World Cup showed team effort is better than individual skill

France's Russia 2018 World Cup winning team pose for pictures and celebrate upon their arrival at the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport on the outskirts of Paris on July 16, 2018. PHOTO | THOMAS SAMSON | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Ronaldo became the fourth player in history to score in four World Cup finals.
  • Much as a country would like to strongly believe one man can and will carry its torch, it is rather implausible.
  • Too much reliance on one or two players will inexorably result in the failure of the entire team and country.

The 2018 World Cup winner, France, is a country of superlatives once again.

Marvellous, superb, excellent, magnificent.

There are not enough of them to describe the grand and dazzling performance of the French football team led by their admirable coach Didier Deschamps.

Yet in this glory lies a shadow of immense superlative antonyms for some countries and individuals in this year's World Cup.

An exceptionally appalling performance from Neymar Jr catapulted by an absurd 13 minutes and 50 seconds spent on the floor of the pitch resulted in Brazil being eliminated in the quarter finals.

The Brazilian even had a video assistant referee (VAR) penalty cancelled because he dived.

LIONEL MESSI

Neymar Jr was celebrated and lauded as among the ones to watch and a fine contender for the Ballon d'Or this year. What came off all the praises?

They took a nose dive that's what! And then there was Lionel Messi.

An indomitable, sublime and fine football player of our generation.

The Argentinean has won not one, or three, but five Ballon d'Ors.

After the riveting World Cup final against Germany, there was no way Messi was letting this coveted trophy slip away from his sight and hands again.

Oh, but he did in the most dreadful of plays.

CHRISTIANO RONALDO

He barely made a dent against Iceland; Croatia completely overshadowed him and a rising star, young Kylian Mbappé, made us forget all about him.

It was reported the Argentinean team didn't care much for their coach and their legend Diego Maradona almost took over the locker room.

But even the hand of “God” couldn't reach out far enough to save Messi and his team from being eliminated in the round of 16.

Yet many compelling debates have gone into in-depth analyses of who is greater between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ah, Cristiano Ronaldo. On the day he received a suspended prison sentence and a hefty fine for tax evasion, he scored a hat trick against 2010 World Cup winners Spain. These were not any ordinary goals.

AWARDS

Ronaldo became the fourth player in history to score in four World Cup finals.

So sensational was Ronaldo that he became the first man in international history to score goals in eight consecutive major tournaments.

What a spectacular football player affirming his worth and rationale behind winning five Ballon d'Ors.

It's unequivocal that Ronaldo is the better player. But even the best in the world fail to meet our reasonable expectations.

After this astounding promising performance, Ronaldo rather quickly faded into the shadows.

He scored the only winning goal against Morocco, Portugal almost lost to Iran until a last minute goal and he gave an underwhelming play against Uruguay.

CLUB PERFORMANCES

And so, like Neymar Jr and Messi, Ronaldo only made it to the last 16.

What happened to the auspicious Ronaldo and Portugal that won the Euros only two years ago against now the World Cup winners France?

Did the pundits get it wrong? Or did they have a blind biased side towards these players?

The fact is club performances differ immensely compared to country performances.

A club has the luxury of buying any player and hiring managers from anywhere in a whim.

Regrettably, a country is at the mercy of having its citizens as players albeit with the advantage of hiring managers.

TEAMWORK

But at the end of the day it is what players a country has that counts.

Unlike Real Madrid, Barcelona and PSG, these countries only had a few great players to work with and football is not a one man game.

Much as a country would like to strongly believe one man can and will carry its torch, it is rather implausible.

As the games progress and they get tougher and tougher, this player can't be the defender, midfielder, striker and goal keeper concurrently.

At one point or the other he will inevitably tear up at the seams and your hopes and dreams crushing with him.

Football is a team sport that heavily depends on all 11 players consistently contributing to every match.

Too much reliance on one or two players will inexorably result in the failure of the entire team and country.

HYPE

In fact the media played a critical role in what we now deem ''the falling of giants''.

In the build-up to the World Cup they ranted and raved, heaping praises on these players and yet here we are.

In these rose coloured glasses analysis heavily focused on club performances and player salaries, they overlooked the collective factors.

The players’ age, countries performances and coaches experiences in country versus club.

You can be the greatest there ever was at a club level but it doesn’t always directly translate at an international level without an equally good or greater team.

The 2018 Wold Cup gave us a renewed lesson, do not believe the hype!

Burini works with international businesses on commercial litigation. gladysburini1@gmail.