Before things get underway, let’s confront the elephant in the room. We’re all grown-ups here, because presumably all of the kids are second-screening on TikTok, so let’s just say the quiet part out loud: no, World Cup knockout games are not pretty. To newcomers, they may seem cagey, attritional. To older hands, the aesthetic quality of the play pales in comparison to, say, the latter rounds of the Champions League.
There are a few reasons for that. One is that these teams have had far less time to develop a cogent style than their club counterparts, who train together all year.