World Cup

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Lionel Messi cements his place among the greats after winning epic duel against Kylian Mbappé
Analysis by Matias Grez, CNN
Updated 8:00 PM EST, Sun December 18, 2022

I believe Messi had already cemented his place a long time ago. In my opinion, the FIFA World Cup trophy was just the missing gem from his well deserved crown. He should thank Cristiano Ronaldo for the long-time competition he gave to him and the rivalry that kept driving him to remain at the top level of competitiveness and glory hunger.

Kylian Mbappé is already a superstar of course. All he needs now is to keep going. He seems to have some ego though. I hope he can learn how to stay humble and let that attitude affect him.

There have been many great athletes who never win the ultimate TEAM game in their sport. In major sports in the USA, Charles Barkley and Karl Malone of the NBA come to my mind. So do Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox of MLB and Jim Kelly of the Buffalo Bills in the NFL. There are many, many more, and not just in the USA.

Yes, Messi did very well in his sport. But in a TEAM sport, not winning the ultimate trophy or title in that team sport is a rather significant omission. Most of the athletes in that position will lament that missing championship. Messi finally got his, in his 5th World Cup. Since, like the Olympics, the game is only played every 4 years, it is a difficult to achieve; ask Cristiano Ronaldo.

I agree, although this way of judging an athlete can be unfair for some reasons. For example, Andriy Shevchenko was a superstar but he didn't have solid national team at his time. In other words, you cannot control who plays in your team. Cristiano Ronaldo suffered this too, so did Messi over the past decade; and if his 2022 FIFA World Cup teammates, who played like real warriors, were not found by the coach during the past 3-4 years, Messi wouldn't have achieved this glory and dream.

Dibo Martinez, their hero goalkeeper, was not known because he was an Arsenal's bench warmer until the regular keeper was injured, so he got his chance then was bought by Aston Villa where he became regular and developed. If it wasn't for that injury, he would have remained unknown. I've always said that you need a lot of luck to win a tournament like World Cup. As you said, it's a once per 4-year event, and you have to be in the best form when that time comes.

Yes, Kinda. There are some players that are among the greatest football player and never won the World Cup (Di Stefano, Cruyff, George Best, etc.) Yes certain players will never win it because of its nationality so I don't think it makes it or break it to be considere the best in History. Messi had already enough feats to be at least considered (U could say the same thing about Ronaldo, although he is already way past his prime and I believe Portugal would have done better withouth him it has a superteam, Bruno, Cancelo, Ruben Diaz, Bernardo Silva, Joao Felix, Rune Neves, etc. far better than most of the teams bar France and Brazil, maybe Argentina and England too).

Wining the world cup requires even a lot of luck, there are a lot of one season wonders in the WC, in form players, etc. and I agree that a whole process can make it, Argentina with Scaloni the best example, as u said the support and faith of the players and all of them wanted to do it for Messi too.

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All these factors mentioned make LIVE sports FUN to watch and enjoy.

There are so many variables and story lines; and the emotions of the game are amazing. And sometimes it is truly a matter of a few centimeters (inches, in the USA) and/or a few tenths of seconds. And sometimes it is a matter of LUCK. And there has to be luck with few injuries to key players and the "luck" of getting the right team players, and coaches, too, in the right roles to make the Team work better towards a championship. And there is the luck of the right bounce of the ball, to the right spot for a great kick or header or block.

Wonderful Drama was there and FUN to watch. And that 120 minute PLUS WC Final had so much excitement. I think that both teams had a chance to win the game 4-3 in the last minute of the 30 extra minutes, as I recall. The ebb and flow of the game was great, too. Argentina dominates the first 70 minutes to go up 2-0 and then France storms back to earn a tie at 2-2..! WoW..!!!

And then it goes to 3-3, the the Shoot Out, or PKs.

Congratulations to Messi and Argentina. Thanks to all the players and teams for a wonderful WC 2022 in Qatar..!

[Pirlo]

All these factors mentioned make LIVE sports FUN to watch and enjoy.

There are so many variables and story lines; and the emotions of the game are amazing. And sometimes it is truly a matter of a few centimeters (inches, in the USA) and/or a few tenths of seconds. And sometimes it is a matter of LUCK. And there has to be luck with few injuries to key players and the "luck" of getting the right team players, and coaches, too, in the right roles to make the Team work better towards a championship. And there is the luck of the right bounce of the ball, to the right spot for a great kick or header or block.

Wonderful Drama was there and FUN to watch. And that 120 minute PLUS WC Final had so much excitement. I think that both teams had a chance to win the game 4-3 in the last minute of the 30 extra minutes, as I recall. The ebb and flow of the game was great, too. Argentina dominates the first 70 minutes to go up 2-0 and then France storms back to earn a tie at 2-2..! WoW..!!!

And then it goes to 3-3, the the Shoot Out, or PKs.

Congratulations to Messi and Argentina. Thanks to all the players and teams for a wonderful WC 2022 in Qatar..!

Yes very true. Those factors have to do with your competitors, as well. Let's analyze Argentina's road. The draw wasn't fun for them because in round of 16, they were supposed to face France or Denmark; however, this world cup turned out to be full of upsets, so Denmark were eliminated. Why does it matter for Argentina? Well, I've been watching Argentina since 1990, and they have always struggled against opponents with tall and physically big players who know how to defend and park the bus. Examples include a disappointing 1-1 draw with Iceland in World Cup 2018, multiple defeats to Germany in a number of world cups, a disastrous 1-1 draw with Sweden in World Cup 2002 resulting in the elimination of one of the strongest national teams ever, and a 0-2 defeat to Denmark in Confederations Cup final in 1995. the AFA should arrange for friendlies against this kind of teams to solve this problem; but instead, they pick opponents like Guatemala and Estonia whose players' ultimate dream is to take a selfie with Messi

So in Round of 16, they faced Australia and it wasn't hard to ease through. In quarterfinals, they faced Netherlands, which was normal. They could manage to score twice, but they blew their lead due to some mistakes in the defense.

The quarterfinals were such a turning point, where Croatia could knock out Brazil. I don't say Croatia were not good enough for Argentina, but it's always better for you to avoid facing your biggest rivals. Argentina could still won over Brazil, but it would have probably been costlier if any player was shown red and misses the Final, or otherwise if a player was injured due to a tough challenge. Also, it helped that Croatia had to play extra times twice against Japan then Brazil, which drained a lot of their energy and stamina.

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In quarterfinals, they faced Netherlands, which was normal. They could manage to score twice, but they blew their lead due to some mistakes in the defense.

Argentina was gifted the second goal by the referee, that should not have been a penalty kick. No way.