Key Observations from the FIFA World Cup in Qatar 2022

Dr. Christopher Zambakari
​Founder & CEO of The Zambakari Advisory

As the 2022 World Cup enters its final rounds, here are some early observations from yours truly, someone who never made a national team but did play some “football” as a youngster, as a high schooler and even in college:

• It would figure that in a World Cup played in the winter there would be surprises. Compressing the world’s largest single sporting tournament into just 28 days – the shortest time frame in 44 years – is one thing. A ban on beer sales at the event venues is another. And, while upsets are always a possibility any time competitors match wits, perhaps the biggest surprise of all in the Qatar-hosted 2022 FIFA World Cup is the stature of some of the international sides that have fallen and been sent home.

 

• Already, 11 of the globe’s top 20 national teams have been eliminated, including Belgium (2), Spain (7), Denmark (10), Germany (11), Mexico (13), Uruguay (14), Switzerland (15), the U.S. (16), Senegal (18), Wales (19), and Iran (20). Any number of reasons for the dispatched have been floated.

• Belgium’s vaunted “Golden Generation” came to an end because of a lack of on-field leadership that extended into the locker room. Injuries and internal issues doomed Denmark, who, like Belgium, went out in the initial round. Germany and Mexico – “Der Mannshaft” and “El Tri” – were missing the firepower of such earlier World Cup goal scorers as Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose for Deutschland, and Javier Hernández, Jared Borgetti and Cuauhtémoc Blanco for “Three Colors.”

• Spain was ousted by tiny Morocco in the knockout round. The 0-0 score was finalized on penalty kicks, with the tournament darling Atlas Lions moving to the quarter-finals by a 3-0 PK margin – much credit to Lions goalie Yassin Bounou for a pair of PK saves! This is Morocco’s first-ever trip to the Elite 8, and fans in Qatar’s capital city of Doha report that shopkeepers in the busy downtown area selling football accessories have changed shop front displays from Lionel Messi and Neymar shirts to Moroccan flags. The Spanish side dominated much of the game, but was unable to convert goal chances against the Lions’ disciplined defensive unit. And, Spain’s PK 0-for-3 accounting in the game-deciding penalty kicks “shootout,” is inexcusable. Back to the drawing board for the Red Fury – this is the fourth time over five Cups that Spain has failed to play in the final eight teams, the one exception their World Cup title in 2010.

• Switzerland ran into a rejuvenated Portugal, which took the field with their world’s-best striker,  Christiano Ronaldo benched. His replacement, 21-year-old Gonçalo Ramos, scored the 2022 Cup’s first hat trick, a three-goal onslaught that accounted for half his team’s count in the 6-1 victory. Is the beginning of the end of Ronaldo’s unbelieveable career? Is this the international debut of Ramos? Stay tuned.

 

• The U.S. side brought youthful enthusiasm to the tourney – the third-youngest squad among the 32 hopefuls – but defensive lapses and an inability to score cost the Red, White and Blue in their Round of 16 loss to the “Oranje” of the Netherlands. That youth bodes well for the U.S. as they now begin their four-year trek to the next Cup, a 2026 gathering spread across venues in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

And on it goes.

• World Cups are won by teams that field the complete package, from the back line to the forward wave of scorers. Strong defense – beginning with a goalkeeper possessing cat-like quickness and instincts – a playmaking midfield with both defensive and offensive skills, and a front line of finely tuned, creative goal scorers. 

If only it were that easy!

• The complete package isn’t one that can be plucked from the tree like a peach or an apple, or picked from the shelf like a loaf of bread.  In the World Cup, the “best” team on paper doesn’t always win. The winning international side will best minimize its exposure to fast breaks and opposing offenses sneaking in behind the defense. The winning team’s midfield will be the one that best changes the tempo of the game, distributes the ball successfully to streaking strikers and creates its own goal scoring chances. The winning team’s defense will be the line that, first, keeps the ball from finding the back of the net, and also serves as the engines that ignites its team’s offensive attack.

 

• World Cups are as much about the combination of endurance, experience, youthful enthusiasm and speed as it is about strategies particular to each game’s opponent and making the right moves at the right time. Are the substitutions one team makes designed to stop or slow or take advantage of an opponent’s on-field strengths and weaknesses? Poor decision-making can be the difference between earning three points for the win or leaving the pitch with zero in your pocket. 

 

• You will see that after the group stages, the top teams pick up steam. The international powerhouses – those remaining include Brazil (a world-best 5 championships/2 runners-up), Argentina (2/3), France (2/1), England (1/0) and Netherlands (the best team to never win a World Cup, 0/3) – perform better as the competition progresses, which means that to win the World Cup you need a team with depth and breadth, and a team that is coming together at just the right time.

 

• In my estimation, Brazil, France and England have what it takes, while the Netherlands, Argentina, and Croatia might not have the depth necessary as games grow tighter, substitutions are more critical and strategic. How important is depth, the ability to draw from a strong bench at critical times during the match? The Group Stage of this year’s Cup featured 22 goals scored by subs, the third-highest count since the international tourney kicked off in 1930.

 

• Check out the most recent wins by France, England and Brazil – each scored three or more goals in their group-clinching wins. Further cementing a contention offered earlier, the three countries are fielding a starting 11 – and boast suitable subs at each spot – that clucks like the rooster crows of stability and agility on the back line, robustness and game management in the midfield, and proper goal-scoring players; among those front lines are those featuring a true jersey-No. 9 striker with crafty, sneaky, speedy wingers, ala Brazil and France. The teams sent home thus far haven’t been able to match the goal-poaching abilities of those still in the tourney.

 

• As for the U.S. (Where will our team rank in 2026 when the world comes to North America?), Qatar 2022 showed a dynamic and confident team that managed to inspire and surprise many. But, it also exposed flaws in the American squad and its approach to this prestigious world tournament. 

 

• The U.S. managed just three goals in its four games, winning one, tying one and dropping two – the last a knockout round loss to the Dutch. Look no further than the first 10 minutes of the match against the Netherlands as a microcosm of the team’s four-game World Cup experience. Just minutes into the contest, the poster boy for the U.S. side, Christian Pulisic, was unable to capitalize on a close-range opportunity that would have staked the Americans to a 1-0 lead. Upon the U.S. exit, The Wall Street Journal noted the lads “never figured out how to consistently score,” while Coach Gregg Berhalter lamented the team’s lack of goals throughout the games. 

 

• After its first three matches, the U.S. looked stout defensively, giving up just 1 goal. The one-game knockout round loss to the Dutch showed the disasterous results of defensive lapses, team captain and midfielder Tyler Adams summing up the effort thusly: “Today the three goals come from moments where we’re probably sleeping a little bit.”

 

• Finally, the U.S. could have used more killer instinct in its return to the Cup. In the opening game against Wales – a 0-0 tie – the Red, White and Blue looked a bit complacent (over confident?), failing to impose its will on the Dragons. It happened again in the sent-home game; again, WSJ notes, “In fact, some metrics indicate the U.S. should have scored more than the Netherlands based on the quality of their respective opportunities—and simply failed to finish.” If the best U.S. goal scorer couldn’t capitalize on an ideal opportunity, how were the Americans going to score enough to hang in at the World Cup?

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All is not lost for the American side. As more of this country’s youths take up the game, as more youngsters in the U.S. are coached in the strategies, nuances and opportunities inherent in the game, and as our own stars of tomorrow gain a real passion for the sport, soccer here will grow and improve and inspire. Certainly, the diversity of the U.S. population and those who will represent the country in the next generation – if all can be reached, if all are considered and coached, and if all are given the opportunity – gives us a fighting chance and a reason to believe. ​

All that and a clinical striker the likes of a Kylian Mbappe (France), Harry Kane (England),  Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) or Neymar (Brazil). If only it were that easy. ​

​My prediction for the World Cup final on December 18? France will defend its title and take home the Jules Rimet trophy!