yeah, I'm rooting for Morocco... lol... if it's Argentina v France, lets just say I'm disinterested..
This World Cup is a little unusual in it being the (likely) end of an era for so many of the game's top players of the last 15-20 years. It's more than likely we'll never see Messi, Ronaldo, Modric, Bale, most of the Belgian "Golden Generation", even possibly Neymar and Kane (34 and 33 at next Cup), ever again at a World Cup finals. Unprecedented in my memory to see so many stars come to the end of their WC career at the same time. No doubt there will be new stars, Mbappe is already one, but will be interesting in the next 4 years who else will be next to pick up the mantle.
Well blech. At least one of Argentina or France will lose on Sunday and fail. Thats the way im looking at this. Two teams i dont like. I will root for Argentina before i ever root for France.
Amazing final. Probably the best final of all time. Greatest game of all time? Oof. Thats hard. Not sure. So open once France went down towards the end. And then going for their second goal. And again after tying three three in extra. Martinez huge save at the end. That was Frances opportunity to not lose in pens. U knew Argentina would win it in pens. Argentina came out to win with heart to start the game. They were the better team. Challenging everything. Winning the 50 50 balls. The best player of all time beat the best player in this world cup. But in the end it was the best team that won. France puzzling. Kind of sad that this is all about Messi according to the US coverage. They have barely talked about other players. Team game guys.
Crazy game! Unreal! No offense but I'd rather watch Japanese or Arabic announcers rather than American announcers. Luckily Canada is shielded from that BS and we get the Brits. If you don't have an English accent, get off the mic please. DiMaria was crying all game. Tears of joy, sorrow, joy, sorrow. What an emotional roller coaster for both fan bases. Insane. Congrats to Argentina.
For 80 minutes, the game was almost a coronation for Argentina, as France just hadn't turned up. One ill-advised tug on the jersey in the penalty area and that all changed though, crazy game after that. The commentators here were talking about Messi a lot too, but I didn't mind that as he just went up there alongside the likes of Maradona in the conversation around the best players ever, and he had had a great tournament. They didn't hesitate to mention the contributions of the likes of MacAllister and Martinez though as well.
It's all about personalities in US sports programming, especially for those sports that they assume the audience does not know well. This has gone back 30+ years for the Olympics: "up close and personal". It was the beginning of me falling out of love with the Olympics, and nothing has changed that over time... Show me the damn games\sports, I don't give a flying **** about whether the athlete fights with her or her spouse, or grew up in the woods raised by wolves, or whatever they think is interesting this week...
I'm a little too young to remember Pele, but have seen enough highlights and heard from enough people, that he will always be up there as one of the best ever. Like all sports, it's difficult to compare players over the years and say definitively that one or other is the GOAT. But Messi is definitely in the conversation now with the likes of Pele and Maradona. One thing that I do like is that Ronaldo will have been watching Argentina and Messi win it on Sunday and will know that he's never going to be able to match that now (yes, it's fair to say I don't like Ronaldo the narcissistic primadonna!)
All eras are different.. i dont like to do the comparisons between generations. There were different rules back then, different conditions, much different technology. Who knows how great Pele or Maradona would be now with the technology available in sports fitness and nutrition. Or how they would adjust to VAR and a much stricter offside that was a great world cup. A lot was said about Qatar, that they should have never received this opportunity to host it. Cant dismiss the body counts that sacrificed for this world cup to happen.. and i am on board with all the negativity towards that and Sepp Blatter with that said, looking at the tournament itself, they hosted a beautiful tournament. I never seen a trophy ceremony like that, looked like something from another galaxy, the stage glowed.. last ceremony in 2018, the french were getting drenched in hard rain.
The World Cup Final in 2026 is going to be at MetLife Stadium. Hard Rock is going to have the 3rd place game though, and gets one of the quarter finals as well as a last 32 game too. The opening game of the tournament will be in Mexico City at the Azteca Stadium. Atlanta and Dallas get the two semi-final games.
