Here’s a roundup of the biggest stories from last year’s World Cup
Lesson summary
Hi there everyone, I’m Jeff and this is Plain English lesson number 536 on Monday, January 9, 2023. If you’re listening in January 2023, then you’re starting the year off right with us. We’re starting our sixth year together here at Plain English, can you believe that? We started, tentatively, at the end of 2017 and then really got going in early 2018. So five years in total, we’re now in our sixth year of helping learners around the world upgrade their English with current events and trending topics.
And we have a lot planned for this year. We’ll do our full schedule of lessons, two a week, all year. But I also have some surprises to share with you throughout the year, so keep listening every Monday and Thursday.
Coming up today: The action on the field at the 2022 World Cup. We’ll talk about five storylines of the world’s most popular sporting tournament. They are: the final game, the success of the Arab world, some early exits, and Qatar’s success as a host. The expression is “grow closer” and we have a quote of the week. Let’s get going.
Four stories from the 2022 World Cup
The final
Qatar got the final it wanted: a matchup between two of the world’s soccer powers, France and Argentina. It featured one of the game’s most storied legends, Argentina’s Lionel Messi, and one of its most exciting younger players, France’s 23-year-old Kylian Mbappé.
Lionel Messi was looking for his first World Cup victory; it was the one triumph in soccer he had not yet achieved. France was hoping to be only the third country to win two World Cups in a row. A crowd of almost 89,000 people watched as France and Argentina battled to a 2-2 tie after 90 minutes. Each team scored once in the 30 minutes of extra time; a penalty shootout would be required to break the 3-3 tie.
Lionel Messi scored two of Argentina’s three goals; Kylian Mbappé scored all of France’s, for a hat trick. Those two were also the number-one and number-two scorers in Qatar’s World Cup; when they are not playing for their national teams, they both play for Paris Saint-Germain. That club, by the way, is owned by the Qatari government.
Back to the game: To break the tie , each team got up to five penalty kicks; Argentina made its first four, while France made only two of its first four attempts, giving Argentina its third-ever World Cup victory.
Lionel Messi posted a photo collage of himself celebrating his first-ever World Cup victory, a triumph he had waited a lifetime for. It became the most-liked Instagram post of all time.
Arab world success
But even before the final, there were some great stories. Japan, Australia and South Korea each made their first appearances in the Round of 16. Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player to score a goal in five World Cups.
Saudi Arabia beat the eventual winners, Argentina, in their first game, a stunning upset and a feather in the cap of the Arab world. Qatar lost all three of the games it played, though it did score a goal against Senegal.
Morocco united the Arab world with a push into the semifinals, laying waste to powerhouse sides from Belgium, Spain and Portugal along the way. This was the first time an African country competed in the semifinals of the World Cup. Even in its defeat in the semifinals, the crowd in Qatar was standing by Morocco. As the end of the game grew closer , the crowd chanted “Viva Maghreb,” despite France’s 2-0 lead.
Early exits
If some teams had unexpected success, pushing deep into the tournament, then that means some highly-rated teams took an early flight home. Germany was knocked out in the Group stage for the second consecutive time. Going into the tournament, Belgium was the number-two team in international rankings. They, too, met with an early demise: they were also knocked out during the Group stage.
Brazil, ranked number one, had high hopes for winning the tournament; they were knocked out by Croatia in the quarterfinals.
Qatar
Qatar had a good World Cup—not the team, the country.
Qatar was a good tournament host. Fans from all over the world traveled to Doha and went home with good stories; the final count isn’t known, but Qatar reported about 800,000 international arrivals. The infrastructure worked; visitors commented on how accessible everything was. They complimented the hosts on their hospitality.
Qatar also got a chance to show off its local culture. Al Bayt Stadium was designed to look like an enormous Bedouin tent. Qatar’s ruler, the emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, presented Lionel Messi, perhaps the world’s greatest soccer player, with the 18-carat gold World Cup trophy. As he did so, he wrapped Messi in a bisht, a black cloak worn on special occasions.
International fans were able to talk with ordinary Qataris in the stadiums and celebrating on the streets. Some Qatari fans said they patiently explained their culture to curious visitors.
More than anything, the eyes of the world were on tiny Qatar for an entire month, an accomplishment that no other Arab country has managed. Qatar stood out from some of its big neighbors and began to carve out its own identity in the Arab world.
More desert soccer
There will be more soccer in Qatar. Just before the World Cup started, Qatar won the rights to the 2023 Asian Cup, a tournament that was supposed to take place in China. At the time, a whole two months ago, China was pursuing a “zero-COVID” policy, which would not have permitted an international tournament. So the Asian Confederation opened up bidding and selected Qatar over Indonesia and South Korea. The tournament would have been in mid-2023, but will probably be moved to early 2024, due to the summer heat. Qatar is also bidding to host the 2027 Asian Cup.
And there will be more eyes on soccer in the Middle East, too. Cristiano Ronaldo just last week signed a two-and-a-half year contract to play for a team in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. The contract is valued at €200 million.
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