10 quick thoughts on the final, which I enjoyed at my local Irish pub, where I meant to visit many more times than I actuallly did in this tournament.
1. No one should be surprised that the final kind of sucked as a football spectacle. Most of them do, as they normally include 22 people who are either ****ting themselves scared or surrounded by people who are. This is now the third 1-0 in extra time final in the last five World Cups. A fourth of recent vintage, 1990, featured West Germany beating Argentina 1-0 on a 85th-minute penalty kick.
2. I think the whole "better if you score late" is an obvious trope, but if Spain had any sort of intent, it worked beautifully. They got their goal at just the right time where they didn't have to sit back and defend forever (England) and had Argentina out of rhythm, out of gas and down a man.
3. In fact, this game bore a rather striking resemblance to the 2010 final in South Africa, a shockingly violent game with a dozen bookings (including Nigel de Jong kicking a man in the sternum), the Dutch getting a man sent off late and Spain scoring an extra-time winner.
4. Welcome to the Emi Martinez Show. As a Villa fan, I thought he might be able to steal one for them. There has been a lot of talk during the tournament that he would be making a move to Juventus. Seeing as he turns 34 in September, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if the price was right, but the guy did the job. Maybe it was positioning, but all those shots right into the gut gave me some Martin Brodeur vibes.
5. I still find this Spain team hard to figure. At least two of their games happened on Monday afternoons that I missed while playing golf (in fact, by my estimation, they played all but one of their games, Uruguay, in broad daylight). A third (Saudi Arabia) I was in the car most of the time and it was a blowout before I got to a TV. Spain-Austria was the time I tried to watch on Telemundo (I don't speak any Spanish). That said, to play eight games in a World Cup and allow one goal? I guess that was my loss.
6. I said many uncharitable things about Argentina after the semifinal, and most of the on-field ones turned out to be true, IMHO. That said, it's almost shocking how calm Messi is. Maybe it's the Spanish upbringing, maybe it's the resume so he doesn't have to be a ****-stirrer.
7. The halftime show was a pretty stupid idea but they did a nice job putting some unhateable stuff in there. Like who hates the Electric Mayhem? Seriously? Though did Dr. Teeth sit out in protest?
8. For all the doomsaying about the weather, I believe it was less than 80 in New York today -- normal summer day. I believe there were exactly two games with lightning delays, only one of which was delayed in progress (and that was at halftime). There were a few scorchers for sure but not dramatically more than most of the recent tournaments.
9. As for the play? Maybe a letter grade of B? The Cape Verde-Argentina game happened while I was driving home for the Fourth and I was surprisingly against the idea of Cape Verde winning at the time on account of I wanted Messi to go out in a duel, not be sniped off the proverbial board. (Also, I think Cape Verde was better than the credit they got up to that point.) The funny thing is that you could say this was one of the chalkiest World Cups of recent memory -- other than perhaps 2014 (Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Netherlands), this was the first final four that didn't include a nation that was geographically or culturally small in football since 1990. And though there were threats, it was relatively low on actual upsets (Germany-Paraguay was probably the biggest one, followed by Brazil-Norway and Switzerland-Colombia). I think variations on the phrase "the stars came out for this one" were apt. All the best players (Messi, Haaland, Mbappe, etc.) showed up.
10. As for the culture? I think we all know that big son of a ***** was going to insert himself into whatever he could, and he did, though other than immigration stuff, Balogun and the final, he didn't really seem to have the attention span for it. I didn't watch the trophy ceremony live (to be fair, the pub, which is not normally open on Sundays, was closing up). The thing is these sorts of events contain multitudes, and in the day to day you can find something relatively unobjectionable. Gonna be counting on that in 2028, because even if he doesn't make it that far, some remnant of this will.
1. No one should be surprised that the final kind of sucked as a football spectacle. Most of them do, as they normally include 22 people who are either ****ting themselves scared or surrounded by people who are. This is now the third 1-0 in extra time final in the last five World Cups. A fourth of recent vintage, 1990, featured West Germany beating Argentina 1-0 on a 85th-minute penalty kick.
2. I think the whole "better if you score late" is an obvious trope, but if Spain had any sort of intent, it worked beautifully. They got their goal at just the right time where they didn't have to sit back and defend forever (England) and had Argentina out of rhythm, out of gas and down a man.
3. In fact, this game bore a rather striking resemblance to the 2010 final in South Africa, a shockingly violent game with a dozen bookings (including Nigel de Jong kicking a man in the sternum), the Dutch getting a man sent off late and Spain scoring an extra-time winner.
4. Welcome to the Emi Martinez Show. As a Villa fan, I thought he might be able to steal one for them. There has been a lot of talk during the tournament that he would be making a move to Juventus. Seeing as he turns 34 in September, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if the price was right, but the guy did the job. Maybe it was positioning, but all those shots right into the gut gave me some Martin Brodeur vibes.
5. I still find this Spain team hard to figure. At least two of their games happened on Monday afternoons that I missed while playing golf (in fact, by my estimation, they played all but one of their games, Uruguay, in broad daylight). A third (Saudi Arabia) I was in the car most of the time and it was a blowout before I got to a TV. Spain-Austria was the time I tried to watch on Telemundo (I don't speak any Spanish). That said, to play eight games in a World Cup and allow one goal? I guess that was my loss.
6. I said many uncharitable things about Argentina after the semifinal, and most of the on-field ones turned out to be true, IMHO. That said, it's almost shocking how calm Messi is. Maybe it's the Spanish upbringing, maybe it's the resume so he doesn't have to be a ****-stirrer.
7. The halftime show was a pretty stupid idea but they did a nice job putting some unhateable stuff in there. Like who hates the Electric Mayhem? Seriously? Though did Dr. Teeth sit out in protest?
8. For all the doomsaying about the weather, I believe it was less than 80 in New York today -- normal summer day. I believe there were exactly two games with lightning delays, only one of which was delayed in progress (and that was at halftime). There were a few scorchers for sure but not dramatically more than most of the recent tournaments.
9. As for the play? Maybe a letter grade of B? The Cape Verde-Argentina game happened while I was driving home for the Fourth and I was surprisingly against the idea of Cape Verde winning at the time on account of I wanted Messi to go out in a duel, not be sniped off the proverbial board. (Also, I think Cape Verde was better than the credit they got up to that point.) The funny thing is that you could say this was one of the chalkiest World Cups of recent memory -- other than perhaps 2014 (Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Netherlands), this was the first final four that didn't include a nation that was geographically or culturally small in football since 1990. And though there were threats, it was relatively low on actual upsets (Germany-Paraguay was probably the biggest one, followed by Brazil-Norway and Switzerland-Colombia). I think variations on the phrase "the stars came out for this one" were apt. All the best players (Messi, Haaland, Mbappe, etc.) showed up.
10. As for the culture? I think we all know that big son of a ***** was going to insert himself into whatever he could, and he did, though other than immigration stuff, Balogun and the final, he didn't really seem to have the attention span for it. I didn't watch the trophy ceremony live (to be fair, the pub, which is not normally open on Sundays, was closing up). The thing is these sorts of events contain multitudes, and in the day to day you can find something relatively unobjectionable. Gonna be counting on that in 2028, because even if he doesn't make it that far, some remnant of this will.
