World Cup nears halfway point with little time to reflect, just as USA and FIFA wants it

TIME TO REFLECT: US President Donald Trump is presented with the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize award by FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Pic: Sam Corum/PA Wire.

“Can the US win this World Cup, yes or no?”

“Yes.”

“OK. Zlatan has spoken.”

For those counting at home. There was 0.8 seconds of reflection between the question coming out of Rebecca Lowe’s mouth and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s emphatic answer in the affirmative.

There is no need for us to go too deep into criticism of how Fox Sports covers the World Cup for its American audience. Aaron Timms of The Guardian does that and serves up such an exemplary evisceration that it’s wise to leave him at it.

But those 0.8 seconds say an awful lot about more this tournament as a wider thing than just the big loud host broadcaster of the big loud host nation. Less than a second. Even for a man as cocksure of his opinions as Zlatan, it’s quick. Not much time for reflection.

A World Cup that has hurtled through 54 of its 104 matches will very soon reach the knockout stages. At that point, it will begin to be less and less a Mexico-Canada-US tournament as an all-American affair.

In their capital city Americans are being arrested by the handful for dipping their paws into what was once Washington DC’s Reflecting Pool.

Thanks to one of those trademark Trumpian fixes which turns, in fact, into making a thundering balls of something which worked perfectly fine, the Reflecting Pool no longer does any reflecting. And that feels very right for this moment.

In the swampy heat and haze of this North American edition of the tournament, what was once a sometimes-seen bug has become a feature: The World Cup mirage.

The expansion to 48 teams and dilution in overall quality — and context — has combined with a moment of mass-market, multi-platform, and to-the-instant analysis. This is the podcast war World Cup, right? It’s also the 5 Things We Learned Before The Hydration Break TikTok tournament.

So, generally, what we’re left with is 0.8 seconds of thinking time. And in the land that gave us hot takes that has led to an awful lot of hasty takes.

It was last Friday when Zlatan was pressed by his Fox Sports host desk-mate after Mauricio Pochettino’s host nation had won back-to-back World Cup games in over a century. That’s a long time. The Swedish icon had the shortest one-word window to answer.

So, never mind that the US had completely fallen off in the second half of their 2-0 win over Australia in Seattle. Or the fact that their opening-night win came against a Paraguay side ranked outside the world’s top 40, who only made it here after finishing sixth in South American qualifying, winning just seven of 18 games. Can we now win it all, Zlatan?

Tomorrow night, Pochettino’s young side face Turkey in what is, thanks to another deeply flawed Fifa fix, essentially a dead rubber. The Yanks have topped the group; the Turks are headed home after again turning from dark horses to dead donkeys in a flash.

The likelihood, even with a mass wave of line-up changes, is that the US could win three tournament games in a row for the first time in their history. Pochettino has them playing some really impressive stuff, especially through the middle. But old man Tim Ream is still anchoring the defence and until a proper team comes their way — according to the projections it could take a while — the Americans are the biggest mirage of their own gathering.

Then there’s England. After an opening night XG-fest against Croatia, Thomas Tuchel was heralded from high and far and wide. The shackles were off. The yoke of Southgateism had been smashed in a four-goal salvo. A period of wider reflection — there was at least a little but not much on Fleet Street — may have touched on the fact that Croatia’s mid-generation side had scored two the other way and, in many moments, England looked less smooth and at times stodgy.

Then came the Ghana game in Boston where the rain fell and it looked much more like Ricey and the boys had become Arsenal at Molineaux in February. To be fair, Arsenal at least scored two that day. Croatia’s struggles against a very limited Panama side later Tuesday night put England’s opener in even sharper light. The truth is we still have no idea exactly what Tuchel’s England are but it’s more likely than not that they have plenty of work still to be done. They’ll have a little time to work on it but not much.

Thursday marks two full weeks of Gianni’s North American circus. How many teams can we say, upon patient reflection, look fully there? At a push two — Argentina and France. Norway look very fun and have an argument to be included in that top bracket. Their meeting with the French is as tantalizing a group stage game. And one which we actually could and should read plenty into.

Yet for all of the absurd early heroics of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, the opposition again has to be taken into consideration. Will Algeria and Austria still be here by the time we reach what was traditionally the start of the knockout stages — the last 16? Doesn’t feel the safest bet. Senegal should scrape it, but Iraq surely won’t.

The first day off of this breakneck tournament doesn’t arrive until after the last 16, Wednesday July 8 to be exact, a full 27 days into the thing.

Perhaps Fifa themselves, much like their friend and fixer in the Oval Office, would prefer there’s no time for reflection at all.