https://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/World-Cup-has-tough-act-to-follow-12985995.php
World Cup has tough act to follow
Event starts 3 weeks after end of thrilling Champions League
Published 10:15 pm, Monday, June 11, 2018
A spirit of chaos and adventure swept through this season's Champions League, serving up a record number of goals and almost non-stop drama when the top teams collided.
It was club soccer at its most thrilling. Fans might never have had it so good.
So can the World Cup, supposedly the zenith of the international game, come close to matching it?
History suggests we shouldn't get our hopes up, despite most of the world's best players in Russia.
"National teams often lag behind the clubs, and it's understandable why," said Jonathan Wilson, author of "Inverting The Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics." "There's a tendency to keep things pretty simple at international level."
Wilson's prediction for the next few weeks in Russia?
"I think there will be a lot of games featuring teams with eight men behind the ball and just seeing what happens," he said. "It could be pretty unedifying."
This viewpoint stems from the simple notion that international coaches don't get as much time with their players as their club counterparts, and that it's much easier — especially for the weaker nations — to organize a compact defense than a fluid attack.
There are other factors in play, too. There's no transfer market in international soccer so it's harder for coaches to mold their ideal team. The best coaches are often found in the club game because of the financial riches it offers. And there's often an in-built conservatism at major tournaments.
Carlos Alberto Parreira, Brazil's World Cup-winning coach from 1994, is now a member of FIFA's technical study group — comprising former players and national-team coaches who will analyze games and produce a report later this year — and he predicted an approach that will see teams "defend with as many players as possible" and play on the counterattack.
"Very compact teams, with lots of players behind the ball, closing down space and playing at pace on the attack," Parreira said.
FIFA, of course, is hoping for a festival of soccer over the coming weeks, following on from a World Cup in Brazil in 2014 that the governing body's panel of coaching experts said saw teams "play positively and do everything to win a game rather than merely 'not lose.'"
There were 171 goals that tournament at an average of 2.67 per game, tying the record set in France in 1998. In 2002, '06 and '10, the average did not get above 2.52.
In this season's Champions League, however, there were 401 goals at an average of 3.2 per game — rising to 3.6 per game in the knockout stage. It was the highest total since the tournament's rebrand in 1992, with only the 1975-76 European Cup delivering more, as coaches saw attack often as the best form of defense.
"No team will win the World Cup without pressing," Wilson said. "But I think there will be a far greater tendency to sit deep and try to absorb pressure, because it's easier."
As it is, 32 nations are heading to Russia and neutrals will be hoping the unruliness of this season's Champions League is infectious.
