There is a place for old people in it – Newspaper Kommersant No. 212 (7413) dated 11/16/2022

Group F of the World Cup, which opens on November 20 in Qatar, looks insanely curious. It has two still powerful, but aged and, it seems, still passed their peak of grandees – the teams of Belgium and Croatia, who took the medals of the previous championship four years ago. And they will compete with very interesting teams that are clearly ready to earn the status of tournament surprises – Moroccan and Canadian.

In Belgium, it is customary to announce the current World Cup, calling it the last chance of the “golden generation” that once matured in Belgian football. Although, of course, it is by no means gold or even silver. This amazing generation of talent could win each of the three top tournaments that preceded Qatari, but always cut short on the approaches to the title: at two continental championships, in 2016 and last year, in the quarterfinals; at the world championship in Russia in 2018 – in the semifinals, taking bronze after losing to the French. And her last chance, I must say, does not seem so significant.

Today’s Belgium national team is very similar to the team for which the championship window, alas, has closed, and the problems associated with the age of the players, with their condition, primarily relate to two zones. In the center of defense, the Belgians still have virtually no alternative to Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen. Alderweireld is 33 years old, Vertonghen is 35 years old, and both are no longer interested in clubs from the top leagues.

The situation ahead is no less alarming. Coach Roberto Martinez still seems to think that both Romelu Lukaku and Eden Hazard, who are younger than Alderweireld and Vertonghen, should be in the starting lineup. But Lukaku completely turned sour last season at Chelsea, and returning to Inter turned out to be not a resuscitation of his career for him, but a serious injury and long treatment. And as for Hazard, Real Madrid fans might have forgotten that he is playing for the Madrid team: the player has long spent much more time at the doctor’s office than at the Madrid club, even on the bench.

But packed to capacity with football “dinosaurs” (which also include 33-year-old Axel Witsel and 35-year-old Dries Mertens), the Belgian national team still certainly remains a medal hunter. In the end, she has, perhaps, the best goalkeeper on the planet at the moment, Thibault Courtois, and perhaps her best midfielder Kevin De Bruyne at the moment, and a whole squad of pretty cool players like Youri Tielemans, Yannick Carrasco, Thorgen Hazard or Misha Batshuayi, who are still far from retirement. And if youngsters like 19-year-old defender Zeno Debast shoot, then maybe the Belgians will somehow be able to compensate for the lack of tone in the most famous of their fighters.

The Croatian national team is very similar to the Belgian one, and those who want to prove that it is hardly capable of repeating the breakthrough of 2018 (in Russia, the Croats reached the final), you won’t have to look for arguments with a flashlight – everything is at hand. It is enough, for example, to list the list of her losses in comparison with that championship. Then Daniel Subasic, an elite goalkeeper, stood at the gates of the Croatian team. After his departure, this level of goalkeepers did not appear in Croatia. Just as there were no drums in this country, accustomed to being at the forefront of forwards of the level of Mario Mandzhukich, who shone in Russia.

Most of their teammates in Russia’s grandiose campaign still enjoy the trust of team coach Zlatko Dalic, but Dejan Lovren, Domagoj Vida and Ivan Perisic are all 33, and Luka Modric is 37. At the same time, if Lovren and Vida had an excellent alternative in the center of defense in the person of Josip Shutalo and, above all, the quickly adding Josko Guardiola, then Modric, apparently, as in 2018, will have to close the key section of the field together with Marcelo Brozovic – the one in its middle, the one on which they begin to destroy other people’s attacks and create their own. There are definitely no alternatives to them.

However, sending Croats to the landfill in advance is also, of course, a great stupidity. Their leading players, whatever one may say, have tons of experience and class, and Modric has managed to adapt, perhaps, his style to his new opportunities. The fact that the Croatian national team may have become boring, but is still poisonous, can be told by the Russians, whom it overtook in qualifying for the World Cup, and even the French and Danes, who opposed it this year in the League of Nations. With the French team, the Croats, with their viscous and tedious football, took four points in two matches, with the Danish team – all six. And for pleasant results, as a rule, a single goal scored was enough.

Two insanely curious teams will compete with the Belgians and Croats in the quartet. The Moroccans, it is possible, took the most important step in preparing for the World Cup when they fired Vahid Halilhodzic in August, appointing Walid Regragi as coach instead. Not that the performance of the Moroccan national team was disastrous under Halilhodzic, but the fact that he did not get along with some of the stars who boycotted the team. And after the resignation, they returned. This is primarily about playmaker Hakim Ziyech from Chelsea and Bayern defender Nussair Mazraoui.

Without them, the Moroccan squad would look paler, but, oddly enough, it would still be full of players from almost any role from the “big European five”. And not listed in its clubs, but actually playing for them, such as Sofyan Amrabat, Abdelhamid Sabiri, Youssef En-Nesiri. Moreover, the return of Ziyech does not mean that he automatically turns into the brightest figure in the team. It is possible that this status will not be given to anyone by Ashraf Hakimi, who is a natural monster on the right flank both in PSG and in the national team. In general, few of the African teams have ever brought such a high-quality recruitment to the world championship, with which it is even somehow strange to rely solely on the patience and strength of the rear.

The story of Team Canada is even more exciting. In 1986, it penetrated the final part of the World Cup in Mexico, but after it rolled back somewhere to the backyard of world football, transforming into an inconspicuous team even by the standards of its rather weak North American region. A new voyage to the world championship ensured the maturation of the unexpectedly formed golden Canadian generation.

His frontman Alphonso Davies is adored by Bayern fans. But there are other Canadian players who most often celebrated their 20th birthday in Europe and who turned out to be in good standing. This is, for example, a productive duo of forwards from Kyle Larin and Jonathan David, midfielder Stephen Eushtakiou.

Team Canada marched briskly through World Cup qualifiers, showing off their suddenly grown muscles and the football they’re sure to play in Qatar. It is absolutely trendy. The Canadians are not going to chase possession, but their counter-attacks will be a threat to any opponent. They develop primarily through the flanks, which are at the mercy of Davis and no less speedy than the Bayern player, Teijon Buchanan. Speed, pace – this is the motto of the Canadian team, especially relevant in the Qatari heat.

Alexey Dospekhov