The Best World Cup Ever

Everyone else has said it, so I might as well join that group.  Over the last month, we were witness to the greatest World Cup ever (a claim that I guarantee no one will make after the 2022 edition).  There were exciting games, spectacular goals, shocking upsets, new stars, and even a little bit of controversy.

Thinking about this post, there were a number of ways I could've gone.  I could've done a countdown of the best games and/or best goals.  Even rating the top players and best moments crossed my mind.  Then I decided to combine them all into a "best/worst..." breakdown of all the soccer over the past month, knowing full well that the "worst" list will be fairly short.

Thumbs Up
Russia: They did a tremendous job as hosts.  For all the concerns people had, they delivered and then some.  The first World Cup in Eastern Europe was an overwhelming success!  Full stadiums, an incredible atmosphere, and a tremendous run by the home team.  Russia getting all the way to the quarterfinals (and taking eventual finalist Croatia to penalty kicks) only added to the excitement.  They were the lowest-ranked team in the tournament coming in.  But they gained believers with each win, and that upset of Spain at a packed Luzhniki Stadium was one of the highlights of the tournament.

Thumbs Down
Big Names: For all the promos that included Pretty Boy and Messi, you would've thought that Portugal and Argentina were the only teams in the tournament!  But, alas, neither of the biggest names in the sport could deliver on the biggest stage.  Pretty Boy did nothing after that hat trick against Spain in the opening game, while Argentina was lucky to get out of the group stage.  Instead, it was Paul Pogba and Luka Modric and Harry Kane and Romelo Lukaku playing on the final weekend.

Thumbs Up
FOX: Was their first World Cup as the U.S. broadcaster perfect?  No.  Were they a little too obsessed with certain Portuguese players and a certain national team?  Yes.  But, overall, I think they did a good job.  It was a nice change to have American announcers (it turns out you don't need a British accent to know something about soccer), and I don't know why such a big deal was made about the fact that they had announcers doing the games from LA (NBC does the same thing for the Olympics, BTW).  Most importantly, though, they showed a good number of the games on the broadcast network, with the rest of FS1.  When the U.S. didn't qualify, they could've just said screw it and done the bare minimum, but they did exactly the opposite instead.  And I think their coverage is only going to get better for the next two World Cups (and, don't worry, in 2026, they'll have all the announcers on site).

Thumbs Down
Jorge Perez Navarro: The only real problem I had with FOX's coverage was Jorge Perez Navarro.  I couldn't understand a word the guy said!  If I wanted to watch the game while having no idea what the announcer was saying, I would've watched Telemundo.  And he was openly cheering for Mexico, the team FOX was trying to force down our throats, which further turned me off.  I saw some reviews early in the tournament that actually praised him.  How?  Were those writers watching the same games I was?  Or were they watching it on Telemundo and just got confused?

Thumbs Up
Goals: In 64 games, there was a grand total of one that finished 0-0.  And that one, which came in the 37th game of the tournament, doesn't even really count, since neither France nor Denmark had any interest in actually scoring in that game.  Overall, there were 169 goals in 64 games.  We had goals come early, we had goals come late (some of which were game- and group-changing).  We had a record for own goals (12, double the previous record) and goals off set pieces (I have no way of confirming this, but it seemed like every goal was off a set piece).  All the scoring certainly added to the excitement of the tournament.

Thumbs Down
Alexi Lalas: Sorry FOX, but Mexico is not America's "Other Team," and asking fans of the USMNT to root for Mexico is like asking Yankees fans to root for the Red Sox.  Lalas, no doubt inspired by his buddy Landon Donovan, was the biggest culprit.  Then, as soon as El Tri was eliminated, he jumped off the Mexican bandwagon nearly as quickly as he jumped on it.

Thumbs Up
Fair Play: Do you know how many red cards there were in the entire tournament?  Three!  One was for a deliberate hand ball in the box, the other two were second yellows.  That's it!  Sure, there were at least two that should've been called and weren't (the Mexican guy stepping on Neymar, Pretty Boy elbowing the Iranian guy in the face nowhere near the ball in the open field), but the official total was only three red cards.  Whether it was VAR or the style of play or a combination of the two, it was nice to see pretty much every game end 11-on-11.

Thumbs Down
Fair Play Points: It was new for this World Cup, and it was a brutal way for Senegal to be eliminated from the tournament.  In FIFA's defense, they needed some way to separate teams that were tied, and I doubt they anticipated it would determine which team would advance and who wouldn't.  But it did.  And it nearly did in two other groups, as well.  There has to be something better than total number of yellow cards, though.  Because the "fair play points" didn't seem fair at all.  In fact, it was kinda cruel.

Thumbs Up
VAR: Say what you want about the World Cup's other new innovation, but VAR worked.  And it's not going anywhere.  The reviews weren't disruptive, didn't take very long, and served their purpose.  VAR was designed to correct obvious errors, some of which were simply things that happened too quickly for the referee to see.  For the most part, it achieved that purpose, even if they still got some calls wrong even after going to VAR.  But it's much better than before, when there was nothing you could do about it if the ref missed a call.

Thumbs Down
Traditional Powers: At least they made it here, which is more than I can say about Italy, the Netherlands, the USA, Chile, etc.  But none of the pre-tournament favorites did anything worth writing home about.  Defending champion Germany fizzled out in group play for the first time ever, losing to both Mexico and South Korea.  Argentina barely got out of its group, only advancing on a late goal against Nigeria in its last game before losing to France in the round of 16.  Spain and Portugal, meanwhile, after both coming out of a weak Group B, both lost in the round of 16.

Thumbs Up
Croatia: While the traditional powers struggled, Croatia showed it belonged in the conversation after dominating Argentina and finishing group play 3-0.  Then they became the first team ever to win consecutive penalty kick shootouts against Denmark in the round of 16 and Russia in the quarterfinals.  They went to extra time for the third straight game against England in the semis...and won again, becoming the second-smallest nation ever to reach a World Cup Final (and the smallest since 1950).  The fact that they lost the Final to France is irrelevant.  Because they took us on an incredible ride and gained a lot of supporters along the way.

Thumbs Down
Diego Maradona: He was there as a guest of FIFA, yet acted like a jerk the entire tournament.  From being caught on camera flipping off the Nigerian fans to going off on the officials after Colombia lost to England (apparently Colombia is Argentina's "Other Team"), all he did was draw attention to himself...and not for the right reasons.  He's one of the greatest players ever, but his skills as an ambassador leave something to be desired.  The Colombia-England thing was probably the last straw for an embarrassed FIFA.  Because somebody was conspicuously absent from the VIP box after that.

Two Thumbs Up
France: Finally, we have the champions.  Les Bleues were the most consistent team throughout the tournament, and they're deserving champions.  Their round of 16 victory over Argentina was one of the most entertaining World Cup games I've seen in quite some time, and that's when they really established themselves as the team to beat.  They're not going anywhere for a while, either.  Kylian Mbappe, who wasn't even alive the other time France won the World Cup 20 years ago, is going to be the next global superstar.  And he's already got something the three biggest names in the sport don't.  A World Cup gold medal.