With the FIFA World Cup group stage now in the books, sports fans across the nation are naturally asking a simple question: Are there any lessons the Green Bay Packers can take away from what we’ve seen? (Okay, fine, that’s what I was thinking.)
Soccer and football are obviously very different sports, but certain principles can translate across almost any game. That’s exactly what we’re going to explore today.
Green Bay must finish its drives
Last season, Green Bay finished with a 57.6% red-zone touchdown rate, ranking 14th in the NFL. That’s not bad, but it’s not good enough for a team with Super Bowl aspirations.
Part of the issue was Matt LaFleur’s commitment to an early-down run-heavy approach. Green Bay frequently ran the ball on first and second down, leaving themselves in obvious passing situations inside the 20, where the condensed field naturally makes converting touchdowns much more difficult.
The solution should be straightforward: Put the ball in Jordan Love‘s hands. He’s the best player on your offense, and when the field shrinks, you want your best player making the decisions. Let him finish the drives instead of asking the running game to do the heavy lifting.
No team illustrates this point better than Turkey. They dominated possession in their first two World Cup group-stage matches, holding the ball more than 70% of the time while taking 62 shots. Yet they scored zero goals and lost both games.
So, it’s not about how many chances you get, but how well you take them. You can have five clean, well-structured opportunities and score from them. Or you can create 60 chances and still come away empty-handed if the execution isn’t there. Ultimately, efficiency matters more than volume.
You have to be willing to die for your teammates
I don’t mean that literally, obviously, because no football fan wants to see another Damar Hamlin situation ever again. The point is that you have to be willing to put yourself on the line for your teammate in a competitive sense.
I’ll use Argentina as an example here. They have plenty of talented players, but you would not necessarily say they have one of the four best squads on paper. Still, what stands out is the hunger you see when they play, the intensity, the running, and the willingness to fight for every ball.
A lot of that comes from Lionel Messi. Those players want to win for him. They enjoy playing with him, and they want to see him lift another trophy.
You need to be fighting for every tackle, every yard as a football player. Yes, I am talking to you, Keisean Nixon. If you are not willing to do that on every snap, then your place is not on the field.
The power of locker room culture
Earlier this year, Matt LaFleur received a B- on the NFLPA report card. It was a drop from the A- he earned the year before, and placed him among the six lowest-graded head coaches in the league. One of the key factors behind the decline was his poor rating in “respect for players,” an area where the feedback from the locker room fell short of expectations.
“I don’t feel that way, but unfortunately, some guys did,” LaFleur said at the Annual League Meeting. “That tells me I’ve got to do a better job of communicating. It goes back to the relationship piece. I think it’s so critical. We always talk about connected teams are powerful teams, and we have to grow that connection.”
We’ve also seen during this World Cup how communication, or the lack of it, can completely change the direction of a team. There were reports of a real disconnect between the Uruguay squad and head coach Marcelo “El Loco” Bielsa.
Before the match against Spain, he reportedly addressed the entire group for nearly 50 minutes, but some players left the meeting early. Uruguay then finished the group stage without a single win and was eliminated despite being comfortably the second-best team in its group.
What makes sports special is how they bring people together toward a shared goal, but when that human connection breaks down, it becomes difficult to win at a high level. Talent and tactics matter, but they are not enough on their own. Teams also need trust, communication, and a sense of unity.
That’s why the locker room is just as important as what happens on the field. Without cohesion behind the scenes, even the most talented groups struggle to deliver results.
