Midfield

With France ceding 66 percent of possession to Croatia in the World Cup final, it should come as no surprise that the top five players in the match with regards to touches were all Croatian. It perhaps goes some way towards explaining the general belief that Croatia looked better than France for large swaths of the game given the amount of influence that both Luka Modric (89 touches) and Ivan Rakitic (85) had on the game.

If those two are allowed space and time on the ball, Croatia's going to look really, really good.

After watching first Lucas Biglia and then Enzo Perez do little except play balls into places where things go to die, it’s looking like Argentina’s riding Ever Banega next to Javier Mascherano from here on out (which still might not be very long whatsoever). Regardless, my God was it nice to see a ball from the Argentina midfield that wasn’t first coated in the feces of a leaky Mascherano anus.   

Watching Lionel Messi vs Croatia was like watching LeBron James against the Golden State Warriors. Even the best players in sports are only as good as their supporting casts — and Messi’s midfield right now is just no good.

LeBron James couldn’t come close to beating the Warriors in the NBA Finals this year because the Cleveland Cavaliers don’t have much going for them aside from James. Sure there’s Kevin Love and JR Smith, but, yeah, it’s Kevin Love and JR Smith. 

France defeated Australia without entirely convincing, and the same sort of analysis could be applied to its myriad of attacking talent. Ousmane Dembele and Kylian Mbappe are both absolute spectacles in full flight and Antoine Griezmann is the spice that is the variety of life, but the three just couldn’t combine with the sort of intricacy and understanding that fellow frontrunners Spain and Brazil enjoy.

It was a wild ride for American midfielder Dax McCarty in 2017. In January, McCarty was recalled by the national team for the first time since 2011, but he was subsequently shocked to learn that after five and a half seasons with the New York Red Bulls, he’d been dealt to the Chicago Fire before the start of the new campaign. 

McCarty then helped the USMNT triumph at the Gold Cup, starting in two group stage games and appearing in five games overall, including a late substitute appearance in the final against Jamaica.

Having played for Deportivo, Valencia and Betis in La Liga, Mexico captain Andres Guardado has had the privilege (or perhaps the horror) of lining up against Barcelona’s Lionel Messi extensively over the past decade. 

Yesterday, Italian legend Andrea Pirlo played one final match before retirement — his testimonial at the San Siro. After a career spent with Brescia, Inter, Reggina, Milan, Juventus, New York City FC and the Italian national team, a world-class selection of former teammates came together to celebrate the career of the midfield maestro.

Barcelona put the finishing touches on its 2017-18 La Liga title with a 1-0 victory over Real Sociedad on Sunday. Philippe Coutinho scored the lone goal with a wonder strike in the 57th minute. The match also brought Andres Iniesta’s Barca career to a close.

Today — Friday, April 27, 2018 — Andres Iniesta confirmed in a press conference at Barcelona’s Ciutat Esportiva that this would well and truly be his final season at the club.

Aside from the more technical aspects of U.S. youth soccer development, there’s a very real and very obvious significance in having players worthy of serving as inspirations to young Americans in MLS. While Lionel Messi and Neymar will always be accessible via YouTube highlights, there’s something much more tangible and effective with regards to seeing an otherworldly talent live.