- 9 hours ago
Before it began, experts called the 48-team World Cup a disaster waiting to happen. But after witnessing incredible underdog stories, last-minute drama, and shocking upsets, it's time to ask: was this expanded tournament actually brilliant?
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00:00Before a single ball was kicked this summer, it felt like every supposed expert told us the
00:04exact same thing. A 48-team World Cup would be an absolute disaster. They swore the group stage would
00:10be completely diluted and void of quality, that we'd see dull knockout games played in absurd
00:15heat after long travel days, and that it was all just to fill FIFA's bank accounts. Now part of
00:20that might actually be true, but don't act like you're surprised. However, having witnessed some
00:24brilliantly entertaining football, some all-timer World Cup shocks and the big hitters all showing
00:28up, I'm asking myself the question, has the World Cup actually been good? And in my humble opinion,
00:33yes, and here's why. Now, the biggest argument against this World Cup expansion was that welcoming
00:4248 countries would fundamentally lower the bar of international quality, and when you look at the
00:46team quality index from Opta, you can kind of understand that claim. They rate every team out
00:51of 100, based on a variety of player factors, and with Cape Verde getting 64 points out of 100,
00:56it would place them as an average team in the Chilean second division, the 158th best league
01:02in the world. Meanwhile, Panama's 71.4 would see them comfortable in the Bosnia and Herzegovina
01:08Premier League, the 63rd best league in the world. You get my point. This led to the prevailing belief
01:13that group stage matches would turn into utterly unwatchable one-sided training sessions that would
01:18almost make a mockery of the tournament build as the best in the world. But from the evidence we've seen
01:24on
01:24the pitch, that script has been completely flipped. The group stage had the drama of any World Cup
01:29tournament I can remember, and then some. And the first reason for this was of course the individual
01:33performances. Who would have backed Virginia and Cape Verde to pull off the miracles they did and
01:38go through to the knockout stage unbeaten? Or all three host nations to cruise through with exceptional
01:43records? Sure, there were a few bigger teams that did what was expected of them, most notably Germany
01:48thrashing Curacao 7-1, but the idea that lesser teams would lead to lesser games just didn't seem
01:53to be the case. The other reason I think the group stage wasn't a waste of time was because of
01:58the
01:58drama that came with the third place slots being up for grabs, as it meant that some teams still had
02:03it all to play for on the final day. Take a look at Paraguay for example. They looked completely broken,
02:08hopeless in their first match, suffered a 4-1 heavy loss to the US. In previous tournaments,
02:14the structure of the group should have almost seen them booking an early flight home. Instead,
02:17because the pathway remained open, they regrouped, they beat Turkey, they ground out a draw versus
02:23Australia and they scraped through. It also gave us the drama of Austria versus Algeria in the final
02:28game where a draw was needed to see both sides through. So when Algeria took a lead in the 92nd
02:32minute, Austria knew they only needed one goal and not all hope was lost. They got it and they went
02:38through in third place. The payoff of this structure was that some smaller nations, although not all,
02:42didn't turn up just to collect a participation medal or swap jerseys with Abappe but turned up
02:48knowing that a single moment of magic could put them in the history books. Overall, I'd say the
02:53group stage was good. The quality wasn't diluted to the point it made the games boring and there were
02:57enough storylines being written by the smaller nations that it didn't feel as though they were
03:00just making up the numbers. In fact, some of those underdog fairy tales will be exactly what we think of
03:05defining this World Cup when looking back on it in the weeks, months and years to come.
03:13Now on paper, the quarterfinal brackets look perfectly normal, but if you assume their path
03:19here was a comfortable stroll, you were completely misreading the narrative. Now, if you couldn't tell
03:24by this point, I love an underdog story and a bit of a cup upset. Most football fans do. I
03:30don't think
03:30that's any way near considered a hot take, but the fact we've had a few of the big guns sweating
03:34and even
03:35being knocked out early puts this World Cup in a pretty high ranking for me. As I mentioned,
03:39Cape Verde not only made it out of the group but then really showed their teeth in the round of
03:4232,
03:43taking Lionel Messi's Argentina all the way through extra time before eventually succumbing to the
03:48insane quality of their opposition. The beauty of this was in the unknown quantity that a lesser
03:53side brings, even after three games of mixing it with the bigger sides in a group that contained Spain
03:58and Uruguay. I mean, which football fan doesn't want to see that? I promise this isn't a hit piece in
04:03Argentina, but they actually did have to produce one of the World Cup's greatest comebacks to still
04:07be in the competition in their last 16 tie against Egypt. Paraguay wouldn't have been given a chance
04:11by Manning to go through yet. After a one-all draw, they were the ones who kept their nerve and,
04:16unusually for Germany, a penalty shootout did not go in their favour. Brazil, definitely in the same boat
04:21as well. They arrived with a multi-billion pound squad full of superstar individuals led by one of the
04:26most successful managers of all time. Entirely underestimated the structural intensity of their
04:32opposition and got clinically dispatched by an Erling Haaland-led Norwegian side featuring at
04:37their first World Cup since 1998. At this point, I should also mention that I was going to put Morocco
04:43in there beating Netherlands on penalties, but honestly, that's not an underdog shock. If anything,
04:47you could argue the favourites went through in that tie, but I'll leave that for you guys to debate in
04:51the comments section below. And lastly, of course, we have to address the England-sized elephant in
04:56the room and their performance, or lack of, against the Arkongo in the round of 32. I don't think I've
05:02watched a more disappointing 75 minutes of football in recent memory, and the team I support have been
05:06nothing short of diabolical in the past few years. Sure, England, and more specifically Harry Kane,
05:12turned things around late on, and England have gone from strength to strength since, but honestly,
05:17the Arkongo putting up a good fight shouldn't be something that we want to erase from a competition
05:21such as the World Cup, is it? Like I said, made me feel crap for over an hour, but it
05:25proved that
05:25tournament football, especially in the World Cup, the playing field is and can be level.
05:31But, much like with all fairy tales, things have to come to an end, and the way that this happened
05:35isn't actually a bad thing, despite the fact it's in stark contrast to everything I've just been
05:40prattling on about. Video aside for a second, here's a hypothetical question for you. Imagine you're on
05:45your holidays during the World Cup, or travelling somewhere for work, and you can't get your World Cup fix.
05:49You've got your TV licence sorted to watch coverage in the UK, but not abroad. So what do you do?
05:55Well, our office friends at Tom's Guide have the answer, because they've tested a wide range of VPNs,
05:59and Norton VPN stands out as a strong option. Fast, reliable, and it comes with a 60-day money-back
06:06guarantee, enough to cover the entire World Cup tournament, so you can try it risk-free. And the
06:10best bit for all 442 viewers, there is an exclusive offer available. All you have to do is click
06:15your link in the description to learn more. So the reason that these fairy tales reach a conclusion?
06:24Individual quality. In true US of A style, this tournament has been largely about the individuality
06:29of the world's best players, and it has actually been a really cool dimension to proceedings. In the
06:34same way that the big names made up the last eight, the goal scoring chart also reads like a who's
06:38who of
06:38footballing royalty. Lionel Messi, having broken the World Cup all-time scoring record, is up there with
06:43Kylian Mbappe hot on his heels. Erling Haaland single-handedly fired Norway into a quarter-final
06:48with seven goals. Harry Kane is in the mix too, with Jude Bellingham as well. These are all the names
06:52you'd expect to see, because they're the ones we speak about week in, week out in domestic football
06:57when it comes to the most valuable, the best players, the highest goal scorers, and I kind of like that.
07:02It feels like we are genuinely seeing these players go goal for goal with each other. The big hitters
07:07have come out swinging and are prepared to drag their teams through the gauntlet in the search for
07:11eternal glory. The analogy I'd use here actually is imagine if you get all the biggest heavyweight
07:16boxers in the world together for a competition like this, and nobody landed a knockout blow.
07:21Just hot-stepping around the canvas, swings and misses, underperforming, overpaid, and in the end
07:25it's one of the split vote without seeing someone whacked in the face. I told you this would be in
07:29contradiction to what I said about seeing the little guy wanting to win, but watching some of the world's
07:33best do it on the big stage is truly something to marvel at. Let's face it, if there was no
07:38competition and the golden boot winner or tournament winner just cruised to the trophy, most people in
07:42comment sections and message boards across the globe would be devaluing the achievement due to
07:47the lack of a true test. On paper, Argentina's run to the semi-final consisting of Cape Verde,
07:51Egypt and Switzerland doesn't exactly sound like the toughest, but as I mentioned earlier,
07:56they absolutely were made to work for it. Let's be real here, FIFA didn't expand this tournament to
08:0148 teams because they wanted to share the love in global football or help smaller nations grow,
08:05despite what FIFA president Gianni Infantino may say. They did it for the pure, unadulterated corporate
08:11greed. They wanted more matches, more stadium tickets, more sponsorship, and more broadcasting
08:15hours to sell to global advertising companies. But football has a funny way of surviving its own
08:21lawmakers. They wanted a bloated corporate circus, but what we actually got on the pitch was a beautiful,
08:26chaotic roller coaster that threatened to dismantle the sport's traditional superpowers
08:30at every twist, turn, and loop-de-loop along the way. And honestly, isn't that exactly what football's
08:35supposed to be about?
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