A World Cup like no other: The good, the bad, the sheiks and the shocks
Pic: After Ball Egerton/pa Award Messi World The Being Wire With Golden The Cup Kisses One: Mike The Argentina's Big Trophy Presented Lionel
It feels like it has to be Lionel Messi but this has been a tournament that said to hell with your feelings. So let’s explore the alternatives. Antoine Griezmann is the primary one. What a tournament, a French army knife who has done everything and all of it superbly well. Robbed of Karim Benzema, Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante, Griezmann somehow covered for all three. No one emptied themselves more impressively than Sofyan Amrabat and Luka Modric was stellar. But it has to be Messi. Raging against the dying of the light with all of the glorious grace he has given us for 16 years now. A treasure.
The greatest final of all time was filled with so many soul-stopping moments that you simply cannot separate them. But let’s go with the simplest one. Once the trophy and all that it carried with it had twice been taken from Messi’s grasp, it was such a relief to see him make sure of his own business in the shoot-out. Then it was over to the rest. Nahuel Molina was as unlikely as anyone but it was that kinda night. Will we ever get over it?
The Wales-Iran match was an early kickoff in baking sun which didn’t promise much quality but still we trekked out to Al Rayyan for a look. The Iranian anthem instantly felt like a deeply troubling moment, as the players who had so bravely protested in their opener were clearly forced to now mumble the words. Iranian fans in the stands beside us wept and wailed. Personally, the loss of media colleague Grant Wahl, who went into medical distress in the press box beside us during the Netherlands-Argentina, is something we’re still processing.
It would be ridiculous to reflect upon anything on-field here. This has been a World Cup built on injustice. The deaths of migrant workers, trafficked here to build Qatar’s pipe dream, are known. What’s not is their number. But that two more died even during the tournament tells you how preposterous Qatar’s claimed death toll of just three people over the previous decade is. Their callous response to the deaths made clearer than ever that injustice is baked into the system here.
Before the final, England and France’s quarter-final had been the most high-quality game to deliver. But for sheer, delightful group stage chaos you couldn’t look past Cameroon-Serbia. The only surprise was that it took 29 minutes for the scoring to start. When Cameroon did go 1-0 up, we turned to a colleague and said “we’re getting a 3-3 here”. It may have been the only prediction we got right but what a cracker.
You could argue the way Griezmann revealed himself as a man for all seasons was most surprising but Morocco is the only right answer. The Atlas Lions feasted on European blue bloods en route to making history for their continent. Belgium, Spain, Portugal devoured, they gave France an incredible rattle in the semi-final. So well coached and so utterly fearless. They’ll wonder if they’d had a fully-fit squad for the French clash whether they’d have gone all the way.
Ritsu Doan bolted from the bench and sparked Japan to stun Germany then repeated the trick against Spain. Morocco’s Azzedine Ounahi was relentlessly dogged, winning Luis Enrique’s eye and many more. But beside him was the bolt-on breakout star, Amrabat. He’d already put in an incredible body of work but his second-half chase down of Mbappé in the semi-final was sensational.
Wasn’t it all a controversy? The Budweiser, the pride T-shirts, the armbands, Beckham fleecing the Qataris themselves of $150m, the air-conditioning, the unfinished plastic tents for $210 a night. Twelve years of gnashing and wailing has almost desensitised us to all of the reasons why this World Cup should never have happened here.
Contenders aplenty here: Wales going out with a whimper, Belgium’s golden generation turning to dust, Germany a non-event again, the host nation’s team an utter rabble. But Louis van Gaal’s exit, with Argentina goading ringing in his ears, felt wrong. The quarter-final had a wild edge to it that Spanish referee Antonio Lahoz sharpened rather than blunted. But van Gaal, a coach who has given the game so much and looked to be revelling in his last dance, didn’t deserve to be pelted with abuse and barbs on his way out the door.
Big F***ing Harry Souttar, as the Aussies call him, was so much fun to watch and looks to surely have a ceiling higher than Stoke City. But at the top end of the market, two men added zeroes to their value: Josko Gvardiol and Jude Bellingham. In spite of being roasted by Messi (no shame in it) Gvardiol was a rock for Croatia and looks to have the lot. The way in which Bellingham, at 19, exceeded the hype was beyond impressive.
Vincent Aboubakar’s loft wedge against Serbia was gorgeous to witness. Luis Chavez’s free-kick for Mexico against the Saudi’s was an absolute stonker in a tournament lacking thunderbolts. But Messi’s left-foot laser against Mexico takes the top prize both for its vision and execution but also its impact. It pulled Argentina from the precipice and they never looked back.
The first one. It got shadowed a little as other shocks piled up after it but Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 win over Argentina was the biggest for two reasons. Firstly, it came from nowhere, the Saudis having been so pitiful in Russia. But they were incredible at the Lusail and gave the World Cup its first true moment. Secondly, it gave Argentina a wake-up call that stung them into the actions that led them back to here on Sunday.
Paying €23 for a bottle of Corona will live with me for some time. As will the shattaf, a handheld bidet jet which is part of the bathroom furniture here. In the field of sweaty arse management, we have much to learn from our Qatari friends. But overall it’s the absurdity of excess: Lusail, a city that didn’t exist 10 years ago, is a prime example that money cannot buy you taste or morals. See also: Al Bayt Stadium.
Bono (MOR); Hakimi (MOR), Gvardiol (CRO), Otamendi (ARG), Hernandez (FRA); Griezmann (FRA), Amrabat (MOR), Modric (CRO); Messi (ARG), Alvarez (ARG), Mbappé (FRA).