It wasn’t only a fantastic game of football in the World Cup final. It was a fitting conclusion to one of the contemporary game’s longest-running epics. Ever since he first onto the field, people have questioned whether Lionel Messi could win a World Cup. Now they can stop wondering. Of course, he wasn’t acting alone. Emi Martinez was excruciatingly unpleasant, while Lionel Scaloni was quietly superb. positive way.
WHAT ENDING MEANS (LIONEL MESSI):
The finals of the men’s World Cup haven’t exactly been remarkable for at least a generation. In general, this has been an event that causes a specific type of nervous tension: intriguing, yes, and possibly even delightful if you like that sort of thing. One squad just about manages it as one team tries not to lose a game. Fireworks typically start before and end after the game.
Well, that run has ended now. It appears that one team completely missing this match is the best strategy for getting something remarkable from it. Completely. Kylian Mbappe converted a penalty that a dozing Nicolas Otamendi had conceded as France’s first effort on goal. In the 80th minute, that happened. Two minutes later, they scored their second goal, an equalizer, with Mbappe channeling Jackie Chan as Jerry West. It’s how you end games, not how you start them.
However, the situation didn’t finish there because momentum continued to shift during the extra time. By the time the last whistle blew, there had been too much transpired for it to be reduced to any kind of logical pattern. After a little period of concentration, another thought will come to mind to divert your attention. When you consider Didier Deschamps’ replacements, you’ll recall that Randal Kolo Muani performed admirably, but then Emi Martnez’s dramatic stop and Lautaro Martinez’s subsequent late-game opportunity will steal your attention. After that, you’ll want to sit down. Then, with a start, you’ll recall: Hey, didn’t Lionel Messi have a good game?
Millions of words will be written about this moment, this finale, but if you were watching on television, you don’t really need to read any of them. All you had to do was watch two of the onlookers’ excursions. President of France Emmanuel Macron attended the championship game with the hopes of shaking some hands, applauding a defensively sound French play, and having his picture taken with some genuinely popular Frenchmen. By the time the fight was over, the spectacular punch and counterpunch had completely turned him inside out, and the last thing we saw him doing was furiously talking into Mbappe’s ear while the striker sat and blinked into the distance. The president, furious and writhing, had sweated every ounce of authority out of himself; the football player appeared to be an overthrown king. People lose it over football.
Angel Di Maria was the other man. A Di Mara is a necessary part of every TV director’s life. The brief period during which he played football during his first hour in the evening was helpful for Argentina. But after that, he turned into the most trustworthy reaction shot in the entire stadium, a gift to the entire viewing audience. He’s hiding in his bib in this picture. He is attempting to eat his bib here. Here, he is wiping away tears of sorrow, and here, he is wiping away tears of delight. People are broken by football, both in victory and defeat.
And football itself breaks. We have been subjects of and subjects within the same story for almost 20 years, ever since it became clear that this new Maradona, this skinny collection of elbows, ankles, and angles, was actually the real deal. By “we,” I mean the broad collective mass of everyone who gives even the slightest toss about football. Can he? Will he not? Can he? Why is that? And now that LIONEL MESSI has won the World Cup, the entire narrative arc is ended. Football moans in defeat as it has been conquered, much as Alexander grieved when there were no more worlds to conquer. We may now move past actually living this story and instead continue to tell and retell it indefinitely.