Why Brazil vs. Belgium Could Be the 'Best Game of the Tournament'
*By Christian Smith*
Play at the 2018 FIFA World Cup gets back underway Friday, and the day's quarterfinal match-ups shouldn't disappoint.
For Quartz editor and soccer fanatic Mike Murphy, France is the team to beat this World Cup.
"They've probably looked the strongest, most organized team of the true real contenders," Murphy said in an interview on Cheddar Thursday.
France takes on Uruguay in Friday's first game, which kicks off at 10 am ET. Nineteen-year-old rising star Kylian Mbappé, who helped lead France to a stunning 4-3 victory over Lionel Messi and Argentina, will be one of the players to watch as *Les Bleaus* look to knock out the Uruguayan squad led by Luis Suarez.
But the other real contenders in Murphy's (and most of the world's) book are Brazil and Belgium, which face each other on the field at 2 pm ET Friday. Brazil was slow out of the gate in its 2-0 victory over Mexico Monday, but so was Belgium. That team came back to win the game 3-2 in the last minute of stoppage time, despite being down by two scores earlier in the match.
Both teams have world-class strikers - Brazil in Neymar and Belgium in Romelu Lukaku. Brazil's defense has only given up one goal this World Cup, but Belgium is the highest-scoring team so far, so the match-up should make for some great soccer. The winner of the match will take on the winner of France and Uruguay in the semifinals.
On Saturday the other side of the bracket steps onto the pitch. Sweden goes head-to-head with England at 10 am ET. The young English team will have to pick themselves up, coming off a near upset in penalty kicks in their Round of 16 against Colombia. Sweden has been playing a consistent game throughout the tournament. That consistency is the reason Jeffrey Marcus, publisher of the World Cup newsletter "The Banter," calls Sweden ["predictable but effective."](https://mailchi.mp/f1ebcf954362/world-cup-banter-be-smart-about-the-quarterfinals)
Whichever team walks away victorious Saturday morning will take on the winner of the Russia-Croatia match. The hometown favorites surprised most critics by making it to the quarterfinals, and it will be even more surprising if they can upset a better-fielded Croatian team just days after stunning Spain in a penalty kick shootout.
However, there is something to be said about home-field advantage. Six countries have won the World Cup while hosting the tournament.
For the full segment, [click here.](https://cheddar.com/videos/what-to-expect-in-the-2018-fifa-world-cup-quarterfinals)
"Anything Is Possible," a documentary about NBA superstar Kevin Garnett recounting his career from being drafted out of high school to a championship with the Boston Celtics, is set to premiere on Showtime. Executive producer Marc Levin and co-directors Daniel Levin and Eric Newman joined Cheddar to provide some background on the project and discuss Garnett's legacy. With KG considered a pioneer for modern NBA draftees straight out of high school (the fifth pick in 1995), the filmmakers also discussed the possibility of the league reversing course on its current rule that requires a player to be at least 19-years-old and a year removed from high school to play.
Professional sports is facing a reckoning right now over several stories painting an ugly picture of a toxic work environment, encompassing multiple teams in multiple leagues and dealing with different issues.
This week, the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks ousted their general manager and senior director of hockey operations after an investigation confirmed former player Kyle Beach's claims that the team's former video coach Brad Aldrich sexual assaulted him back in 2010, with upper management ignoring his claims until after the team won the Stanley Cup that season. Last night, Joel Quenneville, now the coach of the Florida Panthers but Chicago's coach that season, stepped down from his post.
This comes just a few weeks after the NFL was rocked by leaked emails showing now-former Las Vegas Raiders Head Coach Jon Gruden using racist, sexist and homophobic language. He resigned soon after the emails came to light. We can't forget, though, that those emails come from a much broader investigation of the toxic work environment in the offices of the Washington Football Team. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said this week the league wouldn't publicly release anything from its investigation of the team, but lawyers for many of the women interviewed in the case say they want a public report.
And last January, just one month after hiring him, the New York Mets had to fire then-General manager Jared Porter, who admitted to sending explicit, unsolicited texts and images to a female reporter in 2016 when he worked for the Chicago Cubs. ESPN had been in possession of the texts since 2017, but the woman in question asked the network not to run the story out of fear her career would be harmed. She only reached back out to ESPN after she left the field of journalism altogether. Porter has been banned from the sport through next season.
If you believe in the phrase "where there's smoke, there's fire," professional sports is a five-alarm blaze.
Julie DiCaro, senior writer and editor at Deadspin, joins None of the Above to discuss.
Jill and Carlo discuss the scenes of joy at American airports as borders reopen, another tool in the Covid toolbox, the latest in the Astroworld crowd crush tragedy and more.
Gaming technology studio Mythical Games recently raised $150 million in a round led by Andreesen Horowitz, bringing Mythical's valuation to above unicorn status at $1.2 billion. Mythical Games' mission is to create a new generation of gaming with play-to-earn games that allow players to play to win actual cryptocurrency. Now the company is taking it to another level with NFT technology, allowing players to play with characters they can truly own. Mythical Games CEO John Linden joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
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A Freitag pod with Carlo and Baker, talking about the upcoming federal vax-or-test deadline, the most shocking upset of this week's elections, an incredible story of selflessness and Love, Hate, Ate.
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