World Cup in Russia | And the Grand Finale

 At the end of a month long journey involving 32 national teams playing 64 matches we have one champion and that is France. No first time winner, no surprise but France.  Along with Uruguay, Argentina it became the third country to win the cup twice; Brazil, Germany and Italy have won it many times over.

France made through the tougher half of the draw. On to the way they beat some of the heavy weight names in world football in the knockout stages; Argentina, Uruguay, Belgium. They beat Argentina, Uruguay convincingly and escaped a talented but reluctant to win Belgium. Never did their knockout stage matches went to extra time; which is actually the first a champion team has achieved so.

Croatia had on the other side managed to win all their knockout games in the extra time; twice even on penalties. All the games were won after being initially down by a goal. They were a battle hardened unit, relentless in their pursuit of victory. On the way they bettered Denmark, Russia and England.

World in Russia | Unlikely Finalists in an Unpredictable World Cup

We are all set for the final showdown in this edition of the FIFA World Cup. And it's France against first time challengers Croatia. Who would have predicted Croatia in the final but again that's the beauty of the game.

This world cup also highlights the supremacy of European football in all aspects. In the quarterfinals we had 6 European teams against 2 from South America. Both the South American teams were eliminated in the quarterfinals and we were left with an all European semifinal. Last time that happened was in 2006 when too France was the finalist.

The quarterfinal stages had 4 previous winners and 4 aspirants competing for the cup. And appropriately we have 1 previous winner and 1 aspirant making it to the finals. Last time an aspirant reached the final was Spain in 2010; which they won.

If Croatia wins the world cup it will be a record of sorts; it would probably the smallest country since Uruguay in 1950 to achieve that feat. And surely the youngest one having been born just in 1991 as a nation.

So as we edge towards the finish line lets take quick re-look of the matches in the quarter and semi final stages as I had done so for the group stages and round of 16 in my earlier posts.

World Cup in Russia | Fall of Data Science

This world cup has turned out to be the death bed for Data Science and Machine Learning algorithms. Before the world cup I had seen at least two prediction reports coming from well established sources. One from UBS and the other from Goldman Sachs both concluding that it would Germany yet again.

Today I saw another prediction done by Sports Illustrated (image by the side) after the conclusion of the group stages. This one predicted a Brazil - Spain final.

World Cup in Russia | Recap of the Round of 16

The quarter-finals will be starting tomorrow. So here is a quick recap of what happened in the round of 16. The first day of this round was quite tragic with two of the best footballers of our times being eliminated. While that was on the first day, the next 3 days were no less interesting.

Spain vs Russia: I am not sure if result of this match could really be termed as a surprise. To me Russia were the clear favorites coming into the contest. The handball of Pique for which the penalty was awarded was comical. I have never seen a footballer jumping with his one hand up to head the ball. Reminded me of the way Ganguly used to duck the bouncer keeping his bat still hoisted; he even got out once because of such an awkward positioning of the bat.

Though Spain had the lion’s share of ball possession and passes, those are useless stats if the scoreboard reflects a different story. In the penalty shootout Russian keeper Akinfeev did tremendous job by stopping twice while Russians didn’t miss any against deGea. I always think Spain plays a regressive football keeping the ball to themselves. Their football only attains the charisma because of the scoring abilities of Messi and Ronaldo. This match also was the last international appearance of another legend; Iniesta.

World Cup in Russia | Exit of the legends

Yesterday was a day not to be remembered in the history of FIFA World Cup. It was the day which saw the fall of two of the greatest footballers our time has seen. Both Messi and Ronaldo exited the world cup on the same day.

It was not that the results were unexpected but having seen these two men spin magic over the years, the heart always felt some last minute magic to happen. But alas that was not to be.

First match of the pre-quarter-finals had Argentina against France. It is not that France was a much more superior side and their football so far didn't display anything convincing. There were chances that a strategized approach from Argentina could help them. France was the faster team. They had young players like Mbappe whose speed couldn't be matched by Argentine defenders.

World Cup in Russia | Preparing for the knock-out stage

So here is the second post on FIFA World Cup following first one few days back listing the Top 10 matches till Match Day 2 of the competition. All the groups completed their Match Day 3 yesterday and today is a rest day after the conclusion of a grueling group stage.

Match Day 3 virtually was a pre-quarterfinal stage for many of the teams. Some of the them like Uruguay, Russia, France, Croatia, Belgium and England had already qualified for the knock-out stages after having won both of their first 2 matches. But for others the fight for survival was still on. Teams with large following like Argentina and Germany were still on the brink of an early exit.

The last 4 days of the competition generated quite a few surprises. And its time to take a stock of those before we start the Quarter Finals from tomorrow.

World Cup in Russia | Top 10 matches from the first 10 days

FIFA World Cup in unarguably the greatest single sport extravaganza in the world. Even though the Summer Olympics would have a worldwide viewership and following which challenges the World Cup but consider that it’s a multi-sport event with participation from way large number of countries. The final stages of the FIFA World Cup is a contest between mere 32 countries.

Russia won the bid to host the 2018 edition of the cup. There were some questions raised regarding the initial bidding process and how Russia won it; nevertheless, Russia has so far been doing a great job. 

The event which started on 14th June has so far traversed the journey of 10 days. For all the groups 2 match days have been completed. It’s time to take a stab at the 10 most interesting matches played so far. The matches are arranged in the order they were played and not any other ranking