The World Cup's Biggest Mistake: A Strategy That Isn't Working

This year's World Cup has delivered everything fans could have hoped for. There have already been stunning upsets, dramatic last-minute heroics, and tense penalty shoot-outs, and there are still 3 weeks left. However, with all the excitement surrounding these games, one tactical trend that teams have been using continues to fail.

The term "parking the bus" refers to a defensive strategy in which a team drops nearly every player behind the ball, crowding its own penalty area to suffocate the opposing team. Arsenal relied heavily on this tactic throughout the Premier League season, and it played a major role in their title-winning campaign. However, in the Champions League final, Arsenal scored an early goal and decided to "park the bus." PSG eventually scored a goal and then won on penalties, proving that their strategy eventually caught up to them.

Arsenal scored many of their goals from set pieces, largely because they have one of the world's best set-piece specialists in Declan Rice. Most teams, however, do not have that luxury and cannot rely on dead-ball situations to generate enough offense. Another important factor is knowing the identity of opposing teams. PSG boasts one of the most dangerous attacking units in the world, yet Arsenal invited constant pressure by sitting deep and allowing them to attack on nearly every possession. Eventually, one of the PSG players was going to break through, and in this case, they drew a penalty to equalize the score.

After watching Arsenal's approach fail on the biggest stage, I expected World Cup teams to learn from that mistake. Instead, the opposite has happened. More teams have embraced a defensive mindset, abandoning the style of play that got them to the knockout stage in the first place. The Netherlands just faced a heartbreaking loss to Morocco, but they completely lost what had gotten them so far. Historically, the Netherlands have been known to attack teams with great offenses. They took an early lead against Morocco, but instead of continuing to attack, they retreated into a defensive shell and invited constant pressure. Morocco eventually found the equalizer, yet even after the score was level, the Netherlands showed little urgency going forward. Throughout extra time, it became increasingly clear that they were playing for a penalty shootout rather than trying to win the match. Eventually, the team that played to win ended victorious, as Morocco won in penalties, proving again why "parking the bus" doesn't work.

Norway fell into the same trap. After scoring an early goal against Ivory Coast, they largely abandoned their attack and spent most of the match protecting a one-goal lead. Their momentum disappeared, and they invited pressure until the opposition eventually equalized. Although Haaland scored an easy tap-in to win the game, they nearly lost when they changed to a conservative approach. When you have your star players on the attacking side, parking the bus does no good because they aren't getting touches. The star players rise as the game goes on, so Norway has to attack to get Haaland involved and get him touches in the box.

Parking the bus has become a tactical trend in this World Cup. In a tournament filled with attacking stars who thrive on creating and scoring goals, too many teams are moving away from what makes them dangerous. Teams are seen staying away from the strong points of their offense and are paying the price with late goals, and worse, losses. I think France will win the World Cup because they always look to score even when they are up. They understand that their best players won't thrive on defending the whole game, but when they are attacking, creating chances, and forcing opponents to react.