Stories from within and beyond: How Real Madrid’s 2022 World Cup went
By Sahel Kazi
The Major Setbacks: Federico Valverde, Antonio Rudiger, Dani Carvajal…
Federico Valverde was one of the most in-form players in the world going into the World Cup. The opening stalemate against South Korea saw the midfielder drop a mammoth of a defensive effort for his country but Uruguay never quite clicked on the other end of the pitch even with the the likes of Darwin Nunez and Luis Suarez.
Their fate was sealed on the final matchday as despite their victory over Ghana, South Korea stunned Portugal to book a place in the last 16. Just the first of many major tournaments for rising Uruguayan stars like Valverde, Rodrigo Bentancur and Nunez though.
Antonio Rudiger caught headlines ahead of the tournament as he funded a campaign to pay for the surgeries of eleven children in Sierra Leone, through his earnings at the World Cup. Germany’s own campaign did not go as planned though, as they crashed out of the Group Stage for the second World Cup running. The defender’s own antics against Japan also earned him criticism, in what was otherwise a fabled win for the Samurai Blue.
Dani Carvajal and Marco Asensio featured on occasion in a Spain team that fluttered with promise in their opening game, a dominant 7-0 win over Costa Rica, but ended in sheer disappointment as Luis Enrique’s youthful team struggled to score goals in the following matches despite having the bulk of possession in most encounters.
Carvajal’s direct style and decline with age meant he would never be favourite to start at right-back over Cesar Azpilicueta or Marcos Llorente. Asensio looked anywhere between incredibly sharp and visibly uninvolved the three times that he did feature in a new false 9 role.
For Spain, the ever so overcomplicated football and the dazzling youngsters couldn’t aid the need for composed experience as they crashed out to Morocco on penalties in the last 16.