I think you are doing Argentina and France a disservice here: they were really good until they ran into one of the all time great World Cup teams. As to your point about this World Cup not having a signature knock out game, how does this mean the US ruined the tournament?
Argentina vs Cape Verde is def a classic match.I can only Speak from 94-onward but that's one of the best international matches ever.
Jitty, this is nonsense and you sound like you are stuck in the past. Spain is an all time side with Rodri showing he is the best holding midfielder ever. They've won Euros and the World Cup and have done it with dominance, one goal conceded this tournament and like ten shots on goal.
While I agree to some extent re France, I also think both Deschamps & Tuchel intentionally constructed what turned out to be flawed sides because in europe, we've moved to the post-Guardiola era. So Deschamps, criticised for being too defensive in the euros, created a more offensive & dynamic side, but one without a proper counter press, press, and possession plan B Tuchel even more so. He didn't bring Wharton and Palmer (or Foden), didn't integrate the press resistant Mainoo. He just straight up renounced those things. So I agree they came up against an all time defensive side, but it's not clear they were equipped to compete against a team like Spain. The team that did compete against Spain was Portugal, who are stacked with elite, technical and dynamic players, but of course they decided to play with 10 men and sacrifice that generation as some kind of offering to Ronaldo inc.
Rodri certainly was one of the greatest - he isn't anymore. As i said, my only reservation about this Spanish team is their lack of elite attackers. The Euro version had that. Yamal was to die for. But this tournament he hasn't been more than mid.
Seeing all the fan footage and compilations of the ARG team assaulting ESP players after the final whistle is shocking. Not just players, the team as a whole deserves severe punishment (potentially suspension) for their collective actions. Most likely it will all be written off as “passion” with little/no repercussions. What an entitled crew. They played a horrible match by any metric and somehow feel they deserved to win and were robbed of victory. or probably they are just thugs who play soccer/football.
They should get a ban. They won't. Fernandes should also get an EPL sanction for his wild comments against the French side. Guaranteed Chelsea don't discipline him
Busquets was a unicorn 6 and a very good defender and distributor Rodri has more to his game close to the defensive line IMO
They also got someone embezzling money from the FA. https://www.soyfutbol.com/en/news/t...road-to-the-2026-world-cup-20260714-0032.html https://www.albawaba.com/business/42-million-argentina-300-million-1632775
He’s right about that one though. It would have been a classic if Cape Verde had won. Since they didn’t, it’ll be mostly forgotten about in a couple years. “David almost beats Goliath but doesn’t” happens all the time.
Yes, and with these shell companies largely based in Miami, it does make one wonder whether Messi is involved in these schemes as well since that's where he plays. He's already been charged for tax evasion using offshore accounts. Lionel Messi tax fraud prison sentence reduced to fine
1998 is generally recognised as the last proper world cup. Or 1994 if you are stricter. I am fine with football evolving. Like obviously many of the euro teams became relatively weak. South America became a shadow of itself. And democratisation of the game meant smaller nations can now out out highly disciplined sides. But let’s not pretend this tournament had anything remotely approaching the high end clashes we’ve seen down the years. The final was a fiasco and a disgrace that followed on from two flop semi finals. It may have excelled as entertainment. Which is fine. The actual corruption and how real any of this is now is a different story. Before this year I felt the games were mostly real. But no euro fans i talk to think Argentina was properly reffed. The US put on a commercial success that likely destroyed what credibility remained.
lol tbf I've been dealing with something similar. The magic of the WC is kind of gone for me, couldn't get into it at all. And the corruption just keeps getting worse. France 98 changed my life, so it was always going to be downhill from there. But I'm happy for the kids who got to see Canada play, something I never got to see as a child. Sometimes it's hard to just be like shit isn't for you anymore. Like Rap or tv... Or movies.
Simeone embodies their collective spirit. Can barely kick a ball at all, but has a day job and a national team slot cause of daddy. His only job on the pitch is to frustrate and foul. Ball fell to him around the penalty spot -- skied his attempt lol. It was perfect poetry. I couldn't have asked for a better final. Honestly, they should have been forfeited just for allowing this to exist:
i am not against the world cup changing to be focussed on broader participation if that discussion happened transparently. But it feels like a group of corrupt insiders are just making it up on the fly.
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A treatise on the usefulness of the ability to crop photos: Spain lift the @FIFAWorldCup trophy for the second time in their history! 🏆🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/2r7nIJGRsE— FIFA (@FIFAcom) July 19, 2026