France or Brazil, there’s always starlight

The end is near and it feels too soon. We have been engrossed by the world’s biggest sporting event. But if anyone was under a rock the following soundbites will catch you up a bit.Can anyone beat France but France?An episode of The Totally Football Show with James Richardson months ago is just one of the many podcasts that underlined the defending champions’ strengths ahead of the World Cup, betting that the abundance of individual talent was too overwhelming. With Kylian Mbappe having scored 5 goals already the prescience of those September words seems remarkable: As the opposition bounces away from him as if he is a character in a video game we shouldn’t just get used to how brilliant this guy is, just because he is so in match after match.Why was Portugal better off without Ronaldo? But at the other end of this trajectory, as the Football Ramble podcast highlighted this week, is a player who is finding out that football also moves on, and there’s no exception to this. Cristiano Ronaldo is for sure one of the greatest players of all time but he can’t see today’s reality in front of him because he has taken a team sport and in his mind made it all about himself. But it’s not him alone. Before coach Fernando Santos pulled the handbrake off Portugal in the match against Switzerland, nobody knew the handbrake was Ronaldo! And then the young replacement Goncalo Ramos promptly scored the first hat-trick of the Cup. Maybe Ronaldo will embrace some humility and an ‘elder’ role now.How much will Brazil dance?Neymar is another star who has provided fodder for many podcasters to delve into the eternal mystery of why some players rise up in the World Cup while others remind of underperforming souffles. But his team was another matter. As the Total Soccer Show said this week, Brazil had gone full Jogo Bonito by the time they encountered South Korea. Like the next Nike ad ready for broadcast! And oh, oh Tite was dancing with the players, meaning the players didn’t hate the manager like they traditionally do, giving the feeling that this was a happy squad with one hand already on the trophy. And for a lot of people World Cups are more fun the more Brazil dances. But yesterday, despite Neymar scoring in style, Croatia ruthlessly brought the Brazilian party to an end.What’s the sound of Morocco’s football culture? Although little known outside the country, an episode in The Home of Football podcast describes how vibrant its football culture is, from very competitive clubs to very, very fanatical fans. They are also the most musical fans in the world, in that they actually produce tracks and sell them on the streets, and then the most popular ones are picked up for singing in the stadiums, intensely choreographed. And that he didn’t communicate well with these super loyal supporters was one reason the previous coach was fired ahead of the World Cup, and Walid Regragui hired, as someone who knows both Moroccan football and culture well. It’s like Jungkook sang at the Cup’s opening ceremony, “Look who we are, we are the dreamers. We make it happen ‘cause we can see it.”