My own hot take regarding Embolo’s 2nd yellow: He had been irritating me with his dramatic antics the entire game. Lots of rolling around. Lots of throwing his arms up in the air and staring at the referee in shock. When he got the 2nd yellow I actually stood up from my chair and clapped. I’m not singling him out. There have been several players in this tournament who have similarly irritated me. I have seen the argument “It’s the end stages of the World Cup. You don’t give a 2nd yellow for that”. My thought is that one should have respect for the end stages of the World Cup and not do stupid things that let down your team. His first yellow was stupid. His second yellow was more stupid.
I definitely thought his first yellow was super dumb. He was also playing on the edge and seemed overly emotional and it did not surprise me that he earned another dumb yellow card. Too bad there weren't more situations where cards were given for reckless play. You know like punching a guy in the back of the head. oh well.
I wanted Messi to win another. But I clapped at the end because Spain was the clearly better team and deserved the win. That doesn’t always happen in soccer. Spain only gave up one goal in this tournament. Argentina had zero shots on goal today I believe.
They gave Argentina one shot on goal. Argentina was living on extra time since Cape Verde. Happy they lost in a dramatic way while also getting utterly dominated. Paredes should have been off. Messi should have been on a yellow. Mac allister should have been off. Anti soccer shouldn’t be celebrated if rsl stole these Spain kits for the next primary I wouldn’t complain one bit
More than likely the best team in the in the tournament lifted the Cup. Spain deserved to win and we deserved a better final. Argentina looked like a team that absolutely did not deserve to be on the pitch today. As fans we were robbed. The outcome may have been the same but I guarantee the game would have been infinitely better with a Span/England final. When the calls don’t go their way Argentina showed who they really are in the tournament. A coddled bunch of douche bags. The highlight of the game had to be the red card. FINALLY! A ref had the cajones to make the right call. FINALLY! Argentina is a great team but if the calls had not gone their way maybe they fight through and lift the cup. If Messi would have been given the red he deserved in the first game…. This WC deserved a better final. I am so glad that Argentina and their racist fans go home unhappy. For me their play, behavior, and FIFA princess really took the bloom off the rose for me with them. This World Cup was actually pretty amazing. It was incredibly fun. The larger amount of teams was not the disaster people expected. The joyful stories were amazing. So happy they were not drowned out by FIFA and their Messi addiction.
Spain gave up one goal in eight games. That's absolutely incredible. In 120th minute today, Argentina had zero shots. Not shots on goal, shots. They were also good in the attack, though how they attacked was much more appealing to someone with an appreciation for/understanding of the nuances of movement both with and without the ball; it isn't France. They are an absolutely deserving champion. I am not sure any team has been as dominant across a World Cup in my lifetime. Even if scores were close, the games weren't. (Once more, mad props to Cape Verde!)
Like the 2010 side, they severely lack a finisher. Yamal and Williams were supposed to make them different. But at the end of the day, I felt like I watched a sequel to 2010
There's a clip of one of the Argentine players taking a jab at one of the subs as they ran on to celebrate. The guy came back to confront him and it looks like he put a hand around the throat from one of the angles. Absolutely classless from the losers. I also find it amusing that the orange was talking up Argentina before the game. The curse lives on
Eh it's tiktok but here's the cleanest view. Definitely better be some kind of punishment handed down https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8tFHNk9/
They were both coming back from injury. Saka was too. Doku as well. Some big names didn’t really perform this cup due to injury/illness. I don’t really fault them for it, especially with how many games they play in a year already.
The wild part for me was the first yellow on Enzo Fernandez. Don't get me wrong, he had been asking for a yellow all game, but the replays didn't show much that would cause a yellow for dissent. To me, that seemed like the ref had enough of his chirping and crap and finally had an excuse to give him the yellow. The second yellow was obvious and no way for VAR to overturn. I couldn't believe he didn't pull out of the tackle. I've hated the way Argentina plays since the last tournament and they were always pushing the line of when a ref would be willing to give them the red. Their luck finally ran out and justice was served. Then Messi and Enzo showed their sportsmanship by immediately trying to get Cucurella sent off for covering his mouth while talking. Bunch of cry babies.
He did simulate the foul but I think he would have gotten away with it but he turned around and was pretty demonstrative with the Ref. You can see it pissed him off as he yanked out the yellow. lol
Argentina’s bad behavior after the game has many content providers going on about this is who they are and that Infantino supports what they do. An arguement is made that Enzo didn’t pull out of the tackle because he was certain no referee would give him a 2nd yellow. There’s no proof of it of course. A few content providers are taking this opportunity to point out that Argentina is one of the most racist societies on the planet and they give the history of how it’s government has almost made the country free of black people.
The most interesting claim I’ve seen is that the red and yellow card system was instituted following an Argentina game where a player refused to leave the field and claimed it was due to language barrier confusion. I’ve never dug into the history of the card system, but it’s an intriguing claim if true.
Did you know that FIFA pays the clubs of players who were at the World Cup - and even in qualifying too? $355 million for the 2026 cycle. From The Athletic, "FIFA pays out on the basis of how many days finals participants are at the competition, with clubs entitled to roughly $5,000 per day, per player, between the mandatory release date of May 25 and the day after their national team’s last match in the competition." Not sure about the amount for qualifiers. But it means we'll bet about $170k for JuanMa being in the World Cup.