World Cup final - France vs. Croatia
It COULD be a fun team to watch. Deschemps’ style makes it much more boring than it could be. France could have blown out every team under the right manager as they’re the most talented squad in the whole tournament IMO. But it’s hard to argue with the results.
And other than Nigeria they are also the youngest squad in the entire tournament.
Their "potential" is just that right now--potential. They have moments of greatness, but young players also make mistakes. Deschamps got this French team to buy into a defensive posture and knew he had enough individual offensive brilliance to get the scoring he needed for the French team to win games.
That's how you win soccer games. Hell, it's Italy's entire soccer philosophy which seems to have treated them well over the years.
Game much better on spanish station.
Is what it is. Croatia were the better team until the third goal, then France bunkered in and there was nothing Croatia could do. Would have been interesting to see the game played where Croatia didn’t have the bad luck in the first half, but you don’t get second chances in sports.
Hard to believe it’s all over. Gotta wait 4 1/2 more years to do this again.
Congrats to Croatia for a plucky run through the tournament, but France had a little too much talent across the pitch. What a party tonight. Champagne flowing like a river everywhere in France (except maybe the Le Pen household, I'm guessing).
France wasn't always pretty in this tournament but even so, they went undefeated in seven games (6 wins, 1 draw) without ever going to extra time and only trailed in one game, for about eight minutes (Argentina). They scored 11 goals in the four knockout games while going through the tough half of the bracket. Quite a run.
Vive la France!
I'm happy with the result but it's always a little sad to see the World Cup end - it's such a fun global festival. And this will be the last one in the summer until 2026 . . . ugh.
All politics aside, it looks like Russia ended up being a solid host country. There were a lot of pre-tournament fears about logistics, hooliganism and racism, but it seems (as far as I can tell) that they pulled it off. Now, Qatar?
M Go Les Bleus!
Grêle! aux vainqueurs français vaillants
Grêle! aux héros conquérants
Ha, "grêle" means hail that falls from the sky.
I think you would say "Vive" for the closest equivalent (as in "Vive la France").