⚽️ Five Year Anniversary of France Winning 2018 World Cup in Russia ⚽️

🏆🇫🇷⚽  On est les Champions ! 🏆🇫🇷⚽ 

It was five years ago today - incredible but true - when France won it's second World Cup championship ever. They did not play their best game, and were actually largely outplayed by Croatia for most of the first sixty minutes of that Final. Yet, despite Croatia more or less dictating the tempo of the game, they were largely not able to reflect this on the scoreboard, as France to some extent both got lucky and capitalized on their own opportunities better than Croatia did. So despite having been largely outplayed, they were ironically up, 2-1, when they suddenly kicked it into gear and exploded for two goals in quick succession, which largely put the game out of reach for Croatia. 

So France won the World Cup title for a second time. Below were my thoughts just after it actually happened: 

This has been an incredible World Cup!

Frankly, I am sorry to see it go, and not just because France wound up winning. Generally, it was just a highly entertaining World Cup tournament. There were more upsets than any other that I remember, starting even well before the actual tournament began. After all, ho could have foreseen that this one would not even include such nations as the United States, Netherlands, and especially Italy?

You just could never tell what was going to happen in this tournament. I was obviously pulling for France, but who could have foreseen a scenario where they play their worst game in the final, even getting dominated for much of it, and yet still manage to win? 

But that is the way sports goes sometimes. France's defense bent but did not break, and while Croatia dominated in terms of time of possession and playing most of the game close to France's goal, they nevertheless did not get enough serious opportunities to make the score reflect their level of dominance. France could have come out of those first sixty or so minutes easily down instead of up, 2-1. It felt more like a game in which Croatia could and perhaps even should have been up by at least a goal or two, and maybe even three. But Croatia could not find the back of the net consistently, and plus, they made some huge and very costly mistakes. Granted, that first goal seems to have been from the ref missing a dive by Griezmann, but nevertheless, the ball found the back of the net because of a Croatian's own goal. Then, there was the handball and the subsequent penalty, and I still do not see where all the controversy around that one is. After all, it was clearly a handball inside of the box, and Griezmann calmly put the ball into the goal to give France a 2-1 lead in a game that, to that point, they had largely been dominated it.

Then, of course, France came alive in the 59th minute, and took over the game, essentially. So, despite playing poorly through most of it, France hung in there and were in position to win the game, albeit in a strange and unorthodox manner, considering how well they had played throughout the tournament before this game.

Still, they are the new champions, and for fans like me, it is time to celebrate.

This time, I am not in France to get to enjoy it, to go out on the streets and soak it all in. Yet, enjoy it I can, to the extent possible here. One way was to pick up various local newspapers, which were a mixture of regular news (and President Trump's ridiculous summit with Putin, which I will get to now that the World Cup is over) and, of course, coverage of France winning the World Cup. I did the same thing back when France won the 1998 World Cup, and seems a cheap souvenir, if you will, of a memorable event.

Figured it might be nice to share some pictures of the papers picked up, so here they are.