Thank You Qatar

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar definitely exceeded my expectations. The football was highly entertaining, and fans witnessed moments that will go down in history. The tournament itself was highlighted by Argentina’s thrilling penalty shootout victory in the final against France, which for me, was one of the greatest football matches ever. Now that I’ve had some time to digest the events in Qatar, I’m going to talk about some of my main takeaways. So, let’s get to it shall we?

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Is Messi Now the G.O.A.T.?

Even before the World Cup, Lionel Messi was my G.O.A.T. I’ve seen him do things with a football that no other man has done before. The one thing that people unfairly held against him was his lack of success with Argentina. Until the summer of 2021, he hadn’t been able to lift silverware with his country. People forget that the 2014 World Cup final against Germany where Gonzalo Higuaín missed two great chances to give Argentina the lead. Ultimately, they lost the match, but who knows what would have happened if Higuaín had put away those chances. Fast forward to December 2022, and Messi is now a Copa America and World Cup winner with Argentina.

It now begs the question, surely he has to be the G.O.A.T. right? Obviously, it’s all personal preference, but others (namely older football heads) view players like the late, great Pele and Diego Maradona as the G.O.A.T., because of their World Cup successes. Now that Messi has his, there’s nothing left some him to win: 10x La Liga winner, 4x Champions League winner, 7x Ballon d’Or winner, Copa America Winner, World Cup winner (I could keep going but I think you get the point). I don't know what more he has to do to convince people that he is the greatest football player that has ever lived.

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How the Mighty Fall

This World Cup may have possibly been the final act in the downfall of Cristiano Ronaldo. Prior to the competition had started, he was in the headlines after his explosive interview with Piers Morgan. That interview resulted in his contract being terminated by mutual consent by Manchester United. It was clear that Ronaldo had a point to prove in order to potentially enhance his own G.O.A.T. credentials. Sadly, that turned out to not be the case. He had a underwhelming tournament, only scoring once (a penalty against Ghana).

He was even dropped for the 6-1 thumping against Switzerland in the last-16 where his understudy, Gonçalo Ramos, bagged a hattrick. Portugal couldn’t make it all the way, getting knocked out by Morocco in the quarter final. There’s that image of Ronaldo walking off the pitch alone in tears. People have since criticised him for not staying with his teammates, but I viewed it differently. I think he had a moment of realisation that this is the last time he’ll be playing at the highest of levels. Qatar was most likely his last international tournament and in terms of club football, who knows if he’ll ever play in the Champions League or a top 5 league again. It’s sad to see but it shows that father time is and will always be undefeated.

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The Greatest Spectacle Ever?

I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a match like the final between Argentina and France. What made this match even more remarkable was that for a good 80 minutes, it looked as though Argentina had the match and won. But then Kylian Mbappe decided to turn up to the party, and how he turned up! First, he scored a penalty to give France hope and then in the blink of an eye, he played a superb one-two with Marcus Thuram and then proceeded to score a fantastic volley to make it 2-2. Even before it went to extra-time, both teams where fighting tooth and nail to score the winner.

In extra time itself, I thought Argentina had won it when Messi scored his second to make 3-2. But yet again, Mbappe stepped up in a big way to score a 118th minute penalty to make it level the match for a second time. That still left time for both teams to nearly win the match: Lautaro Martinez putting a header wide just before Emiliano Martinez made one of the best saves that I’ve seen live to prevent Kolo Muani from winning it for France. Then in the penalty shootout, Gonzalo Montiel converted the winning penalty after France had seen two of the spot kicks missed or saved by Martinez. It was a truly fantastic final, one that will go down in folklore as one of the greatest sporting spectacles.

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Hope for England

I picked England to be the biggest flops in Qatar, safe to say I got that prediction wrong! They certainly didn’t flop, being beaten in the quarter finals by France 2-1. While the loss itself was hard to take for the players, media and fans, I do believe there is hope for England moving forward. One could argue for large spells of the match, England were the better team. France’s opener arguably shouldn’t have stood after Bukayo Saka was fouled in the build-up to Aurélien Tchouaméni strike.

Once more, Harry Kane’s penalty miss in the latter stages of the match with England trailing 2-1 was pivotal. Who knows if the outcome of the match would have been different had Harry Kane, who is normally so reliable from the penalty spot, dispatched the spot kick. However, Qatar represented another instance of England getting knocked out by the first decent team they faced. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. England have got a good young squad that is only going to get better with experience. If they keep the group together and allow other youngsters to push through, they’ll be in decent shape. Euro 2024 is not long away, and England have a good shot at winning the tournament.

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This Week’s Hot Take

Given how well received the football on display in Qatar was, I don’t think this will be the last time we’ll see a World Cup held in the Middle East. People will point to the fact that having a World Cup held in November/December isn’t the most ideal, but I do think that Qatar was a good host nation. There was a lack of crowd trouble, the stadiums itself were top-quality and the fans that made the trip to Qatar were superb. It was a memorable tournament and will surely act as a blueprint for other countries in the region who have aspirations of hosting a World Cup.