Qatar Making Sure It's Not Just About the Winners
3/12/22
– Round of 16
Netherlands v USA
The
last 16 got underway with the Netherlands playing the USA. It never ceases to
amaze me how much the Americans annoy me when it comes to football. From the
insistence of calling it soccer to the U.S.A. chants, which remind me of shit
behaviour of their fans in the Ryder Cup. Today on social media I managed to
see a clip of Joe Biden, the current president saying “it’s called soccer”,
whilst pretending to receive a pass. I wonder what the chances are of him being
around when the next World Cup, overbloated to 48 teams, is held in a
combination of Canada, Mexico and the good old U.S.A, U.S.A, U.S.A, I BELIEVE
THAT WE WILL WIN…. Fuck off!.
Anyway, hopefully the Netherlands would turn up and sort them out and the first
half went exactly according to my plan with their ridiculous full back Denzel
Dumfries, setting up the first goal for Memphis Depay and the second for Daley
Blind on the stroke of half-time. The second half saw the Dutch butchering any
number of opportunities, usually through trying to give the ball to Stephen
Bergwijn or receive it and it looked for one horrible moment like the USA would
somehow snatch something from the game when Wright, their substitute scored
quite possibly the luckiest goal in history as it hit his heel and looped up
over the goalkeeper and dropped into the far corner of the net. That will have
had the nurses a bit worried in the Biden Carehome.
Anyway, the Dutch then decided to stop pissing about in the final third and
with Blind having the ball out on the left and Dumfries completely unmarked on
the right hand side of the penalty area, it was just a case of if the cross had
enough quality on it and it did and the right back buried it and with it, all
the USA chants and Star-Spangled Banner and all the fancy dress dickheads In
the crowd can go home. With that, Louis Van Gaal’s orange army went through to
the quarter-finals.
Argentina v Australia
Argentina against Australia is one of those games where you want both teams
to lose but before the kick-off I was expecting the most one-sided game of the
tournament. Didn’t exactly turn out that way because though Argentina dominated
pretty much from the start, all they had to show for it was a brilliant goal by
Messi and they went in 1-0 up at half-time. It looked like it was all over at
the start the second half when Australian goalkeeper Mat Ryan pissed about,
took a horrendous touch and was robbed by Julian Alvarez who turned in the
simplest goal he will have ever scored to make it 2-0. The Aussies had spirit
though and had a stroke of luck when a shot was heading for the corner flag but
instead of going onwards towards the corner flag it hit an Argentinian defender
who was just trying to get back in position and flew in the far corner of the
net. The Aussies actually had a chance to send it into extra time but Aston
Villa’s Emi Martínez made a decent save to preserve Argentina‘s place in the
quarter-finals. They will of course play against the Netherlands.
4/12/22
France v Poland
Giving the Keeper 'The Eyes' From 25 Yards is Taking the Piss
Last 16 day 2, started with France taking on Poland. Again I was expecting
this to be one-sided and theough Poland probably should’ve taken the lead in
the first half, once Olivier Giroud put the French ahead just before half-time
then it was pretty obvious what was gonna happen in the second half. Incidentally,
Giroud, often a player ridiculed his now France’s all-time record goalscorer,
ahead of Thierry Henry, Zidane, Platini and all those other great players that
they’ve had. Respect.
The story of the second half was that it was time for Mbappe to do his thing,
sending the goalkeeper the wrong way from open play, flashing one into the net
from the edge of the box and then repeating the trick as the game ran down.
Poland got a penalty in the last minute which was converted by Robert
Lewandowski in what will probably be his final act at a World Cup finals.
England v Senegal
Seems That Jordan Henderson is Cool Again
England were next up Next against Senegal and Southgate decided on just one
change with Marcus Rashford being unlucky to drop out and Bukayo Saka coming
back in. The first half an hour was very ropey with England being very
pedestrian and coughing up a couple of chances that a better team would’ve
taken. We were indebted to a very good save from Pickford to keep the game
goalless. He might have short arms but it’s a good job one of them was long
enough to get in the way of a shot from Sarr. On 35 minutes, it all changed
though as Jude Bellingham broke down the left and superbly picked out Jordan
Henderson with his pullback and the Liverpool captain made no mistake. England
were going to be slightly fortunate to be going in one ahead at half-time but
he got even better in injury time as another break inspired by Bellingham, saw
Foden square to Harry Kane on the edge of the box, with just the goalkeeper to
be and there’s only one place that’s ending up. Game over.
England are clearly just concentrating on keeping it tight for the opening of
the second half but managed to pinch another goal as it was Foden this time in getting
away on the left-hand side and crossed it for Bukayo Saka to produce a lovely
finish past Edouard Mendy to make it three and it meant that the rest of the
game was much like the Wales game, with England emptying the bench and resting
players and get into the final whistle with no alarms whatsoever.
Again, it has to be said that Gareth Southgate got a completely right but now
comes the real test as we play our first really good side in the shape of
France. I really hope Southgate sticks with the back four but I suspect he
won’t and that he’ll go with a back five which basically means that one out of
Henderson, Bellingham, Saka or Foden will be left out. Be brave Gareth. If we
go super defensive and get beat then it’s not gonna be a good look. If however,
we have a go and get beat, most people will forgive it.
5/12/22
Japan v Croatia
Can Yoshida Take a Pen? No
Japan and Croatia are up next, in a meeting of the universally loved
Japanese and Dejan Lovren. It was all
Japan in the first half and they took the lead just before half-time when the
corner dropped to Celtic’s mahi to put them in front. Unfortunately, the
Japanese could only last 10 minutes of the second half before a Kramaric cross
from the right is superbly headed in by Ivan Perišić. Neither team could find another goal in
normal time or in extra time so for the first time in this World Cup, we had a
penalty shootout. As a Southampton fan,
it was somewhat strange to see the two captains shaking hands for the coin toss,
seeing as they were both once Southampton teammates. One of course being a very
popular Maya Yoshida and the other one being the twat Lovren, who admittedly
was Croatia’s third choice captain as the other two had been substituted.
Unfortunately, the Japanese basically shit the bed with three of their penalty
takers, including Yoshida, taking one pace run-ups and hitting the kind of
penalties that if the keeper goes the right way, then he is going to save it.
Croatia went through with comparatively little fuss or tension. The only
consolation was that it was not Lovren who scored the winning penalty.
Brazil v South Korea
This game of course should probably have been Brazil against Uruguay which
would’ve been an interesting test for the South American favourites for the
tournament but as it was, South Korea were in town and it wasn’t a test at all.
Four goals in the opening half an hour meant that the rest of the game was like
a training game with South Korea making the store slightly more respectable in
the second half. Not that you can be too much into it because of the standard
of the opposition but Brazil looked very impressive in the first half with
goals from Vinicius Jr, Neymar, Richarlison and Lucas Paqueta. They still
haven’t been tested though and will probably only marginally be tested more by
Croatia in the quarter-finals.
6/12/22
Spain v Morocco
Morocco Officially Goes Mental
In all the games in this round, there was a clear favourite and so far,
every favourite had gone through with the minimum of fuss but now it was time
for Spain against Morocco.
A team that passes the ball to death against a team were quite happy to sit in
and defend and have so far in this World Cup, looked very adept at doing that.
The game went exactly as suspected with Spain having a ridiculous amount of
possession and then getting to the edge of the penalty area and then passing it
again. Morocco took every chance they could to break on Spain with pace and
they looked the better side throughout the first half. On the left wing of
course they had Sofiane Boufal, Southampton nearly – legend who is such a
ridiculously fun player to watch even though the end product isn’t often there.
Anyway, the second half went on with Spain again passing instead of shooting
and Morocco got more and more entrenched and it was pretty boring and we
reached 90 without any real chances for either side. In extra time it got
marginally more interesting as the jeopardy increased and the best chance felt
of the Spanish right back in 120th minute as he was picked out at the back post
but managed to volley against the far post from a tight angle and so we went to
penalties. Spain clearly don’t practice shooting because they don’t do it so
why would you practice something that you don’t do but unfortunately that
extended to penalties with three of the worst penalties that you could possibly
pull out at this time. One against the post and two absolutely shit ones that
the keeper just fell on. It eventually came round to a Hakimi who had the
opportunity to take the winning penalty against the country of his birth and
like a complete shit house he just dinked it down the middle with the
goalkeeper diving the wrong way. Every Moroccan in the stadium went absolutely
bat shit mental and as the news filtered around the world, it seems that every
Moroccan in every major city went absolutely mental as well. Spain it seems,
will never learn. They can however, think about it on the way home.
Portugal v Switzerland
The last game of the round was Portugal against Switzerland and this was
actually the one that I thought beforehand that the underdog might win. As I’ve
said before, there’s not much point to Switzerland in these tournaments but
here they are with a genuine chance against a team that hasn’t looked that good
but the Portugal boss had an ace up his sleeve having seen Manchester United
become a much better side once they dropped no club Ronnie. So, the main prima-donna
was on the bench and his replacement Gonçalo Ramos, smashed in a hat-trick as
Portugal absolutely buried Switzerland by 6-1. The annoying thing was the
Portugal actually looked really good which is a shame because even with No-Club
Ronnie not featuring until the last few minutes, they still have Bruno
Fernandes and that’s enough for anyone to hate them. Through they go to play
Morocco in the next round and it’s kind of hard to see lightning strike in
twice with that one.
9/12/22 - Quarter Finals
Brazil v Croatia
Brazil: not Dancing
Quarter-finals in Brazil against Croatia was first up in a game that would
provide the first test of any sort that Brazil have had. Whilst Croatia are
more workmanlike than inspiring, they are considerably better than anything
Brazil have played so far. First half boring….but Brazil had a better chances
with the excellent Livakovic saving everything, second-half also boring And
much the same as the first, first period of extra time also boring and then
Neymar picked up the ball, set off on a run, played a couple of 1-2’s, kept on
going and ended up firing Brazil into the lead. The second period of extra time
began with Brazil being far too attack minded than they needed to be given the
situation and they eventually lost the ball with five men in front of it and
only one of the five decided to try and run back as Croatia broke up the left
wing, crossed low and there was Petković to score with the aid of a deflection
to send the game to penalties.
Croatia keep her Livakovic had already proved he knew what he was doing in the
shootout win against Japan and he did it again saving the 1st two Brazilian
penalties. Croatia did the business and it eventually fell to Marquinhos with a
penalty to keep Brazil in it and he twatted it off the post. Neymar, who saved
himself for the glory fifth penalty, didn’t get to take one. How many fucking
times have we seen the world’s biggest players fail to step up with it matters.
Croatia march onto the semi-finals where they will play the winner of the
Argentina and Netherlands match and Brazil go home after flattering to deceive
yes again. Some blame must surely be placed on the manager for playing four
forwards, none of whom are interested in tracking back or doing the dirty work
when they haven’t got the ball and when one of your two holding midfielders is
Lucas Paqueta then you are always going to struggle against a well organised
team like Croatia are. Neymar has unfortunately spawned a collection of similar
type of players. They are similar in that they are not really interested in
doing the hard part of the game and incidentally, they are all Neymar blonde and they
are all covered in tattoos right up to the chins. Players like Anthony, Pedro
and Rodrygo, really have a long way to go.
They should start with being individual, rather than being a poor copy
of someone else.
Argentina v Netherlands
The Shithouse Derby
This game was going nowhere really. In
a poor first half, Argentina took the lead thanks to ridiculous pass by Messi
which sent right back Molina through to pass it into the net. The second half saw
Messi convert a penalty just after the hour mark after Denzel Dumfries had
clumsily brought down the Argentinian left back on the edge of the penalty
area. The game seemed to be meandering towards a routine Argentina win until
Louis van Gaal pressed the ‘Route 1’ button, sending on Wout Weghorst and Luuk
DeJong and launching it. Weghorst pulled one back with a really good flick
header, being marked as he was by Manchester United midget Lisandro Martinez
and with Argentina losing their discipline and giving away loads of free kicks
around the edge of the box, the Dutch came up with something wonderfully
inventive and rather than a direct shot, just rolled the freekick into Weghorst
on the penalty spot who held off a defender and turned and equalised to send the
game to extra time.
It was remarkable that given the Dutch had so much success with playing Route 1
in the last 10 minutes, they then stopped doing it and the game meandered through
extra-time and despite Argentina hitting the post, we ended up with penalties
again.
Virgil van Dijk stepped up first and saw his effort easily pushed away by Emi
Martínez. Messi scored and then Berghuiss saw his penalty saved as well so the
Dutch were already in the shit. Argentina did miss one which meant it went
right to the end with Lautaro Martinez converting the winning penalty. There
was so much shithousing, dreadful tackling and fucking bizarre refereeing in
this game the both teams had about eight players booked, courtesy of a
ridiculous Spanish referee who desperately wanted it to all be about him. It was great fun to see players losing their
shit and launching into tackles and smashing the ball at the dugouts and all
this sort of stuff. When Edgar Davids, complete with sunglasses and wearing a
suit, tries to start a fight on the bench, then you know it’s gonna be
entertaining. Argentina are basically a team of uncompromising thugs and
players who run all day. There is very little in terms of creativity in the
team but of course, they have Messi and there are echoes of Argentina‘s 1986
which was very very similar but they had Maradona. Messi 2022 isn’t quite as good
as Maradona 1986 but it will be interesting to see whether it’s enough.
Anyway, after all that it’s Argentina against Croatia in the first semi-final.
10/12/22
Portugal v Morocco
It's All About Me
Whilst the world is media focused on No-Club Ronnie, those who are
interested in team sports focused on Portugal against Morocco for a place in
the semi-final. Morocco have of course exceeded everybody’s expectations so far
and Portugal have been a bunch of twats. I think everyone knew how this game
was going to go from a stylistic point of view, lots of possession by Portugal
with Morocco defending deep and then hitting them hard on the break and that’s
how it turned out Joao Felix had a couple of early chances and bought a good save
out of the Morocco keeper and U2 singer Bono, before a break up the left wing
saw a cross lobbed into the box and the Portuguese keeper came out like an
absolute fucking idiot and got completely out jumped by En-Nesyri to give Morocco
a one nil lead. What everyone has learnt from this World Cup is that you do not
give Morocco the lead.
Bruno Fernandes hit the bar with a cross as the first half drew to a close and
the second half just saw Portugal in the ascendancy without really testing the
keeper. No-Club Ronnie made his way onto the pitch for the last 35 minutes but
looked like a player who has gone over the hill and is cart-wheeling down the
other side. In the end it all became
about Portugal histrionics in front of the referee and even a late red card
from Morocco couldn’t derail them and they became the first African country to
reach the semi-finals of the World Cup. No-Club Ronnie predictably disappeared
down the tunnel, barely acknowledging anybody. It was all about him of course.
Bye Portugal.
England v France
Projectile Launched into Qatar Sky
The only game that mattered as far as we were concerned was England against
France. Would England and Southgate show they had truly come of age and turned
a corner or would France show that they are just a class above. Would Southgate
go super safe and pick a third centre back. The signs were very encouraging
from that point of view as Gareth had his big boy pants on and picked exactly
the same team that played against Senegal.
An early Giroud header was easily saved by Pickford before we got the first look
at what was going to be a very difficult afternoon of trying to understand what
the fucking referee was doing.
Bukayo
Saka clearly had his legs wide away from him at the French end of the pitch but
I wasn’t given as a foul and so France built up and eventually the ball was
squared to Tchouameni, 30 yards out and he absolutely arrowed it into the
corner.
Debates as to whether Pickford should
have done slightly better but a great strike.
Fuck.
Harry Kane spun onto a Saka pass and saw his effort beaten out by Lloris as
England tried to hit back before Kane again got away from the clumsy Upamecano,
who brought him down on the edge of the box for the referee give fuck all
anyway. Kane then tried from the edge of the box and saw his effort deflected
and his Spurs teammate and goal pull off a ‘one for the cameras’ save.
The second half began with an England corner been cleared out to Bellingham on
the edge of the box and his superb effort was unfortunate a little bit too
central and again the keeper knocked over the bar. England got the break they
needed when Saka played a 1-2 with Bellingham in the penalty area and Tchouameni
clumsily took down the Arsenal man. Even this rather random referee couldn’t
not give it and Kane stepped up to send Lloris the wrong way.
England seemed to take their collective foot off the gas a little bit having
equalised and Rabiot bought a good save out of Pickford but England was still
the team in the ascendency and Maguire was unfortunate to see a header flick
the outside of a post.
Pickford was
called into action again to beat out an Olivier Giroud volley but it was a
temporary reprieve as the former Arsenal man, who everyone used to disprespect,
including some of his French teammates, was there to bullet a header into the
net from Griezmann‘s cross after getting there ahead of Maguire.
Southgate hadn’t made any changes at this point and having gone behind, decided
now was the moment so I came Henderson and Saka and on came Sterling and Mount
to my great personal deflation.
However,
a bit of a hopeful ball into the box towards Mount brought maximum reward as
Theo Hernandez absolutely brainlessly barged him in the back. Fucking ref
didn’t give it of course but VAR got this one right and having had a look at
the slow motion, there was again, no way he couldn’t give it as Hernandez was
not looking at the ball at any point. Kane versus Lloris part two. Up steps
England’s captain and puts up a fucking balloon.
Rashford and Grealish came on for Foden and the injured Stones for the last few
minutes and we want a free kick on the edge of the box with more brain-dead
French defending. It was Rashford’s moment and he had to score but he put it
over the bar and out England went, once more.
Bollocks. The wait goes on. In the past two tournaments, though we’ve got
further in that we got to a semi-final and then a final, I don’t feel as much
disappointment with this exit as I did with those. With those other two
tournaments I felt that we just shit the bed when it mattered and I put a lot
of that down to Gareth Southgate‘s conservative approach to things. There are
things that in hindsight didn’t work out today. He left it too long to make the
changes and I’m not sure that bringing on a very out of form Mason Mount and a
very jetlagged Raheem Sterling was really the right thing to do. If it worked
however then Southgate would be the hero and that’s the way it works.
Personally, I feel that as a manager, Southgate is getting better and for me
he’s earned the right to carry on. Whether he will want to carry on or not is
the question now.
He immediately spoke
of the amount of stick he got after the 4-0 home Nations League defeat to
Hungary.
I don’t feel that it’s
particularly realistic to complain about getting battered after a defeat like
that but maybe it’s a sign that he’s had enough of the scrutiny that comes with
being the England manager after six years and three major tournaments. It may
well be that he decides that this is a good time to bow out because his
reputation is intact and there’s not many managers who get to choose their
future.
This seems like the FA want him
to carry on though so we’ll just have to wait until the dust settles. I will
say that there does seem to be a lack of obvious candidates to replace him.
Some solace can be taken in the fact that the average age of the squad is
pretty low and players like Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, Jude Bellingham and Declan
Rice are only going to be getting better. The detractors will say that we have
done what we always do and there is an element of truth in that. We’ve beaten
all the teams who are comfortably ranked lower than us in Iran, Wales and
Senegal but we could only draw with the USA and we got beaten by the first
elite team that we came up against. It always seems to be the same way. You can
argue it either way, maybe it’s time for a change to give us that extra kick to
get us over the line or maybe we should be careful what we wish for.
Today there have been a lot of fingers pointed at the referee and he was truly
shocking. There was no way that it wasn’t a foul on Bukayo Saka in the build up
to their goal but we had the players back by the time France scored but no one
was close enough to Tchouameni. The referee gave us a penalty at the start the
second half which he couldn’t really not give and after viewing the monitor,
decided to give us a second one as well. The reason we lost is because we
missed a penalty and we missed the last minute free-kick. If you want to win tight
games against the opposition, then you cannot afford to miss chances like that.
France didn’t create many openings but they scored two goals and the bottom
line is that is why they are going through to the semi-final against Morocco
and that is probably why they will win the whole tournament, again. The good
news is that we can look forward to another fucking re-release of Three Lions
in 18 months time.
13/12/22 Semi-Finals
Argentina v Croatia
Alvarez Celebrates Messi Beating Half the Team
Whenever England go out, what follows has a certain apathy about it all, as
far as I’m concerned. I looked at the two semi-finals and saw two traditional
heavyweights against two teams who have over achieved so far and the question
would be whether this semi-final was going to be a game too far for either
Croatia or Morocco. Croatia against Argentina started off looking like it was
going to be a decent close game with Croatia dominated possession but having
absolutely nothing upfront.
Eventually the deadlock was broken with Álvarez, how shall we say, winning a
penalty by knocking the ball past goalkeeper and then crashing into him. Could
argue this one both ways but it was given of course an up stepped Messi to
spank it into the top corner. Álvarez scored at start the second half to put the
game to bed but there is still time for the coup de grace from Messi as he
turned the otherwise excellent Gvardiol inside out on the right wing before
driving towards the goal along the by-line and knocking it back for Álvarez to
sweep into the net. 3-0 to Argentina and Messi and his supporting cast get
through to the final. In some ways it’s an absolute fucking travesty that
Argentina have got there because they literally are a goalkeeper, a bunch of
thugs and one special player.
14/12/22
France v MoroccoBoufal Booked for Getting in the Way of Hernandez
Morocco had trouble before the game against France even started with Aguerd,
one of the starting centre backs, pulling out just before the game. They were a
bit of a shambles has the game started, far removed from the well-oiled
defensive machine that they’ve been so far and went 1-0 down after a bit of
pinball resulted in Hernandez putting them ahead after four minutes. Morocco then
lost Roman Saiss after about 15 minutes because he couldn’t run but once they
got their fit defenders on the pitch they looks a lot better.
Morocco started playing really fast paced counter-attacking football and were
denied what looked like a clear penalty
as Hernandez played the ball, clattered Boufal and somehow Boufal got booked
for being fouled in the penalty area. Absolutely fucking bizarre. Anyway, for
all Morocco’s endeavour, like Croatia they have very little up front and went
in at half-time 1-0 down. The second half had more or less exclusive Morocco
pressure for the first 20 minutes before France scored again on the break
during the small part to a very lucky deflection that took the ball into the
path of substitute Kolo Muani, who couldn’t miss. Morocco kept going to be fair,
but all they did was illustrate their inadequacies at the top end of the pitch,
managing to miss ridiculous chances and so the game eventually petered out to
give us an Argentina against France final.
From an England point of view, I was watching it thinking that if we had beaten
France, we would’ve struggled against this Morocco side who played with no fear
and fair play to them for a great tournmanet.
17/12/22
3rd Place Playoff
Croatia v Morocco
Croatia beat Morocco 2-1 and no one outside of those two countries gave a
shit. Seriously, no one.
18/12/22
World Cup Final
France v Argentina
The Key Moment in the Final - 123rd Minute
To the final and the build-up has been nauseating with everyone forgetting
that they would be 20 other players on the pitch apart from Messi and and
Mbappé. Gianni Infantino opened his big fat fucking mouth again and declared it
as being the best World Cup ever, which it clearly isn’t if you use metrics
like the number of fans attending or the quality of the football. What it
probably means is that FIFA have made the most cash out of it. He also spoke
about wanting to create a club World Cup with 32 teams in it, which I guess is
because FIFA don’t like the success of the UEFA Champions League and what their
own piece of the action. Another horrendous idea.
He did say one thing that was welcome though and that was that the 48 team
World Cup with the 16 groups of three would be put in the bin where it belonged
and though it will still be 48 teams, it is now almost certain that it will be
groups of four so we won’t have any corrupt games in the first phase. He said
it was because the four-team groups were incredibly exciting in this World Cup
and to be fair, he has a point but I do wonder about the real reason he has
backtracked.
To the final and Argentina tore into France in the first half with the French
barely seeming able to raise a jog, let alone compete with the intensity of the
Argentines. France seemed to be half asleep and Dembélé was certainly asleep as
DiMaria went round him and waited for the faintest of touches which Dembélé duly
provided and over went di Maria, which allowed Messi to stroke in the penalty
and the worlds media to stroke themselves into a frenzy.
Going behind didn’t wake France up at all and from their first real attack,
Argentina won the ball, broke and via Messi, Álvarez, McAllister and superb finish
provided by DiMaria, Argentina went 2-0 up and seemingly coasting. French
manager Didier Deschamps decided that he had had enough of the shit he was
watching and Dembélé and Giroud were hooked before half-time to be replaced by
Thuram and Kolo Muani.
The opening of the second half was pretty dull until Deschamps went for broke,
sending on Camavinga and Coman and taken off Griezmann and defender Fernandez.
With more attacking players now than you can shake a stick at, Mbappé woke up
when Kolo Muani got behind Otamendi who predictably hauled him back for an
obvious penalty that Mbappé easily converted. Within a minute it was level as
Messi was dispossessed by Coman, who went forward and fed and Mbappé. Mbappé flicked the ball up to Kolo Muani’s
head and went for the return and volleyed it first time across Martinez and
into the far corner. Fucking ridiculous goal. France have been utter bollocks but
once they’ve woken up, they were amazing. France looked the more likely in
normal time but an extra half hour it is.
France are Awake
As the Dutch did when they completed a similar turnaround against Argentina,
France then went back into their shell a bit and allowed Argentina to work themselves
back into the game. Into the second half of extra time and Argentina got
themselves in front again as Lautaro Martinez actually managed to shoot towards
the goal for once, forcing Lloris into a decent size before Messi bundled the
rebound over the line. With Argentina once more thinking they had won it, the
referee then stepped in and gave a penalty for handball when Montiel charged
down an Mbappé shot with his elbow clearly moving towards the ball. Excellent
refereeing and the correct decision. Mbappé
again, no problem and a hat-trick in a World Cup Final.
We were well past 120 minutes when Kolo Muani found himself clean through after
a mistake by Otamendi, but with just Martinez to beat he managed to hit the
outstretched leg of the goalkeeper. Argentina broke and a perfect cross was
right onto the head of Lautaro Martinez who proved once again that he is
absolutely fucking shit by producing a 50p header of the worst kind.
Penalties and there was only ever going to be one winner and that was always
going to be Emiliano Martinez. Absolute shit house goalkeeping of the best kind
and even managed to get himself booked during the shoot out for throwing the
ball away. This was after he’d already saved Kingsley Coman‘s kick it was no
surprise when he picked Tchouameni for his main shithousing, throwing the ball
away so the French youngster had to go and get it and put it back on the spot. Yellow card in the bank and Martinez watched
Tchouameni’s klick pull wide. Eventually it fell to Montiel to send Hugo Lloris
the wrong way from the spot to give Argentina their first World Cup since 1986.
Lloris had given off Peter Shilton 1990 vibes by basically collapsing in the
goal for every penalty and France had done an England Euro 2020 and sent up
kids to do an experienced players’ job.
The final provided great theatre and it was a ridiculously exciting game once
France started their comeback in the end but I feel that when the dust has
settled, people look at this Argentina side and wonder how on Earth they
managed to win it. Personally I don’t feel the standard of this World Cup has
been particularly good, with a number of teams seemingly having no striker.
Argentina have won this through being hard uncompromising bastards with the
sprinkling of magic that Messi provides. It was enough and and now, the fanboys
of No-Club Ronnie can shut up. At 35, we are probably seeing the last of Messi
in the World Cup. It wouldn’t surprise me if he retired altogether at the end
of the season after he inevitably signs off with winning the Ballon D’Or.
So, the latest corruptly awarded World Cup finishes. FIFA and Infantino got out of jail because in
the main, the football was decent, which it was always going to be. The hosts got what they paid for, a wave if
positivity washing over their country. They dressed Messi in some sort of Qatari
cloak for him to receive the World Cup – what the hosts and the like of
Infantino fail to realise is that it isn’t about them. It’s about the football and it always will
be. The World Cup would happen without
FIFA but could FIFA exist without the football? I found myself less invested
with every passing World Cup to be honest and there will come a day in to not
too distant future where the Football Associations of the various countries get
together and break away.
For now though, we’re all off to Mexico, Canada and the good ol’ U, S of A, the
latter of which is of course a country with no human rights issues if you don’t
count women of course… and they clearly don’t.
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