MOSCOW: FIFA’s Technical Study Group (TSG) for the World Cup certainly packs a punch. Possessing a wealth of football experience, it appeared for the first time before reporters on Thursday, three days before the World Cup final.

It has Carlos Alberto Parreira, Marco van Basten, Bora Milutinovic, Emmanuel Emenike and Andy Roxburgh and the World Cup so far was attempted to summarise in an hour in the press conference room at the Luzhniki Stadium, the venue for Sunday’s final. The topics ranged from playing styles to set-pieces, from Neymar to Video-Assistant Referees (VAR), and Pep Guardiola.

It started with a reflection of how football has changed. “I have seen how football has changed over the years,” said Parreira, the man who led Brazil to the World Cup title in 1994 and holds the record for attending five World Cups as a national team manager, one he shares with Milutinovic who has taken five different teams.

“We’ve seen a lot of transformation inside and outside the pitch but I’d rather say that the great change was outside the pitch. There is more money, advertising and infrastructure. The game is quicker, faster and there are transitions and markings. One thing, however, that hasn’t changed is talent, skill and the passion for the game.”

Three extremely talented teams — Germany, Brazil and Argentina — though, are not amongst the finalists. Instead, it is Croatia against France, two teams that have both talent and industry.

“I agree talent is very important,” said Milutinovic. “But being in good spirits is also very important for a team. We have seen during the tournament that teams which have made greater efforts have gone farther.”

There was talk about the failure of African teams and the Arab teams — both attributed to the well-known lack of infrastructure development and planning — before it moved on to the more interesting topics.

“The competitive balance at the World Cup has been really interesting and the smaller nations have made a statement,” said Andy Roxburgh, the AFC Technical Director. “We’ve seen attention to detail in the set-pieces. If you compare the UEFA Champions League to the World Cup, it has one conversion to 45 corners to one in 30 here at the World Cup. That shows incredible efficiency. The detail that has gone into the set pieces has been amazing.”

He attributed the VAR for the increasing conversion-rate. “VAR was not only to minimise mistakes but it also had a deterrent effect,” he said. “After the initial part of the competition, pushing and tugging and shoving has almost been eliminate for the fear of getting caught and people have the freedom to move a bit more than before.”

It was here that Guardiola was first mentioned. “We’ve seen the Pep effect at this World Cup, the ability to play through the back and through the middle,” he said.

“Linked to all of that is this ability to attack through this possession it requires speed of thought. In the Champions League last year, there were three schools of football. But here you get this incredible variety of thoughts and ideas. Yes there has been globalisation and Champions League but we’ve seen a variety of ideas.”

Both van Basten, the legendary Dutch striker who’s now FIFA’s chief officer for development presented their views on Neymar’s antics. The Brazilian has been widely criticised for diving and play-acting.

“It’s not a good attitude in general. You have to try to do your best and be sporting and if you act too much, it is not going to help,” said van Basten. “That’s a point in which I think he should personally understand his situation. It’s always nice if we have some humour in the game and he makes people laugh and that is positive.”

Parreira was more sympathetic, reasoning that Neymar has been on the end of some rough treatment from his opponents. “He gets knocked around a lot, suffers a lot of fouls and sometimes he does go down unintentionally. He attracts this sort of publicity but for us, he is still a player who makes the difference.”

He added that pressure on Neymar and Brazil will be huge at its next edition in Qatar after they exited in the quarter-final stage this time.

“There is pressure since we haven’t now won it in 20 years,” said Parreira. “It’s very difficult to be a World Cup winner. You need many things. This team lacked in experience.”

Looking ahead to this year’s final, van Basten said it was ‘very interesting’.

“Croatia have good players, who all play for big clubs,” said van Basten. “Their strength is that they’re a fighting team. They are fighting until the end. France, meanwhile, also have top players. Small margins will decide the outcome of the game.”

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2018