Its unfair to Croatia to have to wait for so long.
They waited too long to cross kick the ball allowing France’s defense to fill in any gaps.
Definitely the strangest final I have seen, with an own goal, controversial penalty and a massive goalkeeping blunder along with three fine goals. I still think Croatia was quite unlucky but those two second half goals made France deserving winners in the end.
I was personally hoping for it to go the other way so we could make jokes about France continuing their Napoleonic tradition of limping home from a Russia after an ass-kicking :(.
No no and no. I wanted Croatia to win but Croatia were not better. Try to wrap your head around situational football. Croatia had to attack. The only measure of better is goals. And victories.
But Croatia was better against France than Brazil was against Belgium. Today we had the minnow trying to defeat the whale. 10 days ago it was the opposite. Both were just results.
The Croatian President is refreshingly informal
I would have loved that narrative as well.
…and curvy. Some people are holding the embrace way too long.
I think she and Macron might elope from the looks of it.
Dude, you’re merely stating the obvious, and you do it over and over again. Everyone knows that tactics change when after a goal by either side. If you aren’t capable of factoring each situation into an assessment of who actually played better, that’s your problem. To say that the final score is the end-of-conversation is a naive viewpoint. In a game as low scoring as soccer, all sorts of random events cause a much wider range of possible outcomes versus other sports. The final score is actually pretty random.
No, almost no one thinks that Belgium played better than Brazil. After the watching the semi-finals and final, Brazil really was the best team in this tournament. Neymar’s theatrics probably cost them the Cup. But that doesn’t mean that France don’t deserve the Cup. I do agree that, for the most part, the winner is deserving.
Croatia the much better team in the first half. France was the better team in the second. However, a big part of why France was better in the second is because Croatia were stretching themselves. I think France is the better team, but that Croatia were better on the day. Too bad that questionable calls were so influential.
Modric the clear and very deserving Golden Ball.
The last three WC finals have been won by the best team of the Tournament; and the lesser team on final day.
Not really. I think Germany was the better team against Argentina. Spain too though I don’t remember the game that much.
Well, Argentina had the only real chance in regular time that they should score like 9 out of 10 times. I definitely remember Spain being the better side, but I only watched that game live so I don’t recall much other than it should have 11 vs 9 or 8.
So how good will this Mbappe kid be? It was mentioned that he was the first teenager since Pele to score a goal in a World Cup final. Is he going to be the next global superstsar, replacing Messi and Ronaldo as they age?
It must be a nice feeling having a World Cup win in your bag at the start of your career, instead of that nagging feeling that your otherwise super-successful career isn’t quite complete without one.
It’s hard to say. He’s had a better career at this point in his career than Ronaldo. However, most players that look like world beaters at 19 end up not being that. If he ends up with a career like, say Robben, is that a let down?
Very young still. He is a lot like Arjen Robben. You are right that he can relax now, he has a WC (and a WC Final Goal), but still I think he could easily be around for 2030 or 2034. He need to avoid injuries, hard tackling DM and powerful CB are going for him. Hard.
The same can also be said for Griezemann and Pogba incidentally.
I must say I was glad that Mandzukic own goal evened out. France won with 3 other clear goals, Griezemann got his final goal and Mandzukic even got a consolation.
It would have sucked donkey balls if it had been the deciding goal…although what the hell was the CF doing defending?
The Dutch managed to break the Spanish passing rythm and Robben had two 9/10- times-score. chances to win it in normal time. The winning goal was on a magnificent play started and run by…Jesus Navas.
Well, he scored his WC Final chance unlike Robben.
But yeah, lets hold off the Messi and Ronaldo comparisons until the next few years. Plus he has actually won an international trophy, unlike Lionel.
So what is the expert consensus on that penalty? My sense is that most think it was a mistake and that was my reaction too. It didn’t look deliberate and if there is serious doubt I don’t think you can give a penalty especially in such a huge game. It’s a pity because without that penalty this might have become one of the great finals.
I don’t tend to rate one shot more than another. I don’t buy into players being “clutch” or whatever. So Robben or Higuain’s miss don’t mean a ton to me as far as Robben’s legacy or Messi’s legacy. I mean, but either Robben or Messi or Ronaldo on this France team and all three of them have WC victories.
But yeah, there’s a distribution of possible career paths that Mbappe has. Some are all time greats careers. Some aren’t. IMO, even if he’s only a Robben, we should regard that as a great career and not a failure because he’s not the best of all time. If he ends up like Pato or Robinho, then sure, be disappointed.
So, FIFA guidance is that if your arm is in an “unnatural position” then it’s implied you meant to handle the ball by making yourself bigger or whatever.
IMO, when jumping it’s completely natural for your arms to flail a bit. The only thing that , to me, makes it unnatural is that it seemed like his arms dropped quickly. Like maybe he was trying to get them down in order to hit the ball. However, I don’t think it’s clear that’s what happened as opposed to just normal arm movement while jumping.
I’m not a fan of that penalty call, but I’m not that upset about it. The Griezman dive, on the other hand, was egregious.
A 2010 Documentary (updated in 2014 to include Iniesta and Gotze) about the men who scored a World Cup Final Goal.
I scored a Goal in the World Cup Final
Looking forward to Mandzukic’s entry. Going to be crowded anyhow now.
ETA: Yeah Griezemann went down in a Neymaresque fashion but come on, it was a foul; yes the referee could have decided not to have called it, but it was a foul. PLus who told the Croats to have such a high line and CF as the last defender?
The handball, yeah the original call should have stood, as it was not clear and obvious, still if it had been called as a handball originally then no one could have complained.