Yesterday, the World Cup in Qatar came to an end with what some people are saying was the most exciting Final match in history. Anyone who either follows this blog, or who knows me, knows that I am French. So obviously, the end result was a bit disappointing. Still, I am grateful for the incredible success that l'équipe de France has enjoyed in recent years, particularly since 2016, when they qualified for the Euro Final. They won the World Cup in 2018, and were a hair's width away from a second straight World Cup championship, which really would have put them in elite territory. So it was a bit disappointing to see them fall just short of such an incredible distinction.
However, Lionel Messi and Argentina won it. They deserved it. It felt like they were the best team in the tournament following their shocking loss to Saudi Arabia to open things up. I hoped that France would win, but knew that Argentina would be very, very tough. France fell behind 2-0, then came storming back to tie it after Kylian Mbappé scored two goals within a minute or so of one another. In extra time, Messi scored his second goal of the game to put Argentina up once again. And once again, Kylian Mbappé scored another goal, and it was back to a 3-3 tie. That ultimately forced a penalty shootout, and France's luck has not been good with penalty shootouts in the Final match of the World Cup. They lost to Italy in 2006, and now they lost to Argentina in 2022.
Again, though, Argentina deserved it. Congratulations to them. And also congratulations to both sides for giving everyone such an incredible and entertaining final match.
I did not watch it, and in fact did not watch any game of this World Cup, because I felt that Qatar frankly did not deserve to host the tournament. It seems safe to say that this was, far and away, the most controversial World Cup tournament that any of u ever saw.
So there is the paradox. There were some incredible upsets, and very memorable games and moments in this World Cup, at least in terms of what happened on the field. Yet,
James Olley said it best, I think, with this sentence in his article summing up this World Cup legacy:
Time will tell if there is a positive political or social legacy from these finals. The sporting legacy is already secure.
Messi winning the World Cup cemented Qatar 2022's sporting legacy. Off the field, it's less clear play 5:14 PM ET James Olley Senior Writer, ESPN FC, December 18, 2022:
https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-world-cup/story/4834109/messi-world-cup-win-cements-qatar-2022-sporting-legacy
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