Well, what an amazing month that was - a fabulous tournament from the outset. It had incredible drama. Going to be a bit of a comedown this next week or so.
France and Croatia were two of the best three teams of the tournament, and certainly the best Final I've ever watched over 7 World Cups I've experienced. Croatia were immense, really unlucky that some of the balls into the box didn't eventuate into something more, and I don't think it should have been a penalty against Perisic. But France were quality. Their brand of football might not be to everyone's liking, but they navigated the Knockout stage better than anyone else.
Modric a pleasing Golden Ball winner, although Hazard was probably more outstanding.
But is this the last great World Cup? Qatar 2022 is the tournament that no one wants, a hideous hosting arrangement in every respect imaginable. It's hard as a lover of the competition to justify my investment in such an awful arrangement, whether it be something as trivial as Australia not securing the rights against a country with minimal pedigree, to something as genuinely sinister as the slaves that continue to perish at the construction sites.
And then there is 2026, a hosting arrangement that successfully works to restore faith in the allocation of World Cup hosts (following Russia and Qatar), but in a horribly dysfunctional expanded format. It just spells trouble (contrived results, lower quality football, more penalty shootouts) and will be difficult to reverse.
Anyway, this tournament was so fun and satisfying. Plenty of highlights. Managed to watch about 34 matches in full which I was concerned I would fail to achieve, given the Timezone, the Optus disaster, and how busy work is this time of year.
Time to catch up on some sleep.
