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!
Jeffro
Go Les Bleus! Go Mbappe! ??❤️
(I don’t hate The Untalented Thugs of Croatia but they certainly don’t deserve the World Cup)
Gin & Tonic
Hrvatska!
rikyrah
Good luck, France?
raven
@Jeffro: If they win it they deserve it.
Another lurker
Bon Chance, France!
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.
Omnes Omnibus
Allez les Bleus!
Another lurker
I am informed that I don’t have permission to edit my previous comment. Why, why, why Oh cruel electronic oppressor?
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.
SRW1
@Another lurker: You have to edit a comment within five minutes. After that comments can no longer be edited.
Amir Khalid
Oh good, you’re here. Croatia are doing a lot of attacking right now, taking the game to the French.
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.
Platonailedit
For such a small nation, the Croatians have swarmed the stadium today. Sea of red & white.
SRW1
Kanté is so short he probably still has to show an id card at the checkout when he buys beer.
ThresherK
I am seated outside, waiting for a good pub to open at 1130 EST. It’s unfathomable they’re not open yet.
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
raven
@SRW1: He’s so short he could parachute off a dime.
Platonailedit
Croatians are all over the french goal mouth. They can score any time.
FlipYrWhig
Putin in the stands looks like a wax figure of himself.
SRW1
I was gonna say France have to find a way to handle Perisic, but that wasn’t quite the suggested solution.
Amir Khalid
Free kick goal by Griezmann, or own goal by Mandzukic?
Gin & Tonic
That was a cheap goal.
Platonailedit
Of course, true to this particular WC curse, own goal has to strike again. Lucky for the french.
ThresherK
Audiostreaming tells me the scoring is opened by France.
JCJ
OK Croatia, now get it back
Platonailedit
The Griezmann free kick was the referee’s first mistake that benefited the french in more ways than one.
Yarrow
@Alain the site fixer: Take care of yourself, Alain. Hope your back gets better soon.
SRW1
Perisic deserved that goal.
Amir Khalid
Perisic equalises for Croatia.
Platonailedit
And that’s how your score a goal, France. Not by faking fouls.
Great goal by Perisic. 1-1.
luc
Beautiful goal. Wow, Croatia deserves to win this game !
ThresherK
I hope the goals aren’t all scored before I get in front of a TV.
Platonailedit
Will the Croats beat the punters and pundits again for one last time?
Platonailedit
Fucking penalty for unintentional hand ball. Didier’s lucky streak is continuing.
ThresherK
Whoohoo for being inside and watching. And a flight of beer.
Amir Khalid
Penalty to France on VAR review. Handball by Perisic. Griezmann converts: 2-1.
SRW1
Oh God, France is not going to win this on multiple soft goals!
Platonailedit
If Croatia lose this, it will be travesty, thanks to the fucking referee.
Onkel Fritze
I thought I wanted France to win. I declare myself to be a turncoat. No way he should have given that penalty.
raven
I love the “pre-whining”!
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.
raven
@Victor Matheson: Why don’t you just use your credentials as your screen name?
Victor Matheson
@Onkel Fritze: nope. 100% Pk. Unlucky yes. Travesty, no.
Victor Matheson
If I wanted to use bogus credentials as a soccer expert, I would just post with an English accent.
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.
raven
@Victor Matheson: Who said anything about bogus?
ThresherK
Wait, halftime and no concert? I could get used to that.
raven
@Platonailedit: Well I guess you are just what the doctor ordered then.
Platonailedit
@raven: I may be or may be not, but you sure are not given that ignorant whiny post. Stick to your ‘football’.
Platonailedit
Streakers.
raven
@Platonailedit: How about you go fuck yourself asshole.
Bostonian
Protesters?
Platonailedit
@raven: Classy. Typical murkan arrogance when called out for the ignorance. Done with you.
Onkel Fritze
Croats don’t seem to be fazed by that awful travesty of a penalty.
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.
Omnes Omnibus
Pogba!
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.
Bostonian
Well, the French actually scored this one, at least.
Platonailedit
That was a beauty of a break goal from the french.
ThresherK
Oof.
Onkel Fritze
Finally thr French score a real goal. Oh well.
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.
SRW1
And that was that. 4 – 1.
Platonailedit
And Mbappe makes it 4-1. The kid is going places.
Bostonian
@Platonailedit: no, that one was a beauty
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)?
ThresherK
Wow. The climb is steeper.
Onkel Fritze
Damn that kid is good.
Victor Matheson
Holy crap. Huge gk error!!!!
SRW1
And Lloris does his reputation honor.
Omnes Omnibus
WTF Lloris?
Bostonian
Always run that extra yard lol
Platonailedit
The french got cocky and Mandzukic makes them pay for it. 4-2. Will Croatia pull out another come back from behnind win?
Villago Delenda Est
Normally it’s unwise to talk about “insurmountable leads” but in Football, 4-1 is a hard deficit to make up.
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.
ThresherK
This looks like whatever T-ball tranlated to soccer means.
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.
Amir Khalid
If this match gets to 4-4 in the 90 minutes, it will be a World Cup final for the history books.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid: More so than usual!
Platonailedit
Croatia are not giving up yet. A close one from Rakitic.
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?
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.
SRW1
Guardian says pitch invasion has been claimed by Pussy Riot.
Platonailedit
Giroud has not been that great in this WC.
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.
Platonailedit
Rakitic is trying desperately to score one more.
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.
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.
Victor Matheson
@smintheus: maybe strange but wildly entertainning, at least for a fan like me with no preference either way.
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.
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.
Platonailedit
Luck and referee favored the french. But Croatia will be more remembered for playing brilliantly and valiantly.
FlipYrWhig
@Victor Matheson: ok I get that, thx
Victor Matheson
@Platonailedit: I can’t argue with that. The first Croatia goal was absolutely a thing of beauty. Well done Croatia!
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.
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.
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.
HumboldtBlue
Here’s France just not giving any fucks.
Soft penalty? Hah! Own goal by Croatia? Bah!
Platonailedit
@SRW1: One of the most entertaining WC finals I have watched. The drama, the game, the goals.
HumboldtBlue
@Platonailedit:
This has been a fantastic and entertaining tournament from the get-go.
Platonailedit
Some brit diss: Olivier Giroud is a World Cup winner. Proof that anything is possible.
LOL.
Platonailedit
@HumboldtBlue:
Agree. Never seen this many penalty shootouts. This many champions biting the dust so early on.
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.
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.
Amir Khalid
@Victor Matheson:
Okay, I get it now — I think.
Platonailedit
Rami twirling his mustache. LOL.
Platonailedit
Croatia President is hawt.
Platonailedit
Modric deservedly wins the player of the tournament.
Platonailedit
And the WC 2018 ends in a downpour.
Thanks Alain for these special threads.
Bostonian
@Platonailedit: On Telemundo they always referred to him as Super Mario.
Platonailedit
@Bostonian:
LOL. That he was. I think he ran the most in this tournament, something like 75 km.
hueyplong
@Platonailedit: “Croatia president is hawt.”
When your president is Donald Trump, every other country’s leader is “hawt.”
germy
Platonailedit
@hueyplong:
Fugly thug isn’t even in the leaders list let alone the beauty list.
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.
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.
hueyplong
@Platonailedit: Saw what you did there.
Platonailedit
@hueyplong: And my work is done here.
MomSense
Not World Cup related but I’m watching Muddy Waters’ son perform. He sounds just like his dad. Great band, too.
raven
Thanks for these threads Alain!
Jeffro
@raven: guess they didn’t deserve it
Cain
It’s party time here in Madrid with the French waving flags and singing. Good times!
otmar
Wet t-shirt contest during the celebrations.
otmar
During the next days someone will light a candle in Notre dame to thank God that Lloris’ mistake didn’t matter.
Cain
@otmar:
I know, right ? That was a gimme!