Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 56
December 10, 2022
Globalise the final round of qualifying and a 32-nation World Cup may still add up | Jonathan Wilson
You could achieve the greater spread and interest that 48 teams is supposed to deliver with a rankings-based qualifying finale
These, Gianni Infantino said earlier this week, have been the greatest group stages of all time. Unusually, he might be right (although his claim this was the most diverse last 16 is debatable at best). The football is only a small part of this World Cup but it has been largely excellent.
There have been some shocks, some favourites went home early, some played up to their pre-tournament billing and every group produced tension and intrigue. Infantino was conducting an in-house interview, hiding from journalists and accountability as he has since his bizarre address the day before the tournament began, which meant that nobody could ask the obvious question: if these group stages have been so good, why is he getting rid of them?
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December 9, 2022
Lionel Messi: an emblem of the transient fragility of human beauty
Argentina’s maestro moves closer to emulating Maradona and inspiring a team far from world beaters to win the World Cup
If you have tears, prepare to save them for Tuesday at the earliest. There is an almost unbearable poignancy to watching Messi these days. There is this thing we have watched, discussed, cared about all our lives, something in which we have invested an unreasonable portion of our souls, and he is the best we have seen at that thing and every game could be the last we see of him. But the end has been deferred one more game.
You can add caveats to that. Those over the age of 50 will have their memories. Messi will not retire the instant his World Cup is over, but this is the stage that clearly matters most to him. Add a Ligue Un title or two, even a Champions League with Paris Saint-Germain and it will barely register on his legacy. Add the World Cup and that one last quibble about him will disappear. His every game at this World Cup is an emblem of the transient fragility of human beauty, of the eternal march of time.
Continue reading...England v France: where World Cup quarter-final could be won and lost | Jonathan Wilson
We pick five tactical areas key to the outcome, including Gareth Southgate’s choice of shape and France’s defensive weak spots
The pattern under Gareth Southgate has been that England play a back four when confident of dominating the ball and a back three when they expect possession to be more contested. In four games at this tournament so far, England have played 4-3-3. The question is whether, against France, they stick to the shape that has been effective or whether, mindful of the threat posed by, particularly, Kylian Mbappé, they opt for a back three. In September, Southgate spoke of how he had allowed himself in June to be lured away from his principles, leading to four winless Nations League games, which might suggest conservatism will reign and he will opt for the back three. But this week his assistant Steve Holland spoke of how deploying a “soldier” to combat Mbappé effectively removed a player from your own side, suggesting a back four.
Continue reading...December 6, 2022
Ramos hits hat-trick as Portugal thrash Switzerland 6-1 after Ronaldo dropped
You drop Cristiano Ronaldo and the man you pick instead of him best not miss. Gonçalo Ramos is 21. He made his international debut last month. Before Tuesday he had played only 36 minutes of international football. And yet within 17 minutes he had already scored more World Cup knockout goals than Ronaldo; by midway through the second half he had completed the first hat-trick of Qatar 2022. Fernando Santos could hardly have been more obviously vindicated. Ramos, emphatically, did not miss, setting up a quarter-final against Morocco.
Santos has the rumpled air of a man who has slept in his car. He could be Peter Falk playing Columbo. He is not a man who has ever willingly done anything interesting, so when the day before the game he criticised Ronaldo for his shushing gesture after being substituted against South Korea, it felt significant. Ronaldo himself claimed it was directed at the South Korean forward Cho Gue-sung, who was trying to chivvy him off the pitch but, given similar situations at Manchester United, the widespread assumption in Portugal seems to be that it was aimed at his critics, of whom there are a growing number. A poll in the sports daily A Bola suggested 70% of readers thought he should not start against the Swiss.
Continue reading...December 3, 2022
Australia and USA bow out bravely as World Cup last 16 begins – Football Daily
Max Rushden is joined by Nicky Bandini, Jonathan Wilson, Marcela Mora y Araujo and Bryan Graham as the knockout stages commence
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Today: the knockout stages begin with some order being restored as the Netherlands and Argentina set up a quarter-final meeting. Lionel Messi got the opener against the spirited Socceroos, who saw a couple of late chances to equalise go begging.
Continue reading...Like Southgate, Senegal’s coach sticks to his principles but Aliou Cissé has a trophy | Jonathan Wilson
Cissé and his England counterpart have proved adept at blocking out critics back home during the World Cup campaign
Take the handbrake off! Unleash this golden generation of attacking players! In a World Cup that has felt at times one tedious Twitter spat about differences of perspective and who has the right to criticise whom, it’s heartening to find some things are reassuringly the same wherever you are.
The clamour for Iliman Ndiaye has perhaps not quite been as vociferous as that for James Maddison but Aliou Cissé has been, as the Senegalese newspaper Le Quotidien put it, “heckled daily for his tactical choices, caricatured for his conservatism”.
Continue reading...December 2, 2022
England are World Cup contenders. Does it matter if they are any good? | Jonathan Wilson
Major tournaments are short and freakish things happen – and England, unlike more illustrious opponents, are still here
Three games into their World Cup campaign, 11 games into 2022, 79 games into Gareth Southgate’s reign, the question remains unanswered: are England actually any good?
To which there are probably two answers. The first is simple: yes, reasonably. They finished top of their group. They were joint top-scorers alongside Spain. They kept two clean sheets. The second is a weary sigh as any discussion of England is immediately submerged by hackneyed debates about arrogance and expectation, set against a backdrop of implausible ideals of breezy attacking perfection. What even is good?
Continue reading...Diego Alonso blames Portugal penalty as Uruguay make ugly World Cup exit
The Uruguay coach, Diego Alonso, blamed the penalty given to Portugal in their second group game for his side’s exit from the World Cup.
A 2-0 win over Ghana on Friday was not enough to take second place in the group, South Korea’s victory over Portugal meaning they finished above Uruguay on goals scored. There was penalty controversy – again – in the game against Ghana, with two strong Uruguay appeals ruled out by the German official, Daniel Siebert, in the second half.
Continue reading...Uruguay beat Ghana but crash out of World Cup on goals scored in late twist
There are no winners in revenge missions. Sentiment demanded that Ghana should right the wrongs of their 2010 World Cup quarter-final against Uruguay and expiate the hurt of Luis Suárez’s last-minute handball on the line. But Uruguay, and Suárez in particular, have no time for such romantic notions of redemption. Ghana were again eliminated after missing a penalty but they had the consolation that, although Suárez set up two, it was South Korea and not Uruguay who went through to the last 16 with Portugal.
Uruguay did not react well. As Ghanaians sat in resigned weariness on the pitch, Uruguay’s players surrounded the idiosyncratic German referee, Daniel Siebert, at the final whistle, furious they hadn’t been awarded at least one of two huge penalty appeals in the second half. The Ghanaian fans, resigned by then to their exit, seemed to enjoy it all immensely. And as José María Giménez raged at Siebert, Suárez wept on the bench.
Continue reading...November 28, 2022
Choupo-Moting thwarts Serbia to cap Cameroon’s wild World Cup comeback
What happens when two sides with a propensity for meltdown clash? Something like this. A game with very little pattern, enormous amounts of drama, some exceptional goals and, in the end, a thrilling draw that doesn’t really suit either side. These are two of the great underachievers of the past three decades – Cameroon had lost their last eight World Cup games and Serbia nine of their last 11 – and the likelihood is that, again, neither will make it through to the last 16, but they have at least had some fun along the way.
Nothing that happened at Al Janoub on Monday was without complication, not the traffic, not the security and certainly not the buildup for two teams who always embrace chaos. In an echo of the golden age of the Indomitable Lions, their coach Rigobert Song had expelled the Internazionale goalkeeper André Onana from the squad on the morning of the game.
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