Croatia have a high age average. I guess playing for more than 130 minutes in the quarter final and also the semi final with little time to rest caught up to them. They were deflated, with low energy, versus a young and energized Argentina (full of kids, other than a few older players like Messi and Di Maria who wasn't even needed today). Anyway, Argentina peaked at the right time. They are getting better and better as the tournament goes by, from their disastrous first game. At this point I think only France can stop them. France better beat Morocco tomorrow otherwise this Cup will go to Argentina.
That third goal assist was silk like magic. That old fart still has it in him, when it counts. Maybe the spell on Messi got broken with the Copa win and he can finish his outstanding career as World Champion. He has deserved it.
Wow - Didn't take France long to do what no other team has done in this Cup - score on Morocco. Cinderella's gonna have to score to win this game....
I'm thrilled that AC Milan man Theo Hernández scored. Our guys are doing very well! I'll be rooting for Theo and Giroud in the Final.
I've been following the World Cup since my first one in 1966; including, I've attended some in person. This was one of the best tournaments ever. Several very exciting games, with teams trying hard to attack while in other Cups due to the stakes being so high, teams were careful and conservative so that despite all the big stars, sometimes the quality of the games in the WC was inferior to the quality in some of the top club leagues. Not this time. There were several high-quality games. We had Cinderella stories (Morocco), some pretty big underdog upsets (Saudi Arabia beating Argentina, the eliminations of Spain, Brazil, Belgium, Portugal and Germany by supposedly inferior competition), etc. We had for the first time an African country in the final four. We had three Asian countries surviving the group phase. We even had a very young and inexperienced USMNT surviving the group stage and holding superpower England to a scoreless draw, and actually playing better than England. We had a small nation like Croatia again making the final four like last time. But.... In the end... Traditional superpowers Argentina and France are in the final; both these nations have won the Cup twice already; so we'll have a champion that will have won the Cup three times. One from South America, one from Europe. It is kind of discouraging, in a sense. The other continents / confederations try hard, produce some upsets, some Cinderella stories... but in the end, like always in all World Cups, the winner is either from Europe or South America. It's a soccer superpower against another soccer superpower in the final. Sure, the final will be epic. First time Argentina and France fight each other in the final game. Messi vs. Mbappé. It doesn't get much better than that. I can't wait. But it is somewhat sad that all the other nations in all the other continents can't ever make it. It's always the big dogs winning it all. I read an article about how hard it is for other countries to break this ceiling and win the Cup. It's the most diffused, most popular sport in the world; it's a world with 211 countries... but only 8 of them have ever won the World Cup. Same old, same old. The article mentioned a self-fulfilling prophecy; the soccer superpowers by way of their frequent winning, attract more top athletes from their population to play soccer instead of other sports, pay them better, have better training facilities, better development in youth academies, better head coaches, etc., etc. The other countries can try as hard as they want, but in the end... it's again teams like Argentina and France. Anyway, it should be a gorgeous game. It's a toss-up. We have on one side a young and hungry Argentina orchestrated by one of the best players to ever play the game. On the other side, we have the defending champions, from a nation that is so deep in talent that they lost no fewer than 8 world class players to injury before the WC (including the #1 Golden Ball player Benzema) and still fielded one of the two best teams of the tournament. The whole world is probably rooting for Argentina because of Messi. It is almost criminal that one of the top 5 best players to ever play the game hasn't won a World Cup yet. I get it. But I will be rooting for France, because two of my most beloved AC Milan players, Olivier Giroud and Theo Hernández, play for France. I have good French friends, I speak the language very fluently, and I have other ties with France that I won't disclose here because they'd be identifying information and I do want to remain anonymous. Allez les Bleus. Sorry Messi, I like you, but I like Olivier Giroud and Theo Hernández even more. Vive la France!
Nice recap, CF. Our favorite teams aside, it's difficult to imagine a better Final than the one we'll be watching on Sunday. Either way, history will be made. If Argentina wins, Lionel Messi will finally add the title of World Cup Champion to his illustrious résumé and earn his place in the GOAT debates. If France wins, they will become the first team to have won back-to-back World Cups since the greatest soccer player of all time, Pelé, led Brazil to consecutive victories in 1958 and 1962. Furthermore, if France wins, it will be young phenom Kylian Mbappé's second WC title, which will put him within reach of matching Pelé's record of three World Cup championships (the third came in 1970). Indeed, it doesn't get much better than Messi vs. Mbappé, and Olivier Giroud and Julián Álvarez have been playing great, but another player who has stood out to me is France's Antoine Griezmann, who is having a fantastic tournament on both offense and defense while playing out of position as a midfielder instead of forward. He's not going to win the Golden Boot, but he has truly been the indispensable man for the defending WC champs and won Man of the Match in their semifinal victory over Morocco. With so many players down, Griezmann has truly stepped up for Les Bleus. Arguably, nothing illustrates this better than his brilliant assist on the game winning goal against England in the quarterfinals (sorry Montegriffo): My eyes will definitely be on number 7 in the Final. As for who will win, I expect Les Bleus to make history Sunday provided their shaky defense holds up (once again, Griezmann is going to have to help the backfield as he did against Morocco). If it doesn't, Messi & Co. could embarrass France the same way they embarrassed Croatia's defense in the semis. It's been a great Cup and the Final should deliver as well, and as if it could get any better, the WC is coming to America in 2026! And, yes, we will be serving beer!
