2022 World Cup Thread

[Golden Avalanche]

Argentina (particularly Mac Allister and de Paul) did a great job starving Mbappe of service for the first 75 minutes by swallowing Griezmann. But for the last 42 minutes Mbappe was pure terror. Arguably one of the greatest performances ever seen in a Final with his second goal pure unicorn.

Because the game went beserk Di Maria is an afterthought but he was very very good in the game and made Scaloni look smart by selecting him. 

Thought Camavinga did a good job shadowing Messi majority of his time. He and Tchouameni along with Mbappe and Maignan have France strong up and down the middle. Griezmann's got some time left but finding a credible string-puller will be key.

Final note that Lloris save in the 97th and Martinez save in the 120th were both worthy of drool.

[MuggsyB]

Muggsy, I know futbol is not your thing.   It is the thing for the rest of the planet.  This game had two countries with long and glorious histories.   It had two of the best players alive having magic moments.   It had spectacular goaltending down the stretch.  It had comebacks and extra time goals.   Billions of people will be talking about this game to their grandchildren.

I don't disagree with that and maybe it's semantics.  When I think of "greatest" sporting events ever I look at the quality of play, the odds of both teams or players, and the overall drama.  Not how many people watch.  Granted I don't know futbol well at all but for example the 1980 USA Olympic hockey win over the USSR most would consider among the greatest sporting events ever. I wasn't born, many people knew nothing about hockey at the time, and yet it's forever etched in our memories as Americans.  Futbol is by far the most popular sport in the world so the question is will that match provide lasting memories to those outside of Argentina or France?

[Lennys Tap]

I confess that I’m not a soccer fan. I didn’t play it growing up, high schools in my area didn’t even have teams.

When I watched my kids play I thought it was boring. Well, I’m still not knowledgeable and not a fan, but that game today was amazing - riveting even. Way better than any American football game I’ve seen this season.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I don't disagree with that and maybe it's semantics.  When I think of "greatest" sporting events ever I look at the quality of play, the odds of both teams or players, and the overall drama.  Not how many people watch.

If you are using those subjective terms as metrics, you are just going to get a list of highly personalized opinions.  The 1980 Olympic game is a great example.  It was wonderful, but shown on tape-delay, and no one outside the United States really cares.  Yet, there may be some falconry contest in Mongolia that meant just as much to the participants as that game meant to the United States.

So it becomes a rather meaningless excercise.

[lawdog77]

If you are using those subjective terms as metrics, you are just going to get a list of highly personalized opinions.  The 1980 Olympic game is a great example.  It was wonderful, but shown on tape-delay, and no one outside the United States really cares.  Yet, there may be some falconry contest in Mongolia that meant just as much to the participants as that game meant to the United States.

So it becomes a rather meaningless excercise.

Well my son's 5th grade basketball team lost 56-12 earlier to a team, but beat them in the county championship.

[Goose]

While I am not a soccer fan, that was a fantastic, exciting sport event. I jumped out of my chair a couple of times in OT.

[CTWarrior]

I do not like the sport.  I watch the World Cup every four years because my wife is from Argentina and for her and her family it is a huge deal and she puts up with me watching a lot of baseball and basketball.  I also work with a bunch of people from all over the world and get caught up in it because of their enthusiasm. 

I watched Maradona-led Argentina blow a 2-0 late and beat the Germans 3-2 in the WC final in 1986 a year after we got married and thought, "that was a good watch."  I've watched every WC since (at least until AR gets bounced, anyway) and have been decidedly underwhelmed/bored until yesterday. 

That was a genuinely fun/epic game.  To me, the save by the Argentine keeper late was miraculous.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

What was amazing, and I think has been overlooked, is that Argentina came right back down after that save and had a REALLY good scoring chance at the end. But an awful header just didn't put the ball on net.

[tower912]

Muggsy, 4 billion people watched the final.

[Bo Ryan's Massage Therapist]

Well this Danielle Reyna news isn't making her and Claudio, let alone Gio, look too good.  She reports domestic violence regarding coach Berhalter that occurred 30 years ago to US soccer federation over complaints regarding her son's playing time in Qatar.  If she was so concerned about the incident, why did she wait so long to report it?