Game 42 - France vs Switzerland

Or did the French just decide to regain their crown as the biggest surrender monkeys in the world

 

As much as people big up Mbappe and Neymar I don't think either will hit the heights of Ronaldo and Messi. Neither has either the mental fortitude or the professionalism to actually be true greats

 

In some way, it seems to be a problem in a number of sports. Just look at Tennis. In Federer, Nadal, Novak and Murray you have 4 players who if there weren't the 3 others during their time would have won everything as not only are they immensely talented their mentality and their professionalism is just perfect. And for the last 10 years we have had young player after young player breakthrough and be talked about as the ones to take their thrones only to be quickly proving to be mentally weak or preferring to go out partying rather than training and fallen away. Even the batch now being talked about as the next group who might take over there are serious concerns about. You just have to wonder with all the modern trappings of a world where a Youtuber boxing poorly can draw more eyes than even current World Champions like AJ and Tyson Fury if the era of truly great sportspeople is passing because it seems that for most people being the best you possibly can at something is less important than just being famous with as little effort as possible so you have more time to use that fame for fun

 

It does make you wonder, as much as UEFA and FIFA love having groups to get as many teams in it while also ensuring the most appealing nations get more guaranteed games and more chance to play themselves in, many of these knockout matches have pretty much proven why it really would be better for it to go back to a pure knockout. The first 2 rounds of the group games even when the games were half decent kind of dragged as there wasn't a massive amount at stake, even the 3rd rounds in many of the groups didn't matter too much but at least it had something at stake in some of them and made them better. There is a reason why Wimbledon hasn't split all the competitors into groups of 4 and had them play to see who gets into the knockout stage because they realise much of the appeal comes from the fact the best player in the world can have a bad day and lose in the first round to someone ranked outside the top 200 and its perhaps something Football should learn rather than trying to chase more and more money via artificial means