World Cup Final Takeaways
Photo by Martin Meissner from the Associated Press
This World Cup was filled with controversy.
Everything surrounding Qatar getting the official bid, the horrible working conditions for migrant workers and all the human rights issues.
So it makes perfect sense that it gave us the best World Cup Final in a majority of our lifetimes, because the world has a funny sense of humor that way.
So let’s get into one of the most spectacular games of my life.
The pregame story wrote itself.
It wasn’t rocket science.
We had Lionel Messi, widely regarded as the greatest of all time by everyone except Ronaldo fanboys, going for the last trophy he is so desperately trying to capture.
On the other side, we had Kylian Mbappe, the young superstar who is only 23 years old, has a World Cup trophy already, and is currently regarded as one of if not the best in the world.
Oh, and he’s also Lionel Messi’s teammate.
Not to mention, the two teams they had surrounding them were powerhouses in their own rights.
This game had all the makings of Wilder vs Fury 3. Two heavyweight fighters that were going to put on a show.
But it ended up like Wilder vs Fury 2, as only one superpower showed up.
For 78 minutes of this game, it was simply no contest.
Argentina was playing France off the field.
Messi was involved in every attack, bagging a goal and the pass that led to the breakout for Argentina’s second goal, France could hardly get anything going in the Argentine end, Mbappe barely had any touches at all and it was so bad that France coach Didier Descamps took off Giroud and Dembele before halftime due to them being incredibly ineffective.
It was honestly a bloodbath. There was nothing that was going to keep Messi from his crown.
But there’s a funny thing about superstars…
Like I mentioned, Mbappe didn’t do anything basically all game for the first 78 minutes.
But when Nicolas Otamendi gave away a foolish penalty kick which Mbappe buried, and before you could even say game on, Mbappe scored a world class 2nd goal just two minutes later to equalize for France.
The game sort of felt like France’s entire tournament.
Injuries made it look like they were down and out before it even began, but they would simply not give in. No matter what the odds, France was going to fight back.
And extra time was no different.
After Messi, once again, scored the goal that would put him on top of the mountain, it was another France attack that led to a penalty kick which made Kylian Mbappe the 2nd ever player to score a hat trick in a World Cup Final, the first being West Ham legend Geoff Hurst for England in 1966.
Throw in amazing chances at each end, one saved by Emi Martinez to keep Messi’s dream alive, the other a laughable miss by Lauturo Martinez to send it to penalty kicks, and it was the best 120 minutes of soccer I’ve ever seen.
It was just barely better than the 2022 MLS Cup Final, and no I am not kidding. If you didn’t watch that game you missed out it was also amazing.
It came down to spot kicks.
Penalties are such an excruciating way to determine who the world champion is, but it’s what it came down to.
And in a way, even that was kind of poetic.
If there was any single thing you could criticize Messi for, it was his lack of scoring clutch penalty kicks. It was the only weak part of his game.
But his first goal to open the World Cup Final was a penalty kick, and he went first to get the ball rolling for Argentina.
He scored that as well with a very cool finish, and it kickstarted a penalty shootout win for Argentina.
Messi had finally reached the summit.
If there was any debate (and I don’t think there was) there surely isn’t now.
Lionel Messi, at age 35 was the deserving winner of the golden ball award which is awarded to the best player in the World Cup, and won the World Cup for Argentina.
You can’t keep the king from his crown.
