World Cup in Qatar: Knockout “unpopular” gradually closed traditional powerful “heating” World Cup
China News Agency, Beijing, December 5th. On the morning of the 5th Beijing time, the Qatar World Cup ended the second day of the 1/8 finals. France and England beat Poland and Senegal respectively to advance together. So far, this World Cup has produced four top 8 teams, namely: the Netherlands, Argentina, France and England.
These 4 teams are the traditional powerhouses of the World Cup and the favorites to win this cup. Among them, the Argentina team, France team, and England team are all cup champion teams, and the Netherlands team is the “uncrowned king” who has won three world runner-ups.
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 all-pervasive “cold” group stage, the first 4 knockout matches of this cup have been “heated”, and they have entered the “hot spot” where traditional tycoons dominate the game. There are many reasons for this.
First of all, the World Cup lasts for a long time. In order to maintain their state in the more brutal knockout rounds, some strong teams often start “slowly”, resulting in upsets or ups and downs in the group stage.
The Argentina team and the German team lost to the Saudi team and the Japanese team respectively in the first round of the group stage, which was largely due to the “slow heat”. The difference is that the Argentine team stopped falling in time and won two consecutive victories in the next two games, still qualifying as the top of the group. The German team, which is in the “death group”, lost to the Spanish team due to the difference in goal difference, and was eliminated from the group in two consecutive World Cups.
The Netherlands and England had ups and downs in the group stage. The Dutch team defeated the 18th-ranked Senegal team 2-0 in the first game, but was tied 1-1 by the 44th-ranked Ecuador team in the second game; England beat Iran 6-2 in the first game However, in the second game, they were tied by the US team, which was at the same level as the Iranian team (the world ranking difference between the Iranian team and the US team was 4 places).
Secondly, there are 3 rounds in the group stage, and you can “correct if you make mistakes”. The knockout round is a battle that determines life and death, 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, which lost the first game, is a typical example of “knowing the mistakes and correcting them”. The performances of the England and Netherlands teams in the 1/8 finals were obviously better than those in the group stage.
Third, for some relatively weak teams, the value and significance of entering the knockout round is greater. Even if you can’t advance, it is an honor to beat the traditional giants, so you can do it at any cost. However, in order to avoid injuries, or out of other “interests”, some strong teams often have concerns or reservations on the premise of ensuring their team’s advancement.
It is under such circumstances that the “spectacle” that the three favorites France, Brazil, and Portugal that advance to the championship will all lose in the last round of the cup group stage (losing to Tunisia, Cameroon, respectively) and South Korea). The Spanish team lost to the Japanese team, and many people believed that the “Matador” deliberately qualified as the second in the group in order to avoid entering the upper half where strong enemies gathered.
Fourth, following the first round of “filtering” in the group stage, some wealthy teams with their own problems have been eliminated early, reducing the chance of an upset in the knockout stage. For example, although the “European Red Devils” Belgian team ranks second in the world, its “golden generation” is old, and there were infighting following the first match of the group stage. In the second match, they lost 0:2 to the Morocco team and finally stopped the group stage.
Although this cup has just kicked off the knockout round, the final situation is unpredictable, but one thing is certain is that with the traditional tycoons getting better and the “big waves washing the sand” in each round of competitions, the strength of the promoted teams is even stronger. Closer, “unpopular” will gradually give way to “hot”.
(Original title: Qatar World Cup: Knockout “unpopular” gradually closed traditional powerful “heating” World Cup)
