Yay to Modric for the Golden Ball!
Putin looks like he’s had more work done.
Courtois, the Belgium GK, got the Golden Glove Award, which was a good call.
@sushiritto : Definitely a bad play by the France GK, but I’d put a good portion of the blame on the defender who played it back to him & gave him very little room to maneuver. A kick out of bounds would have been a better move in hindsight, but GK is a tough role. I think calling him a moron was a tad unfair.
@AboutTheSame Well, the French GK is no Forrest Gump that’s for sure. At least Forrest Gump would have lucked into something good happening in that situation.
As I recall, the French GK attempted to outsmart the Croatian Forward by juking him right to left, INTO THE SAME DIRECTION that the Croatian Forward was coming. The French GK moved the ball into the Croatian’s “press.” The backpass to GK looked like any other backpass to me. The French Defender had little to no angle or visibility to pass the ball across the field to the other French Defender, so he made the normal decision to backpass to the GK. He could have taken the ball wide, but he probably thought the back pass was going to handled correctly. In hindsight, he should have taken the ball wide, since the GK had a “brain fart.”
“I call them as I sees them.” But what a complete surprise that we disagree though. :))
This was a highly entertaining and well organized World Cup. The best team won. England did not deserve to be in the final four.
I liked how Micron was kissing Croatian president while Putin was just sitting there as a piece of furniture. However he paid them back when they were left under the rain without umbrellas during the medal ceremony,
“I’d put a good portion of the blame on the defender who played it back to him & gave him very little room to maneuver.”
IN addition to what sushiritto said above, the GK should have communicated with the defender because he had full view of what was going on and how close the Croatian player was getting, the defender did not have the advantage. It is the GK’s job to direct traffic and talk to his players.
It was an excellent World Cup IMO. Lots of surprises which made it interesting. Clean play for the most part.
We were laughing at the award ceremony when it started pouring rain and for the longest time only Putin had a huge umbrella over him then eventually, after Macron and Grabar-Kitarovic were totally drenched and suits ruined did they finally give them much smaller umbrellas. Not surprised.
@doschicos & @sushiritto : I’m guessing neither of you has ever been a keeper. I have more sympathy for Loris than you (and many others) do. Regards, ATS
I’ve played soccer but no, I’ve never been a keeper. I have been a parent of a kid that did do keeper duty early in a soccer career. I do understand what a keeper’s responsibilities are and how he needs to direct his teammates especially his backs. Sure, it’s a difficult job but they aren’t above critique when they mess up. But, yes, the defender could have handled it better as well. In the end, it doesn’t matter because they won the prize. Both teams had mistakes in the game that cost them goals. For those of us watching, it made it more interesting though. 
If the French keeper would have been a youth player, then of course I’d have sympathy for him or her. But keepers tend to be slow(er) and generally have limited ball skills and should know by the time they reach their respective national teams (or a professional) not to get too cute with the back pass.
I played a 9 mostly.
Any thoughts on the 2 goals the French scored off of controversial calls?
The first one was a dive but that’s the game. It’s sometimes called and sometimes not. That far out of the box is not usually a problem that a ref called it. Great ball in, unfortunate header by the defense.
Was the hand ball controversial? It was pretty clear on the replay.
I didn’t see them as controversial, just unfortunate errors for Croatia that worked against them.
The prettiest goal of the match, IMO, was Croatia’s first goal. I think the 2 teams could have a rematch and have a totally different outcome.
I saw a lot of stuff online that the calls were totally ridiculous, especially the hand ball call. That you “just don’t” call something like that in a World Cup final, etc.
Seems like some people think you should get a free pass for things just because the stakes are high.
The Croatian coach was a bit of a sourpuss yesterday about those two goals calling them “soft,” even Modric said the French goals were “clumsy.” The best team yesterday didn’t win, but as @doschicos says above, I’m sure you get a different result each time, if those two teams played again. But that’s just soccer, it’s not a series of games, like the NBA and MLB.
You wouldn’t call that a hand ball in a World Cup Final? Maybe, in group play, several hand balls were not looked at or waved off. However, in this case, the ball didn’t careen off a player’s body trying to head in the air, the Croatian player had his hand awkwardly outside of the typical area of where hands would normally be and the ball was being crossed at the 6-yard box, not near the 18. The hands away from body, a solid direct deflection of the ball and the proximity of the foul to the goal makes it an easy call for me.
The dive, I’m not sure about calling it one. Was it foul? No. Yes, I know it looked like a dive (intentional), but when playing the game, avoiding contact or attempting to predict contact can look like a dive. But it shouldn’t have been called a foul. But, again, that’s just soccer.
OTOH, Croatia got a gift with the goalie error. That’s a rare misplay, even at the higher youth levels.
“I do chuckle thinking of criticism of soccer on this thread that said not enough goals/action.”
I thought the amount of scoring was great! It makes the game much more exciting and enjoyable when a score of 1 - 0 doesn’t feel like an insurmountable lead.
And the fact that observers kept pointing out that this was most scoring in a WC final since 1966 kind of proves the point. 1966 was 52 years and 13 World Cup finals ago. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another 52 years to see another big championship match with respectable scoring. .
Everyone is saying that this World Cup has been exciting.
Average World Cup goals per game:
2018 2.64
2014 2.70
Liverpool ended the season with a loss in the Champions League Final, but scored a record amount of goals:
https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/newsid=2554546.html?iv=true
“With 401 scored, 2017/18 ended the most prolific UEFA Champions League season ever in terms of goals per game.”
https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/newsid=2553842.html
However, you just can’t make someone appreciate the beauty of the game beyond just goal scoring. Seriously, I love the NBA and all the baskets are great and all, but for me, it goes beyond the plethora of dunks and 3-point shots. It’s the movement with and without the ball, game adjustments, strategy, etc. that makes the game exciting and interesting for me. Just like soccer.
Ok time to look forward to 2022. I think the US has a great core of 18-20 year olds that will be good for years to come. Pulisic, McKennie, Sargent, Adams, Weah, hopefully Zelalem and so on. We lost a couple to Mexico that really hurt but hopefully we’ll pick up a couple of commits from Germany along the way. Funny though that no one ever questions these guys why they don’t go to college lol.
“However, you just can’t make someone appreciate the beauty of the game beyond just goal scoring. Seriously, I love the NBA and all the baskets are great and all, but for me, it goes beyond the plethora of dunks and 3-point shots. It’s the movement with and without the ball, game adjustments, strategy, etc. that makes the game exciting and interesting for me. Just like soccer.”
This.
In fact, and I’ll admit I’m not a knowledgable basketball fan and did not grow up watching and appreciating basketball like I did soccer, but I find basket ball boring because it is too high scoring. Like I commented pages back, I feel like you just need to tune in for the last 5-10 minutes.
The US men’s team has no manager/coach at the moment, so who the heck knows how good they’ll be in 4 years.
I’m looking forward to the Women’s World Cup next year. I’d like to see some of new faces there as well.