It's all over. Another four years of waiting starts today. Four years of wondering if what we witnessed over the last four weeks can be replicated in Qatar. It was outstanding, excellent, wonderful football. The excitement was, at many times, almost unbearable but made even better by how close it was to pushing the limits of how much emotions a fan could deal with. And the final today was the perfect send off.
Even though the match started at a high tempo and there immediately seemed to be a lot of promise for a classic final, at the end of the first half there was a worrisome feeling that this was going to be a French victory earned through an own goal and a penalty, no beautiful goals from open play. And to make it worse the own goal came after a shocking Griezmann dive to win a free kick, and the penalty was a "could have not been given" kind of handball. Ivan Perisic's wonderful goal in between the two French ones was the kind of beauty you hope for in a World Cup final. The reason I thought of as to why France deserved to win was that football is not about scoring spectacular goals, it's also about defending well.
Then the second half happened and France showed us that they can indeed score the awe-inspiring goals. That pass from Pogba to Mbappe that set up the Pogba goal. Wow! I was still marveling at the beauty of its accuracy and perfect weight long after Pogba had picked up the return and scored his first goal of the tournament. It was the pass I wanted to watch again, not the goal. In one moment of absolutely perfectly measured brilliance France went from their half to a goal-scoring opportunity.
And when Mbappe followed that goal with his own bit of individual brilliance, for a few minutes the world seemed like a better place. Did the best team look like they were going to win? That could be debated. But it was that good football, the kind we had watched for four weeks was the winner. It was the way we dream of Cup finals being won and are so often disappointed to be let down by mediocrity.
Mandzukic's goal after Lloris' comical error may have given the last 20 minutes some more significance. A 4-2 deficit seems more surmountable that 1-4. But as hard as Croatia tried, this was one step too far for them.
Were France worthy winners in the end? There may be many arguments that Croatia were more dynamic, Belgium were more exciting or that Uruguay were more defensively solid. But in the end, in the final, which France got to by out playing Uruguay by just enough and controlling the Belgians, they scored more goals than Croatia. And that's all that counts. It's that simple of a game. And that's why we love it.
There are lot more reasons why Russia 2018 was so memorable. I can't gather all my thoughts right. One more day is needed tomorrow.
Tomorrow: Day 1 after Russia 2018, Day -1588 to November 21st, 2022.
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