Best game ever? The World Cup final was pretty terrible for 80 minutes
The second Mailbox after the World Cup final is a far more sober affair with several people claiming that it was actually a bit sh*t.
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Best game ever, my arse!
OK, it was a good game, but some are calling it the best game they’ve ever seen (I’m looking at you Micah Richards!). Maybe he’s only watched a few games in his time? It’s possible his muscles got in the way.
Until about 70 minutes, would anyone have said it was a great game? I suspect the answer from most non-Argentinians would be no. France had been poor up until then and the game was pretty one sided. Argentina eased off, quite understandably, and allowed the French back into the game.
From 80 minutes onwards is when it became exciting.
A good match for sure, but one of the greatest? If it hadn’t been the World Cup final, I’m not sure we’d be talking about it in the same way. All that said, I’m glad I watched it though.
The better team won, but you have to feel sorry for a fella who scores a hat-trick, scores his penalty in the shootout and still ends up on the losing side. He’ll be back.
I’m not wading in on the GOAT debate though. I’m a Perry Groves man.
Stu – English Gooner in France (who had 2 dogs in the fight and neither won).
Sliding doors
Can you imagine an alternative universe where England narrowly beat France in the quarters, then the semi and final played out exactly the same?
“Typical, as soon as we came up against a decent side we lost (France had half their first team missing).”
“Well getting to the final doesn’t really count as we had such an easy run (France had half their first team missing). Morocco in the semis FFS!”
“We were terrible for 80 minutes, if it weren’t for our star player scoring a soft penalty we wouldn’t even have been in it.”
“What was he doing taking off our best striker when we were 2-0 down?”
“Penalties. Again.”
QED Deschamps should be sacked, he’s useless.
I’ll leave out comments about the colour of those who missed penalties, but we all know what would have happened. (And in real life has apparently).
Al McBoro
More sliding doors
It’s all about the heroes, the Messis and Mbappés, because that’s what we all need and want and get. But just think about this: Imagine that
after Mbappé and Messi both scored their spotkicks convincingly, Coman and Tchouameni had scored as well while two Argentinians had missed. In that case, and without any doubt, it would have been Mbappé climbing the stairs to receive the golden ball for best player, and rightly so.
Same, if Kolo Muani had put that last effort past Martinez (or, the flipside, hadn’t Martinez saved Messi, err, his team). Same performance of the players in question, but totally different result. The flaw in Messi’s performance was him losing the ball to Coman, leading to Mbappés 2:2. The flaw with Mbappés performance would be that he was anonymous for most of regular playing time.
That’s the crux, isn’t it? Football is a TEAM sport, Argentina was the better team, and the better team won.
JJ (thank you, Argentina, for not allowing France to get away with another lazy performance)
Winter World Cup made for more energy
Firstly, I would like to reiterate how glad I am that the GOAT debate has been ended in such a manner. I remember staying in a youth hostel in Buenos Aires and seeing a floor to ceiling picture of Maradona punching the ball over Shilton with the text below “In God we trust”. I couldn’t stay mad at them. Top bantz indeed.
The real reason for my mail is that I think one of the things that this controversial World Cup has unearthed is how much better the on-pitch spectacle is when it’s played in the middle of the season. The heat was still quite literally on, and yet we saw quite a lot of teams able to execute pressing plans game after game using the superior fitness of the players. This went a long way to helping the lesser lights ruffle the feathers of some of the big boys (Japanese, Moroccan come to mind). When I see the second goal for Argentina last night, I just don’t see that happening in a summer World Cup.
Am I mad, or does anyone agree?
Adam, LFC
Messi business
What a final! The whole “Messi has to win it” came about because he was unfortunate enough to be from the same country as Maradona so that put special expectations on him but fair play to him, at 35, he delivered. 2022 will be HIS World Cup, as 1986 was Maradona’s. And seeing at this World Cup is all about ‘politics’, it was wonderful to see Macron failing to get the French victory that he so desperately wanted to hijack and exploit.
I noticed that Kylian Mbappe took three penalties (2 in the match, 1 in the shootout) and stuck them all into the same part of the goal, so that throws a fresh light on the bizarre discourse we heard after Harry Kane’s penalty flop against the French. Also Dybala came straight off the bench and scored his penalty, again throwing a fresh light on the Sancho/Rashford discourse about “cold” penalty takers.
Matthew
Harsh on England
Not normally one to defend England, but your rankings are extremely harsh. If the article is about comparing ranking to performance, England did well. Ranked 5th, losing to a team ranked above them, means the quarter finals is exactly par. Saying that Qatar had a better World Cup than England is nonsensical.
Mike, LFC, London
The World Cup in 16 points (not conclusions)
So, Argentina are the world champions!
1) Qatar welcomed everyone.
2) Argentina are a one-man team
3) Morocco were boring
4) Qatar were shit
5) Brazil are a one-man team, that one man isn’t as good as Argentina’s
6) Croatia and Belgium exited but have the added bonus of achieving bus pass status now
7) England were good but not as good as the casual England fan expects them to be
8) Saudi Arabia f**ked up beating the World Champions in the first match rather than the last match
9) Tunisia f**ked up beating the previous World Champions in their dead rubber but not qualifying for the last 16
10) Cameroon (see above) but tournament favourites,
11) Morocco were actually a fantastic tournament team
12) France had the draw open out for them and lost against the first decent team they played.
13) The best team won, what a fantastic final. Geoff Hurst’s record of the only male to score a hattrick in the final (and win the cup) remains intact.
14) Mbappe must be gutted, then again he’s only 23 and already won it once.
15) I’m not sure but I “think” that may be the first time Messi has won the World Cup? I haven’t heard it mentioned but reckon that’s right?
16) Next time it’s definitely, without a doubt, maybe, coming home.
TLDR: it was a great World Cup, football wise. Best team won. Some facetious points above, if you can be arsed go back and figure out which.
Brian (Happy with the Southgate news) BRFC/England
Emi Martinez the real hero
Am I the only person who thinks the real Argetntinian hero of this World Cup is Emi Martinez?
Four of Messi’s seven goals have been penalties with one miss, which would be the odds you would expect from any forward.
The Argentines completely bottled it four times in this World Cup, vs the Saudis, and then more importantly against the Dutch where Martinez’s stereotypically Argentinian shithousery, and brilliant penalty ability got them through. In the final they bottled it not once but twice. But once it went to penalties there was not a doubt of who was going to win. Martinez was typically himself pure brilliant shithousery, and Lloris looked like a central defender having to step in goal after a goalkeeper has been sent off for giving away a penalty.
It is a fitting icing on the cake moment for Messi, but I think Martinez deserves most of the credit for this Argentinian victory.
Dave, Laois, Ireland
…As an Arsenal fan, I am here for the wider world’s realisation that Emi Martinez is the next great football shithouse.
Like the Oliver Kahns, Pepes and Diego Simeones of the world, it takes a rare combination of talent, chip-on-shoulderness, attitude and conflict to craft a football heel (rather than just have it written for them by scriptwriters) and Martinez fully deserves his platform to shine.
Hopefully he can keep our name out of his mouth now, if only because he gets to chat shit about the whole world (and the French team in particular) for the rest of his life.
Tom (Ramsdale would never, he’s more cheeky chappy/wind up merchant than driven by revenge and spite) Walthamstow
What about best referee?
I liked your best of the World Cup awards article but surely you should have mentioned the best referee? I thought Syzman Marciniak had an excellent final, letting the game flow and keeping good control which resulted in what was a classic final. Admittedly there were some less than stellar performances along the way Wilton Sampaio (England-France) for example who was very inconsistent, and Mateu Lahoz (Argentina-Netherlands) who was just plain batshit mental, but overall I thought the standard of refereeing was good. The use of VAR not so much. FIFA seems to have taken a backward step since the 2018 World Cup when their use of VAR was generally praised. And nice to see the use of a very competent female crew for the Costa Rica-Germany game.
Now back to the future and let’s see how the lads do against Bournemouth on Tuesday night.
JH Aruba (NUFC)
That was food for the soul
That was a game of football for the soul even though I wanted France to win. So, so much to unpack in this game you’ll need 25 conclusions. Respect to Deschamps for making ballsy changes and respect to the youngsters he put on for going for it. Mbappe – what is there to say, absolutely epic performance. And what about Argentina? Full force red bloodied action from the off that blew France away. The heart, the power, the skill – not only from Messi but also the like of Mac Allister – amazing.
What a bloody final. What a bloody sport.
Duck
(How creepy were Infantino and the other guy at the trophy ceremony?)
What a World Cup!
If you said you’d boycott the World Cup and stuck to your decision I don’t know whether to be impressed with you or feel sorry for you because by golly that was epic.
Best football World Cup I’ve ever seen and I can vividly remember nine of them.
Well done to the good people of Qatar and everyone who participated in making this one of those good things in life. This is why we live.
MK Philippines LFC
The last word
It doesn’t matter how great the final was., this World Cup was a complete sportswashing farce.
David, California
Actually…
I flicked over to ITV at half time yesterday and found myself raging. What tf was that on Keane’s face? Does he want a beard or not? Messing about with a razor blade is all very well but it wont win you trophies. You take that razor blade and you either use it or you don’t. Poncing about in front of a mirror wasting everyone’s time? Ridiculous. I’d make him walk home.
Mort Snort, Saints