International Football
A round up of Qatar 2022 Round of 16
Just as the crowd is thinning out so is the number of teams. The field of 32 has now waned.
Now there are eight! The remaineder of the over 200 that started the preliminary competition leading to the finals. Games have lived up to expectations so also were teams. There have been upsets here and there, but some big ones recover early enough to remain in the race while others are left wondering what had gone amiss.
In the flurry of upsets, characteristics of competitions of this nature, Aregentina were shocked with a 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia. But they recovered to still remain in contention.
So also were their regional rivals, Brazil who lost 1-0 to Cameroon, their first to an African side. Their recovery is underscored with the relative ease they scaled the Round of 16 hurdles against South Korea.
For a second consecutive editions, powerhouse, Germany failed to cross the group stage. But theirs is a shade better than Italy, four-time World Cup holders and current European champions who have twice in a row failed to make it to the World Cup.
A round of 16 that had the best ever continental spread has come to a close. Adios to the teams from the host continents. The defeats of Australia (Geographically in Oceania, but afflialiated to Asia Football Confederation), Japan and South Korea brought the curtain down on Asia’s participation at the Qatar 2022
The two-day break for matches ends today and gradually, the Qatar 2022 is inching to an end.
Here is a reflection of the Round of !6 leading to the final.
Roger Milla rivalled!
When Portugal’s centre-back, Pepe scored with a header in the 6-1 demolision of FIFA’s host country, Switzerland, he became the second-oldest person to ever score at a FIFA World Cup. His feat is achieved at age 39 years and 283 days.
He will need to be active in four years time, at age 43, to upstage Cameroon’s Roger Milla who scored his last World Cup goal at 42 years and 39 days during the 1994 edition.
Out in front
Olivier Giroud’s goal in France’s 3-1 win over Poland saw the striker overtake the legendary Thierry Henry as his country’s all-time top scorer with 52 goals, with his latest strike being his third of the campaign.
Elsewhere for the defending champions, Kylian Mbappe is the tournament’s leading marksman with five goals and Antoine Griezmann has set an incredible record of appearing in 71 consecutive games for Les Bleus.
African and Arabian joy
Like Nigeria did at France ‘98, Morocco delivered killer punch on one of the pretournament favourites, Spain. With the elimination of Spain, Morocco became the fourth African country to get to the quarter finals after Cameroon (Italia ‘90), Senegal (Korea/Japan 2002) and Ghana (South Africa 2010). They are also the first team in the Arab World to get to the quarter-finals.
Will they raise the bar by getting to the semi-final? They are already used to record setting. When Morocco played 1-1 with Bulgaria on 11 June 1970, it was the first time an African team was not beaten at the World Cup.
Eaxactly 16 years later on 11 June 1986, Morocco beat Portugal 3-1 to become the first African team to top a World Cup group and qualify for the next round.
They are most likely to gathered all the local support here in Qatar as they face Portugal in the quarter-finals on Saturday.
Young gun
Australia may have reached home now after their Round of 16 loss to Argentina. But they left a mark in the record books.
Garang Kuol, at 18 years and 79 days, became the youngest player to appear in a FIFA World Cup knockout round game since a 17-year-old Pele starred at the 1958 edition in Sweden.
And the Central Coast Mariners forward came so close to taking the game to extra-time when his last-minute effort was expertly saved by Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez to deny the teenager a headline moment.
Round of 16 misery
Japan thrilled at the FIFA World Cup with stunning come-from-behind victories over former champions Germany and Spain before ultimately falling just short against the 2018 runners-up Croatia in the first knockout round.
The defeat on penalties was the fourth time the Samurai Blue had lost at this stage after Turkey (2002), Paraguay (2010) and Belgium (2018) eliminated the East Asians in the last 16.
Goals galore
With 12 goals apiece, England and Portugal are the top scorers so far in Qatar and each side has had eight different scorers over their four games, more than any other team at the tournament.
The English and the Portuguese have each netted six in a single game – against the Islamic Republic of Iran and Switzerland respectively – while Portugal’s Goncalo Ramos became the first player to score a hat-trick in Qatar when he did so against the Swiss on Tuesday.
Perisic set to overtake Suker
When Ivan Perisic scored against Japan, he equalled the number of goals scored by Croatian legend Davor Suker’. Both are now on six goals to become Croatia’s joint-top scorer at the FIFA World Cup.
Perisic has netted goals at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 editions, while Suker scored all six of his goals – including one against Japan – in 1998 in France when he finished as top scorer, firing his nation to a third-place finish at their first-ever World Cup.
International Football
Former Brazil coach Tite taking break to take care of mental, physical health
Former Brazil coach Tite said he is taking an indefinite career break in order to take care of his mental and physical health.
The 63-year-old, who led Brazil to the 2019 Copa America title, was hospitalised due to a heart issue last August. He was sacked by Flamengo the following month and had most recently been linked with the Corinthians job.
“I realised that there are times when you have to understand that, as a human being, I can be vulnerable and admitting that will certainly make me stronger,” Tite said in a statement posted on his son Matheus Bachi’s Instagram on Tuesday.
“I’m passionate about what I do and I’ll continue to be so, but after talking to my family and observing the signals my body was giving off, I decided that the best thing to do now is to take a break from my career to look after myself for as long as it takes.
“As has become public, there was a conversation in progress with Corinthians, but it will have to be paralysed by a difficult but necessary decision.”
Tite, who stepped down as Brazil coach after their quarter-final exit from the 2022 World Cup, has previously coached a string of Brazilian sides including Gremio, Atletico Mineiro and Palmeiras.
-Reuters
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Brazil have sacked head coach Dorival Jr, the country’s football confederation (CBF) said on Friday after the five-time world champions were thrashed 4-1 away to fierce rivals Argentina in a humiliating qualifying loss in Buenos Aires.
The 62-year-old was appointed in January 2024 after the team spent a year under two caretaker coaches as the Brazilian FA were unable to lure Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid.
“The Brazilian Football Confederation informs that coach Dorival Jr is no longer in charge of the Brazilian national team,” the confederation said in a statement.
“The management thanks (Dorival) and wishes him success in continuing his career … the CBF will work to find his replacement,” it added.
Dorival was handed the job after his success with Flamengo in 2022 where he won the Copa Libertadores and Brazilian Cup, a trophy he lifted again the next year with Sao Paulo.
However, he never seemed to get to grips with the national team job and failed to earn the trust of Brazil’s demanding fans after winning only seven of his 16 games in charge.
Sources told Reuters the CBF was not confident in Dorival’s work, considering there had been little to no progress since a lacklustre Copa America campaign when Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Uruguay last year.
Still, the CBF was willing to wait and see until the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay in June to reassess the situation following the end of the European season and the Club World Cup in the U.S. in June and July.
But after Brazil slumped to their heaviest-ever loss in a qualifier when they were thrashed by Argentina this week, CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues decided to pull the trigger.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sources told Reuters Ancelotti was still the ideal candidate but he is under contract with Real until July 2026 and there is no indication he would leave the European and Spanish champions.
Brazilian media have reported that Al Hilal’s Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus is the favourite to replace Dorival.
Brazil have been in unfamiliar territory for over two years since crashing out of the 2022 World Cup against Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals, a heartbreaking elimination that led to the exit of long-time manager Tite.
Their humbling defeat in Buenos Aires was the latest of a series of negative records Brazil have set under caretakers Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and with Dorival in charge. They had never conceded four goals in a World Cup qualifier.
Brazil are in the midst of their worst-ever World Cup qualifying campaign. They are fourth in the South American standings with 21 points, a point above sixth-placed Colombia who currently occupy the final direct qualifying berth.
Never have Brazil lost so many games, conceded so many goals or set so many negative records in the qualifying competition. They have lost five of their 14 games and conceded 16 goals.
Brazil’s 1-0 defeat by Argentina in the Maracana late in 2023 was their first-ever qualifying loss on home soil.
They also lost to Colombia for the first time, saw the end of their unbeaten run against Uruguay stretching back over two decades and were defeated by Morocco and Senegal, having never previously lost to an African nation.
-Reuters
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International Football
England’s German manager Tuchel will not sing the English anthem in his first game
England manager Thomas Tuchel said he would have to “earn the right” to sing the national anthem, God Save the King, after announcing his 26-man squad on Friday ahead of the team’s World Cup qualifiers.
Tuchel, who was appointed as Gareth Southgate’s successor in October and named his first squad to face Albania and Latvia this month, said he would not sing the anthem in his first games in charge.
“It means a lot to me, I can assure you, but I can feel that because it is so meaningful and it is so emotional and it is so powerful, the national anthem, that I have to earn my right to sing it,” the 51-year-old German told a news conference.
Former caretaker manager Lee Carsley was criticised last year for not singing the anthem during his tenure.
However, Tuchel added that while he is proud to be in charge of the team and knows the words to the anthem, he plans to earn the right with results.
“Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like ‘he should sing it now, he’s one of our own, he’s the English manager, he should sing it’,” he said.
-Reuters
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