Well, that was a squeaker. When Argentina led 2-0 at the half, I thought it was over, but it’s never over at the World Cup until it’s over. It went to two overtime periods, and then to penalty kicks:
And Messi finally has what eluded him in a fantastic career: a World Cup.
It was a fantastic game, with Argentina dominating in the first half but Mbappé leading his team back in the second. When it came down to penalty kicks, I figured Argentina would win, as they have so much experience (even in this tournament) with these kicks. Sure enough, all their kicks went in, and after the fourth it was over .
The brilliant Gad Saad (sadly under-appreciated and under nearly constant attack from truly vicious “wokerati”, both inside and outside the academy) has just posted on Twitter his reaction to Argentina’s magnificent victory, describing himself as “speechless and filled with unbridled happiness”.
Can’t tell if this is a joke message.
I’d have preferred that France became the first to repeat in sixty years. Still, it’s real nice that the outcome was to your liking. No cable and I couldn’t watch online either — but listening to the British radio feed certainly brought the excitement home.
It was a real nail-biter! I feel sure Mbape will be back for the next cup.
I’m amazed about the amount of soccer coverage in the USA. I’d always been under the impression soccer wasn’t a “thing” to Americans and that it was even sort of mocked. That’s why they had football to obsess about instead.
Personally I seem impervious to the charms of soccer.
I’m guessing that the increasing Latino population has helped boost soccer’s popularity in the US. Additionally, the internet and streaming have allowed folks to more easily access matches than ever before. I bet that within two generations soccer will be almost as big in the US as baseball.
It is taking a long time to become popular though. As a teen in the late 70s – early 80s I was encouraged to play pro soccer. But in the US at that time, that wasn’t saying much. And you sure couldn’t have made a living off of it. More like charity. I’m nearly in my dotage now and it still isn’t a “major” sport in the US, and the US still has never produced a world class men’s team.
Of course, we have produced world class women’s teams, but the rest of the world didn’t really have a head start on us in women’s soccer.
Indeed a real nail-biter. In my view, a fair result. Argentina played better most of the game (including in the extra time), but sagged badly in the second regular period, and France came roaring back. France’s second equalizer, in extra time, was a stunner, and only Martinez’s inspired goal-keeping kept France from winning in the last couple of minutes of extra time. It was fitting that Martinez saved one of the penalties after extra time. Messi and Argentina get the deserved Cup, but France can hold its head high, and Mbappe is clearly now a force in world soccer.
GCM
I know petty much nothing about soccer in general or this world cup business in particular, but finding myself home from a morning hike, I turned on the television, and found the world cup that jerry and many of you have been commenting on for the past several weeks, with the score 2-0 with I think 15 minutes or so left in regulation. Well, holy crap, it was damn fascinating to watch through to the end…even with not knowing any details of what I was watching. The replays were nice compared to U.S. pro football because you could see what had actually happened without padding and helmets to obscure everything and the lack of excruciatingly long officials’ conferences was wonderful. I knew about Messi from the weit conversations and the French chap added great excitement with his kicks. Thanks for the prep. Riveting!
For those, like me, who missed the game, you can watch reruns on the Tubi streaming service. It is free, but you have to register to create an “account.”
I was hoping it would not go to penalty kicks, but I was happy to see Messi and Argentina win. Messi is my 2nd favorite player after Pele (who I saw play in New Jersey as a child)
I agree, I loathe penalties as a decider. I’d go to sudden death extra time after the two 15 min periods. However, those are the rules. That being said it was a really good match. If all football games were that exciting I’d watch more of them. I think it was the right final result, Argentina, IMO, had the better game overall, and it’s good to see Messi win the biggest prize.
I haven’t historically watched a lot of football, but I made an effort this year.
While overall I enjoyed watching, I am a bit bewildered by the outsized impact of penalty kicks. Also, I can’t help but feel that all the disingenuous flopping around on the field wouldn’t occur if they were to introduce more sensible penalties.
Found this article today which I think hits the nail on the head.
https://theathletic.com/3161748/2022/03/04/penalties-are-too-generous-a-reward-we-have-a-solution-and-it-involves-running/?amp=1
My post is mostly negative, so something positive…. I thought the action in todays game was fantastic. Agree that Argentina played a harder throughout the game. I didn’t have a horse in the race, so I was pulling for Argentina based on the aggressive work ethic I was seeing.
“…multiplying an attack’s goal probability many times over in a sport where goals are few and far between is ridiculously heavy-handed.”
It’s an interesting take; however, the quote above from the article could just as easily be an argument for penalties.
It was a fantastic game, and in the end I was sorry to see either team lose. Nice to see Macron celebrating the French goals with such enthusiasm. And English football fans may have appreciated the deadpan delivery of the Scottish commentator wondering if this was the first time anyone had scored a hat trick in the World Cup final.
I missed the Scottish commentator, but during the halftime discussion on BBC One they played an Argentinean commentator’s coverage of the two first half goals. Crazy stuff!
Justified, I think, email to BBC notes that SIr Geoff’s hat trick compared to the great Mbappe’s did not include penalty shots. Point well taken, I’d say.
Ally McCoist. I missed yesterday’s match, but I did watch another one where he commented and he was dreadful.
It was an excellent match (some are saying the best ever: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64019067 ). France were very disappointing until midway through the second half of normal time – and then the fireworks really started. Some excellent performances – Messi, di Maria, and the unlikely sounding Mac Allister were all brilliant for Argentina.
Matty Cash of Poland is my favourite.
In the 2021 India versus New Zealand Mumbai test match, the wickets fell to Ajaz Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, and Rachin Ravindra. Among that lot, two are New Zealanders 🙂 The wicket took spin.
Yes, France looked exhausted from the start, and I was thinking it was all over and time to blame the loss on the virus, but then Mbappe scored that penalty, and the game came alive. His second goal was pure magic, 2-2, then 3-2 in extra time, then 3-3. The only video I can find of Macron’s reaction is in the unspeakable “Sun”, so apologies for the source and the accompanying text. https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/20795835/watch-frence-emmanuel-macron-reaction-mbappe-world-cup-final/
A great final, regardless of who won. It was the second time Argentina led by 2-0 only to be forced late in the match to extra-time and penalties, in short succession. We saw the same when they won on penalties against the Netherlands last week: leading by 2-0, and only winning on penalties. The fact that so many matches end in penalty shoot-outs illustrates that the teams at this level have nothing much over each other. It is clear Martinez is one of the greatest extant keepers though.
Note, of its seven penalty shoot outs during a World Cup, Argentina only lost one, against Germany in 2006. They won two of them against the Netherlands. France won 2 of their 4 penalty shoot outs during a World cup. Only Croatia has a 100% record for countries having more than 3 penalty shoot outs, they won all 4 of them.
Correction: not just Croatia, but Germany too won all four of it’s World Cup penalty shoot outs.