The Belgium versus Canada game was perhaps the first time in the entire World Cup that a losing squad needs to feel extremely proud of themselves. Canada came out and really punched the Belgium squad in the mouth. There are two reasons why Canada was not able to come away with that game, maybe 3. Number one is Belgium’s number one Thibaut Courtois. Alphonso Davies got cold feet there’s no way around that. The same could be said about Robert Lewandowski yesterday though. Just to point out that it happens to the best of them! Courtois, though, gives Belgium a chance to win every game because he keeps them in every game.
The second reason why Belgium was able to come away with a win was because the game was refereed by a person who has no business being in charge of a World Cup game. The reff hozed Canada multiple times, not calling at least 3 more penalties in their favor. The linesman called an offside when the Belgium player passed the ball back into his own box. This is not a knock on African refs. We’ve seen refs from other small countries like Qatar and the UAE do a good job, and we’ve seen refs from other African countries do well. These three guys and the Venezuelan in VAR were a disaster.
Why Is This All Good News For Belgium?
The article was supposed to be about Belgium, but we’ve talked more about Canada to this point. Which, we could argue, is an accurate depiction of what happened on the field. Everyone thought that this was going to be a game that Belgium could dominate. We mentioned that we expected Canada to rely a lot on the counter. That wasn’t the case though, it was the high pressure that was giving Belgium a ton of problems. For Belgium though the biggest positive is the win. They proved that they can get through rough patches and still come out on top.
Courtois is going to take the front pages because of the save, but really the Belgian back line held up rather well under a ton of pressure. Even though Canada had the ball they didn’t exactly find too many chances to take on Courtois 1v1. Perhaps they could’ve tried more outside shots. They suffered from some of the same things Mexico dealt with against Poland. Belgium proved that they are strong at the back and that even without Lukaku they can be lethal up front without needing too many chances! Those are the positives.
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They’re Going To Have To Play Themselves Into Shape
Sure, England’s win, and Spain’s win look great on the resume, and they can certainly be huge confidence builders. At the same time though they can end up being counterproductive. Because you didn’t face truly World Cup level competition. So you can go into your next game with a ton of false confidence. Belgium though is like a fighter that was on the ropes for a few rounds, but ultimately got the knock-out win. You love the win, in a spot like that, but you also understand that there are things you need to improve on if you don’t want to get knocked out yourself the next time around.
Morocco looked good in their game against Croatia, and they are very much still in the tournament. Croatia now has to go face an impressive Canada team. What this means for Belgium is that they’re going to be facing tough competition from the word go. That can really help shape a team. Especially through a very quick tournament where you usually don’t have a lot of time to play yourself into shape.
