“The world final is a different game. In a common clash you want to show your qualities, but this is something else, it is a situation in which everything is allowed. The difference between the Argentines and us is that they played like a world final. In each duel they gave you a blow ”, declared Ibrahima KonateLiverpool central marker who entered after 112 minutes of the unforgettable Argentina 3 – France 3.
Such a statement moved us towards an exciting exercise: rewatching the full match. It took several hours, it was to see, go back, check several incidents several times. In small letters we fill nine pages with annotations and analysis. It was really fantastic. Using legal terms, seeing him with violent emotion, In other words, in real time, many things happen to us.
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“I love watching games from the perspective that time gives, outside the stadium. Completely new things are discovered”, says Diego Torres, a wonderful colleague from the Madrid newspaper El País. And he adds: “It happened to me with the final between Brazil and Germany in 2002. I saw it again recently and I saw that Germany played much better than Brazil, something that was amazing to me, because Brazil was a super team and Germany was a very limited one. And he won the first one by two kidnappings of talent”.
Di Maria after scoring against France
Well, telegraphically we can say yes, Argentina-France was the best definition in the history of the World Cupsfor the goals, for the drama, for the sensational maneuver of Di María’s goal, for the fantastic definition of Mbappé in the partial draw 2-2, for the extreme tension in the game, for the remarkable performance of Messi, for the extraordinary work of Argentina in the first 78 minutes of the game, for the incredible draw of France in 60 seconds after being dead, buried, cremated and with his ashes thrown into the Seine. And because it lasted, in total, 141 minutes and 13 seconds between regular, added and extra time. Plus the penalties…! The longest final of the World Cups.
Konaté’s is partly true: Argentina assumed the final with a mentality of steel, with a strong and temperate leg. But it didn’t hit. He hit almost nothing, he went with everything to each ball, which is different. Konaté is 1.94 and weighs 95 kilos, a physical colossus like his teammates Upamecano (1.86 and 90 kg), Thuram (1.92 and 90 kg), Tchouameni (1.87 and 81), all… How do you think Konaté that Messi (1.69), Mac Allister (1.74), Tagliafico (1.72) should face him…? They put character. Is it wrong, Konate…? There were clearly more strong fouls from the French side. They weren’t that many either. It was a clean final. There were two really strong actions by Cuti Romero, Giroud and Mbappé. Also one from Otamendi to Kolo Muani to punish him. Rabiot and Upamecano each gave a hard one. And Theo Hernández and Mbappé (both to De Paul). But, unbelievably, the fiercest player who played was Kolo Muani. He entered like a rage and in each friction he put his leg, elbow, body. However, no one deserved to be expelled.
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Nor is it that in a final “everything is allowed”. It’s exactly the other way around, the only game where everything is hyper-controlled is the world final. A referee plays his entire career there. And the players take care of themselves like never before. Leaving the team with ten in that instance is a lifetime sentence in front of the fans.
France was not champion because it did not have the same mettle as Argentina and, above all, because of Deschamps’s amarretismo. Practicality always worked out for him, defending, waiting, speculating, “let the others spend and we’ll counterattack them.” He had worked out against England and Morocco. That time it failed.
Antoine Griezmann (left) and Lionel Messi (right), in the World Cup final.
“Argentina played much better than France. Deschamps was wrong in the approach. If with those giants that he has, he had started getting into the Argentine field, he would have created a lot of problems for Argentina. Because apart from Messi and a bit of Enzo Fernández, he had no level to start the play under pressure in his own half. If he had had to take those first passes while drowning, it would have been very difficult for him. But Deschamps is very conservative and gave him space to then go on the counterattack. He was wrong, he allowed Argentina to have space, he breathed. That brought the game to Messi’s ground, where he is more comfortable. And that was the only place where Argentina could win the match”. The analysis of Diego Torres.
That meant that France almost never reached the arc of Dibu Martinez. We have written down at the end of the first half: “Bronca in France. Giroud throws his diver against the bench of substitutes. France: zero shots on goal, zero approach, zero attacking play. Exceeded in everything. And 2-0 down”. At 66′: “France still haven’t put together a single offensive maneuver, but the spirit that Upamecano and Kolo Muani spread begins to fight the game.” Seconds later, at 67’25”: “The world champion up to that point achieved a corner, cross, Kolo Muani headed wide, but it was his first offensive attempt”.
Messi did wonders. It is perhaps the best final played by any footballer in the annals of the World Cup. He intervenes in exactly 59 actions, 47 of them very good, making delicious, millimeter passes, with an advantage, clarifying, putting together dangerous advances, always forward and with depth. He also scoring two goals and giving a key rating to Mac Allister in Di María’s goal.
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Lloris took a bomb from him above and another in the low angle. In one he left Lautaro Martínez hand in hand with Lloris and put together the beautiful play for the third goal… he created almost all of Argentina’s goal chances, which were several. In minute 122 with 55 seconds he put in an excellent cut for Montiel, who shot a cross and Lautaro, with the goal in hand, headed wide. All positive, deep. Without him, Argentina had no chance.
The Argentina team is the world champion and its great figure, without a doubt, is the ‘Flea’.
The thing about Mbappé, on the other hand, is very strange: He was virtually absent until the 80th minute, when he converted the first penalty. He then finished wonderfully in the second, but intervened very little in the game, exactly 19 times, most of the time, unsuccessful. None of his dribbling or pass attempts came to fruition. The same, whenever he faced it, he generated fear. It was relentlessly blocked by Cuti Romero, with a fabulous performance. To say that a footballer who scored three goals in a final (two of them from penalties) had a discreet performance seems nonsense, but he did not stand out and was missing for very long passages. “His was very discreet,” agrees Diego Torres.
The one who changed the head of the French team was Randal Kolo Muani, an indomitable lion, a warrior who, contrary to the general apathy of France, with his team beaten and discouraged, went forward like a bull, forced, changed the game and started the blue reaction. His was consecratory. “If someone speaks ill of Kolo to me for that play at the end that the goalkeeper covers, I will fight him,” says Konaté. And here we are 100% in agreement with him.
At minute 77 and 30 seconds the Argentine fans, who thundered the stadium, began the “Ole, Ole…” Because it was real dancing. At 78’12” Otamendi’s penalty hit Kolo Muani. And there began another match, with exceptional vibration, in which the dance almost won. It’s football.last tango
JORGE BARRAZA
For the time
@JorgebarrazaOK
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#day #tomorrow #tango #opinion
