Mbappe with a helluva performance. Martinez with some amazing saves. Both second goals were classics, and world class. I was practically shaking from the sense of pressure these teams were facing. Kudos to the players for their poise throughout. Next person trying to tell me Maradona is better than Messi should be trampled by lemmings.
After watching a tearful interview, a shout out to Emi Martinez. He was absolutely vital to this championship. On balance I liked him when he was with us, and even if he's been a prick since he left (actually he's just a bit of a prick in general) he deserves big time kudos. He deserves to be where he is. Deserves credit for this result. Edit: Maybe I can take that back? After watching Emi not just be a prick but turn his golden glove into a virtual one... right after he received that award. Oy. Good role modeling there son..
I think that was 1970's ARG great Ricky Villa who carried out the trophy, right? But who was he with?
The awesomeness of the moonman balances things out for MTV. At a minimum, the WC trophy needs to be way bigger taking two hands to lift.
Now that the World Cup is over and the quest for the Premier League title can resume, I'm of the opinion that William Saliba is important enough to Arsenal's campaign that he should absolutely be in the starting 11 vs. West Ham on Boxing Day. If anything, he might be too rusty to slide right in and contribute, but I refuse to believe he requires time to "recover" after France's World Cup campaign. He played in one game, nearly 3 weeks ago. Grab 2 days at the beach, clear your head and get back to winning.
Best World Cup I’ve seen and the best final in any sport I’ve seen. Amazing match. I am happy that the stars were proper stars.
Recency bias warning, but was that the greatest football match I've ever seen? Jesus Christ. Congrats to Messi on the ultimate crowning achievement.
Wondering if the world cup should permanently be moved to this time of the year. Players are in mid season form. Weather is far more friendly for exciting, high intensity football. Players get a full summer break. And it's only every 4 years.
Vancouver, Toronto, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Seattle are among the cities set to host the 2026 World Cup. I don't think anyone wants to play soccer in those cities in December.
I think its a good idea, however, I think the lack of air travel and movement had a major impact on this tournament too. Not having to fly a few hours to reach a different destination probably boosted the play. You can[t guarantee that again. And though the matches were great, I do kind of miss the summer fun with a tournament.
Definitely the best final since '86 IMO, but the tournament itself was pretty trashy. Not 02 bad but not great. 94 or perhaps 98 were the last decent tournaments, though both had poor finals
Friday here in Kansas City the high temp is 2 deg F. June has a good chance to be in the 90's sneaking up to 100+ by July, but that's still better than a frozen pitch. Club football has gotten so structured and the best sides are well coached and drilled, defenses are organized and attacks are fluid. You get to international play and all that is out the window. That just leads to more chaos, no one can hold a 2-0 lead because they can't hold a line. Attacking teams can be incredibly wasteful. But you still have elite players like Messi and Mbappe and it makes for a more entertaining product. Lack of prep for the tournament in the winter probably added to that chaos.
Argentina played an amazing 70 mins and Messi had an astonishing tournament IMO. Not just good for his age, and allowing for the weaker standard of international football, but as good as I have seen him play in years In terms of where I rank it, my downvote is mostly that due to failures of some of the big sides, Argentina didn't have to play anyone good before the final. Had they beaten Brazil on the way, I think it would feel a more complete performance, but as it was they scraped by a very poor holland and a comparatively weak croatia. Like 02 there was lots of entertainment, but very poor showings from the supposed heavyweights
I supposed selling Emi at the time because he was one of the few players Arse could get any money for but it turned out to be so stupid keeping Leno instead of him
I thought the QF stage matches in Qatar were really great (then blah semis and amazing final). Is there a WC that you can recall that had better QF's? Edit: I now see from another of your posts, that you tend to put a high premium on "big teams" reaching it to the last rounds, rather than them getting upset early. Which might explain why you think '22 was "trashy". I might have the opposite view. For sheer entertainment and excitement, I think the minnows going (pretty) deep improves the whole "product", as you might say.
I'm not sure that his "skill contribution" was better than when he was younger (honestly my memory isn't that good for specific remembrances of past WC's) but one thing that stood out to me was how durable he has been, both in this cup and his career in general. In Qatar many of his teammates or rivals were subbed off before 90, due to fitness. But Leo went the distance, several times 120+. Sure he walks a fair bit, but he also does instant sprints a lot, and he's 35YO. That impresses me.
I think there just are not many strong quality sides compared to the Ye Olden days Go back to '82 and check out the mind boggling great sides - even a minnow like Scotland had a star studded line up. In europe teams like Holland and Italy are a joke compared to what they were. There used to be the USSR plus strong eastern bloc sides. Brazil is a joke compared to their last strong side in 02
You just want a big nations World Cup. The standard of play in this tournament exceeded any I have seen (starting in 1994, tbf). And I have a feeling it was better than any before because smaller nations genuinely played like shit until 2014. They didn’t try to attack and played scared. Outside of Qatar, the quality of this tournament was very high. I don’t need a strong Italy or Germany to make this tournament great. It’s also why, in a round about way, 48 teams will be great because more teams will have more quality in in 20 years than 20 years ago. It’s good for the quality of the game.
Format wouldn't matter - the traditional big nations are poor because their leagues are comparative rubbish I agree the other nations are much better - basically knowledge is better distributed, and smaller countries have some pro players which they never used to have
All this comparing to previous WCs has me waxing nostalgic on a couple similar thoughts. WC 90 was the best for me - some real bangers for matches throughout that one. '94 was OK, but nowhere as deep and competitive, imo. Also, - I accept the argument that Messi is the greatest footballer in the modern era (last 50 years), but I still have a hard time believing he is better than Pele. It's obviously difficult to compare eras, but Pele was way ahead of his time and his per-game stats are better than Messi's. If you could somehow put peak Pele on any of those peak Barca teams, I'm reasonably certain his numbers would be even crazier. - ESPN is making the argument Messi is the greatest *athlete* ever. Over MJ, Lebron, Brady, etc. That's just dumb. This World Cup proves Lionel Messi is the best male athlete (espn.com)
Messi’s numbers are better than his peers too and ahead of his time—man scored 91 goals in a calendar year and not counting exhibition matches. And you have to accept that Messi is playing against much better players than Pele did.