Russia 2018 ended with the Final it deserved – France beat Croatia 4-2 in the highest scoring Final since 1958 when Brazil beat hosts Sweden 5-2. That finale was enough for me to take 2018 above the 1986 tournament into second place, behind 1970, in my list of the best World Cups I’ve seen.
My previous piece on this summer’s tournament had been written at the Semi Final stage where I got things half right by predicting a France v England final based mainly on the fact that their respective opponents would be tireder than them. That proved to be pretty much the case as France stifled the attacking life out of the Belgians once they had scored the game’s only goal with a header from a set piece, but, amazingly, Croatia defied their two previous extra time and penalty shoot out triumphs to end up winners over an England side which had enjoyed the better of the first forty five minutes and had deservedly led 1-0 at the break.
Once the Croats had equalised midway through the second half, there was only one side in the game as, from somewhere, they found the strength to start winning the physical as well as the footballing battle to overcome an England side whose limitations were rather exposed in both this game and their 2-0 Third and Fourth place match loss to the Belgians.
Croatia had played their third consecutive one hundred and twenty minute game, but, such was the belief, bravery and sheer stamina they showed against England, that I dared to think that 2018 would have fairy tale winners, as a country with a population not much bigger than Wales ending up coming out on top.
The fact that Croatia could claim to be moral winners of the Final will count for nothing in years to come. For now though, the memory of their enterprising and skillful play in a Final where they got very much the worst of the decisions (VAR’s limitations when it comes to penalty awards for handball were again shown) made by a referee who was simply not up to officiating in a game of this magnitude.
Croatia have a right to feel hard done by, but, at the same time, they were up against the team which were, by far, the most effective of the countries that played the sort of game which I expressed reservations about in my previous piece on the tournament.
The sit back, let them have the ball and then hit them on the break approach probably hit it’s high spot in the tournament when hosts Russia beat the keepers of the old Tiki Taka flame, Spain, in the round of the last sixteen in a match that had the feel of a new order taking over from the old.
However, France were the team best suited to getting the best out of the new approach, because they had the attacking pace and quality in the likes of Mbappe and Griezmann to fully utilise the counter attacking opportunities they were set up to exploit.
France scored four in a game twice in their six matches in Russia 2018 as they showed those attacking skills to great effect, but it’s also true to say that there was another side to them. When Belgian players accused France of playing “anti football” against them in their Semi Final, it could, to some extent, be put down to sour grapes, yet you couldn’t help but think that Hazard and co had a point of sorts.
This goes to the heart of my fear that, for all of it’s excitement and feelgood factor, Russia 2018 might end up doing the game (and I mean the game here, not all of the incidental stuff that goes with it these days) of football more harm than good.
If Spain were the instigators of the old order, then France are the team to encapsulate the new one and, just like Spain at their best around a decade ago, the French are the example that followers of the new approach will aspire to.
However, it is inevitable, that the huge majority of disciples of any footballing fashion will not be as talented as those they follow. So it was, that Tiki Taka floundered on the rocks as teams without the talent to utilise it to it’s best advantage became boring imitators that stuck religiously to the possession mantra while not having the wit or flair to know what to do with it – in the end, Spain went the same way as all of the others, as evidenced by their cowardly and clueless display against Russia.
France were able to show what they were capable of against Argentinian and Croatian sides that came out to play against them, but, even with Mbappe, Greizmann, the influential Matuidi, the indefatigable Kante, a Pogba who was finally able to show what all the fuss was about and a pair of effective attacking full backs, they were rendered fairly toothless against opponents that sat back and looked to counter attack them.
The only 0-0 draw of the tournament was between France and Denmark and it was comfortably the least entertaining game played in Russia 2018, as well as, probably, it’s worst. Denmark, were a team that had the considerable attacking talents of Christian Eriksen to call on and also possessed some of the required attacking pace to utilise the counter attacking game, but they were so, so dull – as were their Scandinavian counterparts Sweden (they had none of the attacking pace to counter attack effectively, so ended up relying on set pieces and penalties for their goals).
Here were two of those less talented disciples I was talking about earlier. Russia, for all of their over achievement and the drama it produced, were another and there were others – if sides embrace the France 2018 approach as enthusiastically as Spain’s was ten years ago, we are in for some dull, dull football in the next few years.
