When FIFA President Gianni Infantino proposed a 48-team World Cup Finals for 2026 he was reduced to being fodder for many football enthusiasts who posited that the quality of the showpiece event would surely be diluted.
But at the end of the first 24 of the 64 games to be played at this Russia 2018 edition, there is nothing to substantiate that would be the case.
Traditional teams overwhelmed
As a matter of fact, it is quite the opposite, as traditional teams with strong World Cup pedigree have been summarily dispatched and are now left looking in from the outside hoping for the best at this very early stage of the competition.
Case in point – two-time champions Argentina, boasting arguably the best player of this generation, one Lionel Messi, a five-time Ballon D’or winner, who is ably supported by a galaxy of stars such as Angel Di Maria, Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain, Paulo Dybala, who parade their skills for some of the biggest and best clubs in Europe, and elsewhere in the world.
One solitary point for Argentina
From two games played this far, the South Americans have managed to secure just a solitary point from a 1-1 draw with Iceland and a 3-0 drubbing by Croatia, who only made their World Cup debut at the France 1998 edition.
Iceland are participating in their first World Cup finals and have a population of merely 340,000 inhabitants. Yet they more than held their own against the mighty Argentina, who have produced some of the best football talent in history.
So, with no World Cup pedigree to rely on, the Icelanders simply organized themselves and made it very difficult for the Argentines to break them down, spiced with an envious supply of combativeness, resilience and passion.
The end result is that the Argentines are now left calling on their mathematicians to work out permutations, rather than on their gifted footballers on the pitch to try to find a solution for progress to the next stage.
Germany shocked
Outside of Brazil, there is no bigger name in world football than Germany, a four-time winner and defending champions.
They came into the tournament as red hot favorites by many to become the first nation since Brazil in 1962 to successfully defend the crown.
Indeed, last year coach Joachim Loew, in a glaring display of depth, rotated his players and still managed to lift the Confederations Cup, the warm-up tournament in Russia, even as another set of youngsters dominated Europe.
The Confederations Cup journey included a 4-1 thumping of Mexico.
But in their opening Group F encounter on Saturday, June 17 at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Mexico, in a most ruthless display, silenced the Germans with a comfortable 1-0 victory in a game in which the final score line didn’t really reflect the profligacy of the North Americans in front of goal.
It could have easily been three or four had the Mexicans been efficient in the final third against the labored Germans.
The Mexicans did their homework, were deadly on the break, and proved compact in defense.
The defending champions are now left in a precarious position where they must win against Sweden on Saturday, June 23 at the Fisht Stadium in Sochi if they are to progress.
They face the prospects of joining the previous two defending champions who fail to progress from the preliminary stage – Italy in South Africa in 2010 and Spain in Brazil in 2014.
Brazil scrambles
Just prior to press time for this edition, Brazil scrambled over the line in a 2-0 victory over Costa Rica to move to the top of Group E on four points from two games following an unfortunate 1-1 result with Switzerland in their opener.
They left it very late with Philippe Coutinho netting his second goal of the campaign in the first minute of time added and Neymar wrapping up the points in the seventh minute of time added.
The Brazilians dominated the game but played with a heavy burden as a result of their 1-1 result in the first game, and especially as they wanted to avoid a similar curse as that which confronted their South American neighbors to the south.
Contending with Video Assistant Referees (VAR)
And truth be told the Brazilians would have been left aggrieved by the execution of VAR (Video assistant referees) in their two games to date.
In their first game against Switzerland at the Rostov Arena, Switzerland’s Steven Zuber pushed defender Miranda out of the path of the ball before heading home the equalizer from a corner much to the chagrin of the entire Brazilian contingent, who thought the recently introduced VAR would have correct the blatant error.
However, it never did.
Then against Costa Rica, Neymar cut inside his marker from the left side and was impeded with the hand of a defender whose body weight was shifted to the opposite direction. The referee was well placed and pointed to the penalty spot for the Brazilian.
But, again to the chagrin of the Brazilians, VAR intervened and asked the referee to have a second look at the incident after which he changed his decision, though there was no “clear and obvious” error in his initial decision, because Neymar was indeed impeded, regardless of the severity of the infraction.
Technology and modern sport go hand in hand and should always be embraced, but based on what has transpired so far, the human element continues to muddy the proverbial waters. Luckily, Brazil was not negatively affected in the second game as they were in the first.
But even as some of the big names struggle to progress, Spain, Portugal with Cristiano Ronaldo, who has scored four goals in two games, France, Belgium, England, with a young team, as well as Uruguay and hosts Russia have put down a marker thus far.
Russia and Uruguay have won both games, while Spain and Portugal have managed a win and a draw in their opening games, while France have eked out 2-1 and 1-0 victories over Australia and Peru.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been eliminated from Group A; Morocco from Group B; Peru from Group C; and Costa Rica from Group E.
Now it is just a matter of time before the 32 teams are reduced to 16.
