Belgium vs. England
Third place playoff, St. Petersburg Stadium, St. Petersburg
“The last thing players will want to do as the dust settles on their semifinal exits is contemplate a meaningless match to compete for a largely pointless prize.” — Louis van Gaal, who managed the Netherlands to its 2014 third-place win.
It’s a game that does not prompt the question of “who?” or “when?” More often than not, the question surrounding the match is “why?”
Playing for third.
Belgium and England, fresh off historically disheartening losses, must play again for the glory of bronze in the 2018 World Cup. The match is about very minor bragging rights and, for FIFA, additional gate revenue at the expense of teams that just want to go home.
But the truth is that people watch it. Television rating are usually strong — the World Cup addicts, perhaps, beginning to ween themselves off their drug of choice with only a pair of games to play — and usually well-contested.
Since first played in the 1934 tournament, the match has been used to set world rankings, give young players their first taste of the World Cup and decide the coveted goal-scoring crown known as the Golden Boot.
That happened just the second time the game was played. In 1938, Brazil faced Sweden and the canarinho star, Leonidas, scored twice to secure the scoring title.
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