WORLD CUP 2018 (The Final)

Unconvincingly Champions, but who cares?

We’ve been waiting for so long to see France unleashing all their talents and
demonstrating why they are the best team in the world. But I’m afraid that didn’t happen,
even with them winning the world cup. In fact, it was another poor performance from
France, they were so lucky to end the first half with a lead, they looked so anxious
whenever Croatia looked like scoring. And if it wasn’t for some horrendous mistakes from
the referee, who despite having so much experience wasn’t that sharp when he decided to
look at the handball again in slow-motion, and we all know that Soccer isn’t played in
slow-motion. Perisic was never going to predict that ball to hit his hand and Matuidi to
miss the header. But Mr. Pitana with the help of VAR, gifted “Les Bleus” another goal from
nowhere...

In the second half, things looked much better for France after Nzonzi coming in for Kante
who had an amazing tournament, but for some reason wasn’t at his best in the final.
Croatia started with the same spirit as they ended the first half, but individualities made
the difference as Pogba delivered an amazing pass to Mbappe whose pace was too much
for Strinic to handle, and then Pogba finished what he started, breaking the heart of
thousands of fans all over the globe.

The rest was just a banality as Mbappe added another goal and Lloris did what he
sometimes enjoys doing.

You have to feel sad for Croatia, they were the better side by far, and it’s not just about the
refereeing decisions which could have gone the other way, and we would have seen a
completely different game. But the fact that France were too afraid to play or to take the
initiative, they played on Croatia’s mistakes and physical condition which was never going
to carry them on for another 90 minutes. We haven’t seen anything from them, and we are
even struggling to point out one player from France who was amazing during the game,
and not just that but during the entire tournament. Only Kante may have something to say
about that...

Having said all that, and having seen how France lost naively the Euro 2016 to an average
side of Portugal. At the end of the day, you can’t take anything away from them, they had a
plan in mind, they weren’t the most entertaining team. In fact, they weren’t even in the
TOP 5. But they managed every game as it should be, they faced different profiles of
opponents, and every time they found a way to get past them and they are the world
champions for the 2nd time in their history.

Luka Modric has been given the Golden Ball of the tournament, as a symbolic prize for
someone who was thoroughly good without being that outstanding. You can argue that
Hazard was the best player in the tournament by far, but giving that one has played the
final and the other hasn’t, and the difference in their squad depth as well, Modric deserved
to win it and he should be proud of his performance and his small nation demonstrating
once again that you don’t have to be one of the top teams to reach something big like that,
and It’s surely a clear message to the African teams who are struggling more and more to
get past the group stages for some bizarre reasons.

We’ve seen some great goals and great revelations in that tournament. Surely, Mbappe is
the next big thing in Soccer, but players like Pavard, Hernandez, Golovin, Trippier,
Cherychev, and Pickford are the ones to keep an eye on in the future. As for the big names,
They all disappointed in that tournament, even the France ones, like Griezmann and Pogba
who were okay but not that great overall.

So, here we come to our last chapter in the FIFA World cup 2018, we’ve witnessed some
great spectacle and the success of a nation to host that incredible tournament against all
the odds. And hopefully, the next one in Qatar is going to be as fascinating as this one.