Greetings, reader!
Christmas is almost upon us, but I've already done posts on all the most interesting Christmas-related movies and TV I could think about. To read my X-mas content from previous years, click these titles:
Ranking Every Doctor Who Christmas Special
Ranking Every Netflix Original Christmas Movie
Anyways, today I want to talk about football (once again, events like the World Cup are broadcast on television around the world, therefore making it into a reality TV series of sorts, so it is NOT off-topic for a movie/TV blog). The 2022 World Cup came to a dramatic end last week, and as a whole, the tournament had a lot to offer - both good and bad. So here are my top 5 positive and top 5 negative takeaways from the World Cup!
#5 in positives: As a half-American: it was fun while it lasted, boys
When I posted my predictions for the World Cup last summer, one of them was that three North American teams would make it out of the group stage. Sadly, this never came to fruition, with Canada, Costa Rica and Mexico all falling just short despite putting on impressive performances. However, one North American team did make it to the round of 16, and it was our very own United States!
Even though their tournament came to an end in a knockout defeat to Netherlands, the American team most definitely got to come home with their heads held high. Their tournament included a victory over Iran, a 1-1 tie with Wales, and even a 0-0 draw with England, before they came up short against Netherlands (even giving them a run for their money, as the match was no blowout). I'm not sure which made me more proud as an American - Christian Pulisic's heroics on the pitch, or captain Tyler Adams's inspiring words of wisdom off the pitch. It's a blast to get to root for your home country in the World Cup, and the U.S. gave us a campaign to be proud of!
#5 in negatives: The tournament being in the winter, due to the Qatar setting, was bad on multiple levels
Obviously, there are much bigger problems with FIFA's decision to have Qatar host the tournament than this, as we'll find out later on the list. But the winter setting still belongs on the list; it never was the tournament's biggest problem, but it was a problem nevertheless. First of all, on a purely subjective and emotional level, the winter setting just made it feel less like a World Cup. The FIFA World Cup has always been a summer event, and the summer buzz is a big part of the tournament's magic, which is hard to recreate in the winter. It especially sucked the group stage was played during the busiest time of the year, as many interesting games had to be missed due to studies and deadlines et cetera.
But on a more serious level, the November-December setting meant that the tournament was shoved smack-middle into the football season, which was bad news for everyone. Professional football players are already at a constant injury risk due to the rigid schedule of national league games, cup games and European tournaments being played with the tempo of multiple matches per week, and making time for a World Cup in the middle of a season means even less time to rest and even more injury risk for everyone. It's almost like they should've considered the fact that a country that hot can't host a summer tournament before they made that decision, right?
#4 in positives: The Three Lions did well
My favorite national team (not counting my two home countries, as they're hard to compare) has been England for as long as I can remember. Yes, I know, the fans are jerks, but let's be real, every country that participates in international football has its share of those (with the possible exception of Japan, whose fans got the world's attention with their respectfulness in this tournament). England has always been home to many (or even most) of my favorite players, and I'm heavily invested in the curse of them never winning anything despite being the original home of football and constantly one of the more promising teams on paper.
Was this year any different? Well, yes and no. As you may have noticed, England did in fact not win the 2022 World Cup, despite my predictions from last summer (I might've also promised that Declan Rice would be chosen as Player of the Tournament, which, well, he wasn't). Still, England put up an impressive display, continuing my faith in this era of their national team, and making me excited to see more of them in future tournaments. Their triumphs over Iran, Wales and Senegal were among some of the best football seen in the tournament, and they came heartbreakingly close to overcoming France in the quarter finals. While it was sad to see them go, it was a joy to watch them play as long as it lasted.
Special shout-out to Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka - the two players owe their country absolutely fuck-all after their valiant efforts in last years EURO's were greeted with tons of racial abuse from humanity's worst. Yet they continued on with their heads held high, and rolled up as the very best versions of themselves into this tournament, scoring three goals each and being among the top tier of England's players. By the way, when Harry Kane missed his penalty against France, did you hear anyone blaming it on white people? Yeah, me neither. Strange how that works.
#4 in negatives: The corruption and bribery that lead to the World Cup being in f**king Qatar
John Oliver said it best: "I won't say that Qatar definitely got the World Cup trough bribery - but I won't say that they didn't, and I will say that they did". When looking at the multiple allegations of paid votes and other such shenanigans floating around, added to FIFA's colorful history with corruption, the general lack of ethics among the people running Qatar and the money they have at their disposal, and other such facts, it just seems that there's no way for Qatar's winning World Cup bid being a mere coincidence.
At the very least, FIFA would've ruled the country out of the running to begin with due to multiple reasons making them a bad choice of host country, but they didn't do that because of a five-letter word that starts with an 'M' and rhymes with "honey". No matter how much others had to suffer, this shady deal was objectively good for both Qatar and FIFA finance-wise, and a corrupt deal doesn't make for a great foundation for a fun global sporting event.
#3 in positives: The final was one of the greatest football matches I've ever seen
Argentina gets a penalty. Messi scores. Argentina goes 2-0 up following a beautiful sequence of passes and a graceful Di Maria finish. France seem hopeless. France gets a penalty, Mbappe scores, and suddenly they've found their drive. Within a matter of seconds, Mbappe scores again. The game is tied after 90 minutes are played, and goes to overtime. Argentina pulls ahead again. But France gets a penalty. Mbappe puts it in, completing his World Cup final hattrick (you know that feeling when you're 23 years old and you score three goals while playing your second World Cup final?). It's level at 120 minutes, going to penalties.
At this point, Community creator Dan Harmon posts on Instagram: "I have never cared about this sport and I'm about to have a god damn heart attack". Well put, good sir.
The penalty shootout is a mixture of high-stakes drama, insane pressure, and Emiliano Martinez showing he's worthy of an honorary doctorate in psychology for his mastering of mind games.
For reference, both the 2010 and 2014 World Cup finals were 0-0 at full time, with both ending 1-0 after one goal was scored in extra time. This World Cup final wasn't like that. This World Cup final felt like it was written for the stage or the big screen, with a plot equal parts Shakespeare and Marvel Cinematic Universe. This World Cup final was one for the ages.
#3 in negatives: The power of money and football overpowering peoples' incentives to speak out against the World cup being played in god damn Qatar
Sure, there has been a lot of controversy and discussion about the Qatar debacle, yet in my opinion, there hasn't been nearly enough condemnation of FIFA's utter lack of ethics on the matter. This is thanks to two very powerful elements that have been known to overcome the higher ideals of human rights and ethics: the power of money, and humankind's love for football.
The money one is pretty clear. It would've been great to see some of the high-profile football players, managers and other celebrities speaking out against the dark side of this tournament, but that was never going to happen, as this corporation-run society has a strict hold on them. Any form of athletes speaking their minds on the issue would lead to sponsors pulling out and fines being implemented, meaning that they had to accept their situation and shut up, which is a real shame.
The other factor is the people's love for football itself. Back in 2018, when Putin's Russia hosted the World Cup, there was a lot of controversy and protest - until the first ball was kicked, and everyone forgot all about the Russia problem. The 2022 tournament didn't drown the controversy out quite as thoroughly, because of the problems being so extreme this time, but the same phenomena could still be seen. Before the tournament, the ethical issues with Qatar was all anyone was talking about, with many football fans saying they'll either boycott the tournament or just otherwise have a not-great time watching it. However, as soon as the actual football started, people were very quick to either forget about the problems or to find quick justifications in their mind.
I should know, as I was quite guilty of this double-thinking myself, as the excitement of a once-in-four-years spectacle is an almost scarily powerful factor in one's priorities. Of course, I don't mean to shame anyone for being excited about the tournament as that would be ridiculous because nothing in this problem is the responsibility of us viewers. My point just is that we shouldn't let our love for football override critical thought in holding FIFA accountable for all the shit that they pull. Denial is never the answer.
#2 in positives: Morocco, Japan and other cinderella stories
Every World Cup is bound to have its share of underdog stories, but very few have this many. The streets will never forget the Morocco side that blasted its way through Belgium, Spain and Portugal to become the first-ever African team to reach the World Cup semi-finals, making their whole continent proud. Then there's Japan, who beat both Spain and Germany in the group stage, and South Korea, whose path to the knockouts seemed extremely unlikely until they went from 1-0 down to 2-1 ahead against Portugal in order to get through.
Funny how Spain and Portugal were the punching bags in so many of these upsets - I'd almost feel bad for them, if it hadn't been for Ronaldo showing that he wasn't as much upset about Portugal not winning the World Cup as he was upset about Cristiano Ronaldo not winning the World Cup.
Anyways, my point is that it was truly lovely to witness these amazing and plentiful underdog stories. I mean, Argentina's epic path to victory started with them losing to Saudi Arabia, which was both a shocking underdog tale for the Saudis, but also an event that made Argentina look like potential flops and underdogs for the tournament, making their eventual victory all the sweeter.
#2 in negatives: The gigantic middle finger that not only Qatar, but also FIFA itself, showed to the LGBTQ+ community
This one hurt like hell. Going into the tournament, we all knew one of the major controversies to be Qatar's extreme legislature against same-sex relations. The discussion around this has been quite loaded, with many western homophobes suddenly finding their anti-racist side and being way to eager about their "hey, we should respect their way of life!" rhetoric, while many western racists have made it all about blaming Islam and arab culture as a whole.
In my view, it's just a matter of religious extremism: there's nothing wrong with any religion, but there is something wrong with assholes who use fundamentalist interpretations of religion to discriminate others and spread hatred. Islam as a religion is not much different from Christianity, as both can be practiced in the peaceful way that millions around the world do, but unfortunately both have their fundamentalists. And just to be clear, the religious extremism that has same-sex marriage banned in countries like Qatar is the exact same religious extremism that the evangelical right is practicing in the U.S. with their views against gay marriage and women's rights. Just in the name of a different God.
Anyways, the problem wasn't just Qatar, but FIFA itself. The captains of many major international teams, such as England's Harry Kane and Germany's Manuel Neuer, meant to wear a "One Love" armband at the tournament, in support of the LGBTQ+ community. Until, at the last minute, FIFA criminalized wearing such an armband. It's bad enough for FIFA to host their tournament in a country with such fucked-up laws, but it hurts on a whole different level when FIFA itself takes such a strong stance against football players speaking out for minorities. FIFA basically governs all of football on the higher levels, so it felt like this decision by Infantino and company put football itself on the side of homophobia in the fight against homophobia - and as a football fan who also belongs to the LGBTQ+ community, that really, really hurt.
#1 in positives: Lionel Messi's story is a damn fairytale and I'm here for it
I'm struggling to find the words for this one. There will never be another Lionel Messi. The man is a damn alien. The human race is thousands of years old, and we're lucky enough to live in the time where we can witness Lionel Messi playing football, and it is a thing to behold.
This was always going to be his tournament, we just didn't know it yet. We were bold enough to speculate, with a lot of hype around the "how great would it be if Messi finally won the World Cup in his last-ever chance?" angle. But we didn't fully comprehend just how legendary Messi is - he wanted this win so bad (not for himself, like a certain Portuguese star, mind you - but for Argentina), that he simply decided to turn his determination up to eleven and play better than everyone else in every match.
It started with the out-of-the-box rocket against Mexico in the group stage. Mere mortals don't do shit like that. That was the sheer determination of the GOAT to get out of the group stage no matter what. We saw it time and time again, with his multiple man-of-the-match performances, perhaps culminating in Argentina's third goal in the semi-final against Croatia, as Messi gave the single greatest assist I've ever seen. No one else will ever play football quite like that. The dude is being marked, blocked and stopped by the world-class Croatian defense, yet he just decides to keep the ball and somehow wiggle his way past it all until the opportunity comes to pass the ball to Alvarez who scores.
And in the final, we saw it again. It's so damn poetic - for years, Messi was traumatized by his decisive penalty miss in the 2016 Copa America final, and now, the perhaps last thing he did in an Argentina shirt (at least on the World Cup level) was scoring in a penalty shoot-out. One that ended with Argentina winning. So that on top of his seven Ballon D'Ors, four Champions Leagues, eleven league titles and Copa America title, he now also has a World Cup. And if there ever lived a person who deserved to win the World Cup, it was the humble and modest freak of nature who overcame the obstacles of his small physique to break through as a major star who many (myself included) now see as the greatest to ever play the game.
#1 in negatives: The blood of countless migrant workers being on FIFA's hands
Yeah, this may be a hot take, but I don't think anyone should fucking die in order for some football matches to be played. Yes, I like the sport very much, but weirdly enough, I value the existence of human lives even more. You know who doesn't? Fucking FIFA.
When the decision of Qatar as the tournament's host was made, they didn't have the stadiums and facilities necessary for the World Cup, and had to quickly build it all in a few years. The only way they had for such a massive project in such a short time was the use of migrant workers, the conditions of whom were nothing short of modern-day slavery, with the workers being subjected to extreme conditions and no rights whatsoever. And as journalists have uncovered this debacle in the last few years, it has become more and more clear that FIFA knew what they were doing every fucking step of the way, but didn't care, because money.
It is impossible to find an exact number for how many slaves were killed working to build those stadiums in extreme circumstances, as Qatar and FIFA have done their darnest to cover it all up. Most estimates are way up in the thousands. As much as I enjoyed watching the actual football of this tournament, I was painfully aware of this dark reality throughout the tournament, and my blood boiled every time the cameras showed FIFA President Giovanni Infantino sitting in the stands with his smug look. I want everyone reading this to remember that that man isn't just a corrupt and greedy douchebag, he's a mass murderer. "But Veikko, he didn't kill anyone with his own hands" - yeah, neither did Charles Manson. The conscious decisions of Infantino and his cronies lead to the building of this World Cup which resulted in so many migrant worker deaths, and the man definitely knew all about it while not giving a shit.
Usually when I do a "top 5 positives and top 5 negatives" list, I like to end with the positives to leave things on a good note. This time I made an exception, wanting to end the list with what I consider to be the most important takeaway of the tournament, and the reason for why the bad taste of the 2022 World Cup will and should linger for a long time.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for my last post of the year - the top 10 movies of 2022.
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