World Cup 2022

Moroccan bicycle kick dead-on to the bottom near-postAs a friend of mine has repeatedly written, “I feel bad for anyone boycotting this World Cup because it’s the best tournament of our lifetimes.” He also felt bad for himself that he would have to “go back to watching shitty premier league and MLS after this.” He’s quite a bit younger than I am, it’s the best tournament I’ve seen as well. The football has been absolutely top-notch.

It may be highly corporatize and corrupt and awful and wrong, but on the field, it’s absolutely amazing. I’ve never seen so many good goals and such good play in one tournament. So exciting. Whatever else, you can’t take that away from it.

See Wir suchen das schönste Tor der WM (SRF) for a 3-minute collection of clips of several goals, as well as a few more that you could vote on. There were quite a few gorgeous feats.

A boring interlude

But who cares how great the soccer was! It’s the workers in Qatar who should be foremost in our minds. It’s always interesting to see what we’re made to care about. While workers died in the building of the stadia, it’s probably not exactly clear how many, due to the same exact problem we have with all other journalism these days: the loudest voices have the loosest allegiance to reality.

I haven’t put any time into finding out what the real numbers are, but I know that all reporting about Asia is generally wildly inaccurate. Caveat emptor. Witness the recent revelation that Iran was going to kill 15,000 protesters. It turns out to have been one sentenced to death, and that one because he set a police station on fire. There are a few others on trial where the capital punishment is possible.

That may or may not the full information on the situation there—I neither read Farsi nor do I follow Iran’s internal politics—but it’s much closer than the only number people will likely remember, which is at least three orders of magnitude too high.

It’s interesting, though, that we always hear about boycotts when it’s Russia, or China, or Qatar who’s hosting. Qatar and China have abysmal labor practices, it’s true (or I’ve heard). But so does the U.S. At the same time that rail workers all over Europe are luxuriating in a single-day strikes that bring them real gains in remuneration and working conditions, the U.S. just squashed a looming railroad strike with an act of Congress, essentially telling them these laborers that they are essential and their lives belong to the corporations that hired them. If they misbehave in any way, the U.S. will take away their savings (in the form of their pensions).

And, yet, no-one will ever say one word about boycotting the 2026 world cup because the U.S. is hosting it. If not for the horrific labor practices, then what about the hyper-militarization, both domestically and internationally? Bernie Sanders was just made to retract a bill to stop funding Saudi Arabia’s war against Yemen. No problem. Nothing will ever stop the U.S. from funding Israel’s war on Palestine. No problem. The U.S. is waging a trade war against Russia and China—and has done for years. The U.S. is fighting a proxy war in Ukraine—as well as several other places. All of this weakens the weakest all over the world. Is that not enough violence to warrant a boycott? And not a single word will be said about boycotting that World Cup, when so many, many words were said about boycotting Qatar’s.

Back to the action

After the first week, I started watching on the first weekend of the tournament. I actually ended up watching quite a bit, I guess. I watched most of these games while doing something else, but nevertheless, there I was, increasingly rapt at the incredible quality of play.

Group Matches

Argentina   2 – 0 Mexico
France      2 – 1 Denmark
Morocco     2 – 0 Belgium (partial)
Spain       1 – 1 Germany
Brazil      1 – 0 Switzerland
Portugal    2 – 0 Uruguay (partial)
USA         1 – 0 Iran
Argentina   2 – 0 Poland
Morocco     2 – 1 Canada
Japan       2 – 1 Spain
Switzerland 3 – 2 Serbia

Quarterfinals

Argentina   2 – 1 Australia
France      3 – 1 Poland
Japan       1 – 1 Croatia     (1 – 3 PKs)
Morocco     0 – 0 Spain       (3 – 0 PKs)
Croatia     1 – 1 Brazil      (4 – 2 PKs)
Argentina   2 – 2 Netherlands (4 – 3 PKs)
Morocco     1 – 0 Portugal
England     1 – 2 France

Semifinals

Argentina   3 – 0 Croatia
France      2 – 0 Morocco

Small final

Croatia     2 – 1 Morocco

Final

France      2 – 2 Argentina

The Switzerland – Serbia match was a cracker. Lots of drama and lots of action. But Switzerland was looking pretty vulnerable at the back. The same for France, although their offensive firepower and ease with which they got through the midfield was absolutely amazing. Argentina just picked up steam the whole way, with Messi playing like a man possessed. Mbappe is also mostly firing on all cylinders. This should be a very interesting final.

Small final

But first, there was the small final, playing for third place. Croatia took care of Morocco in the first half with an early goal which Morocco matched immediately, but Croatia had a beautifully placed shot late in the first that turned out to be the game-winner.

Morocco fought hard, but Croatia is amazing as well. They’re a country of about 4M people and they’ve placed second and third in the last two World Cups. Incredible depth for such a small country.

The Final 👏

And oh my God, what an amazing final!

Argentina goes up on a Messi PK, then goes up 2–0 on a beautiful goal, to go into halftime with a 2–0 lead. The French finally woke up after the 80th minute, with Mbappe putting away a PK, then cracking in a lovely shot just minutes later to tie it up late in the match.

In extra time, things are getting chippy, they’re making mistakes, but both are pressing pretty hard—as hard as you can expect after 100+ minutes of play. Messi puts together some amazing plays and finally puts one away with 10 minutes to go. Incredible!

With four minutes to go, Argentina blocks a shot with an elbow in the penalty box and it’s Mbappe back at the spot. Goal. 3–3.

End-to-end in the extra time, with Martinez blocking a point-block shot for Argentina, then Argentina taking it to the other end for a shot of their own. But it goes to penalties.

Mbappe sinks his. Four goals for him. Nothing to complain about there. He’s a national here, for sure. Messi’s up. He sinks his. Three goals for him. Also did his job. Nice to see champions who act like champions when the chips are down. Incredible work from both of them.

Mbappe would end up being the only goal scorer for France as Argentina made their next three while France missed both of theirs. Final 3 – 3 (4 − 1).

With the Copa America from last year and the World Cup this year and holding literally every possible record for league and championship play alone, Messi is the GOAT. But Mbappe is only 23 and delivered a hat trick in a final where he was fighting for his second World Cup. His numbers are spectacular so far—they’re even better than Messi’s were, at the same age.