Why You Care: Norwayβs 2-0 shocker over Brazil on Sunday to send it onto the World Cup quarter-finals illustrated one thing plainly: Erling Haaland is the most indispensable player in the entire tournament.
Please note the careful word choice. I don't think Haaland is the best player, but I do think he is a singular force for Norway in a way other countries still playing don't have to rely on. Leo Messi unlocks Argentina's attack, but that lineup has plenty of talent throughout it, the requisite experience to make a run at a title, and a big-match goalie in Emiliano MartΓnez.
France? Forget it. Take Kylian MbappΓ© off that squad and the two best players in the tournament might still be French. (Michael Olise and Ousmane DembΓ©lΓ© have both shone at this tournament.) Harry Kane is the man for Englandβ¦unless it's Jude Bellingham like it was last night. Goals scored in open play > penalty goals in my book.
Where would this Norway team be without Haaland? Back in Norway, Iβd say. But the Man City striker is the type of player that confounds. Heβs out there for one reason and one reason alone. To score goals. He and his team know it. The opposition knows it. Gameplan for it, base your entire defense around it, and still, he nets two against one of the best goalies in the world yesterday.
He even varied up the way in which he scored. Norwayβs first goal was classic Haaland, the 6β5β behemoth towering over a Brazilian defender to head in a well-placed cross. The second goal? A lethally precise strike from outside the box, not something Haaland does all that often, but a gorgeous goal nonetheless.
Haaland's brace (weird world for a two-goal performance) eliminated Brazil and put him into a tie for the Golden Boot with MbappΓ© and Messi at seven goals apiece. He hasn't recorded any assists (again, not really what's asked of him,) but the #9 has carried his team into a surprising quarter-finals appearance. No one should be surprised by Haaland's brilliance at this point, but that doesn't mean we can't still be in awe of it. |
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