I hope the English coach doesn’t start shooting his players
What happened after England scored? Did England lose its motivation, or did Argentina decide they actually needed to play?
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Wild how much more successful the latter year Messi Argentina teams are vs the more talented early year teams. Coaching + fight + teamwork making up for the (relative) less talent.
I was working, walking up and down the stairs to the TV. I knew they were tied and then saw 2-1 and the last few seconds of the match! Yes! It will be a nice time on Sunday for me and my family. If France can beat England as well, that will make it even sweeter. I wish France had made it to the final, but I will take this instead.
//i\\
I would have thought that would be losing in penalties.
Got your cardiologist on speed dial?
I don’t think anyone can blame FIFA or favoritism for that loss. England just seemed to lose attacking passion after their goal and Arg had it in spades .
Would have been nice/more interesting if Kane was fed the ball more.
Yeh you’re right. But losing after defending a lead on the edge of our box for half an hour is a close second. That last 30 minutes was pathetic. I got so wound up first half with the Argentina antics but second half they actually came out to play, and we just didn’t compete. Best team won.
Funny watching Tuchel taking notes. Never seen a footy coach actually sitting down with pen and pad. (hockey - only “Badger” Bob Johnson)
England showed no belief after a few minutes of Argentina pressure. And that was led by the manager’s changes.
As I saw it, England’s low block defense didn’t provide them with enough opportunities to sustain some possession to relieve the pressure, so Argentina was able to just recycle and keep attacking. The few times England got possession of a clearance, they didn’t have the personnel or the numbers to make a really good scoring opportunity to try to make it 2-0, so Argentina stayed in the game and eventually solved that England defense.
If Spain goes ahead, they will be a much tougher nut to crack.
Jeez, look at this passing map for England: https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3kmyeu4ic4asefuvh22kzbyh/bafkreihauzn6ilft6ood6cad6dmze5bjn2uz5hk3bb5f4i7yrf65yya6lu
England played well for seventy minutes, and then decided to stop playing offence while only leaving Jordan to play defence.
Argentina deserved the win. But England could have won that game. After the fourth big save, time to substitute.
Obviously some of both, but I think Tuchel’s subs were atrocious.
I generally hate shifting from a back 4 to a back 5 in the middle of the match - the CBs tend to lose track of who they are marking. Taking Gordon off for Konsa seems to be the exact opposite of what you want to do up 1-0. Argentina will press and Gordon is the perfect outlet for a transition attack.
Or put more succinctly, England ended up changing 3/4 of their backline during the match.
ETA: You also end up very narrow because you only have the wing-backs wide. Messi had tons of time to pick out both the pass to Fernandez (waiting until he had drawn two defenders to him) and the cross to Martinez for the winner (on which somehow 5’9" Martinez gets between the 6’2" Stones and 6’0" Ezri Konsa to win the header).
Absolutely awful by England after the first goal. They would have been better off not scoring at all. It was cross after cross, and at least one goal was inevitable. England played like they were up 2-0, which we know is the most dangerous lead to have (and it’s 100% true). I snuck out to the bar for the 2nd half, and I told my neighbor (an Argentine) that “don’t worry, you guys got this”, after watching England for 5 minutes after the 1-0 lead. He didn’t want to hear it, but it was obvious that at least 1 goal was coming from Argentina.
And that’s exactly how we liiiiike it 
This absolutely unbelievable, if you told me, in 2018 after getting knocked out against France playing horribly, that we would be in the next 2 finals I would’ve tried to get you commited.
Lautaro and Enzo will go in mi left leg, now, let’s see who else.
Well done, Frodo. So glad that Messi got to win this last important match of his career. See you on Sunday.