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You are here: Home / Open Threads / World Cup: The Grand Finale

World Cup: The Grand Finale

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Here we are folks – the final match!

Today at 11, France v Croatia.

I’m rooting for Les Bleus but have a place in my heart for Croatia. It will be an interesting match, and we’ll see how much endurance Croatia has after so much extra time playing in their previous matches. France is a young team, but they’ve managed to forge a group identity and are better rested, if not as experienced as Croatia.

Enjoy the match everyone!

Reader Interactions

125Comments

  1. 1.

    Jeffro

    Go Les Bleus! Go Mbappe! ??❤️

    (I don’t hate The Untalented Thugs of Croatia but they certainly don’t deserve the World Cup)

  6. 6.

    SRW1

    France will probably have too much quality for Croatia and they have the fresher legs. I expect France to approach the game cautiously, though. Kind of like they did against Belgium. Because France have the experience of the Euro 2016 final in their bones, where they where the favorite and then got surprised by Portugal.

    Btw, headline on the website of Süddeutsche Zeitung: Liberté, Égalité, N’Golo Kanté

    ETA: Unless somebody plays godly today, FIFA better give the MVP of the tournament to Modric.

  8. 8.

    Another lurker

    I am informed that I don’t have permission to edit my previous comment. Why, why, why Oh cruel electronic oppressor?

  9. 9.

    Platonailedit

    Croatia have the most wins (they won all their games) and have the most fouls (I think 100). Interesting factoid. Talented and intelligent team. To win 3 consecutive overtime games with two of them in penalty shootouts sure shows their stamina and skills. Will Modric finally get a redemption in his own country with their first ever win? Kalinic must be ruing the day when he pulled a childish tantrum.

    Can France finally get the 2016 euro monkey off their back? Will the Didier’s gamble on Mbappe, Varane, Kanté, Pogba, Griezmann justify the omission of Benzema, Lacazette, Martial, Payet? Or will Rami’s mustache pull a Fabien Barthez’s bald head ?

    I give Croats a slight edge with 2-1 win.

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    Oh good, you’re here. Croatia are doing a lot of attacking right now, taking the game to the French.

  12. 12.

    Another lurker

    @SRW1: The edit attempt was at the 2 minute mark after it was posted.
    Oh well, this should be the worst of my problems, in life.

  13. 13.

    Platonailedit

    For such a small nation, the Croatians have swarmed the stadium today. Sea of red & white.

  14. 14.

    SRW1

    Kanté is so short he probably still has to show an id card at the checkout when he buys beer.

  15. 15.

    ThresherK

    I am seated outside, waiting for a good pub to open at 1130 EST. It’s unfathomable they’re not open yet.

  16. 16.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Another lurker: I’ll try to take a look tomorrow. I hurt my back so I’m not sitting at a desk for more than a bit and since I don’t know what exactly is screwed up, no eta

  20. 20.

    SRW1

    I was gonna say France have to find a way to handle Perisic, but that wasn’t quite the suggested solution.

  23. 23.

    Platonailedit

    Of course, true to this particular WC curse, own goal has to strike again. Lucky for the french.

  26. 26.

    Platonailedit

    The Griezmann free kick was the referee’s first mistake that benefited the french in more ways than one.

  30. 30.

    Platonailedit

    And that’s how your score a goal, France. Not by faking fouls.

    Great goal by Perisic. 1-1.

  34. 34.

    Platonailedit

    Fucking penalty for unintentional hand ball. Didier’s lucky streak is continuing.

  39. 39.

    Onkel Fritze

    I thought I wanted France to win. I declare myself to be a turncoat. No way he should have given that penalty.

  41. 41.

    Victor Matheson

    @Platonailedit: one can argue about the soft foul on the first goal, but the second is 100% a penalty. Hand away from body, clear contact, easy call.

    That’s my opinion at least after a career of over 100 professional and 1000 college games as a referee.

  44. 44.

    Victor Matheson

    If I wanted to use bogus credentials as a soccer expert, I would just post with an English accent.

  45. 45.

    Platonailedit

    @Victor Matheson:

    Pundits like Shearer, Ferdinand who know a thing or two about penalties, disagree.

    Eta: Add Klinsmann to that list.

    @raven: You need to understand the game first to do the pre-whining.

  49. 49.

    Platonailedit

    @raven: I may be or may be not, but you sure are not given that ignorant whiny post. Stick to your ‘football’.

  55. 55.

    Bostonian

    @Victor Matheson: the commentators on Telemundo were horrified by the ref’s call. Intentionality was absent. They have the idea that a handball is when your hand hits the ball, not when the ball hits your hand.

  57. 57.

    raven

    @Platonailedit: You stupid asshole, I’ve never done anything on these soccer threads but ask questions about the game. You’re a fucking punk wherever you are.

  62. 62.

    SRW1

    Getting to be an awfully steep hill to climb for Croatia. And their legs will feel the three extra times they needed to get to the final.

  66. 66.

    FlipYrWhig

    My ignorant soccer question is: why is there such emphasis on redirection as a scoring method instead of just booting the ball as hard as possible (like the past two goals have been)?

  73. 73.

    Platonailedit

    The french got cocky and Mandzukic makes them pay for it. 4-2. Will Croatia pull out another come back from behnind win?

  74. 74.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Normally it’s unwise to talk about “insurmountable leads” but in Football, 4-1 is a hard deficit to make up.

  75. 75.

    Amir Khalid

    I’m looking at the Laws of The Game re the definition of a foul. The TV pundits have been denouncing the ref because he awarded France the penalty when Mandzukic unintentionally handled the ball. But the Laws say only that a foul is a foul if it is committed by a player, takes place on the pitch, and happens during play. Nothing about intent. The ref called it right.

    Meanwhile Pogba and Mbappe have both scored for France. Then Lloris pulls a Karius and gives Mandzukic a free goal. You can’t call this a dull match.

  77. 77.

    Victor Matheson

    @FlipYrWhig: the harder you hit it the harder it is to put it in net. And if you hammer it right into a defender or Gk, it doesn’t matter anyway.

    The first thing I work on with my u12 girls team on shooting is take a peek up and look where you are shooting. An easy shot into corner is a way higher percentage shot than just hammering it as hard as you can.

  78. 78.

    Amir Khalid

    If this match gets to 4-4 in the 90 minutes, it will be a World Cup final for the history books.

  81. 81.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Victor Matheson: that’s reasonable. Another question: why when the ball is in the air do players seem to try so hard to *keep* it in the air? Seems like there are a lot of sequences where they bop it up and another guy gets it and *he* bops it up and they keep bopping it up like a beach ball until it drops and *then* they’ll try to take off on a run. Why not play it to the ground and then take off? Or am I just imagining all this?

  82. 82.

    Victor Matheson

    @Amir Khalid: actually you are not right on this although you were correct to defend referee.

    The law states that a player may not deliberately handle the ball. The question on the pk is whether the hand ball was deliberate. The interpetation that referees are given is that if a player’s arm is away from his or her body that is supposed to be declared deliberate. The US language is if the arm is in an unnatural position.

    The pk, which was reviewed by the referee and several other top referees in the var studio, was that his arm was in a place it shouldn’t have been. I agree and the call was completely consistent with how things have been interpreted all tournament.

  85. 85.

    smintheus

    Such a strange final. Croatia has dominated for most of the game and generally looks much more dangerous. By most measures they should be leading. They’ve been let down by their goaltender on both of France’s strikes, but the first 2 goals they allowed were mostly bad luck. France has played sloppily for much of the game, often trying to get cute and making inadvisable passes. The goal Lloris gave away is just the worst example of that.

    I had anticipated the opposite, that France would play a controlling game and Croatia would look to take advantage of mistakes.

  87. 87.

    smintheus

    @Victor Matheson: And in the end, the question of intent has to be an individual judgment. As long as the ref took the issue seriously, there’s really no basis for complaint.

  88. 88.

    Victor Matheson

    @FlipYrWhig: it is nearly impossible to bring the ball from the air to the ground in a controlled manner when you are in traffic.

    Playing volleyball with the ball is basically a sign that the players don’t have the ability to do what they really want to do. In high school and college you see even more balls in the air because of the lower skill and less ability to easily bring the ball down.

  90. 90.

    Amir Khalid

    @Victor Matheson:
    So the movement of Mandzukic’s hand to the ball meant a deliberate handball? I get it. But the pundits were saying that his movement was involuntary so no handball.

  91. 91.

    SRW1

    A bit underwhelming, this final. But then France has been about cool efficiency for the entire tournament.

    Congratulations to the new World Champion.

    Sympathies to the runner up.

  92. 92.

    Platonailedit

    Luck and referee favored the french. But Croatia will be more remembered for playing brilliantly and valiantly.

  95. 95.

    Victor Matheson

    @Amir Khalid: no, the idea here would be that he deliberately put his hand somewhere where the ball could easily hit it. So there is the deliberate part of the foul.

  96. 96.

    HumboldtBlue

    Can’t say I’m surprised, but France played like they were disinterested for about 35 minutes and then had one explosion of brilliance over 10 to close the deal.

    That pass from Pogba, sweet mother of a lead.

  97. 97.

    Victor Matheson

    @SRW1: Really? Six goals including at least a couple of great ones plus tons of back and forth play? I thought the game was super fun to watch.

  101. 101.

    Platonailedit

    Some brit diss: Olivier Giroud is a World Cup winner. Proof that anything is possible.

    LOL.

  103. 103.

    hueyplong

    Good job, France.

    Good job eliminating Russia, Croatia.

    Kind of fun throughout, though it was frustrating to be on the wrong rooting side of so many penalty kick games.

  104. 104.

    Platonailedit

    Despite the English getting the boot, Kane gets away the golden boot. Instead of the ball, the boot is coming home. Some consolation in that I guess.

  109. 109.

    Platonailedit

    And the WC 2018 ends in a downpour.

    Thanks Alain for these special threads.

  115. 115.

    Gin & Tonic

    @hueyplong: Funny thing is how much of Ukraine was supporting Croatia because they beat Russia (and because of Vida’s “Slava Ukraini (Glory to Ukraine)” – despite the fact that in the qualifiers last year, Croatia beat Ukraine twice, once in Zagreb and once in Kyiv.

  116. 116.

    Platonailedit

    And beebs informs me that Adil Rami, the french lucky mas(mustache)cot who didn’t touch the ball even once, is Mr. Pamela Anderson. Lucky stiff.

  119. 119.

    MomSense

    Not World Cup related but I’m watching Muddy Waters’ son perform. He sounds just like his dad. Great band, too.

  122. 122.

    Cain

    It’s party time here in Madrid with the French waving flags and singing. Good times!

  124. 124.

    otmar

    During the next days someone will light a candle in Notre dame to thank God that Lloris’ mistake didn’t matter.

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