World Cup General Discussion Thread - 2030 The Jokes On You

Thought Mbappe was a bit underwhelming for most of the knockout stages then suddenly sparked into life after scoring the penalty today.

Messi is the best goalscorer, dribbler and passer of his generation. There is no comparison with any other player of his time. Seems like a decent bloke too - whenever he scores, he's almost always pointing to his team mates who set it up rather than running off to do a cheesy trademark jump that makes it all about him.

 

I may be in the minority but I was glad Argentina won in the end despite the rivalry between England and them (which I don't quite get - England vs Germany makes more sense), it's a team that hasn't won this competition for decades, they have had some truly world class players over the years and at times play a brand of football that is as good as Brazil's, but something made them underachieve for a long time. It's largely the same squad that so under-performed at WC 2018 and were humiliated by France in only the second round in a very flattering 4-3 loss (while still managing to score one of the goals of the tournament) but back then they had the equivalent of Belgium's Wilmots, which shows how much the manager can make the difference at the highest level.

In the end Argentina deserved it - slightly more possession but with twice as many shots on goal and on target as France, who took until well over halfway in the second half to get going despite the game-changing subs. Argentina's confidence seemed to take quite a hit after France got those two goals from seemingly nowhere but fair play, they were the stronger team towards half time of ET - France seemed to get a bit too defensive like they were playing for penalties and all their three goals came from unforced errors.

World Cup finals haven't been great since I started following football during WC 98 - either too comfortable for the winners or too evenly matched if that makes sense (France vs Italy in 2006) and for a long time it looked like this game was going to follow the former pattern, but the unlikely turns of events late in normal time and in extra time made it one for the ages.

 

To be honest you could pick virtually any of the finals prior to West Germany vs Argentina in 1990 as a comparison, notably the 1982 and 1986 ones. In every one of them both teams scored, which has not been the case in the majority of WC finals since 1986.

 

On the BBC tonight Lineker, Shearer & co claimed today’s game was not only the best World Cup Final ever, but the best Final of any sort. As anyone knows, this title has been held by (and still remains) the 1998 play-off final between Charlton and Sunderland.

 

You’re not aware of the Falklands War, then?

 

Interesting France got three pens though, I assumed you thought there was a limit on the amount you could get after your comments about England getting two in a game.

 

They didn’t…?

 

I'm aware of it all right, but if we're going to throw in wars as justification for a rivalry in the unrelated world of football, then England were involved in two World Wars against Germany.

I thought much of the rivalry anyway stemmed from the antagonism from both sides, from Ramsey calling the Argentina players "animals" to their at times cynical gamesmanship (part of which led to Beckham getting sent off in 1998). Like I said, the England vs Germany rivalry makes more sense because of the teams' numerous clashes over the decades (England haven't played Argentina that much because they can only meet in World Cups and friendlies) with so often Germany coming out victors despite England often being the better team, the much greater proximity between the two countries and the general envy towards Germany not only as a footballing nation but also due to the fact they do so many things more efficiently than us.

 

Surely you can have more than one rival? And the Falklands War happened much more recently.

If you think football fans, particularly of national teams, don’t take wars into account when establishing rivalries then I am afraid you are spectacularly naive.

To add to which, this was why Taylor didn’t get to be the referee for the final:
https://www.football.london/international-football/anthony-taylor-world-cup-referee-25778491

 

I'm sure that was a great spectacle (unfortunately it was just before my time as a football fan) but it was played between two second tier teams, one of which got relegated from the PL the next season. Other contenders would surely include West Ham 3-3 Liverpool (by far my favourite FA Cup final, and very refreshing to watch during the modern footballing era of largely sterile finals), likely Palace 3-3 Man Utd and Coventry 3-2 Spurs, Liverpool vs AC Milan in the Champions League, maybe Liverpool 5-4 Alaves whatever some people think of the UEFA/Europa League.

 

Featuring of course current Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni, bet he's glad to be on the right end of a penalty shoot-out in a final for a change!

 

Don’t worry about England losing mate. Southgate’s still the one, he’ll still turn you on, football’s coming home again. Again. Again.

 

Pretty sure Mbappe scored three?

 

I guess the final was ok.

 

I hope he claimed the match ball, did he?

 

Ally McCoist said when Mbappe got his third goal that that was the first time there was a hattrick in a World Cup final where the ball had crossed over the line all three times!

 

A hat trick doesn't really count when it includes penalties and less when two of the three were pens.

It's a lesser hat trick. A grade D.

A grade C includes only one penalty.

A grade B is all 3 from open play.

A grade A is one left foot, one right foot and one header.

 

Yes, 2 pens and a goal… you said that France got three pens…?

 

Perhaps a19tgg is including the penalty in the shoot out,four in all then?

 

An awesome final only spoiled by making Messi wear some sort of ridiculous gown to pick up the trophy with. He should have lobbed it the moment they put it on him.

 

Ref was giving out penalties left right and centre during the shootout. Absolute joke and clearly fixed to stop England.

 

At least Saudi Arabia can claim to be the best team in the tournament.

 

Messi will be well aware of his responsibility to Qatar.

 

Argentina reckons they still have a valid claim to the Falklands, and it still comes up in domestic politics. Germany hasn't the slightest desire for a replay of WW2.

 

What about that Cup Final where Man City scored 6 against the greatest team the world has ever seen?

 

Less correct second time round

 

"The best World Cup ever? Not for me" was the headline to Henry Winter's article in The Times today. "Now is the discontent of our Mr Winter" was one of the online comments.

 

From an entertainment point of view it was probably the best WC final, the best WC as a whole? Not a chance, not even close, how could it ever be under the circumstances.

 

I think there was a point in this WC when they said there had been loads more 0-0 draws and only half the goals scored compared to the previous WC at a certain point. There have been some good games and some bad games, recency bias tends to kick in with these things and people think the most recent is best.

 

It reminded me of the ‘79 FA Cup Final where Arsenal dominated until the last few minutes when Man U came back to 2-2, only for Arsenal to score again right at the end. It was great drama, but it can only be a great Final if both teams play well for the majority of the match.

 

It was a bang average world cup with a few good games and just the standard few upsets. Additionally to what you said about one team being poor for 75 minutes, no final should be decided by penalties and called greatest final ever (it wasn't anyway). Argentina didn't win the game. France didn't lose it.

 

This isn't the Brexit I voted for.