After all the pre-tournament fears of hooliganism, racism, unfriendly comrades and smothering political tension, one month and 64 matches later, we find ourselves reminiscing on a contender for the best World Cup ever.

This World Cup may not have one epoch-defining moment, star or team — there was no 7-1 semi-final thrashing like in 2014, or Diego Maradona in 1986, or Brazil in 1970 — but it did live up to the feeling that there really was no clear favourite and the trophy was up for grabs.

On the ground in Russia, visitors were welcomed warmly and in a way that visitors have never been welcomed in the country before. I can confirm this as someone who has travelled to Russia more than 20 times over the years. For Russia, this World Cup was a triumph.

For the millions who have watched the games, the action or lack of it on the pitch — and some off the field — created some of the more unforgettable memories of World Cup 2018.

BEST PLAYERS

Luka Modric holds the Golden Ball today, official recognition from a panel of experts that he was the best player at the tournament. However, after watching the final and seeing Kylian Mbappe settle the result, it’s hard not to feel that this was in part a sympathy vote to share the prizes — especially with Mbappe winning the Young Player award. Modric was a metronome of consistency and led his team through one punishing match after another, but he did not dazzle and turn games the way Mbappe did. Eden Hazard and Antoine Griezmann took the Silver and Bronze Balls respectively — and I’m sure Kevin De Bruyne, Paul Pogba weren’t far behind.

BREAKTHROUGH STARS

If 19-year-old Kylian Mbappe had not already made his mark after his move to French football club Paris Saint-Germain, he has now. Apart from this boy wonder, who else have made an impression at this tournament? Yerry Mina of Colombia stood out with his set-piece prowess and the 23-year-old may now have the chance to leave Barcelona football club in search of more playing time. Jose Maria Gimenez seems to be so established alongside Diego Godin for Uruguay and Spanish club Atletico Madrid that we sometimes forget he is just 23. Lucas Torreira (Uruguay) has already earned himself a big-money move to Arsenal and Benjamin Pavard (France) and Hirving Lozano (Mexico) may also be on the move soon.

France's Mbappe was one of the breakout stars of the 2018 World Cup. Photo: Facebook/FIFA World Cup

GOALS OF THE TOURNAMENT

While there was no standout strike like James Rodriguez’s volley for Colombia in 2014, there were a number of long-range and counter-attacking goals that took the breath away. The tournament opened with a cracking volley from Russian player Denis Cheryshev against Saudi Arabia, and Pavard and Nacho Fernandez from Spain also volleyed home in style. We saw free-kick specials from Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Germany’s Toni Kroos and Serbia’s Aleksandar Kolarov. There were long-range thunderbolts from Argentina’s Angel Di Maria and Cheryshev again; and stunning curlers from Brazil’s Philippe Coutinho, England’s Jesse Lingard and Portugal’s Ricardo Quaresma (with the outside of his boot) also deserve mention. The Belgians led the way for best team goal with their stunning counter-attacks against Brazil and Japan. But for me, in terms of sheer technique, the best one came from Belgium’s Dries Mertens against Panama, with his sumptuous volley from the angle of the box.

MOST UNDER-RATED PLAYERS

Going into the tournament, England coach Gareth Southgate talked about playing Kyle Walker — one of the most expensive full-backs in the world — as a centre-back and everyone looked at him cross-eyed. Then Kieran Trippier, who has been compared with David Beckham and nicknamed Bury Beckham, stepped up to deliver beautiful set pieces and open played crosses from the right wing-back position. Trippier, who plays for Tottenham Hotspur, wasn’t an unknown before, but he will be taken a lot more seriously now. His England teammate Harry Maguire should join him on this list along with the Belgian wing-back revelation Thomas Meunier, whose suspension may have been the difference for his team in losing their semi-final to France. Others include a handful of Croatian players including Mario Mandzukic and Ante Rebic.

MOST OVER-RATED PLAYER

It’s hard to be too negative about a man who holds a World Cup winner medal today, but French striker Olivier Giroud played in all seven games, logged 564 minutes and only 13 shots — and not one of them was on target. Now his supporters will say he was creating space and possession for Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann, but it was still a poor return. Interestingly, in contrast, England striker Harry Kane has taken home the Golden Boot with six goals, but may also feel disappointed in his form, especially in the last three games. Again, it is hard to say the Golden Boot winner had a poor tournament, but he will feel he perhaps could have done better at the business end.

BIGGEST LETDOWN

This was touted as the World Cup of Cristiano Ronaldo vs Neymar Jr vs Lionel Messi — and yet by the semi-finals, Portugal, Brazil and Argentina were done and dusted. Ronaldo burned brightly for about 94 minutes — the first match plus the four minutes it took him to score in the second — and then disappeared as Portugal limped out. Messi woke up briefly in a handful of games, but really only showed his talent with his goal against Nigeria as his Argentinian team-mates showed they had no plan B when Messi didn’t dominate. Neymar did score a few goals despite looking unfit in the early matches, but he will be more remembered for his play-acting and ball-hogging. Ultimately, the World Cup semi-finals and final were not contested by the teams with the biggest star. They were contested by the teams that worked as teams.  

Lionel Messi returned home after a fruitless campaign with Argentina. Photo: James Walton

BEST XI FOR THE DREAM TEAM

Goalkeeper – Jordan Pickford (England)

Centre-backs – Raphael Varane (France), Jose Maria Gimenez (Uruguay), Toby Alderweireld (Belgium)

Right wing-back – Kieran Trippier (England)

Left wing-back – Domagoj Vida (Croatia)

Centre midfielders – Luka Modric (Croatia), Paul Pogba (France)

Left midfielder – Eden Hazard (Belgium)

Right midfielder – Kylian Mbappe (France)

Centre-forward – Antoine Griezmann (France)

Substitutes: Thibaut Courtois (Belgium), Harry Maguire (England), Benjamin Pavard (France), Denis Cheryshev (Russia), Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium), Takashi Inui (Japan), Edinson Cavani (Uruguay).

Croatia's Domagoj Vida and Antoine Griezmann (France) were some of the best players on the pitch. Photo: Facebook/FIFA World Cup

MOST DISAPPOINTING XI

It would be quite easy to produce a team of the players who simply weren’t good enough to be at a World Cup and fill it with players from the lesser nations. Instead, I’m going to name a team of players who failed to deliver.

Goalkeeper – David De Gea (Spain)

Centre-backs – Gerard Pique (Spain), Nicolas Otamendi (Argentina)

Right-back – Joshua Kimmich (Germany)

Left-back – Mats Hummels (Germany)

Centre midfielders – Javier Mascherano (Argentina), Bernardo Silva (Portugal)

Left midfielder – Lionel Messi (Argentina)

Right midfielder – Mezut Ozil (Germany)

Centre-forwards – Gabriel Jesus (Brazil), Robert Lewandowski (Poland)

Substitutes: Wilfredo Caballero (Argentina), Mohamed Elneny (Egypt), Thomas Muller (Germany), Raheem Sterling (England), Sergio Ramos (Spain), Marco Reus (Germany)

BEST FANS

While many European fans stayed away, the South Americans came in numbers and many stayed for the whole month, even after their teams were eliminated. Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil were well-represented but the loudest and most visible fans were definitely from Mexico. Special mention goes to the Japanese supporters who stayed behind to clean up the stadium after each of their matches, and kudos to the group of hardcore Senegal fans who literally danced every minute of every match.

One of the many passionate fans who travelled to Russia to support their World Cup team. Photo: James Walton

BIGGEST UPSET

This tournament will perhaps be best remembered for Germany’s group-stage capitulation and their stunning 2-0 upset by South Korea. With hindsight, all the warning signs were there: Besides the ominous trend of defending champions failing in the group stage at the next tournament, Germany’s form had been woeful throughout the year and there were clearly divisions in the camp. But because it is Germany, many of us (myself included), thought they would still come good. Falling apart at a tournament is something France or England do, not the Germans. There weren’t many upsets in the knockout stages, so Russia’s penalty-shootout win over a poor Spain team stands out. What would have been the most exciting underdog win was one that was ultimately unsuccessful, with Japan giving Belgium an almighty scare in their Round of 16 match.

SURPRISE PACKAGE

They may not have played the most inspiring football and lacked a little (or a lot) when it really mattered, but if you had said before the World Cup that this England team would reach the semi-finals before the tournament, no one would have believed you. They were helped by the draw opening up in front of them, as the scheduled quarter-final meeting with Brazil or Germany didn’t happen. Still, it was a limited team that outperformed expectations.

However, this prize has to go to the Croatia team who were the darkest of dark-horses and kept finding a way to win to get to the final in spite of tired legs and trailing 1-0 in three consecutive knockout games. Among the less fashionable teams, Russia were never supposed to reach the quarter-finals, Japan did Asia proud, and Morocco and Iran gave Spain and Portugal palpitations in the group stage.

BIGGEST LETDOWN

This will have to go to Spain. Its tournament started with a manager sacking and ended with increasingly pointless possession football, which were seemingly engineered to bore opponents into submission.

MOST UNFORTUNATE WAY TO GO OUT

Senegal became the first team to be knocked out based on the criteria of “fair play”, after receiving two more yellow cards than Japan, who qualified instead. This “fair play” progression was particularly contentious for the unsporting way Japan saw out the last 10 minutes of their 1-0 defeat to Poland by playing keep-ball, knowing that the score would take them through as it was — a tactic that even Japanese manager Akira Nishino admitted was “regrettable”.

BIGGEST CONTROVERSIES

The video assistant referee (VAR) was the big talking point and the impact was clear: There were 29 penalties awarded this World Cup compared with just 13 in 2014 and 17 in 2010. There is still confusion around the usage (particularly inside the stadium) and now, there may be even more anger among fans when the decision goes against their teams. Instead of being able to forgive the referee because he only gets to see it once in real-time, we wonder how he and a group of other referees sitting in a room can still get it wrong despite watching replays repeatedly. The VAR penalty decision in the final match was perhaps one of the most contentious, although France’s clinical performance in the second half has overshadowed that.

MOST SURPRISING STATISTICS

Besides Olivier Giroud’s lack of on-target shots, the most surprising data coming out from this World Cup was that out of 64 games, only one ended goal-less. That was France vs Denmark in the group stages, as both played out the result that suited them.

More remarkably though, the goals flowed as a far more lenient approach to refereeing was practised. There were only four red cards given for the whole tournament. Compared with the 10 red cards in 2014 and 17 in 2010, this is a huge difference, but time will tell if this new approach to keeping all 22 players on the pitch continues into the domestic leagues in August.

FUNNIEST MEMES

While Germany’s early exit provoked much mirth, two groups of memes dominated this World Cup: Neymar and his incredible rolling antics and the Three Lions’ “It’s coming home” videos with a cast of movie stars, pop legends and politicians all seemingly joining in the chorus — including Vladimir Putin on the piano.

THE ‘DID I DO THAT?’ AWARD

There are several contenders on the pitch, including the failed flip throw-in by Iran’s Milad Mohammadi, but the winner has to be Michy Batshuayi of Belgium going to kick the ball back into the net after their winning goal in the group stage match against England, only to have the ball rebound off the post and smacking him in the face.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Mr James Walton is the Sports Business Group Leader of Deloitte South-east Asia