The early days of a World Cup are often its happiest: teams and fans assemble and arrive in the host countries fresh-faced and full of hope, and play a group stage that includes second and third chances, opportunities to refine and redeem imperfect earlier performances.
It is, for a while, a great big party. And then, at a certain point, things get very real, very fast. On Saturday, Canada became the first host nation to bow out of this year’s tournament, unable to overcome a sizable talent deficit against Morocco. On Sunday night, despite a valiant effort, Mexico’s dream ended in a 3-2 defeat to England at the Estadio Azteca.
Then, on Monday night, in front of another packed crowd in Seattle and more than 40 million Americans watching from home, the U.S.’s World Cup ended in a spectacular implosion against Belgium.
As the competition intensifies, the heroes of the tournament’s early stage are stretched. Gilberto Mora, for instance, the 17-year-old wunderkind who wove circles around defenses earlier in the tournament, gave the ball away on the play that led to England’s crucial second goal.
Plenty who excelled throughout, like Colombia’s Davison Sanchez and Brazil’s Bruno Guimarães, missed critical penalty kicks that hastened their teams’ demise.
The end of a World Cup journey is ruthless: so abrupt, so final. There is no next year for the teams that have brightened so many lives this summer. When the next World Cup arrives, in 2030, the majority of these players and coaches won’t be there. That’s part of what makes the tournament so precious—and winning it so prized.
Who’s Up?
1. Lionel Messi
You’ve likely heard this before, but with his team trailing Egypt 2-0 and just more than ten minutes remaining in his World Cup career, the great Leo Messi went to another dimension.
Playing on the wing, which he hasn’t done with any regularity in years, Messi engineered a stirring comeback—dribbling defenders, setting up a goal, nearly setting up another, and then scoring his tournament-leading eighth goal to tie the game.
After the final whistle, with Argentina having won 3-2, Messi dissolved into tears—an exceedingly rare sight that, he said, was the product of relief: he had missed a penalty in the first half, and felt responsible for what was nearly Argentina’s unexpected demise.
In the end, though, Messi gave us all another unforgettable performance—fueled not only by his otherworldly skill, but also by his iron will, his competitiveness, his refusal, even at 39, having already won a World Cup, to yield to the dying of the light.
2. Norway
Of the eight World Cup quarterfinalists, six had reached this stage previously. Of the other two, Switzerland has long been a consistent performer on the international stage—they’d fallen in the Round of 16 in the previous three World Cups.
Norway, however, has come out of nowhere. The Norwegians hadn’t even been at the World Cup in 28 years before this summer, with only three appearances to their name in their history.
Now, they are two games away from the World Cup final—having dispatched Brazil in the process. Part of that is due to the exploits of their extraordinary striker Erling Haaland, who scores every 11 times he touches the ball, but part of it too may be the downstream result of a 2007 revamp of the country’s youth soccer system to emphasize participation in multiple sports and deemphasize competition for younger children.
The U.S. could perhaps learn a thing or two.
3. Juan Fernando Quintero
Plenty has been written about Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, as well as about Luka Modric and James Rodriguez, iconic players competing in their final World Cup. Much less has been said outside of Colombia about Juan Fernando Quintero.
Colombia’s exit on penalties to Switzerland was a bitter disappointment for a team that appeared primed for an historic run, but part of the sadness is saying farewell to one of the special players of his generation: diminutive, slow, often criticized for his weight, unable to make a significant impact in Europe in his club career, Juanfer was possessed of truly dazzling technique and vision.
When Quintero entered the fray as a substitute in each of Colombia’s five games, he was the best player on the field—not the best athlete but the truest soccer player, a symbol of all that is sublime about the game.
Who’s Down?
1. The U.S.
It was going so well for the United States during the tournament’s first three weeks—all early leads and record viewing audiences and Mauricio Pochettino singing along to “Country Roads” in stadiums up and down the West Coast.
And then Donald Trump got involved. Days before the U.S. was set to play Belgium, Trump reportedly placed a call to FIFA President Gianni Infantino asking that his organization rescind star forward Flo Balogan’s suspension, the result of a dubious red card picked up in the U.S.’s previous game. Days later, FIFA’s supposedly independent disciplinary committee complied.
The administration’s involvement in pressuring FIFA to overturn the suspension—which included Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, and Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House Task Force for the World Cup—was shameless.
Not only did it blatantly compromise the competitive integrity of the tournament, but it also served to re-center Trump as one of the tournament’s major protagonists and put a target on the backs of the American players.
Perhaps this pre-match circus had no effect on them, but it certainly made a splash with the Belgians. Their manager Rudi Garcia said it was up to his team to defend soccer’s “integrity and ethics,” and several players echoed that sentiment after the game. A group of them celebrated their victory by doing the Trump dance in the locker room.
2. Cristiano Ronaldo
It’s finally, mercifully, over for Ronaldo at the World Cup. After spending the last several weeks futilely ambling around the Portuguese frontline, it all ended with Ronaldo crying on the field following Portugal’s elimination at the hands of Spain on Monday while his teammates mainly ignored him.
Following the match, Ronaldo, exhibiting his trademark blend of self-effacement and self-awareness, told reporters that his conscience was clear because he personally won three titles for Portugal—one of which, the 2016 European Championship, was in his estimation as important as a World Cup anyway.
This tournament has marked the end of the line for a great number of legendary players, some of whom have played well in North America, some of whom haven’t, but none of whom have exited the stage in such a cloud of egotistical delusion.
Of course, Ronaldo is still just a player. His manager, Roberto Martinez, could have benched him to give the rest of Portugal’s talented squad a chance to win the tournament. Martinez’s failure to do so meant that Portugal’s entire journey in the U.S., not just Ronaldo’s, became a monument to the fading star’s decline.
3. VAR
After making little noise during a rather liberally refereed group stage, video review technology has come back in force for the knockout rounds—leaving Egypt, Senegal, Croatia, the U.S., and a host of other teams aggrieved at borderline calls going against them after VAR interventions.
Some want VAR scrapped entirely, but even those who don’t tend to agree that replay is being overused. Frustration with the state of the system, which was intended to correct only obvious errors, is nearly universal among fans. It’s a point to watch over the tournament’s final week.
Who is Going to Win This Thing?
France, probably. Or Spain. Argentina looks vulnerable in every way, defending in transition, pace of play in attack, but they have an indomitable spirit. They likely won’t go without a fight.
