LUSAIL, QATAR — The 2022 World Cup final started out as a one-sided affair that looked like it was on its way to being an uneventful crowning of Lionel Messi as world champion.
Argentina did wind up lifting the World Cup, but not before an epic France comeback in a match that turned into the most dramatic and thrilling final in the history of the competition.
France erased a 2-0 deficit with a pair of Kylian Mbappe, then responded to a potential Lionel Messi winner in extra time with an Mbappe penalty, but the French couldn’t deny Argentina in the penalty shootout as Messi and the Albiceleste rose to the occasion one more time.
Argentina converted all four penalties while France missed two attempts, setting up Gonzalo Montiel’s chance for redemption after his penalty handball tied the match at 3-3. Montiel converted his penalty to deliver Argentina its first World Cup since 1986, setting off wild celebrations in a Lusail Stadium filled with Argentina fans.
The victory gave Lionel Messi his coveted World Cup on a night when he delivered a performance worthy of a champion. Messi scored Argentina’s opening goal from the penalty spot, and the go-ahead goal in extra time before stepping up and calmly converting Argentina’s opening shootout attempt after Mbappe converted his attempt for France.
Emiliano Martinez played the shootout hero for Argentina once more, denying Kingsley Coman’s attempt in the second round before Paulo Dybala converted for Argentina. Aurelien Tchouameni missed France’s third attempt before Leandro Paredes converted for Argentina.
Randal Kolo-Muani converted France’s fourth attempt, setting up Montiel’s chance for redemption. The Sevilla defender beat Lloris with his attempt to secure Argentina’s third World Cup title.
The penalty shootout followed a wild 120 minutes that saw France battle back from 2-0 and 3-2 down after Argentina enjoyed a dominant first half. Messi converted a 23rd-minute penalty earned by Angel DiMaria in the 23rd minute before DiMaria scored a goal of his own in the 36th minute, capping off a beautiful counterattack sequence for the South Americans.
France looked flat and Didier Deschamps acted, inserting Marcus Thuram and Kolo-Muani in the 41st minute. The French began to show life in the second half after Eduardo Camavinga and Kingsley Coman came on in the 71st minute. Their insertion helped give France energy and the speed to put Argentina under pressure.
The changes paid off for Les Bleus in the 80th minute, when Kolo-Muani drew a penalty foul by Nicolas Otamendi to set up an Mbappe penalty kick, which he blasted home.
Just one minute later, Coman forced a Messi turnover and sparked a quick counter, with Adrien Rabiot finding Mbappe in the penalty area. He blasted home the game-tying goal to make the score 2-2 in the 81st minute.
The match went to extra-time, where Messi delivered yet again, pouncing on a rebound of a saved Lautaro Martinez shot in the 108th minute for his seventh goal of the tournament, making the score 3-2.
Argentina held on desperately to that lead, but it only lasted 10 minutes, when Montiel was whistled for a handball in the penalty area. Mbappe stepped up to the spot and scored his eight goal of the tournament, which eventually helped him secure the World Cup Golden Boot.
Unfortunately for Mbappe, his hat-trick wasn’t enough to earn France a third World Cup, and it was instead his Paris Saint-Germain teammate Messi who was able to realize his World Cup dream.
france didn’t show up for about 70′ of regulation, alarm clock went off late or maybe argentina’s concept of getting back then countering left france nowhere to do those fast dashes upfield. they did well to get back in the game but france spent most of the night chasing a tie when they had to know kicks didn’t bode well for them. that being said for all the concern the keeper was bad at kicks it was the field players’ failure to convert 2 that decided it.
will keep repeating it til i am blue in the face but the recipe is a sturdy defense and an attack that can either blow past people with speed or counters, or beat people off the dribble. we had this discussion in 2010, talked about emphasizing dribbling, then turned it into an early-short-pass and cross team that gets rid of the ball sideways or backwards hours before anyone can get blown by or dribbled.
side point, if people want to be a crossing team the deliveries need to be more accurate — dead balls and wide crosses — balls right to feet and heads a la what the dutch did or mbappe’s shin volley. “in the neighborhood” is not good enough. it might elicit oohs from a select or college crowd but a bunch of overhit or underhit hopeful crosses your 9 isn’t anywhere near is a long day in international soccer. if you want goals and to advance those balls need to be laser perfect or you shouldn’t be bothering. personally i don’t see a particular strength in a crossing game and would rather see us sit back and counter or take wingbacks on. the base offense does not work.
people may ask how does this relate to the final but in neither of the last 2 rounds did i see a team that looked like us or where we would be successful running our system against them. i saw the same need to develop ever more technical players who can juke defenders that we talked about in 2010-11 when bradley was gone after and then fired, that we then got distracted from. it’s either that or we historically have done well running wide speed counter soccer. we are not 2010 spain in disguise and to me the game has sped up and complicated beyond 433 fart around ball. there was a moment, the moment is gone. if you like that style anticipate when in the next 20-30 years it’s an advantage again. my guess would be when wide-spreading formations come back in style giving passing cracks. as it stands teams are compacting the defense and there isn’t a bunch of room to pass all day, and they are punishing any passing errors with fast transition schemes.
Mr. V,
“ france didn’t show up for about 70′ of regulation, alarm clock went off late or maybe argentina’s concept of getting back then countering left france nowhere to do those fast dashes upfield. they did well to get back in the game but france spent most of the night chasing a tie when they had to know kicks didn’t bode well for them. “
The game is 90 minutes + extra time long so the fact that France took a while to get back into doesn’t much matter. I think of it like a boxing match. Better late than never.
France was one wonder save from Martinez at the very end from winning this game in regular time and it would not have been a fluke an accident. Why would France be overly worried about going to penalty kicks? They had just beaten England in a shootout.
“will keep repeating it til i am blue in the face but the recipe is a sturdy defense and an attack that can either blow past people with speed or counters, or beat people off the dribble. we had this discussion in 2010, talked about emphasizing dribbling, then turned it into an early-short-pass and cross team that gets rid of the ball sideways or backwards hours before anyone can get blown by or dribbled…..if you want goals and to advance those balls need to be laser perfect or you shouldn’t be bothering. personally i don’t see a particular strength in a crossing game and would rather see us sit back and counter or take wingbacks on. the base offense does not work.”
Versus Croatia Messi dribbled the ball to the goal line and then cut it back for Alvarez to score. A cut back like that is a sideways or backwards pass.
All successful passing requires two parties, the sender and the receiver. Any pass is useless if it does not hit the intended target and the target does not do something good with it.
“people may ask how does this relate to the final but in neither of the last 2 rounds did i see a team that looked like us or where we would be successful running our system against them. i saw the same need to develop ever more technical players who can juke defenders that we talked about in 2010-11 when bradley was gone after and then fired, that we then got distracted from. it’s either that or we historically have done well running wide speed counter soccer. we are not 2010 spain in disguise and to me the game has sped up and complicated beyond 433 fart around ball. there was a moment, the moment is gone. if you like that style anticipate when in the next 20-30 years it’s an advantage again. my guess would be when wide-spreading formations come back in style giving passing cracks.”
The base offense for the USMNT “does not work” in large part because the manager and the players aren’t good enough to make it work. You can have a Kroos or a Pirlo ( and I don’t know that we have one) serving up perfect balls all day but if no one gets to them and then does something useful with them it’s a waste. W/o someone as capable as an Alvarez or a Dempsey at the other end of that pass you’re just jerking off.
So change the players. Or change the tactics so that your shooters have better or more shots and they can increase their chances of success. The better the quality of your shots or the more of them you can take, the better your chances of scoring.
But if you want to change the tactics keep in mind that
“ as it stands teams are compacting the defense and there isn’t a bunch of room to pass all day, and they are punishing any passing errors with fast transition schemes”
Which means the attacks on these defenses have to originate from the wide areas or from a little further out in front. And since, for whatever reason, no one on the USMNT seems to be a consistent threat from distance they are going to have to make things work from the wide areas. That’s why Pulisic and Weah matter.
But they need more than those two. They need new players and/or a new manager. Preferably both.
The ref gave an imaginary PK to Argentina in the 1st half (a clear Di Maria dive) and also Messi’s second goal should have been cancelled due to Argentina subs coming onto pitch before play was over.
But I guess they really wanted to five Messi his World Cup!
re the first goal, it’s on the soft end — and i texted a friend as much at the time — but it’s a foul — he’s running up his back and their legs even tangle. to be fair i have seen refs let it go as incidental — i don’t think he was meaning to bring him down — but bring him down he did. when someone runs you over even slightly from behind i’m not calling it a dive. there were far worse dives in that game, ie, people hooking a leg on a tackle they could have avoided.
fwiw dembele had a nightmare. if you want an idea how the global transfer market is messed up and biased spurs are rumored to be considering a summer move for the barca “no defense” winger with a 50m release clause that would be twice the MLS transfer record. i get people enjoy the player movement soap opera and think it reifies parts of europe but it can also get a bit silly or contrary to what your eyes just told you.