Every youngster who ever loved soccer has had a similar fantasy at some point,  and it goes something like World Cup,  a screaming crowd,  an international audience  and the chance to play against one of the all-time legends of the this tournament,  and other World Cups before it,  there are a handful of players for whom the dream came true."And then it's a case of hoa'",  FOX analyst DaMarcus Beasley,  who represented the United States men's national team 126 times,  said with a laugh. "Careful what you wish for."With just over a week to go in this World Cup,  three-quarters of the field has already been eliminated,  leaving only eight teams remaining to battle it out for soccer's grandest the four biggest names in the sport,  by any reasonable metric,  are still here. The hold that Lionel Messi https://www.portugalworldcupshop.com Sitemap,  Cristiano Ronaldo,  Kylian Mbapp and Neymar have on soccer audiences is obvious enough to need no ANYONE beat Neymar,  Brazil? Australia head coach Graham Arnold told reporters after his team's hard-fought 2-1 defeat to Argentina in the round of 16. "But wow,  he's remarkable."So remarkable that several members of the Socceroos squad could not help themselves after the game,  corralling Messi for selfies and,  in the case of reserve midfielder Cameron Devlin,  swapping jerseys with him. "You are in awe of the whole situation, " Conrad told me. "You've watched them on TV so many times,  you are finally getting your crack at it. You are seeing how you square up to this person. You are a bit in awe at the handshakes. Oh s---,  that's Ronaldo. In the game you know what they want to do,  you're just trying to make it hard for them."Beasley faced Ronaldo in the 2014 World Cup but was already a long-term national team member by that point. Among his most memorable occasions was when the USA met Portugal in 2002,  and he came up against all-time great Luis Figo."It was a special moment for a young kid https://www.portugalworldcupshop.com , " Beasley said. "I was 20. I wasn't cocky but because I didn't know what to expect  so maybe that helped. To be the best,  you want to beat the best. You relish those challenges but as a player you have to go at them. Once you don't do that,  that's when they've got you. Once the whistle blows,  the name has to go out the window."There are different ways of getting ready for such challenges. Poland's Matty Cash,  who plays for Aston Villa in the English Premier League,  was directly matched up with Mbapp in the round of 16 as his team went down to France,  spent much of the previous day watching Mbapp highlight videos online. It didn't help much."He's the quickest thing I've ever seen, " Cash said. "I was watching the videos while lying in bed. In real life Bruno Fernandes Jersey,  he's burning my legs. That's the difference."