By Aldwyn McGill


The next few days at the FIFA World Cup here in Qatar will provide a lot of excitement not just for football fans but the avid sports enthusiast who can enjoy the anxieties and entertainment that come with the quarter finals. It’s a do or die scenario since a win is the only thing that can secure a team advancement.
Supporters of teams which were on the short end of results have now taken to social media to justify their talking points from their living their rooms as coaches. In Qatar, however, even the fans, whose teams were eliminated recognize that there can only be one winner and continue to enjoy the excitement of the tournament with other fans
Canada’s participation at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar was everything I expected and then some. It was a team which had re-appeared after 36 years and the inexperience showed. However, the team created an unforgettable impression against Belgium to start the tournament and that will no doubt serve as the benchmark for future teams.

Canada ends their world cup schedule in search of an equalizer up to the final whistle against Morocco and that was also an inspiring performance despite their early mistakes. Canada’s world cup scoring drought is now a thing of the past after the team scored in their last two games and could have scored in all three matches had the awarded penalty been converted in the first match.
Moving forward with coverage of the world cup in Qatar, all eyes are on the quarter final matchups due to what occurred at the just completed Round of Sixteen knock out phase. It is a trend that began with the elimination of Belgium and Germany at the group stage and it has continued into the Round of sixteen.
Therefore, it is anyone’s guess which of the favoured teams will get caught blinking and be a part of the elimination story line at Qatar world cup. England and Portugal were running under the radar before the round of 16. However, they are in everyone’s sight now after England thoroughly outplayed a good Senegal team for a 3-0 win, while Portugal defeated Switzerland 6-1 with

Ronaldo on the bench for most of the game.
Everyone is aware that Morocco, the last African hope in the tournament, has eliminated Spain (3-0) on penalty kicks after the game remained scoreless after overtime.
At this stage nothing is a given without lethal goal scoring execution because the dreaded penalty kicks, for the most part, favours the underdog. Based on that theory one would have to conclude that Brazil, Portugal, England and France are in the best position to execute after France defeated Poland 3-1 with France Kylian Mbappe leading all scorers in the race for the adidas Golden Boot with 5 goals while eight other players trail with three goals.
However, come Friday December 9th (at 10am EST) Croatia will be up against Brazil, followed by Netherlands versus Argentina (2pm EST) with Messi and company. On Saturday 10th, it will be Africa’s last hope with Morocco going up against Portugal (at 10am EST) followed by a mouth-watering matchup between France and England (at 2pm EST).