On June 14, the 2018 FIFA World Cup kicked of in Russia with a stunning 5-0 win by the host nation over Saudi Arabia. One by one, the goals few into the back of the net while Vladimir Putin, sitting in the audience, applauded and shrugged his shoulders at Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin-Salman. This was a fitting start to what was one of the oddest and most thrilling World Cups of modern history due to its historic matchups, political connotations, and gripping final.
For those of you who don’t follow the World Cup closely, it breaks down as follows. The competition starts with a number of groups, each of which consists of four teams. Although these groups are supposedly chosen randomly, it is sometimes questionable as to whether this is truly the case, as host nation Russia was miraculously placed in what is recognized as the easiest group in recent World Cup history with Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Some other groups were more competitive with traditionally strong and favored teams, such as Group F, with Germany, Mexico, South Korea, and Sweden. These teams all play each other once in a round-robin format, aiming to be at the top of their group with the most points, earning points for games won or tied, and not earning points for games lost.
After the group stage, the top two teams from each group go to the round of 16, in which the loser of a match is immediately eliminated from the World Cup. The winners of the round of 16 then go on to the quarterfinals, where the winners then go to the semifinals. The losers of the semifinals play each other for third place, and the winners play each other in the final.
This World Cup had many favored teams, including Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Argentina. However, reigning World Champions, Germany, failed to even advance through the group stage. In their first match, they lost to 0-1 to Mexico in an enormous upset that set the tone for the rest of the tournament. In their last game in the group stage, Germany was knocked out by South Korea in a shocking 0-2 loss. Germany’s woes were mirrored in Argentina’s 0-3 loss to Croatia, a country with a fraction of its population and one that has never won the World Cup.
One of the more notable upsets of the tournament was Russia’s win over Spain in penalty kicks. After playing a full game and finishing extra time tied, Russia shocked the world by knocking Spain, a favorite to win the World Cup, out of the competition. All of this is to say that this World Cup was unpredictable and saw many underdogs advance to later rounds of the competition.
Just as many favored teams fell to underdogs and dark horses, so too did the stars of this competition. Players such as Lionel Messi of Argentina, Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal, and Mohamed Salah of Egypt all failed to lead their teams to glory. Ronaldo had an amazing tournament but later faltered in Portugal’s knockout stage game against Uruguay. Salah also had a number of goals, but in the end could not carry his team to glory in Egypt’s first ever World Cup appearance. Lastly, the soccer savant Messi was largely absent on the scoreboard and ultimately was unable to bring Argentina through the knockout stage alone. In all of these cases, despite the enormous talent of each individual star, it was evident that this was a World Cup of teams, not just players. All of the countries that went the farthest into the tournament had the strongest connection amongst their teammates and coach. This was seen in teams such as France and Belgium, both of which had very strong coaches and whose players bought into a single, cohesive style of playing. The Men in Blazers podcast said of France’s success that, “It was only possible because Deschamps [the French National Team Coach] had gotten all of the French star players to buy into the collective.”
Despite these star player’s falterings, this World Cup certainly had its stars. Luka Modrić of Croatia, who also plays for Real Madrid in La Liga, won the Ballon D’Or of the World Cup, or the best player award. This was more than deserved, as Modrić played with discipline and consistently disturbed the ball as a creative and reliable center midfielder for Croatia. He was essential to their success in the tournament and was one of the reasons why Croatia made it all the way to the final. Another star worthy of the Ballon D’Or was France’s Kylian Mbappé, who showed enormous maturity and talent on the field, scoring multiple goals, including the topping fourth goal for France in the final match. He is the youngest player to have won a World Cup since the legendary Pelé.
Although this was a World Cup of success, failure, and drama, it was also a World Cup of political protests, symbolism, and more importantly, an attempt by Vladimir Putin to legitimize and normalize his oppressive regime on the world stage.
Not everyone agreed with the World Cup being held in Russia. This was exemplified by a number of high ranking diplomats from the European Union who refused to attend over ethical breaches by Russia, specifically citing the Putin regime’s suppression of free speech and controversies regarding Russia’s annexation of Crimea. There were also demonstrations during the actual final of the World Cup when several members of the Pussy Riot collective, a band and group of activists, rushed the field. This was done with the intent of “releasing political prisoners, putting an end to fabricated criminal accusations to keep people imprisoned, and allowing political competition in the country,” according to New York Times writers Ivan Nechepurenko and Melissa Gomez. Pussy Riot often stages such demonstrations in the presence of Vladimir Putin, who watched from high in the stands. This was yet another blip on the artificially smoothened veneer of the World Cup. By doing this, Pussy Riot reminded viewers of the injustices that the Russian government has committed and how it is important to address these injustices on a global stage.
Often, World Cups consist of a mix of romanticism and reality. And although over the course of this World Cup we were reminded of the misdeeds of FIFA, the Russian government, and other social issues plaguing the host nation, we also witnessed records broken, the fall of Goliaths, and the players of the next generation. Above all, we were reminded of why soccer is called ‘The Beautiful Game.’