.  So much for the wall and the draft excluder.  Argentina definitely were the better side in the overtime and probably deserved the win.

The 90+11 is a clue to other, less savory, aspects of this match.  There were 48 fouls (30 for the Netherlands) and 18 yellow cards.  The yellows were evenly distributed with respect to players - each got shown eight.  Throw in one for the Argentina assistant and one for their manager Scaloni.  For me this was not a strong performance from Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz.  He did okay calling fouls but his use of the the yellow card left much to be desired.  It's like he was so concerned about not sending anybody off that he forgot that sometimes it's necessary.  It led to uneven decision making, not so much between the teams but between infractions were carded and which ones weren't.

Uh, exactly who got preferential treatment?

Particularly galling is that it's Argentina who feel hard done by his work.  Emilio Martinez is no longer a blog favorite after claiming that Lahoz's objective was to ensure that the Dutch tied the match up.  In fact, Argentina should consider themselves lucky to have finished the match with more than nine players still on the pitch.  Messi should have seen a yellow for breaking up a possible attack with a handball; that meant the yellow he saw late in regulation would have been his second.  Leandro Paredes should have seen two yellows on basically one play - a hard foul followed by blasting the ball in the direction of the Dutch bench.  Not saying Lahoz didn't miss some the other way; Van Dijk needed to see a yellow for his involvement after the Paredes incident. Neither team wrapped itself in glory but only Argentina will be fined.

There aren't that many matches left so it's hard to know how much to read into the fact that Lahoz will not referee any more matches.  I'm fine with that but annoyed with the coverage that reads "Lahoz sent home after Messi complains."  So Messi gets to choose which referees stay?

Did We Miss the Directive From FIFA?

Notice how frequently the referees in the WC are stopping play for non-head injuries?  The rules (Law 5) say the referee can stop play for "serious" injuries but can allow play to continue if the player is only "slightly" injured. It sure feels like they have a much quicker whistle than, say, the EPL, where pretty much unless it's a head injury, the referees let play continue.  There was a directive about adding the appropriate amount of injury time but I haven't found anything about stopping play.   Also, I can't find specific guidance on sorting out the difference between serious and slightly.  I offer a theory that because referees are finally adding back the full amount of time lost to this stuff, maybe they feel it's okay to stop play for things other than head injuries.  Dennis thinks there may have been a few times when it cost a team a promising attack but I feel like it hasn't really affected play except for annoying interruptions to the flow of the game.  

Looks Like There Gonna Be A Shootout

After just 10 games into the knockout stage (Round of 16 and first two quarterfinals) we had four matches that went to kicks from the spot.  That seemed like a lot.  Turns out it is.  In the last nine World Cups dating back to 1986 (again, because the format was different before then), the number of matches that went to a shootout were 4,4,2,4,2,3,3,4,3; that is out of 15 matches (8 in the round of 16, four quarter finals, two semis, and the final).  So at that point, with five more to go, we had already equaled the high from previous World Cups.  Mercifully, we didn't have any in Saturday's two quarterfinals so we're still at four.  

BFS Music Director Chris Z suggested that penalty shootouts are like NASCAR deciding ties with a foot race.  I'd argue it's more like if they used a parallel parking contest.  Just as PKs are a soccer skill, at least parallel parking is a driving skill.  Whether either should be used to resolve ties is arguable.

I've pretty much accepted that PK shootouts are the way to resolve draws in major tournaments, except for the final.  The two things that concern me are recovery and yellow care accumulation.  The tournaments are tightly scheduled, with teams usually playing every fourth day.  As you go deeper into the competition, the fatigue associated with that short turnaround is going to add up.  Sudden death (wait, they call it golden goal) would probably require on average another 30+ minutes of play (WC goals per game is 2.8, which means on average a goal every 32 minutes).  With that expected amount of extra time on top of the tight schedule, a golden goal match would put a team at a significant disadvantage in the next contest.  Since there's nothing after the final, I'd let them play that one until there's a winner from the run of play.  

The second issue is yellow care accumulation.  Most of these tournaments impose a one-match suspension if a player gets two yellows in different matches up to the semi-finals.  If you get stuck in some 140-150 minute match, the chances of picking up that second yellow are increased.  On average, it would probably add at least one more yellow card (225 yellow cards in 60 matches is a yellow card every 24 minutes).

Not ideal but not sure there's a better solution.

More Than Just A Blatter Infection

I just started FIFA Uncovered, the Netflix series on corruption inside football's governing body.  Pretty good so far.  Some stuff I knew but I was missing some of the more historical items, like FIFA's blind eye to the brutal reality on the ground in Argentina, host of the 1978 World Cup - maybe one the biggest sportswashes in history.  Though I was aware there had to be more to the story that just Sepp Blatter, I didn't really know the names and stories behind many other figures in the rampant corruption.  Disheartening and probably an issue in most international sports governing bodies.   

Final Jeopardy Category is World Cup Trivia

Answer: Morocco, South Korea and this country are the only three not from Europe or South America to reach the WC semis.

You have 30 seconds to respond and please be sure it is the form of a question.

Final Four

We have Argentina - Croatia on Tuesday and France - Morocco on Wednesday; both matches are at 2 pm.

Croatia are coming off two straight overtime matches. They have just 11 shots on target in the four matches against teams not named Canada.  I think Argentina's defense may be underrated, although they will be missing fullbacks Acuna and Montiel, who are suspended for yellow card accumulation. Not finding too many picking Croatia to win this one.

Morocco will likely miss Saiss due to a leg injury and possibly Ziyech as well.  Their defensive credentials are solid and they have a quick counter attack.  France have a lot of good players and their defense might be underrated too.  Not finding too many picking Morocco for this one.

For some reason I feel like watching Casablanca

Correct Response for Final Jeopardy

Question:  What is the USA? (in the inaugural edition in 1930)