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Teenagers, veterans and the Socceroo slayer: The best XI of the first round of the World Cup

(Photo by James Williamson - AMA/Getty Images)
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25th November, 2022
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The first round is done and it’s been a strange old one. When you watch this much football – 16 games and 32 teams crammed into five days – it’s hard to get a read on it all sometimes. Not to mention the reams of commentary, analysis and debate.

Sometimes it’s better to just let it wash over you, then when the singing’s done, try to pick out what left the biggest impression.

Saudi Arabia’s win over Argentina, Japan’s comeback to defeat Germany and Brazil, Spain and England’s dominant displays all spring to mind. But quieter, more philosophical moments shine through too. Morocco v Croatia was a major standout, even though – ostensibly – nothing happened.

Our best XI of the first round tells this story. It’s also a strange tale of old and young: four are proper veterans, hundred-cappers, but another four are enjoying their breakthrough tournaments.

GK – Memo Ochoa (MEX)

It’s an easy game, football. You turn up once every four years, produce an heroic performance that goes around the world and back again, then you disappear. Certainly, this is the lot of Memo Ochoa.

The Mexican keeper is onto his fifth World Cup – he was actually in the squad for the 2004 Olympics, too – and seems to go into hibernation between tournaments. There was no doubt, however, when Robert Lewandowski stepped up to take a penalty in Mexico’s 0-0 draw with Poland.

Lewa, one of the strikers of his generation, has never scored at the World Cup. Memo, a living meme, only turns up for World Cups. You know the rest.

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LB – Jordi Alba (ESP)

There’s not much more to say that hasn’t been said about one of the best left backs of his generation, other than that he’s still one of the best and he’s 33.

Granted, Costa Rica didn’t offer much challenge but you really couldn’t argue with the performance of Alba, who many thought was done back in 2019.

In a Spain side that has so many great young players – more on whom later – it’s reassuring to know that one of the 2012 European Champions is still knocking about, keeping the tempo of the squad.

Again, it’s unusual to think that such a player does that from left back, but in the Spanish juego de posicion that is now every good team’s style, that’s exactly what happens.

Spain’s was a collective effort and, between them and Brazil, they were the closest to a club side in the way that they went about their business. The strength of the collective is dictated by the fullbacks, starting with Alba.

CB – Toby Alderweireld (BEL)

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It would be fair to say that Toby Alderweireld has seen better days as a player. The former Ajax, Atletico Madrid and Spurs man was once dynamic off the ball and thrusting with it, but now, he’s a little more…cerebral. Alright, slow.

But if ever there was a game that proved that the first yard is in your head, Belgium’s win over Canada was it. Their back three had a round 300 caps between them and played like it: Canada had lots of half chances, but a harsh handball penalty aside, never generated a clearcut opening.

That goes to Alderweireld, who marshalled the line against repeated attacks and kept his cool. As the game went on, a Canadian goal looked less likely.

CB – Josko Gvardiol (CRO)

If Alderweireld is playing the game in his head, what was Josko Gvardiol doing? Well, that – and all the physical stuff too.

Croatia v Morocco was one for the purists, with not much in terms of goalmouth action, but it was also the archetypical good nil nil.

Both sides played well, with Croatia able to dominate the ball but Morocco able to throw back at pace when they got it. Central to the Croatian performance was Gvardiol. He is that most valuable of commodities, a left-footed ball-playing centre back, and possesses both the physical poise and the mental calmness.

He’s just 20 and already looks a million bucks. Actually, Chelsea had a $140m bid knocked back by RB Leipzig for him in the last transfer window. This kid is going to be huge.

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RB – Achraf Hakimi (MOR)

If Spain’s style was dictated by Jordi Alba, the purest exponent of what they do, then Morocco’s was maybe even more set by Achraf Hakimi.

They’re a strange bunch in that their best players are their two fullbacks – let’s call them the Scotland of the Sahara – but wedged that into their tactics, with a compact block designed to get the most out of Hakimi and Noussair Mazraoui out wide, complemented by Hakim Ziyech and Sofiane Boufal further forward.

A goalless draw with Croatia in which basically zero good chances were created hardly leaps off the page as a classic, but it might have been the most tactically interesting game, with two teams that play very distinctively and in a manner that lined up.

Croatia tried to dictate the middle and Morocco basically let them do so, while attempting themselves to spring the trap as soon as they won the ball. Hakimi was at the heart of that, bounding into space and creating their best chance with a rasping effort from range.

Tellingly, their next best chance fell to Mazraoui on the other side, advancing from fullback. There was method in Morocco and it wouldn’t be a surprise if it worked another time – Belgium beware.

CM – Wataru Endo (JAP)

The other contender for tactical battle of the round was Germany v Japan, and nobody defined that encounter more than central midfielder Wataru Endo.

Well, that’s slightly incorrect, because he shared his own personal duel with Ilkay Gundogan, and I’d be tempted to give him the nod into this side as he was the best player on the field until he was inexplicably taken off, thus ceding control and eventually the game to Japan.

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Endo played the full 90 but switched his function within the team several times: he began as a midfield destroyer in the centre of the block, funnelling runners into the congested middle, before enacting a major switch after the break that freed his own teammates higher up.

All the while, Endo did the dirty work, winning the ball back and moving it rapidly on. Japan’s win was built on his back.

CM – Jude Bellingham (ENG)

We now move into the wonderkids section of the round, with two markedly different but equally exciting teenagers.

Jude Bellingham broke the back of Iran with a classic late run into the middle – squint and it could have been Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard – while playing with a level of discipline that those two legends could only dream of.

The set-up that Gareth Southgate went for acknowledged that Iran would let them have the ball in the hope that England would go for their usual approach, known in some circles as the ‘horseshoe of death’.

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Essentially, a defensive team allows an attacking team to dominate the possession while stacking the middle, forcing them to play wide to the fullback, then back to the middle, then out to the other fullback, with the ball tracing a horseshoe around the penalty area but never entering it.

One of the ways that this can be broken is by changing the angle of attack, which requires a midfielder with perfect timing to make the run from deep into an advanced area, offering a pass from wide to middle that central defenders struggle to track.

If you want to know what that looks like, here’s a clip of Bellingham’s first goal. He’s been doing it all year for Dortmund and, now, for England too.

The balance between positional discipline and attacking licence is the hardest part of playing central midfield, especially for possession-dominant teams. Jude has it down, and he’s only 19.

CM – Gavi (ESP)

The other young talent to dominate this opening round was Gavi, who is barely 18, and seems like he as built in a lab to play for Spain.

He’s tiny, technical, good in tight spaces and tactically aware – much like, as literally everyone has pointed out, a certain bloke with a very similar name.

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Unlike his current club manager, however, Gavi also has a delightful amount of dog in him, and loves to leave a boot in and rile opponents. It’s the perfect package of skill and spite.

His performance against Costa Rica comes with the caveat that the opponents were rubbish, but you can’t argue with the result – 7-0 – or that he was the best player, or that becoming the youngest scorer at a World Cup since Pele isn’t a massive achievement.

FW – Vinicius Junior (BRA)

Richarlison got the goals for Brazil, but he wasn’t the star. That was undoubtedly Vinicius Junior, who dominated the left wing and terrorised the Serbian defenders.

Serbia were forced to play a 5-3-2 that was a real back five, with no space in behind, because the threat of Vini Jnr is so much. Even then, they were barely able to control the Real Madrid man, who had Brazil’s best two chances in the first half and created both goals in the second.

The Richarlison overhead kick undoubtedly takes the plaudits but the cross that got him the ball in the first place was just as good, a classic outside-of-the-boot trivela.

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He’s got the pace, both feet, inside and outside curl, dribbling and finishing. It’s terrifying stuff.

FW – Olivier Giroud (FRA)

There’s a line in The Simpsons, where Lisa is a at a jazz night and explains to a cynical punter that, to understand the music, you have to listen to the notes they’re not playing. “I can do that at home,” he sniffs back.

This is a long way around saying that, to understand Olivier Giroud, you have to look at the things he doesn’t do. Or more accurately, the things he does do that don’t look like anything.

Take France’s first goal against the Socceroos: Giroud gets the assist without touching the ball, drawing defenders to him and creating the space that Adrien Rabiot runs into.

Giroud got two for himself as well and now becomes France’s joint World Cup top scorer, alongside Thierry Henry.

It’s strange to think that he’s got that many goals, given the iconic status Herny has, and the unfair reputation Giroud has as a modern-day Stephane Guivarc’h, a mere faciliatator rather than a pure striker.

Like Guivarc’h in 1998, Giroud went through a victorious World Cup as a starting striker who never scored. Now, he’s proven that he does all the non-scoring stuff, and scores too.

FW – Salem Al-Dawsari (KSA)

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We can’t have a list here that exclused Salem Al-Dawsari, who created the moment of the first round all by himself.

His was a ridiculous intervention to shift the tone of a game that, in truth, Argentina were coasting. But football is about those moments, where one player can inject themselves and change everything.

The turn, the dink inside and the curling shot were picture-perfect. Even the keeper touching but not saving was poetic. Oh, and extra points for the backflips. More people should do it.

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