Arguably the greatest World Cup in recent memory officially is finally over, and it was not without a fantastic final weekend.
France is the champion, Croatia was the amazing runner-ups, and Belgium made sure that England was "coming home" empty-handed.
To put everything into perspective, here are three takeaways from the final 48 hours of the 2018 World Cup.
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Oh my god, that final!
I might not have the greatest perspective as a 22-year-old fan, but this might be one of the greatest World Cup finals in the history of the tournament. It was certainly the best of my lifetime. This game had everything you could possibly want in the scoring alone: an own goal (a World Cup final first)a VAR-determined penalty (another first), a poached shot from a goalkeeping error (maybe a first this game, certainly not this year ) a booming shot from outside of the box (not a first, I think), a beautiful volleyed goal (same),and a teenager reminding us all of Pele’s World Cup debut (hooray, nostalgia!). The most goals scored since 1966 in a World Cup final, taking another thing away from England this tournament.
Even outside of the goals it was great. Pitch invaders — who turned out to be members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot — interrupted the game, and high-fived Kylian Mbappe. Fans got to get their jokes off at the expense of Liverpool and Tottenham fans after Lloris’ miss reminded us all of Karius’ miss, and reminded us to make fun of Tottenham’s ability to choke in big moments.
THIS. ALL THIS 🙌 pic.twitter.com/tOtCx39owk
— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) July 15, 2018
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Croatia, for its part, played with heart and passion of champions, just without the result. Their attacking form and chance creation was a beautiful sight to see for the 90 minutes of the match — even after the three long 120-minute matches that brought them here. If one of those missed shots goes their way, we might have had a different result and game.
The trophy celebration even concluded in dramatic fashion with rain falling on all of the ecstatic French players. What’s not to love?
In defense of the third-place playoff
Belgium and England played a game during the final weekend of the World Cup that some people believe shouldn’t even exist in the first place: the third-place playoff.
Former England national football team player Gary Neville referred to the match as a “testimonial-type game.” His teammate, Alan Shearer, said it was “Utter stupidity. The last thing any player wants.” Former Netherlands manager Louis van Gaal said the “match should never be played.”
After the Red Devils’ 2-0 victory over the Three Lions on Saturday, it appeared that the dissenters had a point. Only one team at a time expressed urgency and motivation during the game, almost as if the feelings were resources in scarce supply.
But the reality is that the humdrum affair was inconsistent with the match’s history. Saturday was the first time a third-place playoff featured less than three goals since 1974, when Poland beat Brazil 1-0. There are usually more goals, more celebrations and more non-finalist stars shining in the opener for Sunday’s main event.
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Even without the goals, the game can mean so much more to some competitors.
After Croatia advanced to the semifinals on the back of their second consecutive penalty shoot-out victory of the tournament, former Croatian national team player, and current ITV analyst, Slaven Bilic put the moment in context.
“It’s more than football, you know,” Bilic told ITV host Mark Pougatch . “We’ve had some good sportsman. Ivanišević won the Wimbledon, basketball is huge and we were good. But that success, that bronze medal, from ‘98 is still maybe the best achievement in sport because football is number-one sport. So this mean more than just semifinal of World Cup.”
Whether it’s through genuine excitement, or a Stockholm Syndrome-like resignation, the third-place playoff can mean a lot to the winners of the playoff. One bad game shouldn’t signal the end of something of actual importance.
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VAR I love you, but you’re bringing me down
Video assistant referees was a rousing success in this World Cup. Not a single player was given a straight red card for violent conduct, replay decisions were determined quickly — something American sports could certainly learn from — and every call felt rather fair.
This was all until the final, of course. In the 36th minute of the match, Argentinian referee Nestor Pitana determined that Ivan Perisic’s contact with the ball in the air during a free kick was worthy of awarding France a penalty, after the VAR crew determined it should have been reviewed.
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The rule for handball itself is kind of dubious, and Perisic’s intention of contact is up for debate, but in this case, all the rule did was give the referee more time to make a bad decision. This admittedly isn’t the direct fault of VAR, but those in the booth. Whatever training FIFA gives officials needs to improve. The handball was hardly Thierry Henry in 2009, nor was it Torsten Frings in 2002. The fact of the matter is this wasn’t a “clear and obvious error” and shouldn’t have been reviewed in the first place.
Meanwhile, there were other mistakes the referee made that also swung the direction of the match that FIFA should consider expanding VAR to. FIFA loves to run its mouth about how great their “fair play” rules are, even though they’re bad , and there was a clear opportunity to show how important those rules mattered in games like these. Griezmann’s dive in the 17th minute of the match is quite literally the opposite of “fair play” and yet this can’t be looked at from the VAR booth? The replays immediately showed that the play wasn’t a foul, and considering the usual speed of the booth, it could have been determined quickly. VAR was great this tournament, but clearly there’s plenty of room to grow. Hopefully it’ll improve in 2022.