Having not resigned after England’s elimination at the hands of Argentina in Atlanta, Thomas Tuchel could barely contain his excitement at playing the third-place play-off against France. “None of our players and none of the French players want to play this match,” he said.
You could have fooled us. Hard Rock Stadium in Miami was close to a full house for a game that could have been a final and ended up feeling like a deleted scene or alternate ending to a great movie; a bonkers 6-4 thriller.
Aside from giving Didier Deschamps a dignified au revoir after 14 years in the France job (he got one, sort of), this unserious but surprisingly fun game was about pride and Kylian Mbappe beating Lionel Messi to the Golden Boot by any means necessary, even if overhauling him and breaking the all-time record via the so-called ‘Bronze final’ should feel pretty hollow.
Is it OK for the Bronze Final to be considered a proper World Cup match?
The World Cup third-place play-off is like the Bermuda triangle. It’s a game teams disappear into.
France and England were knocked out in the semi-finals, but still somehow remained in the competition. Just without points or progress on offer. It raises the question: should FIFA allow a prize as prestigious as the Golden Boot to be decided by a game that has nothing else riding on it? Should the course of World Cup history be influenced by a nothing game?
Going into the final weekend of the tournament, Kylian Mbappe found himself level with Lionel Messi on eight goals as the World Cup’s top scorer. Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham were on six.
Did the Golden Boot have any bearing on France and England’s team selection?
Rather than give Jean-Philippe Mateta a chance, Deschamps opted to start Mbappe. A different approach was taken by Tuchel. He left out Kane and Bellingham in order for Ivan Toney to play more than the one minute he got at the end of the Argentina game.
Four-nil down at half-time, Mbappe started a ridiculous comeback. Michael Olise set him up twice to tie the tournament assist record set by Pele in 1970. The brace Mbappe put away meant he stretched clear of Messi who has a chance to match or out-do him in the final.
The Argentine will need a hat-trick. He has already scored one this tournament. But only Geoff Hurst (1966) and Mbappe (2022) have ever scored one in a final. If Mbappe does leave the U.S. with the Golden Boot it won’t be the first time the third-place play-off played a role in deciding it.
Roberto Baggio let Toto Schillaci take a penalty against England in 1990, affording him the chance to overtake Czechoslovakia’s Tomas Skuhravy.
What doesn’t feel quite right is Mbappe’s goals also made him the all-time top scorer in the history of the World Cup. They were scored when he was definitely out but still awkwardly in, when the goals feel distinctly emptier than they really should.
Did France underachieve under Deschamps?
Ibrahima Konate expressed his wish to “pay back our coach” against England. It was meant with affection. “(Didier Deschamps) did so much for the France team,” he added. “We must be grateful to him for that, and we need to do everything we can to win this game.”
The pay back was France going in at half-time 4-0 down. Thankfully they rallied to save Deschamps some face in the second half.
Back home, some believe ‘Dede’ has underperformed over the course of his tenure. Christophe Dugarry, his former teammate turned pundit, called the Deschamps era “a bluff.”
France lost the Euro 2016 final to Portugal in Paris, taking a late gut-punch from Eder after Cristiano Ronaldo left the field injured.
They ‘only’ won the World Cup once (in 2018). Les Bleus were then a penalty shootout away from retaining it four years later when a Kylian Mbappe hat-trick improbably wasn’t enough to ensure France became the first team to retain the trophy since Brazil in 1962.
Overall, Deschamps seemed to have a special talent for making uber-gifted France teams look boring. Until, that is, this summer. In the U.S., Mbappe, Michael Olise and Ousmane Dembele played with the handbrake off. Subs like Bradley Barcola and Desire Doue meant the show went on even when the starters went off. France finally looked as good on the pitch as they did on paper.
Didier Deschamps is handing over France to Zinedine Zidane (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s why their exit in the semi-finals was so disappointing.
Philippe Diallo, the president of the French Football Federation, has said Deschamps’ successor will be named at the end of the month, but the fact it is Zinedine Zidane is no great secret.
Zidane has been waiting for this moment for five years, and expectations are sky high. Deschamps has, at least, made us accustomed to France reaching the semi-finals of every tournament they enter. They no longer implode in the group stages as was the case in 2002 and 2010.
Given Zidane won the Champions League in three successive years as coach of Real Madrid, anything less than victory at the European Championship in 2028 will be considered a failure. Particularly with this generation of players.
Why is this World Cup final so unusual?
This is a novel final.
After all, it’s rare for Argentina and Spain to play each other at a major tournament. The last time was 60 years ago at the 1966 World Cup. Luis Artime scored twice in a 2-1 win for Argentina at Villa Park. Remember him? Didn’t think so.
The core interest aside from this being the final of a six-week long competition that only happens every four years is the country of Messi’s birth taking on the country that raised him.
Messi moved to Barcelona when he was 13. His father Jorge signed a contract on a napkin and Barca funded the growth hormone treatment Messi’s hometown club Newell’s Old Boys weren’t able to provide in order for him to reach a normal height for a boy his age.
A third of Barcelona’s La Liga titles (10) came with Messi in the team. He was a member of three of their five Champions League-winning teams and won five of his record seven Ballon d’Or awards in Catalan colours. Since he left, fans have pined for Messi. They wish he had never left.
Until Lamine Yamal emerged. By now you will have seen the photo from 2007 when Messi, as part of a charity photo shoot, looked dotingly at a bathing baby Yamal.
A 20-year-old Lionel Messi bathes a five-month-old Lamine Yamal (Diario Sport/Joan Monfort)
The poetic interpretation of the photo is of Messi anointing his successor. Let’s see who prevails. Yamal won the Euros two years ago while still at school. He can now lift the World Cup while still a teenager.
The World Cup final
Spain vs Argentina (3pm ET; 12pm PT; 8pm BST)
