What is being called the greatest World Cup ever continues to provide big time drama and excitement. The Final Four is set and the Semi-Finals kick off on Tuesday as the tournament winds down. Let’s take a quick look at the past few games.
France 2 Uruguay 0. France was in control from the beginning and looked the better team throughout. A solid win. Probably the favorites now to win it all.
Belgium 2 Brazil 1. Amazing game. Belgium’s amazing run continues. Best offense left in the tournament.
England 2 Sweden 0. England gets the best draw but you still need to win the games. A solid win, but it gets much tougher from here.
Croatia 2 Russia 2 Croatia advance 4-3 on Penalty Shootout. What a game. 1-0, then 1-1, 2-1 in OT, 2-2 in 2nd OT. the PK’s. Great drama! Given the geo-political climate and history of these two countries, even more drama.
Semi-Finals are Set
France v Belgium Tuesday, July 10 at 1:00
England v Croatia Wednesday, July 11 at 1:00
Quick Takeaways
-Belgium-Belgium-Belgium. In one of their greatest wins in Belgium history, the Red Devils knock off tournament favorite Brazil 2-1. Belgium’s counter attack is stunning this tournament. In their incredible come from behind win against Japan they scored a stunner as the clock ticked down to zero and won 3-2. Against Brazil, the counter attack was again on full display. The DeBruyne goal deserves another look. Romelu Lukaku makes an amazing surging run of about 50 yards. He destroys Brazil’s midfield with some dynamic moves and speed. He finds DeBruyne out wide and DeBruyne does the rest. A few quick touches as he approaches the 18 and then…BAM…he rifles a low hard strike into the side net. Amazing strike. Game Winner!
-England v. Sweden. Sweden…really. I mean come on man! Sweden with a population of just under 10 million. That’s basically the population of Minnesota and Wisconsin combined…and they are in the World Cup Quarter Finals. One of the best 8 teams in the World. And the USA can’t even qualify for the tournament. Ouch! Every time I think about Sweden or Switzerland or Tunisia making it into the world Cup it just blows my mind the US didn’t qualify. The only thing that makes me feel a bit better is neither did Italy….and they have won the World Cup twice! The people in Italy must really be going crazy right now! Okay…moving on now.
–England. For the first time in 28 years, England has reached the Semi-Finals. They won the World Cup in 1966 and finished 4th in 1990. That is their only two appearances in the top 4. For the country that invented soccer in 1863, seems odd to only have 2 appearances, but now its three and they have a real shot at winning.
-Belgium v France. This feels like the finals. sometimes it works out that way…the two best teams meet before the finals. Belgium has had tow epic games, back to back, can they keep it going. Will France’s dynamic Mbappe and Griezmann outshine Hazard and Lukaku. Will Kante shut down DeBruyne in midfield. This is must see TV. Don’t miss it!
Neymar Getting Hammered by Social Media. So, one of the greatest players in the world is getting trolled everywhere. Neymar is arguably the worlds best striker. But he does have this thing about diving, or trying to dive, or looking to get tripped so it creates a penalty. It is getting talked about everywhere. Why all the drama. Why does he try to get penalties in the box rather than just staying on his feet and taking a shot. Why does he look like he is in so much pain every time he goes down. All good questions. I don’t like it. Most don’t. He is too good and doesn’t need to do it. Anyway…all the drama has created so pretty funny videos. Check this one out.
Thank You
A quick thanks to those who have checked out the site the past year. Coming up on the 1 year anniversary of WestWisconsinSoccerTalk. Just went over 3,000 views! I try not to think about whether that is good or not, just have enjoyed writing the blog and sharing some thoughts on local high school soccer and the World Soccer scene. Some sites get 3,000 hits a day…some sites get 3,000 hits per hour. But I am okay with 3,000 in a year. Every site starts somewhere. I plan to keep it going and keep posting about soccer. I hope you enjoy the updates and will keep coming back and looking for updates on the game you love! Who knows where it will go from here.