World Cup Takeaways: Quarterfinals

Photo by Julio Cortez from The Associated Press

For the first time ever, the semifinals for the World Cup are the top four ranked teams in the FIFA World Rankings.

That’s kind of astounding.

Here is what we learned from the quarterfinals.

France defeats Morocco 2-0

Morocco is a good team.

They’re very talented, they’re well coached, and they’re rightfully one of the best teams in the world.

And France treated them as if they were from a completely different division.

France is, by far, the most dominant team in the tournament, and they frankly feel inevitable.

Kylian Mbappe did get a bit of an injury at the end of the game, so that’s something to keep an eye on.

Other than that, France is the clear favorite.

Spain defeats Belgium 2-1

The injury bug just hit Belgium at the wrong time.

Amadou Onana got hurt against the U.S. and couldn’t play against Spain, and then, against Spain, Youri Tielemans got hurt in warm ups and had to be replaced, and goalie Thibault Courtois was hurt during the game and had to be subbed out.

And sure enough, his replacement Senne Lammens spilled a shot late in the game that Mikel Merino put away to give Spain the win.

Thus ends the golden generation of Belgian soccer.

It was always very close to reaching the pinnacle before falling short some how, some way.

C’est la vie.

England defeats Norway 2-1

I felt that Norway played very well, and, for a lot of the game, I thought they were the better team overall.

But Erling Haaland didn’t have much of an impact in the game (apart from a questionable VAR decision), and Jude Bellingham had two moments of high IQ play to get two goals and put England in the semifinals.

On a different day, maybe Bellingham is invisible, and Haaland gets two chances that he puts away and Norway heads to the semifinals.

But that’s not how it went on Saturday.

Argentina defeats Switzerland 3-1

Let me tell you a quick story.

In 2021, I was watching the Seattle Sounders vs Real Salt Lake MLS playoff match.

It was a home game for Seattle, and a game that they were heavy favorites, but MLS Playoff games are one off games, so RSL started to time waste, and goalkeeper David Ochoa received a yellow card in the 49th minute for time wasting.

Because of that, he started to time waste even more, despite a second yellow meaning he’d be kicked out of the game.

And he did that, because he knew that no ref would ever give a second yellow for that, for fear of “ruining the game,” even though doing that is also ruining the game.

And that’s why, when Breel Embolo got a second yellow card for diving in a 1-1 game, I was happy to see it.

People can whine and moan and say it’s FIFA pandering to Messi and Argentina all they want. I don’t care.

The only way to truly get the diving, time wasting, and all of the other stuff that infuriates everyone out of the game, is to punish it as the rules dictate.

So yes, Argentina got away with it once again, and the constant playing with fire will likely be their demise in the end, but the refs did the right thing.

Hopefully, they continue to do so going forward.