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      Erling Haaland and Norway Miss the World Cup

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      Norway’s failure to qualify for Qatar means Erling Haaland will have to watch from home. Norway has taken it in stride.Somewhere, in a darkened room, Erling Haaland was watching. Injury meant he would not be able to take the field for Norway’s most significant match in 20 years. The Netherlands’ return to partial lockdown last weekend meant, with the game played behind closed doors, he would not even be able to support his national team from the stands.Instead, Haaland had to follow from afar, powerless to help. Two minutes into the game, he posted an image of the game’s television broadcast on Instagram, accompanied by a Norwegian flag and the heart emoji. There was, then, still a scintilla of hope. Norway needed to beat the Netherlands, in Rotterdam, to have a chance of qualifying automatically for its first World Cup since 1998, and its first major tournament since 2000.If Turkey — the other contender in the group — had lost its final game, against Montenegro, then a tie would have been enough to keep Norway alive, too, at least for the time being: A second-place finish would have earned the Norwegians a slot in the playoffs for Europe’s three final berths in Qatar. Those games will be played in March. Haaland would have been fit by then, and a fit Haaland would have changed everything.It will not matter now. Turkey won, after falling behind to an early goal in Podgorica, leaving Norway no choice but to gamble, to win, to have any hope. Instead, its team seemed to freeze, falling to a limp, toothless 2-0 defeat. “They only had half a chance,” as Louis van Gaal, the Dutch coach, put it.Norway’s path to the 2022 World Cup ended with a loss to the Netherlands on Tuesday.John Thys/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThat was no surprise, given the circumstances. “They have a great team spirit,” Virgil van Dijk, the Netherlands captain, said of Norway. “They never give up.” But, he said, “they have a fantastic striker, who they naturally missed.” That fantastic striker had been condemned to watching from home. He did not post again. His feed, like his room, had gone dark.That Haaland will not be present in Qatar next year is, from a neutral perspective, a source of regret. He is already one of the world’s most devastating strikers, the scorer of 70 goals in 69 games since joining Borussia Dortmund in January 2020, including 13 in only 10 appearances this season before sustaining a hip injury — expected to sideline him until next year — in October.Together with Kylian Mbappé, the 21-year-old Haaland is already seen as the standard-bearer for soccer’s first post-Lionel-Messi-and-Cristiano-Ronaldo generation. By the time the World Cup rolls around next November, he may be one of the most expensive players on the planet, too.After failing to sign Harry Kane last summer, Manchester City’s chief executive, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, instructed the club’s recruitment department to make acquiring Haaland — whose father, Alfie, played for City in its previous incarnation as a lovable, hapless underdog — its primary focus. Extracting him from Dortmund will cost somewhere north of $150 million.That soccer’s quadrennial showpiece will take place without a player of that skill, that value, dulls its luster just a little. Within Norway, though, the country’s absence from Qatar has been greeted with circumspection, rather than a sense of crisis.“We have done well to have a chance at all,” Erik Thorsvedt, a former national team goalkeeper who now works as a television analyst, said before Norway’s final two qualifiers: a dispiriting goalless draw with Latvia, which left the team with no margin for error, and Tuesday’s defeat against the Netherlands.“Our first ‘home’ game was not at home at all: We had to play Turkey in Spain because of Covid restrictions in Norway, and we lost. Given the circumstances, given the draw, given where we were seeded, that we are in contention even to make the playoffs is a success.”That it now possesses one of the most coveted players in the world did not mean Norway started qualification for Qatar with any great expectations; indeed, many in the country were uneasy at the prospect of legitimizing a tournament as swaddled in controversy by playing in it.Norway’s players wore shirts protesting Qatar’s human rights record before a World Cup qualifier in Spain in March.Jorge Guerrero/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBesides, Norway does not feel it has any deep-seated right to make it as far as the finals. Other than that brief, bright window of hope in 1998 and 2000, and a group-stage exit in the United States in 1994, it has only ever qualified for one other major tournament: the 1938 World Cup, where it played one game, lost it and promptly went home.It is the sort of record that prompted Karl Ove Knausgaard, the country’s celebrated novelist and autobiographer, to describe the team’s history as a series of games “in rainy Eastern Europe that they lost.”“The matches did not last an hour and a half,” he wrote. “They played up to five, six hours at a time, almost like in cricket.”The Norway that made it to France in 1998 and the Netherlands and Belgium two years later, for the European Championship, was the exception, not the rule. When the success faded, and mediocrity set in, Knausgaard found it comforting. “It was as if childhood came back, the world resumed its usual form,” he wrote. “Reassurance lay around me like a gray cardigan and a pair of gray felt slippers.”That downturn was linked, no doubt, to the diminishing numbers of Norwegians playing in elite European leagues, particularly the Premier League. For much of the 1990s, most English teams had some sort of Norwegian influence: 23 players from Norway were registered to top-flight English clubs in 1997, forming the core of the squad that would play in the World Cup at the end of that season.By 2014, that group was down to one: Brede Hangeland was the lone Norwegian representative in the Premier League. (“The Norwegian players in the big international clubs disappeared,” Knausgaard wrote. “Again, it became great to be a professional in Twente or Heerenveen or Nottingham or Fulham, and for an old man like me, it felt safe.”) England had always been Norway’s primary export market; now, English clubs were habitually shopping in France, Spain, Argentina and Brazil, and Norway suffered.That has, slowly, started to change, and Norway’s horizons have broadened as a result. Haaland is not the sole representative of the country’s new generation: He has been joined by Martin Odegaard, the Arsenal playmaker; Sander Berge, a well-regarded midfielder at Sheffield United; and Alexander Sorloth, a towering forward at Real Sociedad, the Spanish league leader.The depth of resources gives this campaign an air not of a missed opportunity, but a harbinger of a brighter future. “I am absolutely sure we will succeed in Germany 2024 if we continue with what we have started,” Stale Solbakken, the Norway coach, said on national television on Tuesday, referring to the next edition of the European Championship.There are plenty who read it the same way. “I’m sure that we will qualify for tournaments in the future,” said Henning Berg, the former Manchester United defender who formed part of Norway’s squads for both the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. “If it was just Haaland, then we would have a problem. We have seen with other countries that one top-class player, on their own, is not enough. But it is not just him.”This time, Haaland could do nothing but watch as Norway fell at the final hurdle, unable to cope with his absence. He, and the rest of his teammates, the rest of his country, will have to do the same in almost exactly a year, as the World Cup kicks off without one of the sport’s central figures. It feels, though, as if the exile is ending. Norway is confident that its time is coming again. Sooner or later, Haaland will lead his country out of the darkness, and into the light. More

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      After Mexico Win. U.S. Falls Flat in Draw Against Jamaica

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      Before a sparse Kingston crowd limited by pandemic regulations, the United States could not sustain the momentum from its victory against Mexico last week in front of raucous home fans.How do you keep your buzz going after an electrifying win over your fiercest rival in front of a raucous home crowd? How do you keep that momentum alive days later in a nearly empty stadium, on a pockmarked field, a thousand miles from home? Those were the questions for the United States men’s national soccer team on Tuesday night as it lined up to face Jamaica in its eighth qualifying match for the 2022 World Cup, four days after a thrilling, emotionally draining victory over Mexico.And for 90 or so minutes in Kingston, the Americans never really came up with answers, looking mostly spiritless in a 1-1 draw. “That was a rough game, not the result that we wanted,” said Timothy Weah, whose first-half goal was a bright spot in the team’s otherwise lackluster night. “Coming into the game, we wanted to win.”U.S. Coach Gregg Berhalter characterized the result as a good one: a hard-earned point in a tough environment on the road. But he acknowledged the outcome might have fallen short of some of the players’ expectations. Heading into the match, he had warned them about letting their energy dip after their big win over Mexico. “In the coaching world you talk about trap games,” he had said. “You talk about putting that last game behind you, and the next game is the most important game.” He called this meeting against Jamaica a “massive game.”But neither the team’s play nor the atmosphere reflected that premise.The stands were mostly empty as a result of pandemic restrictions, and the match played out on a dry, tattered field that grew increasingly shredded as the minutes progressed. On the ragged grass, each team was at least able to each create one moment of beauty. In the 11th minute, a give-and-go with Ricardo Pepi sent Weah skipping dangerously into the penalty area, where a crowd of Jamaicans awaited. But Weah kept going, dancing through a pair of defenders, keeping his balance while tiptoeing around a last-gasp challenge, before flicking the ball with his left foot off the far post and into the net. Weah said the game had special meaning for him: His mother’s side of the family is Jamaican, and his aunt was at the game. “My parents, they talked to me about it,” Weah said before the game. “They said don’t go too hard on their country. But obviously business is business.” Jamaica meant business, too. Michail Antonio, the third-leading scorer in the English Premier League, evened the score in thrilling fashion only 11 minutes later when he dribbled into a cubbyhole of a space more than 30 yards from the goal and decided to blast a speculative shot toward the net. The ball scudded over the outstretched arms of American goalkeeper Zack Steffen and under the crossbar, sparking cheers from the sparse, happily stunned crowd. “It’s one of those goals where you just turn around and clap your hands and say, ‘Amazing goal, amazing individual effort,’” Berhalter said.Jamaica had been flat through the first seven games of World Cup qualifying, accumulating just six points. But the United States has historically struggled to make an impact in Kingston, having compiled just one win, one loss and four draws in its previous six World Cup qualifying games in Jamaica before Tuesday. The Jamaicans lacked ambition and ideas at times on offense, but they made up for it with a level of physicality bordering on roughness. They appeared to take the lead in the dying minutes of the game when Damion Lowe scored on a header. But he was whistled for a foul (which replays showed to be questionable) that negated the goal.The United States looked pedestrian too, particularly in the midfield, where the presence of Weston McKennie, who missed the game because of yellow card accumulation, seemed to be missed.“It was a great experience for our team to go through that,” said Berhalter, who noted that the field conditions had disrupted some of his team’s passing efforts, “but you can see the guys are disappointed.” Christian Pulisic, who is still working his way back to fitness from a high ankle sprain, entered the game as a substitute with about half an hour to go. Coming into the game in a similar situation on Friday, he headed in the go-ahead goal. But he failed to conjure any salve for the Americans’ problems on Tuesday night, leaving the United States wondering where all the energy and urgency went. More

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      U.S. Beats Mexico and Then Rubs It In

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      Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie scored and the Americans, fueled by a perceived slight, reveled in their third win over their rival this year.CINCINNATI — Michael Jackson’s 1988 song “Man in the Mirror” — a classic tune, but no one’s idea of a rousing sports arena jam — was blaring over the stadium speakers late on Friday night as the U.S. men’s soccer team rollicked and embraced happily on the field.A bit less than half an hour earlier, Christian Pulisic had charged toward the sideline to celebrate the first of the Americans’ goals in their 2-0 victory against Mexico, lifting the front of his No. 10 jersey to reveal the same phrase, “Man in the Mirror,” scrawled in permanent marker on his white undershirt.At that moment, even reasonably well-informed American soccer fans might have been left scratching their heads at the references, struggling to understand what, exactly, was afoot.if you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself then make the change… pic.twitter.com/ST7fa1e3hr— U.S. Soccer MNT (@USMNT) November 13, 2021
      Welcome to the ferociously competitive, wonderfully petty and endlessly amusing rabbit hole of a rivalry between the soccer teams of the United States and Mexico.The feuding neighbors’ World Cup qualifying match on Friday night — an important one, with three points and first place in the group standings up for grabs — had all the hallmarks of a classic: two scintillating goals, two physical altercations, one red card and multiple instances of borderline inscrutable taunting wrapped inside layers of allusion.“We fiercely dislike Mexico’s soccer team,” U.S. Coach Gregg Berhalter said afterward, “and we’re fierce competitors, and we want to win every time we’re on the field.”To understand the Michael Jackson song and the homemade shirt and the Americans’ generally self-satisfied air after the game, one must go back to Tuesday, when Guillermo Ochoa, Mexico’s goalkeeper, suggested in an interview that the United States looked in the mirror and hoped to see Mexico, seemingly implying that the Americans’ wanted to mold themselves as a team in their rivals’ image.On the Richter scale of sports trash talk, the comments barely registered. But the young American team, which has had mixed success in building an identity through the first half of the 14-game qualifying tournament for the 2022 World Cup, seemed happy to run with them anyway, to use them as extra fuel.First came an unprompted response from Berhalter in his news conference the day before the game. He quipped that the Americans’ two wins over Mexico earlier this year had not done enough to win Mexico’s respect. His team would have to do more on Friday, he said. (The American fans had their say, too, booing Ochoa every time he touched the ball on Friday night.)Then came the players’ response on the field. The teams battled through a nervy first half, with goalkeeper Zack Steffen making two athletic saves to keep the Americans even. Then everything — the teams’ attacks, the players’ emotions — bubbled over in the second.Hard fouls and frequent skirmishes revealed the distaste the teams have for one another.Jeff Dean/Associated PressIn the latter of two on-field kerfuffles in the game, Mexico defender Luis Rodriguez menacingly grabbed wing Brendan Aaronson’s face from behind, prompting a long, ugly sequence of arguing among players from both teams. As the teams pushed and shoved, and as three yellow cards were shown, Pulisic was preparing to enter the field as a substitute. When he did, the rough gave way to the sublime.In the 74th minute, forward Timothy Weah received the ball on the right wing and calculated a sequence of dribbles down the edge of the penalty area, measuring out a pocket of space. Upon creating it, he thwacked an inch-perfect cross toward the mouth of the goal, where Pulisic flew in to head it past Ochoa to give the United States a 1-0 lead.It was Pulisic’s first touch of the ball in a competitive match for the United States since September, when he sustained a high ankle sprain during a qualifier in Honduras. As the sellout crowd of 26,000 roared, Pulisic paused to display his “Man in the Mirror” shirt before being mobbed by his teammates.Afterward, he sheepishly batted aside questions about his shirt, framing the episode as a little joke.“I think you guys know the message,” he said. “I don’t need to speak on it too much. It’s not a big thing.”Weston McKennie, center, with Tyler Adams and Christian Pulisic after McKennie’s goal doubled the Americans’ lead in the 85th minute.Julio Cortez/Associated PressWeah was much happier to elucidate. The night before the game, he said, he and defender DeAndre Yedlin asked one of the team’s staff members to draw the shirt for Pulisic to wear during the match.He painted the prank as a matter of pride.“Before the game Mexico was talking a lot of smack, and beating them shuts them up,” Weah said. “We have to continue to win games and continue to beat them, and that’s the only way we’re going to earn their respect.”After Pulisic’s goal, the Americans pressed for a second. When Weston McKennie delivered it in the 85th minute he prompted chants of “Dos a Cero!” — a reference to a famously recurring score line between the teams — from the stands.And after the final whistle, the team’s staff conspired to play “Man in the Mirror” over the loudspeakers to accompany the team’s postgame celebrations as a final, cheeky send-off.It was a comprehensive win for the Americans, who outshot Mexico by 18-8, and it pulled the United States into a tie on points with their archrival at the top of the standings with seven matches to go. The top three finishers in the group qualify automatically for the World Cup next year in Qatar.But more than the points, the young and inexperienced American players may cull more intangible benefits from the experience: a petty slight, a few impish inside jokes, a night of joy and perceived revenge — sports teams have bonded together over far less.“We talked about how we thought they didn’t think they gave us enough respect, and we had to go out and earn it,” Berhalter said. “And I think we went out and earned it today.” More

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      Ricardo Pepi Is the USMNT's Striker of the Moment

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      CINCINNATI — Ricardo Pepi is young. He is unproven, unseasoned and unfinished. He could use a few more lines on his résumé and possibly a couple of more pounds on his lanky frame.But because it has become equally evident in the early days of his career that Pepi possesses in abundant quantity the intangible, invaluable and often ephemeral magic needed to do the one thing valued above all else in soccer — because, in other words, he scores goals — none of the aforementioned stuff particularly matters.Pepi, 18, may or may not become the striker of the future for the United States men’s soccer team. Many have tried to make the position — the No. 9, in soccer parlance — their own, and most have failed. But questions about Pepi’s long-term viability, his ceiling as a player, can wait. At the moment, there is a World Cup to qualify for.And there is no question that Pepi is the American striker of right now.Ricardo Pepi in action against Panama last month. His five appearances with the national team have all come in World Cup qualifiers this fall.Arnulfo Franco/Associated Press“Pressure is nothing to him — I think he relishes it, more so than his age should allow,” said Eric Quill, who coached Pepi at North Texas S.C. in 2019 and 2020. “No. 9s, when they’re in great form, it’s like, ‘Look out.’ And I think he’s as confident as they come right now.”Ready or not, Pepi is being asked to carry a heavy responsibility on his teenage shoulders. After making his debut with the United States senior national team just two months ago, he was the only pure striker that Gregg Berhalter, the team’s coach, summoned for the team’s two World Cup qualifiers this month. The first of these was a marquee match on Friday night against Mexico in Cincinnati, where the U.S. won, 2-0.The show of faith, if risky, made sense: Pepi, who plays professionally for F.C. Dallas in Major League Soccer, had collected three goals and two assists in his first four appearances with the United States. He has also been one of the most consistent bright spots in the team’s somewhat shaky start to the qualifying tournament.Pepi is the youngest player on a notably young team. (“Lose Yourself” by Eminem was the top song in the country when he was born in January 2003, and Tom Brady had only one Super Bowl ring back then.) The youth of the American squad has been at once a point of pride (when things go well) and an excuse (when things don’t go as well). But the team’s disastrous failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup has helped coaches justify turning over a new leaf — track records be damned.Pepi embodies that desire to start fresh more than anyone. He is all potential, a blank slate personified.Yet his emergence could not be more timely. In recent years, the United States’ program has seen promising players sprout up all over the field. (American attacking midfielders, for instance, seem to be multiplying like jack rabbits.) But the center forward position has long been something of a barren patch.Brian McBride, who played from 1993 to 2006, remains the gold standard for American strikers, according to Herculez Gomez, a former national team striker. Jozy Altidore came closest to filling McBride’s shoes, Gomez said. Countless others have been hyped, but few have followed through.“We could start spouting off a lot names,” Gomez, now an analyst for ESPN, said about the revolving door of strikers. “A lot of players have been put in the role, but not a lot of guys have taken the reins.”He added with a laugh: “I was one of them.”Gomez said Pepi was raw, but undoubtedly promising, showing a sharp trajectory of improvement in the last year alone.“I think his mentality is the strongest trait he has,” Gomez said. “He’s just so hungry. He’s got this arrogance about him. Borderline cocky. A swagger to him.”That may be the case in the penalty area, but in most other circumstances Pepi is known as an introvert. In conversations with the news media, for example, he has a tendency to meander cautiously through the early beats of a response before settling on phrasing he has used before. (The problem with playing well, for some athletes, is that people want to speak with you.)Pepi scored two goals in his first game for the U.S. and then added two more in a win over Jamaica in his native Texas.Chuck Burton/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThis type of shyness might be concerning for a coach, were it not so easily, and so ferociously, shed on the field.“In the dressing room he was always kind of in the corner by himself,” said Francisco Molina, the former scouting director for F.C. Dallas, who met Pepi when he was playing in the team’s youth system. “On the field, he was a loud, screaming, rebellious kid.”The first thing Molina noticed about Pepi was his spindly frame. (“Like a baby deer, he said.”) The second was his steady stream of goals: He could score them with his right foot or his left, with his head, with his knees and shoulders and shins. He can find almost any way to nudge the ball into the net.“He has that instinct,” Molina said. “He’s a pure 9.”These skills have drawn interest from the top clubs in Europe. Among those tracking Pepi’s development, there seems to be agreement that his next step should be a careful, conscientious one — a spot on a good team in a medium-profile league, perhaps, or one on a medium-profile team in a top league.“You have to go somewhere where you play right away,” his U.S. teammate Chris Richards, who made a similar move to Europe from F.C. Dallas at age 18, said in an interview with the website Transfermarkt last week. “Sometimes you get caught up in the big names, but it might not be the perfect situation.”There appears to be consensus, too, on the one area where he could improve the most: playing with his back to the goal. In those situations, Pepi prefers laying the ball off quickly to a teammate to get himself moving again. He does not yet look as comfortable holding the ball and withstanding a physical challenge from a defender, the kind of pause that top strikers must master in order to give their teammates time to build an attack around them.For Pepi, the key may be as simple as putting on some muscle.“At the higher levels, the center backs, most of them are athletic beasts,” said Quill, Pepi’s former youth coach. “He’s got a slim frame. He’s going to have to do a lot of work in the gym.”Molina concurred. “His body hasn’t caught up to his brain yet,” he said.Already adept at finding spaces and converting scoring chance, Pepi will need to get stronger if he hopes to replicate his success in Major League Soccer in a European league.Tim Heitman/USA Today Sports, via ReutersPepi’s soccer brain and body will continue to develop, but his heart was already put to the test this past summer when he was forced to choose between representing the United States, where he was born, or Mexico, the home of his parents.Pepi grew up in San Elizario, Texas, a working-class town just outside El Paso. He spoke Spanish at home, followed Club América of the Mexican league, rooted for Mexico’s national team and idolized its stars. Moving seamlessly between cultures was natural for him, the way it can be for countless children of immigrants around the world.In the end, Pepi chose the United States because of the comfort he had developed with the federation, and because of the opportunities the team offered to help him to thrive.“Follow your own path,” Pepi said when asked what advice he might give to another Mexican American player facing the same choice. “Make your decision with your heart.”Michael Orozco, a fellow Mexican American who played 29 games for the U.S. national team, was happy with Pepi’s choice. But he warned that Pepi could expect criticism, even vitriol, from Mexican fans moving forward, perhaps as soon as Friday night.In 2012, Orozco scored for the United States in a friendly at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, helping to lead the Americans to their first-ever win on Mexican soil. Orozco, who was playing in the Mexican league at the time and now plays for the U.S.L.’s Orange County S.C., said he was criticized by his club teammates for scoring and, worse, for celebrating. Orozco said he had no regrets, and he hoped Pepi wouldn’t have any either.“He’s starting to prove himself,” he said. “Now, he has to live up to the potential.” More

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      For Qatar, the World Cup’s Glamour Is the Payoff

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      As the 2022 field starts to take shape, there is a sense that the host nation, after a decade of scrutiny and criticism, will at last get the return it expected.There have been times, over the last 11 years, over a decade of acrimony and accusation and controversy and scandal, when it has felt entirely reasonable to ask whether, deep down, in private moments and surreptitious whispers, some of those involved in winning the 2022 World Cup for Qatar might have wondered whether it has all been worth it.The cost of the project, the stadiums summoned from dust, the cities imagined out of nothing, the thousands of acres of grass and trees grown in desert sand, was all anticipated, built into the proposal. But those hundreds of billions are not the only price that has been paid.That one decision changed soccer on some fundamental, irrevocable level. This week, when the Premier League revealed its calendar for next season, it proudly claimed that it had hit upon a way to “limit” the impact of World Cup 2022 to a single campaign. In one sense, that is true. In another, the impact of the tournament is such that it has shot through the very fabric of the sport.Awarding the tournament to Qatar brought down an entire court of grasping, grifting princelings at FIFA. It led to sweeping anticorruption investigations and dawn raids on luxury hotels. It landed more than a few people on wanted lists and in jail. It ended the career of Michel Platini. Ultimately, it toppled Sepp Blatter.More than that, it undermined trust — perhaps fatally — in the body that is supposed to represent the best interests of the game. It violently ruptured the relationships between FIFA and all of the organizations that feed into it: the confederations, leagues, clubs, unions and fans.The Al Thumama stadium, which was christened last month, is one of eight constructed or refurbished for use at next year’s World Cup.Karim Jaafar/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe vote for Qatar in 2010 is not quite soccer’s original sin: The antipathy and mistrust that characterizes the sport predates the moment Blatter, to an audible gasp, revealed that Qatar would stage the biggest — second-biggest, for readers in the United States — sporting event in the world. But it is difficult not to believe that, from that day on, those divisions became more pronounced, more concrete, more bilious, and that the game has never recovered.Those involved in the vote, those targeted by the investigations, those hounded out of office or raised from their beds by the Swiss police would, most likely, be of the view that perhaps it might have been better if Australia had won.So, too, of course, would those migrant workers who have died during Qatar’s unprecedented building spree in the years since it won hosting rights. Estimates of how many have lost their lives for a nation’s quixotic ambition vary: 38, apparently, according to the event’s organizing committee; 6,500 from five South Asian nations alone, according to a less invested investigation. Tragically, the latter report is likely to be the more accurate. Either number is too high.But if next year’s tournament has not been worth it for soccer, and has not been worth it for those whose lives were lost — or the many tens of thousands more whose safety has been put at risk — it has also been hard to make a case that Qatar has emerged well from the project.In one light, after all, these last 11 years have brought nothing but scrutiny: on the system of indentured labor that compelled all those migrant workers to go to work in searing heat on projects of triumphal scale and Midean hubris, and prevented them from leaving the country, from going home, without their employer’s permission; on Qatar’s abysmal human rights record; on its intolerance of the L.G.B.T.Q. community.This was not, it is likely, the reaction that Qatar expected when it won the vote, when the streets of Doha filled with a delirious populace, when it seemed to take top billing on the world stage. Its aims may have been more subtle, more complex than just one blast of good P.R., but it is safe to assume the feedback has not quite been as the bid’s masterminds would have hoped.And yet, it is now that they might start to feel that — for all the trouble, for all the fury, for all the glaring spotlight — they will, somehow, still, get the return they wanted. There is a glamour to a World Cup: a dazzling, bewitching quality, so strong that even now, a year out, it is possible to sense its first glimmers.This is the week, after all, that the tournament’s field will finally start to take shape. Only four teams have qualified so far — the host, Germany, Denmark and, after a win on Thursday, Brazil — but by next Wednesday, more than half of the European contingent will have been decided. Spain and England, surely; most likely France, the defending champion, and Belgium; possibly Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands.Brazil, which hasn’t lost a game in qualifying, booked its place in the World Cup with a 1-0 victory over Colombia on Thursday.Sebastiao Moreira/EPA, via ShutterstockNow that Brazil is in, Argentina should be following in its rival’s wake. Mexico should be in a strong position. Iran and South Korea are almost there. Saudi Arabia may well have joined them.The draw remains months away, of course, but that is not the World Cup’s only appeal. This will be the last time either Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi graces soccer’s biggest stage; it will be the final chance for both to cement their legacies. It may be the moment England’s golden generation blossoms. It might prove the stage for South America, for the first time since 2002, to wrest the crown from Europe.It is impossible not to be intrigued by all of those possibilities, to feel the slightest judder of anticipation at what is to come. There is an atavistic thrill to the World Cup: its appeal lies in what it makes you remember, where it takes you back, to your first encounter with its great carnival spirit, the first moment you clapped eyes on this great, global festival.But there is a danger there, too, because that is why Qatar went to such trouble to claim the tournament, why it endured all of the criticism, why it placed all of those workers’ lives in jeopardy: because the World Cup’s power is to make you remember, and in doing so, to make you forget.That is what Qatar has spent $138 billion to acquire: that feeling, that giddy excitement, that irresistible smile. For that, it determined there was no price too high. And that means it is more important now than ever, as the soccer itself begins to work its amnesiac magic, that we do not lose sight of what this tournament has cost.No Next Step on the Ladder (Reprise)Is Steven Gerrard’s latest move just a way station in his career?Francisco Seco/Associated PressThere was something telling about the way Steven Gerrard’s appointment as Aston Villa’s manager was framed. A promising young manager’s taking a considerable step up — in terms of quality of opponent, at least, if not necessarily scale of club — accounted for a portion of the coverage.So, too, did a historic, ambitious — and expensively assembled — team appointing a relative neophyte at a delicate stage of its season, at least partly because of his illustrious playing career (this is a plan that never, absolutely never goes wrong, of course). But more than anything, Aston Villa’s union with Gerrard was presented as a story about another club entirely.It is no secret that Gerrard wishes, one day, to manage Liverpool, the team he supported as a child, and the team he gave the best years of his career. It does not require any great detective work to establish that, in his mind, leaving Rangers — the club to which he delivered the Scottish championship last summer — for Aston Villa is a step on that journey.But it is not a sign of an especially healthy culture that a major decision at a team of Villa’s scale and scope should be seen through the lens of what it might mean for Liverpool. That is a sign that England’s current elite, perhaps, occupy rather too much conceptual space in soccer’s never-ending discourse.That Gerrard sees Villa as a springboard, the logic goes, is good for the club: If he succeeds Jürgen Klopp at Anfield when Klopp’s contract expires in 2024 — the point when Klopp has made plain he intends to leave England — it will be because he had lifted Villa from its current station into a better one.That is not quite the whole story. There is, of course, a risk for Villa in the appointment: It is possible Gerrard will not be able to succeed in England as he did in Scotland. But the greatest risk is for Gerrard, for two reasons. First, it is not entirely clear what Villa regards as success: Is it finishing in the top 10? Is it qualifying for Europe? Is it winning a cup?And second, even more opaque is what form of success he would need to enjoy at Villa to convince Liverpool that he is ready not only to do the job on which he has his heart set, but that he can do it well. Would taking Villa to seventh make him a more compelling candidate than — say — a coach who has won a Bundesliga title, or thrived in the Champions League, or managed a phalanx of superstars? Probably not.It is tempting to believe that, for Gerrard, it may not matter. His bond with Liverpool may be strong enough that anything other than abject failure is the only proof his alma mater requires. But Fenway Sports Group, the club’s owner, is not the sort to be distracted by sentiment, or dazzled by stardust. It will want Gerrard to show he is up to the task. The problem is working out whether it is possible.Just Getting StartedMarta Torrejón and Barcelona thumped Hoffenheim, 4-0, in the Champions League on Wednesday.Eric Alonso/Getty ImagesMarta Torrejón does not betray even the slightest hint of envy. She is only 31, but she knows that is old enough, in women’s soccer, effectively to belong to a previous generation. When her career started, she was not fully professional; nor was the game she played, not in Spain. She did not have access to state-of-the-art training facilities until her mid-20s.She has still built an impressive career: she has represented her country — 90 times, no less, before retiring after the 2019 World Cup — and she has been, for eight years, a cornerstone of the Barcelona team that has risen inexorably to become the pre-eminent power in the women’s game.She knows, though, that those who follow in her footsteps may well cast her into shade. What was most striking, talking to those involved with Barcelona Femení last month for an article The Times published this week, was their conviction that they have barely scratched the surface of their potential.“There are girls here who have been in a professional environment since the age of 12,” Markel Zubizarreta, the club’s sporting director, said. “The talent is the same, but when they turn professional, they will be much better prepared.”Torrejón has seen that firsthand, as the first products of Barcelona’s investment in youth start to drip feed into the club’s first team. “The players who are 15, 18, 20 have had a physical training that will help them compete at the professional level,” she said.The same process, of course, is playing out at dozens of clubs across Europe, where the first generation to have been given access to the sort of resources their male equivalents have enjoyed for decades are only just emerging. And that raises a compelling question: What if the boom in women’s soccer — in Europe, at least — is not actually the boom at all? What if this is just the prelude?CorrespondenceIt might seem an exaggeration, but this newsletter may have finally reached its zenith, thanks to a single sentence from Shane Thomas. I have an overwhelming sensation of despair, because I am self-aware enough to recognize that I will never write a sentence more compelling than this: “The biggest criticism of Batman is that he uses all his wealth to fight crime, but comparatively little of it to tackle crime’s underlying causes.”It would spoil it, just a little, if I told you how that sentence came up — it was in a thoughtful, cogent email related to last week’s column on the problems caused, and solved, by the presence of outsize individuals in the context of a team — so I will not. Better, I think, to use the time wondering what more Batman could be doing.Leon Joffe, on the other hand, leapt to the defense of a different superhero, though one who, if we are all being honest, also did very little to combat the underlying causes of crime.“I have a different recollection of Roy of the Rovers than the one you describe,” he wrote. “Goals were not only scored by Roy, but always a team effort, with one of the teammates usually passing expertly to the goal scorer. Blaming a young soccer captain’s playing style, years later, on the comic book, is quite weird.”Lana Harrigan, meanwhile, pointed out that Ronaldo can hardly be blamed for Manchester United’s defense. “I’m no tactician,” Lana wrote, “but the defense looks pitiful at times.” Gary Brown went one step further, arguing that “the argument that Ronaldo and the pressing game don’t mix would be stronger if United had routinely played a pressing came before his return. Which we didn’t. Perhaps CR7 makes it difficult to improve that part of the game, but I don’t think he’s single-handedly turned off something that in truth was scarcely ever turned on.”Do Manchester United’s issues run deeper than Cristiano Ronaldo? Hmmm ….Peter Powell/EPA, via ShutterstockAnd we’ll finish, in finest newsletter style, with one of the blue-sky ideas that — until we got into the business of critiquing Batman’s methods — has long been this missive’s strong suit.“I am bothered by the intentional use of fouls to benefit a team,” wrote Paul Sumpter. “It is a real detriment to the excitement of the game, but issuing red cards risks ruining the contest, as it did during the Liverpool-Atlético Madrid game. The hope would be that the threat of a red card would largely stop players committing professional fouls. I am not so sure. So, I would like to see an experiment whereby the offending player is sent off but the team can replace them with a substitute, if they have not already used all their allowed substitutes.”This is an idea worth exploring — as is an orange card, where a player guilty of a tactical foul is taken out of the game for 10 minutes, say — but my immediate worry would be that this basically guarantees three significant tactical fouls per team, per game. More

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      Uruguay Braces for the End of Its Golden Generation

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      No South American nation has performed as well as Uruguay over the past three World Cups. Now the country’s three million people wonder if the good times might be over.Luis Suárez arrived first. And in the ordinary run of things, for a city like Salto — a sleepy place tucked into a distant corner of a tiny country — that would have been its claim to fame: producing one of the finest strikers of a generation. Except that, precisely three weeks later, a second arrived.Edinson Cavani grew up only a few streets from Suárez. The curiosity that the two players who would, for more than a decade, help turn Uruguay’s national team into one of the most potent in the world were born in such quick succession, in such proximity, lends their origin story a faintly fantastical gleam. Lightning, after all, is not supposed to strike twice.If it feels like sheer coincidence, the sort of thing that could not — would not — happen again, that is not quite how they see it in Salto, Uruguay.“It is chance, of course, but it is not just chance,” said Fabián Coito, a longtime youth coach in Uruguay. “There are a lot of soccer teams in Salto. Kids play from a young age, in competitive leagues. It is industrial and agricultural. It is the sort of place where that kind of thing is more likely to happen.”That is the story Uruguay, more broadly, has told itself for some time, the way the country explains its outsize role in global soccer, its status as a two-time World Cup winner, in 1930 and 1950. Yet even by those standards, the last decade or so has been something of a golden age.An obdurate defense, built around the indomitable Diego Godín and complemented by a diamond-bladed attack, comprising Suárez and Cavani, has turned Uruguay into — by some measures — arguably soccer’s most consistently successful nation in South America.Raul Martinez/EPA, via ShutterstockIn Salto, the home of Cavani and Suárez, pride in their native sons is everywhere.Raul Martinez/EPA, via ShutterstockPhotos of Cavani adorn walls in the city, and a statue celebrates Suárez on a sidewalk.Raul Martinez/EPA, via ShutterstockThe last three World Cups have brought a semifinal, a quarterfinal and a place in the last 16, a better showing than Argentina, and the equal of Brazil. There has been a Copa América title thrown in, too. Uruguay has done it all with a population of only three million. This is a place where lightning strikes more often than might be expected.Slowly, suddenly, though, a shadow is creeping into Uruguay’s place in the sun. Its last two World Cup qualifiers, against Argentina and Brazil, brought heavy defeats, and a return match against Argentina on Friday in Montevideo and a visit to Bolivia on Tuesday offer little respite. Uruguay sits fifth in South American qualifying entering those games, in danger of missing an automatic qualification spot for Qatar 2022, and at risk of falling away from the safety net of a playoff spot.For the first time, the coach who has overseen Uruguay’s revival on the international stage — Óscar Washington Tabárez, 74, his movement but not, he has insisted, his ability now constricted by Guillain-Barré syndrome — has seemed vulnerable. There are those, in Uruguay, who believe his day has passed.For many, the very idea borders on the unthinkable, somewhere between anathema and heresy. Suárez suggested that it showed how “spoiled” people — fans, journalists, executives, possibly even players — had been by success. One of his teammates, the towering central defender José María Giménez, bemoaned that “soccer has no memory.” Even Diego Forlán, the striker now retired into a role as beloved elder statesman, seemed wounded. “It would pain me,” he said after the team’s two most recent losses, “if it ended like this.”It did not end, of course, or at least it did not end then. In the aftermath of the loss to Brazil, Tabárez and his assistants were summoned to the headquarters of Uruguay’s soccer federation. For two hours, they pleaded their case to executives. The federation’s leaders agreed to sleep on the decision; the next morning, they confirmed that Tabárez would remain in place.Óscar Washington Tabárez has been Uruguay’s coach since 2006.Nelson Almeida/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIt had the air, though, of a blow delayed, rather than avoided. Tabárez may be relieved of his position at the end of the year, to give his replacement time to prepare for the final stage of qualification in 2022, or the moment Uruguay fails to make it to Qatar. If the country qualifies, he will leave, at the absolute latest, when its participation in the World Cup is over. Nobody is really debating if Tabárez’s cycle has come to an end. They are simply discussing when.It is not just the manager, though, who is in that position. “Time passes,” Coito said ruefully. Many of the veterans of South Africa — including Forlán, the player of the tournament in 2010, and Diego Lugano, the captain — have retired. Those who remain are in the autumn of their careers. Godín, the grizzled heart of the defense, is 35. So is Fernando Muslera, the gifted, erratic goalkeeper. Suárez is 34, and Cavani only three weeks younger.Qatar will mark the end of their roads, too, one way or the other. As that bookend looms on the horizon, Uruguay has been forced to confront a question it has had the good fortune to ignore for more than a decade: What does life after the golden age look like?“Of course, there is a bit of coincidence in having three strikers of the top level — Suárez, Cavani and Forlán — in the same team,” said Tito Sierra, an agent, talent scout and investor in several Uruguayan teams. “But we have done this every decade. There is always more talent.”His optimism is rooted in history. When the finest player Uruguay has produced, Enzo Francescoli, faded, he was replaced by the likes of Rúben Sosa and Daniel Fonseca. When their time passed, along came the charismatic brutality of Paolo Montero and the flickering brilliance of Álvaro Recoba.Heavy defeats against Argentina and Brazil in October have complicated Uruguay’s path to next year’s World Cup in Qatar.Ricardo Moraes/ReutersSuárez, Cavani, Godín and the rest are not the culmination to a process, but simply another chapter in Uruguay’s autobiography, its story as a place that is not subject to random chance, the place where the lightning keeps striking.Others, though, are not quite so confident. For some, that is simply an appreciation for what this generation has achieved. “The bar is very high,” said Germán Brunati, the sporting director of Montevideo City Torque, the South American imprint of City Football Group, the organization behind Manchester City and New York City F.C. “Replacing players who have spent 15 years at the top level in Europe is not going to be easy.”For others, though, the concern is more deep-seated. Forlán, for one, has made public his fear that the country, stagnating in self-satisfaction, is not doing enough to build on the legacy of Tabárez and his team. “We have a very rich history, but the world goes one way, and we go another,” he said. “I compare 10-year-old kids here with 10-year-olds in Europe, and they don’t come close.”The immediate evidence suggests Forlán’s vision is a little apocalyptic. Uruguay has qualified for every under-20 World Cup since 2005, a record that not even Argentina and Brazil can match. “And we have not just been at the tournaments,” said Coito, who was in charge of the country’s team in two editions. “We have animated them, getting to a final, to the semifinals.”Many of those young players are now thriving in Europe. Beyond his core of veterans, Tabárez — when his choices are not limited by injury — can call on the likes of Ronald Araújo, a defender emerging as a star at Barcelona; the Real Madrid midfielder Federico Valverde; and Juventus’s elegant Rodrigo Bentancur. The latter is the oldest of those three, at 24. Giménez, long anointed as Godín’s heir, is only 26. There are hopes that Darwin Nuñez, currently with Benfica, and Valencia’s Maxi Gómez might prove to be long-term replacements for Suárez and Cavani.Uruguay is counting on a new generation of talents to keep pace with rivals and neighbors like Argentina, its opponent on Friday.Natacha Pisarenko/Associated Press“Obviously they are not at that level yet,” said Brunati, the sporting director. “A lot will depend on their mentality, but the raw material is there.”Nor, he is confident, will they be alone. Brunati does not necessarily subscribe to the idea of some innate, mystical superiority to Uruguayan soccer — what they call garra charrúa, an indomitable fighting spirit — but there are conditions, he said, that work in the country’s favor.“Every year, there is an exodus of players,” he said. “You can earn more playing not only in Brazil and Argentina, but Peru and Ecuador, too. And those places are then taken by more young players. Players might leave here needing to improve their technique or their tactical knowledge, but they have experience of competition. And that is something that is coveted everywhere.”Coito, one afternoon this week, was in Montevideo, the capital, watching babyfútbol. The players he is casting his eye over are 5 or 6. These are just two teams, in one park, in one city. There are thousands more across the country.There may not be a Suárez or a Cavani among them, but they will be out there, somewhere, another bolt from the blue. “The players will come,” he said. “They might be different, but there are always more players.” More

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      P.S.G.'s Aminata Diallo Arrested After Teammate Is Attacked

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      A Paris St.-Germain women’s player was taken into custody by French investigators looking into a violent assault on a teammate who shares her position.The Paris St.-Germain players, champions of France and riding high on a surge of investment in women’s soccer, were in fine spirits as they enjoyed a dinner with club officials last week in a restaurant close to one of the city’s largest parks.Months removed from the squad’s first French title, regulars in Europe’s biggest tournaments and unbeaten in the new season, the team had much to celebrate, and the mood was collegial. As the night out wound down, one of the team’s new signings, Kheira Hamraoui, accepted a ride home from her teammate Aminata Diallo. Car-pooling made sense; both women lived in Chatou, an upscale suburb on the outskirts of Paris, and soon they and a third player were in the car for the half-hour drive home.As the car approached Hamraoui’s house around 10:30 p.m., however, the journey took a menacing turn. Two masked men emerged from the darkness and dragged Hamraoui out of the passenger seat. Then, according to news media reports later confirmed by the French police, the men beat Hamraoui with a metal bar for several minutes, paying particular attention to the part of the body she most needed to play for one of Europe’s most successful women’s soccer teams: her legs.When the beating ended, the men ran off. Diallo, who had been restrained, was apparently unharmed.By Wednesday, she was a suspect in the attack.Early Wednesday morning, the French police arrested the 26-year-old Diallo at her home nearby and confirmed in a statement that her detention was related to Hamraoui’s complaint, though they did not explicitly link Diallo to the assault, and refused to comment for the record. The French sports daily L’Equipe, which first reported the arrest, suggested Diallo may have played a role in the attack on Hamraoui, her rival for playing time in the center of the P.S.G. midfield.Even before then, though, the attack had been the talk of training facilities across Europe, where multimillion-dollar investments in women’s soccer have raised the profile of the sport, its best players and its biggest clubs. That has raised the stakes for players who now see the sport as a viable profession and a potential route to riches for the very best performers through six-figure annual contracts and growing sponsorship opportunities.Hamraoui at a P.S.G. training session in September. She missed a Champions League game on Tuesday because of injuries sustained in last week’s attack. Aurelien Meunier – PSG/PSG via Getty ImagesWhile the club hired additional security for Hamraoui’s worried teammates, the police investigation quietly gathered pace. On Wednesday, the arrest of Diallo shook everyone anew.“Paris St.-Germain is working with the Versailles police to clarify the facts,” the team said in a statement. “The club is paying close attention to the progress of the proceedings and will study what action to take.”Noël Le Graët, the president of the French soccer federation, expressed shock at the arrest of Diallo, who like Hamraoui has played for France’s national team. Diallo was in camp with the team as recently as last month, for a set of World Cup qualifiers. Hamraoui, a veteran of the 2015 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, last played for France in 2019, but her career had been revived by a Champions League title with Barcelona last season and an off-season move to P.S.G.“What is suspected is implausible,” Le Graët said. “I know both players. I am appalled if what is mentioned is true. It seems unimaginable.”The incident and the accusations of personal rivalry and professional jealousy immediately evoked memories of the 1994 assault on the figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, who was attacked at that year’s United States championships in a plot orchestrated by the ex-husband of a rival skater, Tonya Harding. Kerrigan was assaulted after a practice session by a man who hit her repeatedly in the legs with a police baton.After Kerrigan was forced to withdraw from the championships because of her injuries, Harding won the competition and earned a place on the 1994 U.S. Olympic team. Kerrigan was later named to the team as well, and several weeks later she won the silver medal at the Lillehammer Games. Harding, who has long denied being involved in the attack but pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution, finished eighth.The scandal was revived in 2017 with the release of a fictionalized biopic, “I, Tonya.”P.S.G., backed by the deep pockets of its Qatari owners, said Wednesday that it was continuing to provide its players with added security in the days since the attack, an extra layer of protection that it regularly arranges for its well-known men’s players. Several P.S.G. players have in recent years had their homes robbed — sometimes while family members were inside — while they were away playing matches.“Since Thursday evening the club has taken all necessary measures to guarantee the health, well-being and safety of its entire women’s team,” the P.S.G. statement added.For many in women’s soccer, though, the Hamraoui incident was hard to comprehend. The motivation did not appear to be robbery — the assailants had taken nothing from either of the women, the police said — but rather a single-minded effort to injure a player.Competition for places in the team’s lineup has increased this season after the women’s team finally ended the dominance of its league and continental rival Lyon by winning its first French title. P.S.G. had finished second to Lyon eight times in the previous 10 years. With a domestic title in hand, the team now has a European club title firmly in its sights.Signing Hamraoui, 31, from the European champion Barcelona for her second stint with the club was part of P.S.G.’s efforts to strengthen its team, and to defend its sudden primacy in its ongoing domestic rivalry with Lyon. Both teams have started the new campaign as strong as ever, with each having won its first seven games. P.S.G. has yet to surrender a goal in domestic or European competition.Diallo also returned to Paris this season, after a loan to Atlético Madrid, but has effectively been used as Hamraoui’s understudy. That changed this week when Hamraoui, badly shaken and nursing cuts and bruises — but no broken bones — was unable to play in a Champions League game against Real Madrid.At the time, the club explained her absence as a personal issue. Her replacement in the lineup on Tuesday? Diallo. More

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      Barcelona Femení and the Pursuit of Perfection

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      Barcelona Femení is the champion of Spain and Europe, and perhaps the most dominant club team in the world. The team’s coach and his players expect it to be better.BARCELONA, Spain — These are the bare statistics of Barcelona Femení’s season so far. The team has played nine games in the league. It has won nine games in the league. It has won them, in fact, by such a margin that the word “won” does not quite capture it. Barcelona’s first game ended, 5-0. So did its second. In its third and fourth games, it scored eight.That was only the start. The next week, it beat Alavés by 9-1. Late last month, it faced Real Sociedad, the one team still vaguely, theoretically, in its slipstream at the summit of La Liga Fémenina. That finished 8-1. In the middle of all that, it found time to deconstruct Arsenal, the otherwise unbeaten leader of Britain’s Women’s Super League, too.Including its two appointments in the Champions League, Barcelona has played 11 games this season. It has conceded three goals — one each to Alavés, Real Sociedad and Arsenal — and it has scored a scarcely believable 60. Its coach, Jonatan Giráldez, has weighed all of that evidence before drawing his conclusion: Barcelona really should have scored more goals.The natural assumption might be that he is, if not joking, then perhaps exaggerating for effect, but Giráldez is quite serious. In his mind, it is a simple equation: You just have to place the numbers in proper context. “We have generated more than 200 chances,” Giráldez said. “So if you look at it like that, we have not scored very many.”Barcelona’s ledger this season: played 11, won 11, scored 60, allowed 3.Eric Alonso/Getty ImagesThis is a manager’s job, of course: to demand constant improvement from players, to refuse them the luxury of resting on their laurels, to eschew the very idea of being satisfied. “That’s what coaches are like,” said Marta Torrejón, the experienced Barcelona defender, “always wanting more.”Giráldez’s reasoning, though, is rather more pragmatic. He was promoted to head coach last summer after the unexpected departure of his predecessor, Lluís Cortés, only weeks after the club had won not just the Spanish league and its domestic cup but also its first Champions League title, crushing Chelsea, 4-0, in the final.Giráldez, 29, was given the job ahead of a cluster of other applicants — at least 20 coaches from around the world speculatively sent in their résumés — essentially as a continuity candidate, someone who knew “our ideas and our identity,” as the club’s sporting director, Markel Zubizarreta, put it.To Giráldez, the job is a considerable privilege and a constant pressure. Barcelona, now the foremost team in women’s soccer, has standards to maintain and expectations to meet. He does not ask for more from his players out of rote instinct; he does it because he knows that what appears to be a slight fissure at this stage of the season could prove a fatal fault line later on.“We have conceded two goals from set pieces this season,” Giráldez said. (The third, scored by Real Sociedad’s Sanni Franssi, came from a counterattack.) “One from a corner, one from a free kick. When you win a game, 8-1, that goes unnoticed, but we have to improve that, because when we play in the final rounds of the Champions League, against Lyon or Paris St.-Germain or Wolfsburg, that action could send us home.“If we have 25 chances in a game, the goalkeeper saves 13, and 12 go wide. In a more balanced game, we would not have so many chances, so we have to make sure we take more of them. We have to work out why we did not score more goals: We got nine against Alavés, but I had the sensation that we could have scored 15. Why didn’t we?”Barcelona’s 29-year-old, first-year coach, Jonatan Giráldez.Ritzau Scanpix/Via ReutersIt is important, he quickly adds, to recognize that it is very hard to score eight goals in a game, to appreciate and to celebrate that. And then demand even better.“You can win, 8-0, and still have a lot of things to improve,” Giráldez said. “My job is to detect what we have done badly and modify it. It is about improving every detail.”Those details are not easy to find at Barcelona, not these days. In the eight years since Torrejón joined the club, it has changed almost beyond recognition. “It is like a different place,” she said. “From zero to 100.”When Torrejón arrived, training sessions still took place in the evening, because the players either attended college or went to work during the day. Already a fixture on Spain’s national team back then, she had joined on the promise that Barcelona would turn professional. There was talk of significant investment, attracting a sponsor, building a winning team.When the move came, in 2015, it felt “like luxury,” Torrejón said: arriving at Barcelona’s training complex in the morning, having breakfast together as a team, enjoying access to the club’s medical services and its conditioning staff and its state-of-the-art facilities. Still, though, “thinking about winning the Champions League was impossible,” she said.Alexia Putellas, already honored as Europe’s player of the year, is a finalist for the Ballon d’Or.Tt News Agency/Via ReutersAsisat Oshoala scored one goal and set up another in a 4-0 win over Arsenal in the Champions League in October.Enric Fontcuberta/EPA, via ShutterstockBarcelona did not choose, unlike many of its peers, to use the financial clout of its parent club to accelerate its growth. “For 10 million euros,” or about $11.5 million, “you could buy a team of the best players in the world,” Zubizarreta said. “There are teams out there that are projects based on doing that. Lyon has done it. Chelsea has done it. Manchester City has an English core but they have done it, too.”Barcelona, he said, wanted to do it differently. “The best thing we can do is be ourselves,” Zubizarreta said. Instead of upgrading its squad with a patchwork of superstars, it decided to allow the players it had to flourish, to build a team that was “distinctively Barcelona.”Progress was halting. “It is very hard to climb the ladder organically,” Torrejón said. There was a Champions League semifinal appearance in 2017, but for three years in succession the team finished second in the league to Atlético Madrid. In that, perhaps, lay the only conceptual difference between the club’s men’s and women’s divisions. “The men’s team not winning trophies to invest in the future would not, maybe, be the best-received news,” Zubizarreta said.The reward seemed to come in 2019. Barcelona finished second in the league, again, but qualified for its first Champions League final. It met Lyon, the sport’s equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters, in Budapest, and was swept away in the first half.“It was a mirror,” Zubizarreta said. “We could see how far we had to go.”As soon as he returned from Hungary, he sought out the club’s conditioning experts. There was no shortage of talent, but he knew that Barcelona’s players had to be fitter, faster and stronger to compete with the very best clubs in Europe.What followed, according to Giráldez, an assistant coach at the time, was a “brutal” change in the way Barcelona trained. “We could improve quickly at the start,” he said. But the further up the curve the players got, the harder they had to work even for the smallest gains.That approach became so embedded in the club that it has endured even what might have appeared to be its apogee: the treble acquired under Cortés last season, capped by a destruction of Chelsea in the Champions League final that echoed Barcelona’s own experience against Lyon two years previously.And so, even now, Giráldez can watch his team, champions of everything, scoring five and six and eight and nine against its opponents, with its goal difference — in the league alone — of plus 52, and ask for more. And not only can his players understand his gentle chiding and detailed tape sessions, but they can also appreciate them.“The secret is that we are competing with ourselves,” Torrejón said. “You compete with your rival for points or for qualification, but with yourself to be better every day, for your place in the team. That is the biggest struggle: with yourself. The coach might always want more, but we do as a team. We are never satisfied.“Why be happy with scoring four when you should have scored eight?” More