Soccer

The Group Stage of the 2022 World Cup is behind us! 16 lucky teams now have the chance to represent their country in a sudden death knockout tournament. We have officially made it to the 2022 World Cup Knockout Stage! These 16 teams are the top 2 teams from each group. The United States finished 2nd in Group B after drawing Wales and England and then beating Iran. They now face Netherlands in the first round of the knockout tournament. Let’s take a closer look at this stage of the World Cup as well as reflect on how we got here. And for some fun, I will give some predictions on how I think these games will go.

The World Cup will be run from November 20-December 18 in Qatar. The first portion of the tournament is the Group Stage, where 32 countries are split into 8 groups and play within their group. The top 2 teams are taken from each group after the whole group plays each other. Those teams will make up a 16 team knockout tournament, single elimination. Oh yeah baby, there is nothing quite like single elimination tournaments. Especially a high-caliber one like the World Cup. The United States are in Group B, along with England, Wales, and Iran. England is the favorite to win the group, but the U.S. is still expected to get 2nd and then advance into the knockout stage. The knockout stage will run from December 3-December 18.

Enzo Fernandez has recently become a hot topic after his consistent performances in the Primeira Liga and the Champions League for Benfica. Primeira Liga has become the home for up-and-coming talents, and the Argentine is the newest addition to the family.

Benfica currently sits at the top of the table in the league and is tied on points with PSG in their Champions League table. (They haven’t lost a Champions League match this season, having played PSG twice.)

In this article, we will be using data to evaluate Enzo’s performance in all departments and his impact on the Benfica side so far.

The Brazilian Maestro has started off the 2022-23 season on a very strong note. He has scored eight goals at a rate of 1.11 goals per 90 and also provided four assists at a rate of 0.56 per 90. The shot map below shows all the shots taken by the 31-year-old this season in the Premier League and the Champions League.

Earlier this year, Luis Diaz joined Liverpool from Porto. He was undoubtedly the best player in Portugal before joining Liverpool. The 25-year-old was the leader in every statistic, and his tricky feet made him a fan favorite.

After two fruitful seasons in the Eredivisie for Vitesse, Loïs Openda has taken a step forward and moved to the Ligue 1. The new RC Lens player was the second-highest goal scorer in the Eredivisie last season, with 19 goals. One of the most fascinating things about that stat is that throughout the season Vitesse scored 49 goals, which means Openda was responsible for 39-percent of the goals scored by the entire team during the season.

Diogo Jota is more of a necessity for Liverpool than he was ever before. Even though Liverpool have signed Darwin Núñez, a prolific and efficient striker, it will be tough for the 23-year-old Uruguayan international to fill the void left by Sadio Mané’s departure.

Graham Potter changed all that. In his first season at Brighton, Potter achieved the club’s highest points tally in Premier League history of 41 points and matched it again the next season. Despite their league finishes being about the same, there was a swagger in the way that they played football. Potter had a plan.