World Cup in Qatar: “Unpopular” Knockout gradually shut down the traditional mighty “warm-up” World Cup.
China News Agency, Beijing, December 5 In the morning of the 5th time in Beijing, the Qatar World Cup ended the second day of the round of 16. France and England beat Poland and Senegal respectively to advance together. So far, this World Cup has produced four top 8 teams, namely: Holland, Argentina, France and England.
These 4 teams are the traditional World Cup powerhouses and favorites to win this cup. Among them, the Argentina team, the French team and the England team are all cup champion teams, and the Netherlands team is the “uncrowned king” who won three world runners-up.
The results of the 4 games are: Netherlands 3:1 USA, Argentina 2:1 Australia, France 3:1 Poland, England 3:0 Senegal, the winners are all expected by the outside world.
After experiencing the omnipresent ‘chill’ of the group stage, the first 4 knockout games of this cup have ‘heated up’, entering the ‘hot spot’ where traditional moguls dominate the game. There are many reasons for this .
First of all, World Cups last a long time: to maintain their status in the most brutal round of 16, some strong teams often start “slow”, resulting in upsets or ups and downs in the group stage.
The Argentine and German teams lost to the Saudi and Japanese teams respectively in the first round of the group stage, largely due to the “slow heat”. The difference is that the Argentine team stopped falling over time and won back-to-back victories in the next two games, still qualifying as top of the group. The German team, which is in the “group of death”, lost to the Spanish team on goal difference, and was eliminated from the group in two consecutive World Cups.
The Netherlands and England had their ups and downs in the group stage. The Dutch team defeated 18th-placed Senegal 2-0 in their first match, but were drawn 1-1 by 44th-placed Ecuador in their second match; England beat Iran 6-2 in the first game. second game, they were tied by the US team, which was on the same level as the Iranian team (the difference in world ranking between the Iranian and US team was 4 places).
Secondly, there are 3 rounds in the group stage and you can “correct if you make a mistake”. The knockout stage is a life-or-death battle, and there is no room for “fault tolerance”, so the emphasis of strong teams and the state of the battle will be different. The Argentine team, who lost their first game, is a typical example of “knowing mistakes and correcting them”. The performances of the teams from England and the Netherlands in the round of 16 were obviously better than those in the group stage.
Thirdly, for some relatively weak teams, the value and importance of accessing the round of 16 is greater. Even if you can’t advance, it’s an honor to beat the traditional giants, so you can do it at any cost. However, in order to avoid injury, or for other “interests”, some strong teams often have concerns or reservations about the premise of ensuring the progress of their team.
It is under such circumstances that the “spectacle” that the three favorites France, Brazil and Portugal who progress to the championship will all lose in the last round of the group stage of the cup (losing to Tunisia, Cameroon and South Korea respectively). . The Spanish team lost to the Japanese team, and many people believed that the “Matador” deliberately qualified as second in the group to avoid entering the top half where strong enemies gathered.
Fourthly, after the first round of “filtering” in the group stage, some wealthy teams with their own problems were eliminated early, reducing the chances of upset in the knockout stage. For example, although the Belgian team “European Red Devils” ranks second in the world, their “golden generation” is old, and there was infighting after the first group stage match. In the second match, they lost 0:2 to Morocco team and finally stopped the group stage.
Although this cup has just kicked off the round of 16, the final situation is unpredictable, but one thing is certain is that with the traditional moguls improving and the “big waves washing the sand” in every round of competitions, the force of promoted teams are even stronger Closer, “unpopular” will gradually give way to “hot”.
(Original title: Qatar World Cup: Knockout “unpopular” gradually shut down the traditional powerful “heating” World Cup)
