Friday, June 29, 2018

In Fair Play Lose

Michy Batshuayi Wins the Golden Gif Award

THE LAST three days of the World Cup ran from the gamut, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. These games always take on a different sort of flavor, in that everything that every team is doing is predicated upon getting a specific result. In the case of something like France and Denmark, what this meant is that nobody gave a damn. Sure, the Danes could have decided to go for it and try to win the game and win the group, but the risk of opening themselves up and possibly losing, when they hadn’t clinched a spot in the 16s, was far greater than the benefit of winning. And since the French didn’t need any sort of a result, what you wind up getting is a game that will make you want those 90 minutes of your life back.

But when teams did, in fact, need to do something, you at least get to see some unusual tactical approaches. You see stuff like Iceland bombing forward and trying to boss Croatia – which they’re not well-versed in doing but needed to do, given they needed to win, preferably by more than one goal, in order to ensure safety. They failed at this, but not for lack of effort. Jesus, how many good chances did Iceland miss? Whereas in the past, we would be lauding Iceland for achieving the goal of even reaching the World Cup, I suspect they will go home feeling as if they have underachieved. They should have done more.

Match Day 3 is also fun because what you often find out is that teams with “nothing to play for” do, in fact, have something to play for. Very few teams actually give up if they’re eliminated while still having a game to play. Guys play for pride, they play to give their fans and themselves good memories. So you had teams like Costa Rica and Peru getting deserved results, you had Tunisia and Panama giving it a go and playing some entertaining football and having themselves some fun. And how can you not have some fun? You’re playing in the World Cup, for godsakes. So simply assuming a team that’s out of it is just going to roll over and play dead for you is foolhardy. The vanquished can still rise up and bite you.

Well, that was different

But the best thing of all about Match Day 3 occurs when it’s all to play for in a group, with the two games going on at the same time, and the goings on in one game are directly affecting the other. Insanity sets in as teams chase results and it all gets wildly entertaining. We got a taste of that on Monday, when Iran was inches away from eliminating Portugal after seeming to be dead to rites just a few minutes earlier. Tuesday and Wednesday were even more dramatic still, and then Thursday was … well, weird. If it involves Group H, it has to be weird, but it got weirder than I ever could have imagined.

That pretty much sums up this game

• When the draw was first announced, everyone pointed out that Group A was trash, but when I looked at Group H, I thought it to be just as bad, because at least Group A had a team in Uruguay who looked like they could actually do something in the tourney, whereas Group H consisted of an overrated Poland, a Colombia team which made a name for itself four years ago but hasn’t been all that good in the past couple of years, a Japan team where everyone was acting like they hated each other, and a Senegal team that was something of an unknown. Nothing about that group excited me, The group’s been weird from the get-go, and ended in something of a farcical fashion.
Colombia needed a 1:0 over Senegal to qualify for the Round of 16, while at the same time, Poland was going about defeating Japan by the same 1:0 score. This left both Senegal and Japan tied for second place on 4 points. Each team won one, lost one, and drew one, each team scored 4 goals, each team allowed 4 goals, and the result of the game between the two sides was a 2:2 draw. They were as even-steven as could be.
So … now what?
Some historical precedent here. This same situation happened in 1990, which, going into Match Day 3, was on the verge of being the biggest clusterfuck in World Cup history, as all four teams – England, Holland, Ireland, Egypt – were on 2 points with a goal difference of zero and with each team having scored one and conceded one. The Dutch and the Irish traded goals in the first half of their final match, while England was on their way to winning 1:0 over Egypt, and at some point in the second half, the two captains – Ruud Gullit and Mick McCarthy – decided to commence an impromptu meeting on the pitch, and they concurred that it made no point for either of the two teams to try and winning, since if the results held up, both of them would advance to the Round of 16. (In the 24-team tournament, the four best 3rd-place teams advanced, and a draw would clinch spots for both teams.) It was at which point the two sides basically stopped playing, which was pretty goddamn annoying, to be honest. (This led to a moment where the annoyed official asked McCarthy if his side was going to bother to play any football, and McCarthy, ever the quipster, said it was actually the best football they’d played all tournament.) So, with both teams tied on 3 points, 0 goal difference, and 2 goals scored, they had to draw lots … and the Dutch lost the draw, of course, because they always lose in the most amazing and unique of ways, and the Dutch then had to play the West Germans in the Round of 16 and lost, while the Irish played Romania and won. Everyone agrees this is a lousy way to break deadlocks.
Here in 2018, FIFA has added another level of tiebreaker before the drawing of lots becomes necessary: fair play records. This seems to me to be a stupid way to do it, given that such decisions are, by their nature, the result of a subjective decision by the referees. It feels like a completely random and arbitrary criteria. That said, FIFA is intent upon cleaning up the game, and the bulk of yellow- and red-card offenses – bad fouls, dissent, acts of petulance, and generally acting like a douchebag on the pitch – are the sorts of things we generally want to see less and less of. Using a fair play record as a tiebreaker has been incorporated into a number of different tournaments, but it has never come up. It was not something anyone really thought much about.
Until now, that is. With no way to differentiate between the two sides, the tiebreaker turned to fair play records, and Senegal’s side had amassed two more yellow cards than Japan, so out of the tourney Senegal go while the Blue Samurai advance to the next round.
And this is a dumb way to do this. It’s a really dumb way to do this. But, as dumb as it is, its still better than drawing lots. At least this tiebreaker in based upon something which occurs on the pitch, rather than some guy sticking his hand in a hat. You have to break the deadlock somehow. There isn’t time in the tourney to have a replay or a playoff game. It’s a dumb solution, but I’m hard pressed to think of a better one.
About the best I could come up with for two teams who tied for second is head-to-head result against the team that finished first (which, in this case, would have favored Japan as well), but I can’t really defend that idea. Much as they decide games on penalties, using fair play records is an imperfect outcome which nobody likes, but no one can come up with a better idea.
And how this played out on the pitch was absurd. The Japanese were down a goal and, once they found out that Colombia had scored and that they’d advance if the results held, the Blue Samurai just basically stopped playing – and, of course, since Poland was winning and the opposition weren’t trying to play, they didn’t see a reason to keep playing, either, meaning the last 15 minutes of this match were completely pointless. It’s farcical, of course, but contrary to dumb screeds like this one, there’s nothing particularly shameful about the Japanese doing this. They’re certainly not the first team to stop trying to attack when there is no reason to do so. Quite honestly, they’d be idiotic to do so.
The whole situation is strange, and it sucks for Senegal, who can rightly feel like the outcome is a bit harsh. But, at the same time, they knew the rules going into the tournament. They’d still be playing if their keeper hadn’t flapped aimlessly and given up a sloppy second to Japan which allowed them to salvage a draw, or had they not sloppily defended a Polish set piece in the final few minutes, or maybe, you know, if they had scored another damn goal! The lesson here is that, in a small sample size such as this, all the plays matter, and nothing can be taken for granted.

• It seemed appropriate that the most absurd game of the tournament would wind up involving the Belgians. The situation where it appears to be beneficial finishing second instead of first in Group G played out, and the two sides swapped out 18 starters and played one of the dullest, least-inspired, least-interesting matches since … well, since France and Denmark played to a 0:0 draw on Wednesday. It seemed oddly appropriate that this game was decided by Adnan Januzaj, who could have played for England but chose to play for Belgium, and whose actually very nice goal at 51’ gave Belgium a 1:0 victory, which has all sorts of English pundits and penmen and fans giddy about the fact that England actually lost:

Irrational English overconfidence, then and now

The English are happy because they’ve now avoided the half of the 16s bracket which features Brazil, who hammered Serbia 2:0 on Wednesday, and also the possibility of playing France or Argentina. To which I say, be careful what you wish for. Losing to Belgium means playing Colombia next, who are a helluva lot better than Japan. Granted, there is likely to be no James, who aggravated a calf injury today against Senegal, but teams would best not be worrying about whom they might meet and focus upon who they will meet. If they manage to fuck up and lose to Colombia, this team is going to get absolutely killed – and they will deserve it, given the collective arrogance rearing its ugly head surrounding this upcoming game with the Colombians. Do not overthink this. Do not make grandiose plans about the quarters and the semis. Beat the team in front of you, and then figure it out from there.
To that end, even though Belgium wouldn’t have cared if they lost, I’m not so sure they care that they won, either. If it comes to pass, the Belgians will go into a quarterfinal with Brazil thinking they can win – and given some of the shaky defending Seleção put forth while nursing a 1-goal lead over the Serbs, England probably should have been thinking that way, as well.
This game, along with the aforementioned France-Denmark game, are both ultimately something of a fluke owing to the way that the tournament was drawn up. When they make the original draw, they also map out the entire schedule for the tournament, so when England came out of the pot at G4, it meant that they were going to play Belgium in the very last game of the tournament, and when Panama and Tunisia came out of the hat as G2 and G3 – two considerably weaker sides – it also meant there was very little chance this game would mean much, since both teams were likely to have six points. This isn’t really something which should lead to any irrational changes in the schedule going forward. That the game fell where it did in the schedule was, ultimately, random chance.
That doesn’t mean the game didn’t suck, however. It did. It was trash. I was reminded, watching England mess up, of the infamous London Olympics badminton tournament where teams were discovered to be losing on purpose to set up better match-ups, with the only defense from the various federations being along the lines of “our athletes really are that bad,” which begs the question of what they were doing in the Olympics in the first place. England’s reserves performed in a generally incompetent fashion that would make me not feel too confident in my squad’s depth going forward. Having said that, their first XI has been dynamite, and while this game on Thursday between Belgium and England was trash, it is not outlandish, by any means, to think that the final on the 15th of July might wind up being a repechage involving these two teams ...

Where did everybody go?

• There was something life-affirming and soothing about watching the scenes from places like Los Angeles and Mexico City on Wednesday when, unbeknownst to everyone, it suddenly became “Hug a Korean” day. The sort of outpouring of joy where El Tri fans are parading with South Korean fans on their shoulders, or drinking tequila with the South Korean ambassador outside the embassy, or sending over cases of beer to their new Korean friends, is something that we could use more of in this lifetime. It’s why we watch sports, when you get right down to it. It’s beautiful and we need more of it.
And it was all so spontaneous and sudden. El Tri were getting hammered by the Swedes in Ekaterinburg, absolutely hammered, down 3:0 after giving up a series of horrible goals in the 2nd half – first a Swedish defender runs 50 yards unmarked and smashes one, then a penalty, then an own goal that would have been a penalty, as it bounced off a defender’s arm and in. It was a farce and it was hopeless, because at any point Germany would score against the South Koreans and Mexico would be going home. And the Mexican fans in the stadium in Ekaterinburg then suddenly start cheering in stoppage time, all of them on their phones following the other game. A huge cheer – South Korea had scored – and then a hush – the goal was under review … but it’s a good goal, and VAR clearly shows the play is onside, and then another eruption from the El Tri faithful, which confuses the hell out of the Mexican players on the pitch, all of whom have gotten their asses whooped.
Mexico have made a habit now of slipping through the back door when it comes to the World Cup, because the unthinkable happened in the other group game: the Germans didn’t win. The Germans are out. They are out after the first round for the first time since 1938 after being stunned 2:0 by the South Koreans on a pair of stoppage time goals. For anyone who seriously follows this game, the Germans coming up short is a shock to the system.
But also a delight because, let’s be honest here, people hate the Germans, and for obvious reasons: the Germans are always so damn good. But from the get-go, something wasn’t right about this team. They were so open against the Mexicans in the opener, so exposed and so vulnerable. It just didn’t make sense. But Mexico laid out the blueprint in that first game: if you stand them up, run at them and commit to playing on the break, the Germans are slow and unathletic, they are disorganized and they struggle to keep up.
The money line in Las Vegas on the Koreans for this game was +1300. This was a huge shocker and yet, in hindsight, it maybe shouldn’t have been. South Korea’s calling card in this game has always been a commitment to high tempo and, in Son Heung-min, they also happened to have the best player on the pitch.
Which is stunning to say about the Germans, but the fact is that other than Toni Kroos, this team just doesn’t have élite players any more. They were élite players once, but the core of this group were first playing together in South Africa in 2010. Eight years is a long time to keep a core together. It shouldn’t be a surprise that four of the past five World Cup champions have then failed to get out of the group stages in the next event four years later. There’s a tendency to value loyalty and experience above all, thinking that it can overcome youth and athleticism. It can, but only to a point. Most teams that win World Cups consist of players in their prime, but four years pass and a great number of them are no longer in their prime. The Germans who combined technique and moxie with athleticism in 2010 and 2014 were so slow, so disjointed, and so immobile this time around. All of those great German traits of commitment and resolve and teamwork simply didn’t matter any more. The Koreans ran all over the Germans. Quite honestly, the final scoreline could have been worse.
And once the losing starts, of course, you hear about the in-fighting and the bickering in the back rooms. This always happens when you’re losing. These were not happy campers. It was pretty obvious by the wholesale changes for each game that Joachim Löw had no idea who his best XI were. He was inclined to trust the old guard, the vets who’d won him titles in the past, even though it was pretty obvious that all of them had lost a step. Muller was horrible, Özil was horrible, Khedira could barely move and the central defense resembled a turnstile. Manuel Neuer got his job back in goal, even though he’s barely played in nine months, and there he was wandering aimlessly 70 yards from his goal and getting dispossessed for the Koreans’ second goal, an incredibly dumb play made by a guy who can no longer get away with making those sorts of plays.
The Germans lost to South Korea and the better team won. I can’t believe I just said that, but the better team won. South Korea did not ride their luck. They deserved to win this game. It feels weird to say that, it feels off somehow. Certainly, no one is going to shed any tears for them, nor should they. What was originally a strangely likable German team back in 2010, a young and fun bunch who oozed potential and reached it four years later, was clearly just a shell of itself and Löw had no more buttons to push. After the first Swedish goal against Mexico, I flipped over to this game, and I kept thinking to myself that the Germans would score at any moment, because that’s what they do, just as they’d done to Sweden over the weekend. But the goals didn’t come. The ideas weren’t there. They were resorting to taking optimistic shots which had no chance. They were not finishing the good chances that the likes of Klose and Muller had been handed, on a platter, for years. It was such a sad performance, in the end, one that was unbecoming of a champion. I’d have thought that the Germans would go out because Spain or France or, yes, England would have to rise up to the challenge and play a great game. I never could’ve imagined a German team that seemed, in the end, so meek, so old and so frail.

• The other meek, old and frail “dynasts” – and I use that term out of respect for their 100-year legacy, rather than what they’ve actually accomplished recently – managed to survive where the Germans failed simply because they have someone who can do this:


The biggest difference between Argentina and Germany, at this point, is the fact that Argentina have Messi and Germany doesn’t. That goal was spectacular. The way he controls the ball like that, on the dead run, is truly special and should be cherished. As bad have Argentina have been, they can still turn to a guy who can do something like this to jump start them in a time of need.
Messi may have gotten the ball rolling, but Argentina wound up having to leave it late. Argentina are still a mess, and they played like a mess after the Nigerian equalizer – and it was a penalty, so I don’t want to hear all of my Argentine fan friends whining. It was a penalty. Stop it already. Don’t give me this bullshit about how it wasn’t a penalty in the other games so it shouldn’t be one now. It should have been one all along. It was a stupid play by Mascherano, who had a rotten game for Argentina – understandable, I suppose, given all of the rumors swirling about that he was actually now a de facto player/coach, with Sampaoli reduced to being a figurehead no one was paying attention to. I will use the fact Mascherano was trying to coach on the pitch as an excuse for why he was abject.
Once the game drew level, Argentina reverted to being chickens with their heads cut off, running around aimlessly in defense and showing no coherence whatsoever. The Nigerians had already thrown Argentina a lifeline by beating Iceland, and here the Nigerians were doing it again with a series of poor finishes when they had chances to bury Argentina.
Argentina ultimately won this game because they stopped making sense. They threw so many men forward that Nigeria couldn’t get out of its own end. The winning goal was from a center back in the 85th minute – what was he doing in the center of the box? Who cares? It worked! Argentina’s formation looked like a 2-2-6 at that point, with everyone forward even after they’d scored the go-ahead goal. It was an act of impromptu strategy necessitated by the circumstance. It made no sense at all. In that sense, it was brilliant.
So Argentina lives to see another day, they can show up for work happy and everyone can pretend they like each other for a few more days. Given how they like to play, and given how France likes to play, I have no idea how they’re going to stop the forwards for Les Blues from just running absolutely rampant on them, but once you get to the knockouts, the World Cup is all about making stuff up on the fly. Whatever works, you do it. If you have the best player on the pitch, you have a chance to win – and with Messi, Argentina always have the best player on the pitch. I’d be stunned if Argentina progressed any further in this tournament, but paradoxically, I also wouldn’t be surprised at all.


On to the Round of 16! This tournament has been sensational so far. Let’s hope we don’t devolve into these boring tactical battles which wind up being settled on penalties and making everyone unhappy. We all deserve better outcomes than that. Let’s all hope that we get them.
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