Every four years the world comes together for the biggest event on the planet, the World Cup that joins all nations through their passion for football.
The 2022 World Cup takes place in Qatar this year and as every World Cup, it has had its fair share of surprises.
For every country, this is a chance of a lifetime to highlight their art of football in a global arena that the whole world is watching and the highest honor in football worldwide.
The matches start at the group level, where the teams must score at the top two to be able to advance onto the next phase. Then the stakes are higher, as every match after the group level can eliminate the opponent. From then on, only the winning team can advance, which is the elimination phase and only 16 teams are selected for the round of 16.
After the round of 16, they move onto quarter finals. Lastly, only four teams will go to the semi-finals, and then the most awaited final match that will decide who will take home the trophy.
The Brazil National Football Team is considered one of the best teams in the world and one of the favorite teams at the World Cup, but it has not taken home the title since 2002.
Brazil placed first in its group and made it to the quarter finals after an amazing win over South Korea, winning by 4X1. After that result, the Brazilian supporters were optimistic Brazil could make it to the final as the team headed to face Croatia in the quarter finals.
Neymar got back in the game for the quarter finals, while the player Richarlison, who became known as “Pombo” (which translates to “Pigeon”) is making headlines for his breakthrough talent that always scores, his humble attitude and his celebratory dance that turned into memes, called the “Pigeon Dance” to celebrate his goals and Brazil’s wins.
The match was at 0X0 for the first and second half of the game, then went on to a 30-minute overtime, and Brazil’s Neymar scored a beautiful goal bringing it to 1X0.
However, in the last 4 minutes of the game Croatia scored a final goal and tied the game, that took it to penalty kicks. Brazil ended up being eliminated in the penalty kicks and Croatia won, advancing to semi-finals.
The Spain National Football Team was one of the favorites after winning over Costa Rica by 7X0 and going into the Round of 16. However, Morocco held its own throughout the game and overtime keeping the score as 0X0 and finally won over Spain in penalty kicks by 3X0, sending one of the favorites back home. Morocco was the biggest surprise of the World Cup this year.
The United States national football team made it to the Round of 16 but it was eliminated by the Netherlands, in a match that ended in 3X1 for the Netherlands, which moved on to be eliminated by Argentina in the next game.
Another memorable win was Portugal over Switzerland, which scored 6X1 and could even have made one more goal getting to 7X1 if Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal had not been annulled for being offside. This was one of the most beautiful and impressive games that guaranteed Portugal’s win, moving on to Quarter Finals.
The coach made an impressive change in the team keeping Cristiano Ronaldo for the end of the game and they had an outstanding result. The team had a promise to get further than ever and were eliminated by the underdog Morocco. Again, another unpredictable win for Morocco.
France and England also got a place in the quarter finals and faced each other, with both teams having a very consistent World Cup campaign England with Phil Folden, and France with Kylian Mbappe, in a highly competitive match, where ultimately France won by 2X1 and advanced to the semi-final, facing Morocco.
They prepare four years to have a chance to reach the final game, which will select the top two national football teams, and at this point the teams will give everything they got for a chance at the final.
Morocco continued to astonish the supporters and the other teams that didn’t expect the team to make it this far, being the first African team in a semi-final game. Specially considering the relationship between France and Morocco historically, with so many Moroccan immigrants living in France, it was a highly emotional game.
However, France won over Morocco by 2X0 as one of the strongest teams this year. While Argentina won over Croatia by 3X0 in the semi-final match.
Now it is on to the final match that happened on December 18, 2022, deciding the team crowned the best in the world between France and Argentina.
Argentina’s star player Lionel Messi faced off France’s Mbappe, who are both considered the best players in the world and showed off their talent in the field. It seemed that Argentina had the game under control in the first half that ended in 2X0, but in an amazing turn of events Mbappe scored two goals back-to-back in less than two minutes, turned the score around and tied the game.
Argentina still scored one more time and was ahead by 3X2, but France tied the game again and it ended at 3X3 after overtime. So, it was onto penalty kicks and the supporters kept cheering until the final minute to decide who would win, one of the toughest ways to decide a final match.
Lionel Messi scored the first penalty kick, and Argentina took the well-deserved 2022 FIFA World Cup trophy home, becoming the 2022 FIFA World Cup champions since 1986. Messi also won the award for best player, the “FIFA World Cup Golden Ball Award.”
Argentina’s goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez won the “FIFA World Cup Golden Glove Award” for best defender in the World Cup.
Mbappé received the award for highest scorer in the World Cup, the “FIFA World Cup Golden Boot Award,” with Messi coming in second as the highest scorer.
Argentina’s players went back home from Qatar taking the 2022 FIFA World Cup trophy and holding it close the whole trip home. The Argentina National Football Team brought together the nation and had the highest turn out of supporters in the streets of Buenos Aires with over 4 million people celebrating as they welcomed home the winning team.
The upcoming FIFA World Cup will happen in 2026 and it will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
