World Cup Trivia ⚽️
Germany 7:1 running up the score on Curacao (pop. <150,000) is justified because goal differentials are tiebreakers for advancement out of the group stage. But, while the goal celebrations were increasingly subdued after a few, they were enough to irk me.
Ironically, it’s considered disrespectful to stop trying to score in football. Maybe the solution is to substitute as many players as possible on the dominant team — giving the stars a rest and the backups some critical experience.
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Speaking of irksome, how are we watching a World Cup expanded to the point of including Haiti and Curacao… but Italy has been absent for 12 years?? (Insult added to injury discussed here, 👇.)
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And speaking of goal celebrations, Messi almost always celebrates by looking up and pointing both index fingers to the sky. This is a permanent tribute to his grandmother, Celia, who first encouraged him to play football but passed away before witnessing his professional success. It is an act of remembrance, not a boast.🫶
On the unpredictability of life: Italy, Brazil, and football ⚽️
The top football country in the world has been, and arguably continues to be, Brazil: the most World Cup championships (5) and the greatest number of active professional players in the world.
But unlike all other powerhouses, Brazil has a more grassroots youth pipeline. Despite producing more football talent than any other country for decades, they don’t have any club academy in the top 10 producers of talent in the world (discussed here, 👇).
Italy is tied with Germany for second-most WC championships (4).
With the expanded WC, countries like Haiti and Curacao are in the current WC tournament. But this is the third consecutive WC that Italy failed to qualify.
Adding insult to injury, the great football coach (manager) in history is Italy’s Ancelotti.
While he is still active, he is Brazil’s manager since two years ago, and is coaching them in the ongoing WC. Given the extreme uniqueness of the Brazilian football system compared to the rest of the world (discussed in tweet below), isn’t using a non-Brazilian manager (no matter how talented) discrediting their jogo bonito? It’s too early, but their first game yesterday supports that (Morocco outplayed them by a lot in the first half and it ended 1:1).
Whereas that may be an insult to Brazil, isn’t it a bigger one to Italy? They failed to qualify for three consecutive WC, yet the Italian manager who is the greatest in world history is now coaching Brazil — the only country with more WC titles than Italy.