Watching a golden generation of talent play in the World Cup for one’s home country is the American equivalent of watching your favorite team take a buzzer-beater to win a championship game.
Dreadful anticipation, fear, excitement and confusion all blended together in one emotional cocktail that won’t be finished until the outcome is determined — intensified because you know something like this won’t happen again for a long time. The only difference between the two scenarios: The World Cup fan experiences this emotional mix for a month at a time.
For Belgium and Croatia supporters, this year’s entire tournament was that moment. But the term “golden generation” had a different meaning for each team.
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Belgium’s squad was given the term because the starting lineup consisted of generational talents — Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, Thibaut Courtois and Vincent Kompany — are all around the same age and experienced enough to win on big stages. It’s something that rarely happens for international teams in general, let alone for a country as small as Belgium, which with a population of 11 million, has a smaller population than 21 2018 World Cup teams.
Croatia’s golden recognition received a little help from the team’s underdog status in the tournament. The core group of stars — Luka Modrić, Mario Mandžukić, Ivan Rakitić and Ivan Perišić — have been through a few tournaments in their careers, but they’ve now taken the team farther than it has ever been in a World Cup. Considering those four are in their late 20s and early 30s, it could be another 20 years before a talented class of players comes through and has the World Cup success like this.
In keeping pace with the metaphor, if the game-winning shot is more likely to go in when the ball is in the right player’s hands, a team is more likely to win a World Cup when the squad is under the right managerial guidance — even with a “golden generation” of talent.
Though Belgian manager Roberto Martinez and Croatian manager Zlatko Dalić both took their respective teams to the World Cup semifinals, their tactics and roster choices gave them very different paths — and helps explain why Croatia is in the final while Belgium settled for a third-place finish.
With the help of hindsight, Martinez and Dalić have taught the world some do’s and don'ts when it comes to coaching a golden generation. Some of these pieces of advice might seem obvious at first, but it’ll soon be clear why some bear repeating.
Do: Put your players in the position to succeed
Don’t: Overthink a lineup
There’s no denying finding the perfect formation at the highest level of soccer is difficult, but that’s no reason to make that task even harder. Dalić kept his lineup in the group and knockout stages relatively consistent. His more creative and attack-heavy midfielders (Modrić and Perišić) were often forward with striker Mandžukić. The ones who could control the game from the back (Rakitić) stayed with the defense. Did teams know what they were getting into when facing Croatia because of that consistency? Sure. But that didn’t stop the Croatian midfield from bossing its way to a 3-0 victory over Argentina, or controlling three straight 120-minute matches to send them to the final.
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But Martinez put out team sheets like he believes conventional wisdom is for nerds.
His original sin was putting arguably the best attacking midfielder in the Premier League, Kevin De Bruyne, in a defensive midfield position for most of the group stage, even placing him there during Belgium’s miraculous comeback against Japan. Not even De Bruyne was a fan of the placement: He openly criticized the decision during qualification.
But more to the “don’t” advice — midfielder Marouane Fellaini played about one game’s worth of a decent performance in the knockout stages where he used his size and strength to his advantage. In Martinez’s book, the performances were worth placing Fellaini — a 6-4 man whose body type is often compared to an Ent from "The Lord of the Rings" — on the wing during the match against France.
This move forced Hazard to the middle to occasionally receive crosses from Fellaini, instead of having it be the other way around. Hazard is 5-8, and Fellaini scored the game-tying goal against Japan off of a free header because of his ability to sky over a defense.
Belgium’s best game of the knockout stages came against England in the third-place playoff when the Hazard-De Bruyne-Lukaku attacking trio were up front, Meunier, Fellaini, Witsel and Chadli were in the middle and the defense was in the back. It would make sense to have used this lineup throughout the tournament — it also proved effective against Brazil, but that would have been too easy for Martinez.
Do: Understand your opponent’s weaknesses
Don’t: Stumble to victory, regardless of poor planning
Dalić surely knows the key to winning a match in the World Cup requires preparation, skill and a little luck. Against Denmark, despite each team scoring once through just the first four minutes, Croatia played as their opponent’s equal with a clean, tactical and respectful approach to open play. Goal-keeping heroics from Kasper Schmeichel sent the game into extra time and, eventually, penalties. The same can also be said of their game against Russia.
When Croatia faced England, their dominant midfield, coupled with some fortunate misses, kept England's lead at 1-0 for 70 minutes by virtue of their experience. As the game went on, the young English players shrank back in the face of pressure. In all three games, Croatia remained focused on a strategy to counter their opponents.
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Martinez’s bumbling philosophy throughout the World Cup was for his squad to use their athleticism to develop counter-attacks for the team’s offensive output — regardless of the opponent’s approach to a match. This sounds good in theory, as counters were one of the few times the players would position themselves on the pitch in positions in which they actually thrive.
Unfortunately for Belgium, this tactic failed to account for two things: First, Martinez would play, at most, three competent defenders, in the starting lineup;. second, this only works when playing a forward-heavy team without a strong defensive midfielder to help the backline prevent counters. When Belgium faced Japan, a team the Red Devils clearly failed to scout at all, they were surprised with a two-goal deficit because the Japanese actually sat back and waited for a mistake before starting the counter.
Rather than bolster the wide areas of the field with a defensive presence — where most of Japan’s counters flourished — Martinez threw Fellaini and Chadli onto the field in hopes of winning the aerial battle. Belgium then scored one fluke header, one set piece goal. Only the game-winner was a result of their strategy. Was the result from tactical genius? No. It was clear during Japan’s qualifying campaign that through the air was where they were weakest.
In the game against France, Belgium's aerial assault fell apart because Les Bleus could match up tit-for-tat with Belgium’s giants, leaving the forwards to face the seemingly impenetrable French defense. Even in that match, Martinez couldn’t help but wait until after halftime to make lineup adjustments that should have come much sooner.
Do: Celebrate your team's accomplishments
Don’t: Dwell on missed opportunities
This is actually something both Dalić and Martinez have realized during this tournament. Croatia’s manager has lauded the resolve of his team of aging players through every round. Of course, surviving over-120-minute-long matches to move on in the World Cup helps someone vocalize praise, but it’s still clear Dalić has celebrated every step in this journey so far. He even assured media that his last words to his team before the final would be, “Have a good time, guys.”
Belgium’s manager approached his interview opportunities in the same vein: Right before an interview with ESPN, where producers on set referred to him as a “World Cup semifinalist,” he reacted with the enthusiasm of someone certainly excited to have made it that far in the tournament: "That sounds really good." He even added later in that interview, "These players have been working together extraordinarily well for many years, and they deserve to be exactly where they are today."
After the Red Devils’ loss to France in the semifinals, Martinez switched the focus of the post-match news conference from the one-goal defeat to the third-place game and ending the tournament on a high note. The focus appeared to legitimate in Belgium's 2-0 win over England.