Well, here is the latest on the Football World Cup as we are now into the round of 16 stages but first, the Netherlands (Led by its mercurial skipper Virgil van Dijk) cruised to victory over the USA featuring Christian Pulisic to become the 1st side to reach the quarterfinals followed by the Lionel Messi led Argentina (Who haven't lost a game since against Saudi Arabia in the group stages in which the Saudis made history) who prevail over Mathew Ryan & the Socceroos of Australia before the regining world champions France (Whose last loss came against Tunisia in the group stage & led by its star talisman who took over following the injury to the best footballer in the world of Karim Benzema, Kylian Mbappe) upstaging the Robert Lewandowski led Poland to go through to the quarters then the Harry Kane led England hammering Senegal (Led by its main man Kalidou Koulibaly after Sadio Mane got injured) to advance through to the quarterfinal stages while Japan (Led by 4 players such as Endo, Ito, Kamada & Minamino as their star men) are heartbroken after their gut wrenching defeat in the round of 16 on penalties, in the hands of the Luka Modric led Croatia who went through to the quarterfinal stages of the World Cup & Brazil (Who scored 4 goals in the 1st half to put themselves in a dominant position of reaching the quarterfinal & had brought star talisman Neymar back for that game after missing the last 2 games through injury) thumping Korea Republic (Who ended Brazil's hopes of a clean sheet with a goal during the 2nd half) featuring its main man Son Heung Min of Spurs in the other round of 16 game before Morocco (Who is the last African side left standing in this years tournament with Achraf Hakimi being its main talisman) shock the footballing world as they stunned the heavily favoured Spain (Led by its main men of captain Sergio Busquets, Aymeric Laporte & the young Pedri) to bits on penalties to progress into the quarters therefore continuing its fairytale run into the World Cup in which Carole watched that game like 4am in the morning that I remember now & Portugal (Who had their main player Cristiano Ronaldo being benched for that game, allowing another experienced veteran of Pepe to take the skipper's role) are into the last 8 as they came away with a right old hammering against Switzerland (Featuring its key player which is the goalkeeper of Yann Sommer) with young 21 year old striker Goncalo Ramos (Who is in fact the understudy of Cristiano Ronaldo) scoring a hat-trick of goals (The 1st in the tournament) for their 1st win in the Round of 16 since 2006 against the Netherlands in a controversial match fueled by scuffles & altercations which resulted multiple players including Luis Figo who headbutted a Dutch player which resulted in yellow (It is always a send off offence nowadays) getting either booked or sent off by the referee.
And here are the confirmed matches being played in the quarterfinal stage in this years Football World Cup tournament:
Croatia Vs Brazil* (The most recent meeting between both teams at a Football World Cup was in 2014 in a Football World Cup opener where hosts at the time of Brazil totally dominated the game)
The Netherlands Vs Argentina* (The last time both of these sides met at a World Cup was also in 2014 where Argentina had won the semi on penalties to progress into the final against Germany (The Dutch could've used their substitute goalkeeper of Tim Krul who is the expert of saving penalties in which he did in their quarterfinal win against Costa Rica) but their most memorable moment was in 1998 where Dutchman Dennis Bergkamp scored a brilliant goal that put them in the semifinal)
Morocco Vs Portugal* (Their most recent clash at a Football World Cup was in 2018 where the Portuguese had won during the group stages & will meet the Moroccans (Who became the surprise package in the tournament (Compared to the Samoa rugby league team which had its fairytale run to the final after they had both incredible victories against Tonga in the quarterfinal (Which was the greatest Rugby League World Cup match in history), then hosts at the time of England in the semi (Which was also another one of RLWC's greatest games) after their victory in the penalty shootout against 2010 champions Spain in one of the best matches of this years tournament) again for a place in the semi)
& England Vs France (And also their first meeting between the 2 sides at a World Cup since 40 years ago way back in 1982 where the English had won during a group game against the French (And both sides were expected to meet in the Football World Cup final in 2018, but that did not happen as Croatia had denied England's chance of reaching the final when the Croatians prevailed with a winning goal scored by none other than Mario Mandzukic during extra time that put them through in the 2nd semi)
*: Key matchups
And there are some comparisons between both football/soccer players & American football/gridiron quarterbacks playing in the NFL such as Argentina's Lionel Messi is football/soccer's answer to 7 time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady while Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo is often compared to as the Aaron Rodgers (Who once won the Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers in 2010) of football/soccer then Brazil's Neymar share the same role as Patrick Mahomes (Who had done it as part of the Super Bowl winning team of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2019) & last but not least, France's Kylian Mbappe is in fact football/soccer's equivalent of Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills, in terms of his performances in the football/soccer pitch compared to the American football/gridiron field (And the Football World Cup final is very similar to the Super Bowl (The NFL's premier event).
And here are the news coming straight out in the world of rugby such as Pita Gus Sowakula (Who had a not so good NPC season for Taranaki in which he was known as the forgotten man in New Zealand rugby after making his test debut for the AB's against Ireland (Whose best result at a Rugby World Cup was always the quarterfinals, but they have never reached both the semis & final before in the tournament's history) at Eden Park in Auckland in which he scored a try in that test after his barnstorming form in Super Rugby Pacific earlier this year with the Chiefs) has been signed with French club Bordeaux-Begles, ending his contention of being called up to the All Blacks (Who have never won since 2015 against the Wallabies (Who last triumphed in 1999 against France in the final) in that memorable final of our lives at Twickenham in London, England) again going into next years Rugby World Cup then Warren Gatland brought back as coach of Wales (Who last won the Six Nations last year a year before France (Who are the host nation of this years tournament & never won a tournament before but their best result was runners-up in 1987, 1999 & 2011 (Who last been to a final where they fell short against the AB's by the barest of all margins) triumphed for their successful Six Nations glory as well as a grand slam since 2010, but their best result at a Rugby World Cup was a 3rd placing in 1987 in which they beat Australia with a last minute conversion from the sideline by Paul Thorburn in Rotorua after Adrian Hadley had scored an all important try with a kick to come) to replace the embattled Wayne Pivac who is moving on, but the biggest storyline so far has to be Eddie Jones no longer the coach of the England rugby team which last tasted success in 2003 (This was 4 years before South Africa won in 2007 followed by New Zealand twice in both 2011 & 2015 & the Springboks again at the most recent tournament in 2019) with Crusaders coach Scott Robertson (Soon to be a Kiwi coaching the England rugby team just like former New Zealand cricket captain Brendon McCullum coaching the England cricket team in the test format) & former England lock Steve Borthwick (Who got the nod as Pops told me on the 8th of December last month with Robertson being overlooked as Borthwick becomes the 1st English born head coach of the England rugby team since Stuart Lancaster) being the frontrunners for the top job going into next years Six Nations in which England have never won since 2020 (That was the year being affected by the global pandemic).
And continuing onto the football related stuff that my suggestions of who will play in the 2022 Football World Cup final, whether its between Argentina & England in a rematch of the 1998 Round of 16 game (Where David Beckham got sent off for a foul play incident on Diego Simeone, allowing Argentina to progress in a dramatic penalty shootout (And Beckham could've been used during the shootout should he not been shown the red card) that Pops prefers while my preference would be Brazil against France in a rematch of both the 1998 final (Where Zinedine Zidane scored both goals off headers during the game & Emmanuel Petit finishing off the Brazilians with the last goal of the tournament as I mentioned in my previous blogs to win their 1st of 2 Football World Cups, but the match was marred by the Brazilian player Ronaldo who had an epileptic seizure hours prior to the the final in which Brazil were on the losing side, therefore missing out on defending the Football World Cup that they won in 1994 against Italy (Their last appearance at a World Cup was in 2014 where they didn't get out of the group stage despite beating England in their opener but their last appearance at a World Cup final until 2006 in which they last successfully won on penalties against the French in the aftermath of an incident as I mentioned in my previous blogs of Zidane headbutting an Italian player in which he got sent off by the Argentinian referee Horacio Elizondo (Who was the last Argentinian referee to take charge of the World Cup final until 2018 where Nestor Pitana was the man with the whistle when France (Who had been in their 1st final since 2006 against Italy) played Croatia (Who are in their historic 1st ever final appearance) in the final which was a rematch of the semifinal in 1998 at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow in which France won their 2nd World Cup championship & their 1st in 20 years after a dominant display against the Croatians) on penalties at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena in America but redeemed themselves when they last won 20 years ago way back in 2002 against Germany in the final at the International Stadium (Venue for much of the 2019 Rugby World Cup in which South Africa conquered in style in the final against the nation that broke AB's hearts & our bid of a successful first ever three peat in the semi of England) in Yokohama with Ronaldo scoring both goals on that night in which they won the tournament a record 5 times) & the quarterfinal in 2006 (Where Thierry Henry (Who is set to become the next Belgium coach with Spaniard Roberto Martinez moving on (Along with Spain's coach Luis Enrique who got fired as well as captain Sergio Busquets quitting international football after the Spanish crashed out in the Round of 16 against the giant killers Morocco in akin to a David Vs Goliath battle, but the latest update on the football as Man City player Raheem Sterling who is returning to Qatar when he rejoined the England football team for their most important quarterfinal clash against the world champions France in their nation's biggest & most difficult but demanding, World Cup game of their lives since the semifinal encounter against Croatia in 2018 after missing their team's Round of 16 win against Senegal, as a result of the incident involving a robbery in front of his family back home in England) after their dismal World Cup in which the ageing golden generation such as Kevin de Bruyne, Eden Hazard (Who recently announced his retirement from international football according to the report that I saw on ESPN on TV on the 8th of December last month along with Hans-Dieter 'Hansi' Flick staying on as head coach of the Germany football team after a disappointing World Cup campaign in which they didn't progress to the knockout stages again just like in 2018), Romelu Lukaku, Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen & others hadn't got through to the knockout stages) scored a goal that put them through to the semi against Portugal (Who had to outsmart & outwit England on penalties during the quarters after Wayne Rooney did a Beckham when he had been shown the red card in the aftermath of the foul play incident on his Manchester United teammate at the time on Cristiano Ronaldo (Who was best friends with Rooney until he became bitter enemies after the events of the 2006 tournament).
And finally the latest on the cricket such as Australia dominate the 1st test of the Frank Worrell trophy (Currently held by the Australians since 1995) against the West Indies at Optus Stadium in Perth with Marnus Labuschagne providing the heroics as he top scored 204 in the 1st innings & an unbeaten 104 in the 2nd innings but the biggest storyline of the cricket so far is the Brendon McCullum coached & Ben Stokes led England (Who started winning under McCullum in which they labelled themselves as Baz ball which has been unleashed at the moment) winning the 1st test of the 3 match test series against Pakistan for their 1st win against the Pakistanis on Pakistan soil since 2000 in Lahore (It thats the 3rd time England have beaten Pakistan on Pakistani soil (Their 1st win came in 1961 in Karachi then 2000 in Lahore as I mentioned before & this year in Rawalpindi) in which Jack Leach trapped Naseem Shah (Who had to review after being given out by the umpire but it was unsuccessful as England would win the test & go 1 - 0 up in the series) LB (Leg before) which was the turning point in the test (And there has been an update as Australia cruised to a 419 run victory against the West Indies in the day/night test (AKA the pink ball/rosé test) in Adelaide in which they won the series 2 - 0 (With both Marnus Labuschagne (The hero of the 1st test in Perth) & Travis Head in his home test provided centuries to them in the 1st innings but I was gutted about the result that the West Indies had been defeated to the dominant Aussies who are on track to make the World Test Championship final which is going to take place this year in early June along with both the Ashes series between England (Who haven't triumphed in the Ashes since 2015) & Australia (Current holders of the Ashes since 2017-18) in England & the big one which is the men's 50 over Cricket World Cup in India as part of the 2023 cricket calendar (The English are the defending champions going into the tournament after previously winning the last edition in 2019 after their win in the final against the Black Caps in a dramatic but historic 1st ever super over according to the boundary count back rule that England had scored the most boundaries than us) but the Australian cricket team are preparing a 3 match test series against South Africa in which their bowling attack had to be the best with players like Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada & Lungi Ngidi proving to be dominant against the Australians in the sport of cricket (Well, Pops isn't much of a cricket follower but I do now) then England have clinched the test series against Pakistan by winning the 2nd test in Multan after a dominant display there in which they won 8 of the last 9 tests since Ben Stokes assumed the captaincy but the latest on the cricket as Australia draw 1st blood in the 1st test against South Africa at the Gabba in Brisbane marred by that shocking but potentially unsafe pitch which deemed to be given a below average rating in which the Aussies won by 6 wickets, in the last test before Christmas which is the day before the 2nd test billed as the Boxing Day test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne then the Brendon McCullum coached & Ben Stokes led England claim the unthinkable as they win 9 out of 10 tests after a stunning victory against Pakistan in Lahore to claim a stunning clean sweep or should I say a white wash, in the test series where the English won against Pakistan, on Pakistani soil, for only the 5th time).
So that is my 478th blog of the year 2023 (MMXXIII) & my 2nd of this year, viva Ukraine.
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