C\u2019EST FINI<\/p>\n
We can all agree the Geopolitics World Cup has gone on far too long, so Football Daily is pleased to announce it is over. It monopolises everyone\u2019s time, changes sleeping, eating and drinking patterns, leaving everyone tired and poorer. No one wants to stay up for further 2am BST kick-offs or attempt to watch a couple of games a day. Frankly, the process has been completely futile since the first ball was kicked.<\/p>\n
France have won the tournament; no one can compete with their arousing front four who are, frankly, better than anything else on the planet. You can try to lie to yourself that it is worthwhile watching Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham do their bit, but it is all completely and utterly forlorn. Ending the GWC now will save a lot of needless heartache for every other team, the players will get some much-needed rest and travelling supporters can see their loved ones. No more press conferences when head coaches have to pretend they are \u201cin it to win it\u201d. Every team is playing for second, so why not just share the silver medals between those remaining now? Let Atlanta save on the air-conditioning units, allow the Mexicans to celebrate a 100% record in a home tournament and bring our brave boys home as \u2013 to some extent \u2013 winners.<\/p>\n
Oh, but Paraguay are really good defensively, maybe their low block could be the thing to stifle that lad Mbapp\u00e9 and his mate who used to play for Reading. No, it will not, nothing will spare them from being prised open like a can of cheap tuna by the sharpest tools in the business. Michael Olise will spend the rest of his summer getting donkeys through the eye of the needle and Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 will be producing sculptures out of clay with his feet. Olise pranging the post with a stunning overhead kick was almost the highlight against Sweden, in a match full of tricks and flicks. \u201cIt was a fantastic bit of skill. Unfortunately it didn\u2019t go in, but people come to the stadium to see that kind of thing,\u201d Mbapp\u00e9 purred. There is really no reason to consider outdoing them. Unless Ezri Konsa retrains as a bricklayer and builds a wall in the net, England have no chance of competing with Didier Deschamps\u2019s side. \u201cI did say that I wanted to enjoy this World Cup to the fullest,\u201d Mbapp\u00e9 cheered.<\/p>\n
This GWC is known for its on-pitch pragmatism. Mediocre teams are allowed to qualify, and stick everyone with the relevant passport behind the ball, to really drag it out and create more tickets to sell. There is nothing more logical, then, than choosing the best team now. If it was done on a points system no one would be able to catch up Les Bleus anyway. Senegal, Iraq, Norway and now Sweden failed to lay a glove, running around for 90 minutes desperately wondering if they could swap shirts at the end. They can tell the grandkids they were beaten by the best in years to come. And what a story they will have to tell.<\/p>\n
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE<\/p>\n
Day three of, er, last-32 week. Join Scott Murray for England 2-0 DR Congo, 12pm local, 5pm BST. Rob Smyth will be on hand for Belgium 1-2 Senegal (aet), 1pm local, 9pm BST. And we\u2019ll also bring you USA USA USA 1-0 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 5pm local, 1am BST.<\/p>\n
QUOTE OF THE DAY<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to have a cat called Bob. He jumped in the back of a Royal Mail van and we lost him. Sad really\u201d \u2013 BBC co-commentary\u2019s Danny Murphy leaves more questions than answers during a quiet phase of play in Norway v C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire. Amad Diallo scored moments later.<\/p>\n
double quotation markPlease hand over the trophy to France and save some carbon emissions (and the embarrassment of other teams). Just one of Mbapp\u00e9, Olise, Demb\u00e9l\u00e9, Rabiot or Barcola would be enough for most teams. They are currently the Duplantis of the football world, ironic given their last victim was Sweden\u201d \u2013 Krishna Moorthy.<\/p>\n
double quotation markResponding to Antony Crossley\u2019s letter, as an American, I agree there are important reasons to berate our country, but chocolate?! There are a large variety of high quality dark, organic, and fair-trade chocolates available here if one knows enough to avoid the corporate swill. You could berate America for its almost universally over-salted restaurant food but folk from a nation that exalts Heinz baked beans for breakfast (so disappointing!) should be careful about starting food fights. OK, I\u2019m tuning back into Telemundo now. Cheers\u201d \u2013 Steve Plever.<\/p>\n
double quotation markPlease don\u2019t turn Football Daily into a poetry forum (yesterday\u2019s letters). I find the old jokes and football \u2018analysis\u2019 difficult enough as it is, OK?\u201d \u2013 Z Snook.<\/p>\n
double quotation markStop the poetry\u201d \u2013 Jon Millard (and 1,056 others).<\/p>\n
If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com<\/a>. Today\u2019s prizeless letter o\u2019 the day is \u2026 Steve Plever. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here<\/a>.\u200a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"C\u2019EST FINI We can all agree the Geopolitics World Cup has gone on far too long, so Football…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-772455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}