The way Gregg Berhalter put it: “We lacked that offensive finishing quality.” As the United States tumbled out of the World Cup, it may have been a more diplomatic, distinctly American way of saying his side needed a striker.
They are not alone in that but Berhalter tried three in four games, attempted an interlude with a false nine, and got a solitary goal from a centre-forward: Haji Wright’s fluke of a finish against the Netherlands. “We don’t have a Memphis Depay right now,” the USA manager concluded.
He was right and they are not alone. If it is a statement of the obvious to say everyone else in the World Cup would want a Kylian Mbappe or a Lionel Messi, plenty would settle for a Depay, a forward with 43 international goals and one who was capable of supplying a clinical touch in a knockout match.
The sides in Qatar – or not any more, in most cases – can be divided into the haves and the have-nots: those who have possessed a suitable striker and those without. It is not as simple as saying the eight quarter-finalists have the finest out-and-out centre-forwards but there is a trend.
Consider one of the great underachievers. “The football simply sucked,” said Kasper Hjulmand after Denmark’s early exit, with a lone point. The coach’s verdict may have been different had their 34 shots produced more than a solitary goal, and even that came courtesy of a centre-back. His forwards were all hideously out of form.
For Tunisia, the lack of a centre-forward, at least until Wahbi Khazri was belatedly positioned up front, led to a lack of goals despite otherwise impressive performances. Mexico’s meagre return of two goals included one from the forward Henry Martin, but they lacked the necessary end product. Senegal may wonder if the first-half chances they spurned against England would have had a different outcome if Sadio Mane had been fit.
Because several of the sides who did not have a functioning, firing centre-forward may have thought they would. For all their other failings, Belgium were ultimately eliminated because a semi-fit Romelu Lukaku missed a hatful of chances he would normally take. Canada also came up short: it may have been different but for a display of profligacy from Jonathan David against Roberto Martinez’s side.
The abiding images of Uruguay’s World Cup were provided by a striker, whether Luis Suarez setting up two goals against Ghana or ending up in tears when he realised it was not enough. Yet while Suarez and Edinson Cavani are closing in on 1,000 goals for club and country between them, neither added to his tally. Darwin Nunez was ineffective, too, and Uruguay’s only scorer was a midfielder, Giorgian de Arrascaeta.