Let's get through the easy stuff, since there were only two games this round - the Final Rankings!!!
1. Spain (1)
2. Argentina (2)
3. England (3)
4. France (4)
Easy stuff!!!
Also, the best game was easily England over France - no question.
So that is it. The end of the blog, right? Nope. I have two more segments for you to end this World Cup.
First up, the All-World Cup team. Since everyone does an ALL-XI, I am going to do a complete team. Each roster in the field contains 26 players, so here is my All-World Cup Team, with starters (ALL-XI) in bold. The roster is composed of 2 at each position (a starter and a backup). That is 22 players. A third goalie and striker - making the roster 24. And then just the two other players I felt belonged on the list and deserved recognition. Here is your team!
G – Unai Simon (Spain); Vozinha (Cabo Verde); Orlando
Gill (Paraguay) - The Spanish team gave up one goal the entire campaign, and although that is a complete defensive accomplishment, the goalie positions everyone and controls the defensive calls. Vozinha and Gill made stars of themselves.
RB – Pedro Porro (Spain); Achraf Hakimi (Morocco) Porro stabilized the wing on the back line and Hakimi does it all.
CB – Aymeric Laporte (Spain); Lisandro Martinez
(Argentina); Dayot Upemacano (France); Pau Cubarsi (Spain) No real surprises here as Spain - again - only gave up one goal the entire tournament. Cubarsi was named the Best Young Player (at AGE 19!!!). Martinez's injury really impacted Argentina in the final. Nobody was as emotional on the pitch as Upemacano.
LB – Marc Cucarella (Spain); Djed Spence (England) Cucarella has showed that he is a premier left back in the world right now. Spence really came to life this tournament. His interplay on the left - especially with Anthony Gordon - was immaculate to watch.
M – Rodri (Spain); Jude Bellingham (England); Alexis
McCallister (Argentina); Enzo Fernandez (Argentina); Martin Odegaard
(Norway); Pedri (Spain); Aurelien Tchouameni (Belgium) - Rodri won the Golden Ball as the Player of the Tournament. Nobody played better than Bellingham overall. McCallister was just a bit better than Fernandez in passing and turning over the offense while defending, whereas Fernandez scored more, but his red card in the final was the decider in the starting position. Haaland gets all of the acclaim because of his propensity to score, but Odegaard drives that offense. Pedri was phenomenal and Tchouameni was just too dynamic to leave out. This was definitely the hardest decisions to make.
Wingers – Lionel Messi (Argentina); Julian
Quinones (Mexico); Vinicius, Jr (Brazil); Lamine Yamal (Spain); Luis Diaz
(Colombia) Starting Quinones meant that only three midfielders could start, which send Enzo Fernandez to the bench, but game-after-game he came up huge for team Mexico, even winning over fans who had previously hated him because he wasn't born in Mexico (Colombia), and perhaps because of his dark skin. All of Mexico loves him after this performance. Yamal just didn't play enough minutes to earn a starting spot, but he was amazing. Luis Diaz is so dynamic. I really wanted to put Yan Dioumande into this team, and he could have replaced Luis Diaz, but I really think Diaz deserves it.
Striker – Kylian Mbappe (France); Erling Haaland
(Norway); Harry Kane (England) Duh, Duh, and Duh!
And, for my last take on this Year's World Cup - the Top 10 most memorable occurrences in the Tournament!
10. Fans Discovering American "culture" - Seriously, the social media posts of soccer tourists as they make their first trip to the United States and find out about Bucc-ee's, Waffle House, Wal-Mart, Raisin' Canes, Chick-fil-A, Publix Subs, etc. Is amazing. My favorite quote was from one European who entered the "pharmacy" CVS. He said that they sell "things that can heal you, as well as the frozen mac-n-cheese that caused the problem!"
9. Ranch Dressing - The most obvious segue, as Ranch Dressing in-and-of-itself was - and always should be - a star. The shops inside Logan Airport (and passed the TSA Security entrance), started selling ranch dressing so that the travelers could avoid the 3 1/2 ounce liquid rule.
8. Norwegian Row - Not just the fans in the stadium, but the fans on the field, the fans at the golf tournament, the fans on the escalator, the fans on the streets ... everywhere a "Dum-Dum Row!"
7. Spain's Defense - I have typed it once, and I have typed it a thousand time. Spain only conceded 1 goal this entire tournament. That means they kept 7 clean sheets in 8 games. OUTSTANDING!!!
6. Stars Shining - Another common thread in my blog posts. The stars came to compete. Kylian Mbappe scored 10 goals and won his second-consecutive Golden Boot - the only player in history to win twice. And, he has the record for most World Cup goals, passing Miroslav Klose, Marta, and Lionel Messi! And Messi scored 8 with 4 assists, including a hat trick. Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham had 7. Harry Kane had 6. Rodri wins Golden Ball. The stars truly shone in this World Cup.
5. England-Mexico Thriller - The best game I have ever seen. If this was further along in the knockout stages - like a semifinal or a final - this would be talked about as the greatest game ever.
4. Thierry Henry dealing with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexi Lalas - Henry is one of the best players ever, and he is incredible on UCL today with Kate Giles nee Abdo, Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards - which is probably the best sports analysis show on right now. But, for the World Cup, Henry was paired with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexi Lalas as analysts, with the uber-professional Rebecca Lowe. The fact that Henry could put up with Ibrahimovic's attitude and arrogance - despite Henry being a much better player - and the fact that he could put up with Lalas's utter incompetence, without blowing up or hurting anybody is a top 10 moment from this tournament.
3. Folarin Balogun Red Card Saga - It wasn't the red card, which itself wasn't a horrible tackle and should have been a yellow; It wasn't the red card in that we have seen yellow cards turned into reds (and vice versa before); but it was President Trump getting involved and having the red card overturned that turned this whole tournament into a sideshow. Along with refusing to grant visas to several people directly involved with the tournament (team managers, staff, Lumumba Vea, and even the Referee of the Year from Africa), not allowing the Iranian team to stay in the US, despite all three games being in the US and forcing them to fly in and out of their game sites on the day of games (coincidentally, Iran was the first team out of the tournament), to Trump trying to hog the spotlight by jumping into the official picture of Spain's championship trophy award, to the red card saga - this tournament will be remembered for being overly political.
2. Scotland Fans - If I have to tell you why, you weren't paying attention. "No Scotland, No Party!"
1. Cabo Verde - The darlings of these games. Everybody loves Cabo Verde, and they played outstandingly. They drew Spain 0-0, and scored the goal of the tournament down 2-1 in extra time to Argentina. They showed they belonged on the World Cup stage!
