And I need yall to understand that before we were rooting for Spain, we were rooting for England.
Basically, it started with Capo Verde. The first-timers led by 40-yo goalkeeper Vozinha, taking the WC by storm. They tied with every team they encountered, including Spain. Then they run into Argentina.
The game was wild. CV played beautifully. The refs are giving Argentina the princess treatment. CV manages to equalize twice to drag the game into overtime. They honestly could have and should have won that game if the refs were being fair.
Argentina plays Egypt. Once again, a game they should have lost if the refs were being fair. A penalty is called against Egypt but an equivalent offense by Argentina goes ignored. An Egypt goal is ruled out for a foul on the other side of the pitch, but when Argentina fouled and scored, their goal was allowed to stand. It’s a shitshow. The game goes into overtime and ends in an Argentina win.
Argentina plays Switzerland. A Swiss player earns two (unfair) yellow cards and gets sent off. Switzerland still manages to hold them off into overtime. The results are obvious.
Argentina plays England. And I truly have to emphasize how reluctant I was to support England. But Argentina was fouling left, right, and center, and not getting carded even when kicking, tripping, punching, and elbowing English players. It was a game where you simply could not look at it objectively and support Argentina. Also the English coach was an idiot and swapped them to defense much too early. An Argentina player said something to Jude Bellingham after the match and rightfully got smacked in the back of the head—and you know he deserved it because his own players were stopping him from retaliating. This is relevant later. This was the only Argentina game in the knockout stage that didn’t go into overtime, and it was a close thing, with the winning goal scored in the 92nd minute.
In a stunning surprise, Frances loses their semifinal match against Spain, 2-0. This is also relevant, because now France and England are set to play for third place, a game nobody cares about.
Except Messi (Argentina captain), who you have heard of even if you give zero shits about football, and Mbappe (French star player) are tied in goals in the race for the Golden Boot, and the bronze match counts toward the goal count.
In possibly the most entertaining game of the tournament, England and France play what can only be described as the cleanest and most absurd match. English player Saka gets a hat-trick after taking a penalty (not a card but an regular foul inside the box), Bellingham breaks the English record for most goals scored in a single WC as well as the record for most goals scored by a midfielder, and—crucially—Mbappe scores two goals in the second half. England wins 6-4, everyone is grinning, commentators are baffled but entertained. Possibly the only match where both teams went home happy.
The next day. Argentina vs Spain. Everyone but Argentina is rooting for Spain, but not expecting much bc the refs have been so biased throughout the cup. And at first it feels like it’s going to be the same pattern of biased calls, but we’re all hopeful because Spain is clearly stronger. They’re controlling possession more, staying calm, taking more shots. Argentina is noticeably sluggish. Their team is playing rough. They’re notably grabbing Lamine Yamal (right winger), who has been 19 for all of 6 days.
At 41’ Lisandro Martinez (Argentina defender) is yellow-carded. It’s one of very few cards Argentina has been given throughout the tournament. And it starts to feel like maybe this ref might be a bit different. L Martinez gets subbed out to avoid a second yellow.
The second half starts. Paredes (Argentina midfielder) is subbed in. 6 minutes into the half, he gets a yellow card.
At 62’, Spain subs in Ferran Torres. He’s a 26yo striker who has suffered a lot of criticism while playing for Barcelona.
At 75’, Spain subs in Nico Williams, a 24yo striker.
At 82’ Enzo Fernandez (Argentina midfielder) gets a yellow card.
At 90+2’ Romero (Argentina defender) gets a yellow card.
At 90+3’ Enzo Fernandez runs full speed into Pau Cubarsi (Spain defender) who is also 19. Cubarsi literally goes flying into the air, flipping head over heels. Enzo gets his second yellow card, which is an automatic red, and gets sent off the field. Everyone watching cheers. There are literally dozens of videos of watch parties around the world where everyone erupts into cheers when Enzo gets red-carded. An entire tournament’s worth of resentment finally gets vindicated.
The game goes into overtime. Nine minutes into the first period, the Spanish captain, Rodri, gets subbed out. This is relevant later.
Lamine Yamal is just going for it, every chance he gets. It’s like he got orders to keep the Argentina defense occupied and wear them down. His stamina is honestly scary. Nico Williams and Ferran Torres both get shots on target but are blocked by Argentina’s goalie, who seems to be the only player on his team who’s actually doing his job.
Nico Williams scores in the 6th minute of overtime but it’s disallowed because of an Argentina player flopping in the box.
At 105’, Argentina’s head coach gets a yellow card.
The first period of overtime ends. The second begins.
Lamine Yamal takes the ball deep into Argentina’s half, passes it back to Torres, who passes it long to Williams. Williams headers it back into the middle and Torres crosses the ball into the upper right of the net.
And the rest of the match is just Argentina desperately clawing for a chance to go into a penalty shootout. Another Argentina player earns a yellow card. Whistle blows. Spanish team have won the World Cup for the second time in history.
The players on the bench run out onto the field to celebrate. Lamine Yamal is praying. Nico Williams and Olmo are on their knees hugging. Rodri gets suckerpunched—
He gets shoved again. Paredes, who got a yellow during the game, shoves another Spanish player in the throat. Then his teammate who ran over to back him up gets clotheslined. Then tossed on the ground again after standing up. Williams and Olmo notice the commotion and run over. The ref gives up on intervening and backs away as more players swarm the situation. The Argentina coaching staff get involved. One of the coaches shoves a Spanish player in the face—
All of this was cut out of the live broadcast, which only showed Messi crying and walking slowly across the field.
And finally the awards are given out. Cubarsi earns the best young player of the tournament. Unai Simon, the Spanish goalkeeper earns the Golden Glove for only allowing 1 goal throughout the tournament—except that he only had to make a total of 10 saves due to Spain’s iron defense. In contrast the Argentina goalie had to make 11 saves during the final match alone. The Balon d’Or, for the overall MVP went to Rodri. And the Golden Boot went to…Kylian Mbappe!
So despite playing rough and dirty and being favored throughout the tournament, Argentina walked away with jack shit and lost the respect of the entire world.
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