Football won’t be coming home in 2022 for England as France defeated the Three Lions 2-1 on Saturday in the World Cup quarterfinals.
England will be regretting not taking advantage of a so-so French performance. The biggest moment came in the 84th minute when Harry Kane failed epically on a penalty kick by blasting the ball over the bar to the 10th row.
The lasting memories of World Cups should be the celebrations of football — the glorious goals, the mesmerizing skills, the feel-good stories. But we also know that there's no joy without suffering and no winners without losers, and sometimes, it's those dramatic failures that really resonate because life's a snitch and then you die.
Some of this is completely unfair to players who've given us so much over the years and to young guys who've got a lot of ball left to play, but these are the 10 individuals who really let me down in Qatar.
There was a humorous moment during Brazil’s World Cup press conference on Wednesday when a cat crashed the party while Vinícius Jr. was speaking. The Vini Jr. cat moment left the Brazilian superstar cracking up.
While talking to the press a cat decided that the podium looked like a great place to sit. The feline is most likely a stray. The person writing this article spent a week in Doha, Qatar, and will say that there are tons of stray cats that roam the streets.
Portugal must have seen Brazil’s emphatic drubbing of South Korea on Monday and thought, “that’s it?”
Without Cristiano Ronaldo in the starting 11 for its knockout round tie against Switzerland, Portugal was allowed to breathe going forward and discovered its creative side, without having the attacking muzzle that is Manchester United’s newest abdication.
DOHA - Samuel Eto'o, the former Cameroon striker and current president of the country's football federation, was involved in an altercation after Brazil's victory over South Korea on Monday, an American newspaper has reported.
La Opinion, a Spanish-language newspaper based in Los Angeles, posted a video on its Twitter feed in the early hours of Tuesday morning which it said showed Eto'o clashing with a man holding a video camera as he left Doha's Stadium 974.
DOHA - Ashraf Ali arrived at Stadium 974 six hours ahead of the Argentina-Poland World Cup match and, in desperation, raised a hand-written sign: "We need tickets."
Someone offered one for $2,000, nine times face value.
That was too steep for Ali, 30, who traveled to Qatar from Egypt to fulfill a dream to see Argentina star Lionel Messi play. Thirty minutes before kickoff, he managed to nab a ticket for $500 and witnessed Argentina's 2-0 win.
Unpredictability is inherent in soccer, and major international tournaments seem to always throw up a heaping of craziness. The gulf between reality and previous perceptions reminds anyone who claims to know soccer that they don’t, and if we were truly as smart as we claim to be, we’d stop trying to predict results. Just embrace the unpredictability and the chaos and enjoy these moments.
Belgium, the world's second-ranked team, needed a win over Croatia on Thursday to avoid elimination and reach the World Cup round of 16. The Belgium players had promised unity and urgency in the face of rumors alleging total chaos in the squad, but the Red Devils again came out flat with Leandro Trossard and Dries Mertens leading the attack.
Mexico beat Saudi Arabia but the third goal wouldn't come. Argentina beat Poland but the third goal, which would've gotten it done for El Tri, wouldn't come. When the final whistle sounded at Lusail Stadium, bringing the insanity of World Cup Group C to a close, it confirmed Argentina as winners and Poland as runners-up on goal difference (Poland's zero vs. Mexico's negative one).
It had been even closer than that.
DOHA - Belgium captain Eden Hazard has denied there is a rift in the squad but admits frank words were exchanged between the players following their surprise 2-0 World Cup Group F loss to Morocco on Sunday.
Hazard was speaking to the media along with experienced goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois on Tuesday after they replaced the players originally scheduled to talk, Yannick Carrasco and Arthur Theate.