Key events
Righto, that’s it from me for now. Here’s Will Unwin, who’ll croon you through the next bit.
It’s amazing, really, the environment Scaloni has cultivated for his squad. Their sense of mission is palpable, the sense of destiny mystical, and their unity in that supernatural. How well that works against Spain’s composure will go a long way towards settling our final.
For England, watching Sunday’s final will be painful. Why can’t we cross the line? Is it to do with our social, cultural makeup? I believe it is to do with the mental part of the game. At the highest level you have to train your muscles in your brain as much as you train the rest of your body, to be able ensure emotion doesn’t plague your performance under pressure. We have to ask ourselves, why are Argentina so successful at delivering when it really matters and we’re not?
This is not about tactics, it is not about substitutions. We are being shortsighted and emotional when we discuss those things straight after a semi-final defeat. Long term, we have to ask what is it in our psyche that we haven’t addressed as a nation to overcome this? And how do we all contribute to that; players, coaches, fans, media, clubs … all of us?
I think this point is reflected in the difficulty English football has with controlling midfielders, players able to remain calm in the maelstrom, in favour of box-to-boxers charging about, exhorting their teammates to yet greater physical effort.
Emma Hayes has been, for mine, the best pundit on UK telly. I’m delighted to embed her in written form.
We’re just under way at Lord’s…
Email! “I know not many people pay attention to the Olympics,” writes Santi Alonso, a nervous Spain fan in the UK. “But after winning the Euros, Spain had a barnstorming final against Henry’s France. Fermín and Alex were part of the Euros squad and went on to win the gold medal and, due to Fermín’s injury Alex finds himself in a unique position. Should Spain win today, he would simultaneously be reigning European champion, reigning Olympic champion and reigning world champion. That exact three-crown status would be unprecedented. Quite literally the most complete reigning international champion any male footballer has ever been.”
Decent haul, in fairness.
I daresay the sides will be hoping for different things from the ref. Spain will want Slavko Vincic to punish fouls and dish out cards, while Argentina will hope he gives players a chance or two and lets the game flow. I’m not foreseeing a classic.
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Argentina have scored goals, yes, but doing so against Spain is a different proposition to against any other team, requiring a level of efficiency in possession and ruthlessness when converting chances. In Messi and Julián Alvarez, they have players able to bag out of nothing, but whether they’re afforded requisite opportunity to make that happen is far from a given.
I do wonder, though, if Argentina will change systems, as I’m not sure you can beat Spain with a 4-4-2. France’s 4-2-3-1 cost them the game, I think, Deschamps’ major error not leaving out a wide attacker for an extra midfielder. Though De la Fuente’s men aren’t the greatest in attack, the control they’ll have if Rodri, Fabián Ruiz and Dani Olmo have only Leandro Paredes and Alexis Mc Allister tracking them will surely be too great for them to be seriously threatened.
But should Argentina man-mark Rodri? I’m minded – of course – of the time Sam Allardyce stuck Kevin Davies on Claude Makélélé, and I’m certain Scaloni is too. Thing is, Rodri is a different league as a player, stronger, cleverer and a better passer; perhaps it’d make more sense to try cutting off his passing angles.
I can’t think of any reason to man-mark Messi. He barely features in the game these days, so to take a man away from your own team takes away the advantage of a contest that, at times, is 11v10. What Spain must do is track his run when he attacks the box and, er, um … not allow him unchallenged possession just outside their box for 15 minutes straight until he conjures something.
The match last night was crazy, England could have had eight in the first half, France eight in the second. Hard to pull any real meaning from it, but maybe for all if Kane’s goals, wonder if the game moves at a different pace with him playing, Eze, Saka and Spence played with real fluidity and skill, Rice had a good game as well. And the best France attacking line up is scarily good.
Argentina has to go down as a learning experience for Tuchel, let’s hope that we take on board the points for improvement from that…
The thing with Kane is he needs service, which is one reason I think his big-game record is spotty: it’s hard to give him what he needs against the better teams. But it’s also the case that England’s wingers, perhaps with the exception of Saka, aren’t providers, rather wide attackers looking to get themselves to goal. I think that’s why, as the tournament progressed, Kane seemed to drop deeper, playing more as an attacking pivot than a spearhead – all the more so as England’s full-backs weren’t equipped to keep the width. The problem is not insurmountable, but for it to be solved, the manager must recognise it exists.
To change the subject for a second and return to an old one, the more i think about it, the more £117m on Morgan Rogers is bizarre. It’s amazing that Chelsea are able to keep spending like this, almost £2bn done in four years; if that’s within the rules, the rules are wrong, because it isn’t sport.
Theren’t many, if any, better at dissecting football and Argentinian culture than Marcela.
I struggle to see a footballing route to victory for Argentina, but luckily for them, it’s not really about that, rather a quasi-religious attempt to write their own mythology: they believe. And that is a very potent thing, especially when as the high prophet of destiny, they have Lionel Messi.
The extent to which the squad revere him, committed to doing his running, getting him the ball, and getting after anyone who dare foul or cheek him, is unlike anything I’ve seen before. If Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martínez play really well – and they are capable – they’ve a chance.
So to our final…
A bit of non-World Cup news:
I like Andrey Santos – in particular his ability to punch passes through the lines. He’s not as good as Mateus Fernandes, who United hoped to sign, and in the end, quality is more important than value for money, but the arrival of Youri Tielemans for a bargain fee makes this look a fairly solid acquisition.
The miscalculation here is that football, rather than making money because it exists, exists to make money. Flogging tickets to corporates is no great genius and there is more than enough money in the game to keep it for the people – the problem is the lack of will and care.
For England, I’m not sure I’d want to use Rogers in the same XI as Jude Bellingham – initially, Tuchel felt the same and I’m not certain why he changed. If you’ve got Harry Kane in your team, you need wide players to service him, and Rogers is looking to score, not provide.
What do we think about this move? I guess I’m glad he’s not going to Arsenal, who I think need a winger more than a threat starting from wide – Christos Tzolis seems a better fit – and I’m interested to see how Xabi Alonso uses him.
The fee, of course, is astounding – he’s a good player but neither elite nor a cert to become so – but if any transfer succeeds, it’s worth the money a club is lucky enough to pay for it.
Watching England against France – though, of course, defensive intensity was lower – it was still noticeable how dangerous Saka and Marcus Rashford were on the counter. Had Tuchel sent them on against Argentina soon after England scored, Lionel Scaolini’s men would’ve had to respect it and might well have feared it, forced, at the very least, to leave defenders back to mark them, while their own team would’ve had out-balls and a serious threat, meaning when they cleared their lines, it wouldn’t have simply been to face yet another attack.
It find it strange that, given his team struggled for control and also to break down tight defences, Tuchel didn’t give Mainoo a single second on the pitch – and seemed to have decided as much by the Panama game, when he brought on Henderson in preference. England desperately lacked midfield balance, control, poise and craft, a problem that eventually cost them – and is the main reason I’d have given them little chance of beating Spain had they made the final. Anderson and Rice are fine players, but given Bellingham is essential, I’d want only one, with the trio completed by a more technical and cerebral type – which needn’t be Mainoo, he was just the only one in the squad.
Kobbie Mainoo’s position in the team-group shot is sadly perfect.
I can’t say this didn’t grind ma gears. In picking Henderson, a player miles off the standard and never likely to play in a meaningful match – with Adam Wharton, Morgan Gibbs-White, Fill Phoden and Cole Palmer left at home – the tacit message was the players weren’t trusted to motivate and inspire themselves, the squad sufficiently complete to do without maverick and unique attacking talents. it was patently not the case at the time, and was shown to be so throughout the tournament.
Tuchel revealed that Jordan Henderson had delivered a speech before the game that had helped to put their achievement in perspective. ‘He put us in the right frame of mind, with everyone in one mindset. It was unbelievable because today was very emotional. We built something very special in the last seven weeks, and we’ll never negotiate on that. I still stand by my words, that we need to play better football, manage games better under pressure, take better decisions under pressure. We need to defend more economically.”
Tuchel shares his thoughts on game and tournament.
Here’s Ed Aarons’ match report.
Was Thomas Tuchel too sparing in his use of Saka? If he was fit enough to start and star against France, he was surely ready to deliver against Argentina, yet Morgan Rogers was preferred from the start and, in the even didn’t even get on to the pitch. I can’t say those are calls which looked great at the time, nor have they aged well.
This isn’t the first time the third-place playoff has delivered goals. I wonder if, in a match which does’t matter that much to the teams, many of whom are nursing severe disappointment and regret – certainly so of England and France – defending is the first thing to go.
A score more tennis than football, but what do we think of England 6-4 France? Relive it with John Brewin’s MBM report:
Preamble
Greetings greetings! forty-eight teams, five weeks and 103 matches; welcome to World Cup final day!
Of course we’ll be looking back at England’s absurd victory France, as well as forward to our Spain v Argentina denouement, the champions of Europe taking on the champions of South America with the former going for two major tournament wins in a row and the latter a fourth, including what would be a second consecutive World Cup and the first since Brazil did it in 1958 and 1962. Never has football seen anything like this.
So what makes these teams special? Send in your thoughts, and we’ll also reflect on our best and worst moments, goals, matches, performances, players, and ephemera. Let’s go!