The Indonesian national soccer team failed to make a great start in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers, when it lost to Malaysia 2-3 in its opening qualifier match on Thursday (5/9/2019).
The 2018 World Cup in Russia has ended. Soon after Les Bleus defeated Croatia in the final, the Eiffel Tower in Paris lit up with dancing fireworks. The Croatian team, with its slogan “Mala Zemlja, Veliki Snovi” (Small Country, Big Dream), made it to the 2018 World Cup final through many hardships.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was all smiles when he handed the World Cup trophy to world champion France under a pouring rain at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium. Years of preparation and hard work that involved millions of Russians paid off, as colorful fireworks lit up the Moscow evening.
France is celebrating as Les Bleus captain Hugo Lloris and his teammates carried the golden World Cup trophy around Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium. The French players were letting loose the euphoria that coach Didier Deschamps had warned about containing ahead of the final.
No single player is bigger than his team, let alone his country. This seems to be the credo the French national soccer team players are adhering to ahead of their match against Croatia in the 2018 World Cup final in Russia.
Nothing is impossible in soccer. Croatia, a country of only 4 million people, has successfully reached its first World Cup final this year after defeating England – supposedly the birthplace of modern soccer – in the semifinal early on Thursday (12/7/2018, Jakarta time) in Moscow.
The main objective of playing soccer is to scoring goals. Squads can play as beautifully as they want to, but it will not mean anything without creating goals. American humorist Arnold H Glasow once wrote, “In life, as in football, you won't go far unless you know where the goalposts are.”
An interesting sight was beheld during the English national football team’s practice session ahead of its semifinal against Croatia in this year’s World Cup. On Tuesday morning, the valiant English players were seen joyfully tossing around a rubber chicken.
Whoever can beat Brazil may face the finals with optimism. This is a traditional belief of the World Cup. Through an especially arduous quarterfinal match, Belgium has managed to do exactly this. As such, will Belgium’s golden generation go to the finals and be crowned this year’s World Cup champions?
The two upcoming semifinal matches at the 2018 World Cup present a unique phenomenon: The meetings will see two former world champions, France and England, each square off against a squad that has yet to win a World Cup, Croatia or Belgium.