This is why the Americans love to bang on about being the greatest nation on the planet.
They’ve only gone and delivered perhaps the best World Cup in living memory!
Fine, the United States have been just one of three hosts of this tournament, and we are possibly all guilty of recency bias, and it is possible the crunch stages of the greatest show on Earth will be far less exciting as teams seek to take fewer risks.
The drama, the goals, the style, the tension. Penalty shootouts. Heroes and villains. Sir Elijah Just. Some mega upsets — Paraguay knocking out Germany led to amazing scenes — and some truly sublime football (mainly from France).
And we are left with some cracking quarterfinals, the first of which was played yesterday.
Norway would be my new favourite team were they not playing England tomorrow.
Could it ... could it ... could it be coming home?
Naturally, the World Cup has not been without its share of controversy.
There was obviously the unseemly yet entirely predictable appearance from US President and ‘‘big sports guy’’ Donald Trump, who personally called Fifa boss Gianni Infantino before a red card to an American player was rescinded.
That was followed by the truly hideous stuff that spewed forth from a racist Paraguayan politician about French superstar Kylian Mbappe.
Thankfully, there have been some lighter moments.
England captain Harry Kane’s interview after the mad win over Mexico was magnificent as the hoarse striker squeaked out his answers.
And who does not enjoy some balanced reaction to one of the big guns getting knocked out?
This was good from player turned pundit Neto after Brazil were shocked by Norway:
‘‘It’s a generation that won f... all. It was embarrassing from the beginning and everything that happened before that game. It was a shameful campaign and these guys are losers. It’s a generation of lies.’’
Following last week’s thoughts on cricket all-rounders, I stumbled across an interesting table from longtime analyst Ric Finlay.
Do not ask me about the methodology but his ‘‘ERA index’’ is a retrospective ranking of all men’s test all-rounders.
Pakistani great Imran Khan comes out on top, followed by Jacques Kallis, Garry Sobers, Keith Miller and, interestingly, Indian spinning all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.
New Zealand had three players in the top 20. Richard Hadlee was eighth, Chris Cairns 12th and Daniel Vettori 20th.
Ian Botham was 10th, Ben Stokes 13th, Kapil Dev 15th and Andrew Flintoff 17th.
If you are wondering, our cricket writer Adrian Seconi — asked to quickly name his top five all-rounders — plumps for Sobers, Kallis, Khan, Botham and Miller.
Young gun
Speaking of cricket, no doubt you saw teenaged sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi made his international debut for India.
At just 15 years and 99 days, he broke the record for youngest Indian cricketer previously held by the great Sachin Tendulkar.
The overall record is held by Hasan Raza, who was just 14 years and 227 days when he made his test debut for Pakistan. Madness.
Daniel Vettori became the youngest Black Cap when he made his test debut at 18 years and 10 days in 1997.
International flavour
Our old mates down in swede country are doing it again.
The Southland Stags seem to be getting more and more creative as they seek to build an NPC squad with one major aim: beat Otago on Stag Day.
Let me acknowledge that many provincial unions have got carried away at times with importing players from all over the place. Which is not ideal, really, as the major role the NPC is or should be playing is as a development pathway for New Zealand players, preferably ones coming out of the local club rugby competition.
But Southland’s recruitment will take some beating.
They have announced the signings of four Australian players (one a 35-year-old prop) and two Japanese players to go with the bunch of Dunedin-based lads they whistle down to Invercargill every July.
You can certainly not accuse Southland of ignoring their own stocks — Ethan de Groot is one of the best props in the world, Jack Taylor and Sean Withy are established Highlanders, and Mika Muliaina and Jimmy Taylor are exciting prospects — but not sure having so many international players will sit well with everyone.
The NRL is coming
Holy moly Mal Meninga. Did you hear about the NRL’s huge broadcasting deal signed this week?
The Australian league competition just announced a $A5.3 billion ($NZ6.5 billion) agreement with its various broadcast partners.
It is the biggest media rights deal in Australian sporting history, and roughly doubles the previous deal.
The NRL is getting more and more popular. It is expanding into new territories. The Warriors’ profile is off the charts, and a second New Zealand team seems an inevitability.
Watch out, Super Rugby.
Names of the week
While the World Cup dominates the football landscape, the Champions League qualifying stages have begun.
It means a chance to check the progress of some obscure clubs with magnificent names.
Big fan of Lincoln Red Imps (Gibraltar), Atert Bissen (Luxembourg), Kairat Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Petrocub Hincesti (Moldova).
Birthday of the week
Australian broadcaster Darrell Eastlake would have been 84 today.
And every bloke about my age who listened to The Twelfth Man tapes has just said his name in a high-pitched voice.
