Favourite moments of FIFA 2022: Adventures of Lionel Messi, and other short stories

For the game against Switzerland, Neymar was injured and Brazil’s frontline was lacking teeth. Casemiro, officially identified as a defensive midfielder, would connect a match-winner with barely 7 minutes left to take his team into the last 16. It was a strike that would have made even a world-class forward feel inadequate. The acrobatic audacious goal had a Selecao stamp on it and a predictable head-shaking, eye-popping reaction from the world.
It was also his hat-doff to his country’s unique football culture. In his nation of record-breaking goal-scorers, everyone on the field fancies their chance to beat the goalkeeper and, more importantly, are equipped to beat the defense – even those who ply their trade as a defender. It’s this urge to find the net that made Casemiro wander to the far end of the field and once there, he wasn’t like fish outside water. Before describing the breath-taking goal, the back story about why Brazilians are football’s amphibians – biologically blessed to be at home anywhere on the field.
Till date, top clubs like Brazilian Palmeiras and Flamengo regularly take their academy trainees to favelas so that organised training doesn’t regiment the street-footballer in them or take them too far away from the soul of Brazilian football. The tiny clearings of the dense Dharavi-kind slums are the football fields where innovation and originality are born.Subscriber Only StoriesPremiumPremiumPremiumPremium
Brazil’s Casemiro celebrates his team victory at the end of the World Cup group G soccer match between Brazil and Switzerland, at the Stadium 974 in Doha, Qatar, Monday, Nov. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
It’s at these amateur games that a young talented dribbler needs to get the better of a burly pub-bouncer, a local drunk or a has-been pro to get the ball between a make-do goal – two bricks kept a few meters apart. It’s here they learn to utilise tiny spaces and the skill to kick the ball with every part inch of their feet. Toe poke, back heel, giving the ball a brush of the foot-fingers, curving the outside of boot – the plain vanilla kick with the inside of the foot is way too boring for them.
Casemiro, who grew up in a difficult neighbourhood, awakened the inner street-baller in him. He showed the Brazilian DNA that gives him an attacking instinct. With no urgency, he ambled into the penalty box with five defenders in front of him. Two of them went towards the left-flank to double team the dangerous Brazilian winger Vinicius Junior. Casemiro got space and walked further ahead. His back was still towards the goal, as he watched Vinicius cut in.
the time the ball reached him, he had taken a quick 180 degree turn. Facing the goal now, he unleashed a first-time drive with the outside of his foot. Like a James Anderson away swinger, the ball would travel diagonally across the penalty box and durb the side-netting. The Swiss goal-keeper remained glued in his stance. That evening at the favela, many young dribblers would have attempted the Casemiro banana kick with the outside of their bare feet.
– Sandeep Dwivedi
Neymar comforted Leo Perisic
Brazil’s Neymar celebrates scoring his side’s second goal during the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Brazil and South Korea, at the Stadium 974 in Al Rayyan, Qatar, Monday, Dec. 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)
While the Qatar World Cup has given me a life-time memory of seeing Lionel Messi win his maiden World Cup trophy, one of my everlasting memory of World Cups has been watching Diego Maradona’s Argentina team suffer a 1-0 loss against Lothar Matthaus’s West Germany in the 1990 final as a seven-year-old on national broadcaster Doordarshan. And watching Croatian midfielder Ivan Perisic’s son Leo Perisic in the Croatian red-white checkerboard shirt comforting Brazilian striker Neymar after Brazil’s loss on penalties against the Luka Modric-led Croatian side has to be the memory of this World Cup. Like Messi, Neymar was also chasing World Cup glory and as a heartbroken Neymar embraced the young Leo and shook his hands, it would certainly have made him forget the loss for a few minutes, and to hope again. Neymar is 30 right now and he too can emulate Messi in the 2026 World Cup.
– Nitin Sharma
Stephanie Frappart: first woman to referee men’s World Cup game
Referee Stephanie Frappart gives directions during the French Cup final soccer match between Nice and Nantes at the Stade de France stadium, in Saint Denis, north of Paris, Saturday, May 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Chrophe Ena)
In all the negativity surrounding Qatar World Cup, with stories about their anti-LGBTQ stance, women’s rights issues, the ban on alcohol and deaths of migrant labourers, a horic moment at a FIFA World Cup has largely flown under the radar.
Stephanie Frappart made hory in this tournament as the first woman to referee a men’s World Cup match. Alongside assants Neuza Back from Brazil and Karen Diaz from Mexico, the Frenchwoman formed part of an all-female refereeing trio officiating the Costa Rica vs Germany Group E match.
For FIFA to grow, it was imperative that they included women at their quadrennial extravaganza. since they have been doing some phenomenal work at every level of the game, especially grassroots.
In total, six female referees were selected to call games in Qatar. They were all made to pass the same fitness tests as their male colleagues.
For them though, it was not really about breaking barriers. It was more about having equal opportunities and being rewarded for their consent performances.
Next up: female coaches at the men’s World Cup.
– Anil Dias
Message loud and clear
General view as England’s Harry Kane wears a OneLove armband before the match. (
We love our idols, especially athletes to be the voice of the masses. Good days, bad days there are still plenty of loyal fans who swear their hero. In a World Cup that had plenty of controversy to write home about, the manner in which teams made political statements are bound to make some fans beat their chest with pride. Be it the Iran team standing up for women back home or Germany covering their mouths as a protest to the OneLove armband ban.
Of course, these things wouldn’t bring about any significant immediate change visibly, but to take a stand in the most watched sporting event on the earth is one to be celebrated. Remember how the whole of Brazil rallied behind Richarlison for standing up to the previous right-wing government that was dividing the society? It is hard to determine the sort of impact these protests and messages had on the masses now, but when the tide changes and Iran women walk around without Hijab and LGBTQ+ people roam around freely in Qatar, the images of Iran and Germany players will hold a special place in hory.
– Venkata Krishna B
Asano’s underdog uprising
Japan’s Takuma Asano celebrates end of the World Cup group E soccer match between Germany and Japan, at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
It was a climax straight out of manga: an understated Japanese warrior, all of 5’5″, on a collision course with an onrushing, six-foot-two German giant, channelling all the strength to overpower him and finding balance to launch a shot that could’ve torn the net.
Takumi Asano’s 83rd-minute goal in the group stage not only stunned the Germans and continued the underdog uprising – Saudi Arabia had beaten Argentina just the day before – but it also shattered a stereotype or two. The run and the finish busted the myth that Asians weren’t physically as strong as the Europeans – a view commonly held about Japanese players, no matter how talented. The moment was also symbolic in the sense that the win underlined the rising stature of Asian football, which is never taken too seriously globally.
Special mention: Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou’s toddler son salivating while looking at a mic as his dad gave an interview, and then actually licked it twice, thinking it’s ice cream. Has to be the most adorable moment of the World Cup.
– Mihir Vasavda
Criano Ronaldo’s a mortal
Portugal’s Criano Ronaldo walks on the pitch during the World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Morocco and Portugal, at Al Thumama Stadium in Doha, Qatar, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)
For those few seconds, the Criano Ronaldo of old reappeared. The ball from the right was played into space with the hope that Ronaldo would get there. There were two Moroccans marking him. Surely at 37, the speed in his legs were gone, they would have though. 90+2 minutes on the clock, Portugal trailing and on the verge of being knocked out. If there was a moment of redemption this had to be it. The burst of speed was phenomenal from man desperate to lift himself and Portugal from depths of agony. The ball had suddenly gained speed, almost like it was trying to mock Ronaldo. Yet he latched onto it, left the Moroccans in his wake and was perfectly placed to beat the indestructible Bono, the goalie. Inches to the left with a little more power and Ronaldo would have been off, to the closest camera, jumping in the air and landing with this arms his side and screaming Siuuuu. Ronaldo had found his explosiveness one last time in a World Cup. In his prime there would be only one winner in such a one-on-one situation. Here he looked ashen-faced and turned skywards briefly. A what-could-have-been moment, that marked the end of one of the great careers. He had come off the bench with eyes glowing with ambition only to leave with tears rolling down, and perhaps for the first time felt mortal, like us mortals.
– Nihal Koshie
Woot woot Wout!: Individual inspiration + collective choreography
Argentina’s Lionel Messi celebrates with the trophy after winning the World Cup final soccer match between Argentina and France at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, Sunday, Dec.18, 2022. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Despite the narrative of the tournament being tailored around Lionel Messi and Argentina, it was the move that nearly foiled them that stood out: Wout Weghorst’s short-free kick goal to equalise for the Netherlands in the 102nd minute of regulation time in the quarterfinal.
It was ingenuity that is hard to describe – the timing, the foresight to pull it off, the deceptively-taken short free-kick from Koopmeiners, the run and composed finish from Weghorst, the wild celebrations. A moment of individual inspiration and collective choreography that can encapsulate, on its own, the sporting theatre this World Cup will be remembered for.
To top it all off, that Louis Van Gaal had his fingerprints all over it, in his last decisive action in an over 40-year-long football career, made it sweeter. That the Dutch coach could continue to impact the sport’s grandest stage nearly three decades after his coaching peak, and less than a year after a successful battle with prostrate cancer, was one of the underrated stories of the tournament.
– Namit Kumar
You don’t tell Messi he won’t win! Coz then he will
With the knowledge of hindsight, a moment from Argentina’s first game now looks so unreal. Leo Messi was walking, when Saudi Arabia’s Ali Al-Bulayhi tapped him on the shoulder to say, “You will not win”. Messi seemed too startled to react and stayed mum. A novice daring a champion who seemed too meek and resigned. A dreadful deja-vu of previous failed World Cups spread, especially after ‘where is Messi?’ memes. But that turned out to be the last moment Messi was quiet. Messi 2.0 was upon us from the next game: the hitherto unknown angry mouth, sledges, fights with referees and opponents, the emotional lodestar, the pied piper of crowds, a man who stretched out to tie destiny to his yoke. Argentinian people who had been cold to Messi in the past were moved this spectacle of Messi extending himself, almost going beyond character, for them.
– Sriram Veera
Mbappe- loneliness of Geoff Hurst sprinkled with French despair
France’s Kylian Mbappe holds the Golden Boot award for top goalscorer of the tournament after the World Cup final soccer match between Argentina and France at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022. Argentina won 4-2 in a penalty shootout after the match ended tied 3-3. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
To sit on the bench and watch Argentines weep. To walk to the podium knowing you weren’t going to take the World Cup. To then stand on the sideline as Lionel Messi lifts what you wanted.
Kylian Mbappe took the loneliness of Geoff Hurst and sprinkled a bit of French despair onto it. There are now two players who have scored a hat-trick in the World Cup Final. Mbappe is the only one in the hory of football to score one and not go home with the title. The loneliest of lonely spots, now solely his.
Gut-wrenching failures make athletes. Mbappe’s already astronomical stock was never lower after he changed the dynamics of player power in football, what with his new contract with Paris Saint Germain and the control it exudes. This adds character to his story arc. But it’s a cruel tw of fate. To score three at a stage that hallowed and still have to watch the greatest of all time walk away with it – is an all-time great World Cup story. But if Mbappe can take anything away from Messi, for every 2014, there’s a 2022.
– Shashank Nair
Mbappe – like Jonah Lomu’s freight train in ballet shoes
In this World Cup, Mbappe showed what is possible, and there’s a lot more to come from him.
Nothing could match the sense of anticipation and adrenaline to what one feels when Kylian Mbappe gets the ball the touchline and runs at defenders. There is something primal in the excitement one derives from the sight – as if a tiger is launching at its prey.
Football and rug are similar sports in some respects, and watching Mbappe in full flight is akin to witnessing former All Blacks star Jonah Lomu during the 1995 World Cup. For his unprecedented speed, strength and overall athletic skill, the New Zealander was nicknamed the ‘freight train in ballet shoes’, a description which fits Mbappe just fine.
Allied to everything else he has got, the French phenom has confidence in abundance, and a sense of occasion. Anybody else in his situation would have let the looping ball drop at the edge of the Argentine penalty area, controlled it with a touch, and gone closer to goal before having an attempt. Not Mbappe. He took the ball in the air, and with one swing of the foot, found the far corner of the net.
In this World Cup, Mbappe showed what is possible, and there’s a lot more to come from him.
– Tushar Bhaduri
No Italy, No World Cup
Italy Football Team (FILE)
That’s it. The no-moment ‘Noment’. For how can World Cups even bother to occur without Italy? And without their dreaded defensive might and their brooding midfield string-pullers, namely Pirlo. Two editions have gone past attempting to identify their make-do alternates, in vain. So one must settle for snatches of their shadows, glimpses of their likeness spread across teams, without bothering to root for one team or look for anything more meaningful than an excerpt passage of play.
That earnest Busquets attempt to string together a move which ended in nothing in the final third as they went down to Morocco. Jules Kounde’ heroic goal line clearance to stop Azzedine Ounahi because Gatusso was long gone, and Chielleni and Bonucci couldn’t drag them into even qualifying for the World Cup. Or kinda, sorta shifting allegiance to Aguerd, Saiss & El Yamiq because they were quite brilliant. Giroud’s poaching swoop, because Quagliarella used to, back in that 2010 edition. Every powerful drive fed off Lloris or Bounou or Dibu Martinez, because Gigi Buffon once could flap away those.
Perhaps the best thing about ‘No Italy’ was you could marvel at Messi’s asss and Mbappe’s never-give-uppers equally, without the ugly partisanship that saw in football many a malicious metaphors.
– Shivani Naik