Kevin's Watch

Ha! We must be cousins. What site is your DNA on? For no reason I can uncover, my father shares a decent (up to 48 cM) segment of Chr 16 with, literally, hundreds of people living in Nova Scotia and Louisiana whose ancestors are named LeBlanc, Landry, Guidry, Bouchard, Cormier, Arsenault, Trahan, Laverne, etc.

Sounds like half the French team

Actually, none of them, but it could be! Well, France are through to the World Cup final with a 2-0 victory over Morocco. I believe that Morocco is the first African country to make it this far, and there has never been one in the final. Morocco deserved to be there - they are a skilful team. I think France played a tactically good game because Morocco's strength lies in their counter-attack game, but this time they had to try and force a goal through the French defence, while France did most of the counter-attacking.

Mbappe was relatively quiet in the first half, but featured more prominently in the 2nd. The French substitutions made a big difference at the right time.

Semi Finals

Argentina 3 def Croatia 0

France 2 def Morocco 0

Third and Fourth playoff is Croatia v Morocco.

Croatia are officially 3rd place after beating Morocco 2-1 in a very entertaining first half. The 2nd half wasn’t quite a free flowing and got a little undisciplined, but on the whole it was a good game.

One more to go - Argentina v France!

Alrighty then!

Well! that was epic. Probably the best final I've seen.

Argentina looked way better than France - for most of the game really. They scored 2 in the first half - one Messi penalty, and one piece of incredible counter-attacking, finished by Di Maria. France looked completely out of it. I had heard that there was some illness in the France camp - it certainly looked like it. They couldn't seem to keep the ball, and looked slow and dull. It could easily have been 3 or 4-0 by half time.

Credit to the French coach, making the ballsy decision to substitute Giroud and Dembele out in the first half. I imagine Giroud may have been injured - Dembele was having a shocker. Mbappe couldn't get much of the ball. Then in the 2nd half, the French coach subbed out Griezman and Hernandez. Griezman normally stays most of the distance, but once again he was trying to inject some life into France.

The French eventually started putting pressure on, around the time that Di Maria (a forward) was substituted for Acuna (more of a defender). Perhaps Argentina were starting to think about seeing the game out with their 2-0 cushion. Enter Mbappe! The pressure was definitely building by the time France received a penalty in the 80th minute. Mbappe converted to make it 2-1. One minute later, Mbappe again scored a beautiful volley to level the scores. Argentina went from regulation time comfort, to having to adjust for extra time.

In the second period of extra time, Argentina sealed the game with a Messi goal - but no! With 2 minutes remaining, France got another penalty for a handball, and Mbappe had to step up again. He scored, taking it to 3-3.

Mbappe and Messi both scored their penalties in the final shootout. However the Argentine goalkeeper saved the next one, and the French player after that missed the goals. All over, and Argentina are the world champions.

Overall, I found this World Cup to be highly entertaining. Until next time in the US, Canada and Mexico

That was One heck of a final! Five minutes before France scored their first goal, my wife asked if France could come back. “No�, I said, they look terrible. A few minutes later, she was quoting Yogi Berra to me, laughing. “It ain’t over till it’s over.� It was an electric finish to extra time.

I puzzled over subbing out Giroud. What little France had done, he seemed to be in the middle of it when it happened. Then I saw his knee was bothering him.

I’m happy for Messi.

I'm waiting to see if any news comes out of Giroud's substitution, because he is a strong target up front. He wasn't playing that badly so maybe it was an injury. Dembele was amazing earlier in the tournament - I wonder if he was sick or something, because he had a shocker.

I wanted Argentina to win for Messi's sake, but I found myself actually barracking for France. Not unhappy with the result - as a neutral it was a fantastic game.

RIP Pele.

Damelon wrote:That was One heck of a final! Five minutes before France scored their first goal, my wife asked if France could come back. “No�, I said, they look terrible. A few minutes later, she was quoting Yogi Berra to me, laughing. “It ain’t over till it’s over.� It was an electric finish to extra time.

I puzzled over subbing out Giroud. What little France had done, he seemed to be in the middle of it when it happened. Then I saw his knee was bothering him.

I’m happy for Messi.

Agree! We were puzzled when de Maria was sub'd out, he'd had a fantastic game, and it seemed Argentina lost a lot of spark, as France scored their first goal not long after.