MOSCOW, RUSSIA – JULY 15: Hugo Lloris of France lifts the World Cup trophy to celebrate with his teammates after the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final between France and Croatia at Luzhniki Stadium on July 15, 2018 in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Neil W. Blackmon
France collected a second star Sunday, winning the FIFA World Cup in a thrilling, strange 4-2 final against a steely Croatia.
On and off the pitch, this was a World Cup final with a bit of everything.
Off the field, the final saw the French President celebrating on a press row table, Croatian ultras waving flags and racist signs, and an interruption from Russian protestors, a fina, poignant reminder that against the backdrop of what was arguably the greatest on-field World Cup ever, a kleptocratic Kremlin government stands watch as a rising tide of authoritarianism creeps across much of Europe.
On the field, the game had goals come from a dubiously awarded free kick and subsequent own goal, a colossal goalkeeping mistake, and a critical VAR review.
In the end, however, the best team won, thanks largely two beautiful goals from two of the best players on that France team, Kylian Mbappé and Paul Pogba.
In a tournament where France reached the final largely thanks to Didier Deschamps commitment to a tough-through-the-spine 4-2-3-1 brand of defensive, counterattacking soccer led by the magnificent, musical defensive midfielder N’Golo Kanté , Les Bleus won the World Cup despite a final that was, put bluntly, Deschamps worst tactical day, one complicated by an early (and soft!) yellow card issued to N’Golo Kanté.
The French spent the bulk of the first half on the back foot, their defense repeatedly unlocked by the dangerous combination of Luka Modrić, Šime Vrsaljko and the space-opening Mario Mario Mandžukić, who, in a statement that shows how odd the game was, played wonderfully, at least in the first half save his own goal.
France overcame these issues, and took a surprising 2-1 lead into the half, thanks almost entirely- with a referee’s assist- to the gargantuan talent and individual brilliance of Mbappé and Atletico Madrid star Antoine Griezmann.
The first goal, scored tragically by Mandžukić off a sublime piece of service from Griezmann, came after Griezmann appeared to dive, winning a dubious free kick in a dangerous position.
After Croatia equalized on a beautiful strike by Ivan Perišić, France again appeared the more likely to concede before the break, with little answer for the methodical passing of Modrić centrally and the stout defense of Ivan Rakitić, who seemed a step ahead of nearly every French attempt to counter.
The game turned when 19-year-old Kylian Mbappé did what you’re supposed to do, and chased a long ball from the goalkeeper down a flank.
And then the moment that changed the final.
Not the Perišić handball, which came off a Griezmann corner kick and was, with due respect to the brilliant Croatian manager Zlatko Dalić, a handball in a World Cup final and a handball in a Sunday pub game and anywhere in-between, but the play that preceded it.
Hugo Lloris came out to snatch away yet another Croatian aerial foray into the eighteen (more on that in a moment), and then played an over-the-top ball to a streaking Kylian Mbappé down the Croatian left flank (Mbappé’s right). Croatian CB Domagoj Vida appeared to be in great position to shut Mbappé, who had negligible support, down, but doubtlessly having been told repeatedly not to challenge Mbappé without defensive support, elected to boot the ball out. Hurried, perhaps by Mbappé’s electric pace, perhaps by indecision as to whether to late the ball drop and play it out on the ground or volley it- Vida mishit the ball, surrendering the fateful corner. From absolutely nothing, France manufactured a corner, a VAR moment, and quickly after, Griezmann’s perfectly placed penalty.
France carried a 2-1 lead they didn’t much deserve into halftime, and for me, it was “the moment” of a game defined by beautiful French moments. As the map below illustrates- France hardly played beautiful soccer. But they had enough individual brilliance, whether it was Paul Pogba’s strike for the third goal or the epic Mbappé strike for the fourth, to win their second World Cup regardless.
xG map for the World Cup Final. Very hard to say this was an impressive team performance by #FRA, but Umtiti and Varane prevented #CRO from creating clear chances and Mbappe and Pogba made the needed plays in attack. Individual talent won out. pic.twitter.com/oMfePQ6V1R
— Caley Graphics (@Caley_graphics) July 15, 2018
In general, however, I felt Deschamps got plenty wrong, and agreed with the sentiment expressed by Luka Modrić, a deserved winner of the Golden Ball for the tournament’s best player, that Croatia by and large played the better soccer in the final.
“We have no regrets because we were the better team for much of the game,” Modrić said afterwards. “We can hold our heads high.”
They can, and largely can because their midfield group headed by the Real Madrid and Barcelona duo of Modrić and Rakitić controlled proceedings centrally throughout.
To France’s credit, the Croatian attack can become quite stolid, relying heavily on crosses brought about on build-ups that stem from Modrić’s divine passing, especially to the flanks, and Rakitić’s central ball-winning. France were prepared to defend crosses, and while there were some nervy moments in the opening half and late, they did a nice job preventing clear chances. But there was more emergency defending from the French than we’d grown accustomed to this tournament, with Croatia often breaking through seams in the opening twenty minutes and late in the first half, only to have them shut down at the last instant by a tremendous Varane, a steady Umtiti or to a lesser extent, Kanté, who looked surprisingly human playing with a yellow.
MOSCOW, RUSSIA – JULY 15: Paul Pogba of France celebrates after scoring his team’s third goal during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final between France and Croatia at Luzhniki Stadium on July 15, 2018 in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
In the second half, France were much better, but so much of this again was a product of individual brilliance, not Deschamps.
The decision to remove N’Golo Kanté from the game seems worthwhile now, as his replacement, Steven N’Zonzi, did well and took a bit of the sting out of the Croatian midfield. But it was objectively absurd to remove one of the best defensive players in the World protecting a lead in the World Cup final, and had France lost, he’d have been excoriated for the choice.
The main reason France steadied the ship in the second half was a combination of Zlatko Dalić’s impatience and Paul Pogba.
Dalić because he pushed his fullbacks far too high in the second half chasing an early equalizer, a miscalculation given how much his team had dominated the opening half and given how fatigued the first eleven had to be from playing three 120-minute games in the preceding knockout stages. Sitting deeper in the opening half, with even Vrsaljko a bit more disciplined, they had rendered France’s counterattack largely feckless. Patience should have been obvious, and Dalić panicked.
Pogba, slightly because of the thunder strike he hit to give France a two-goal cushion, very much against the run of play, but mostly because he’s press-proof, and with Croatia coming higher, his outstanding tactical mind and ability to consistently pick the right pass in transition was devastating as Griezmann and Mbappé began to exploit the spaces left behind by the high-pressing Croatian fullbacks.
In other words- individual brilliance and a tactical blunder by the opposing manager rescued France on a day when, in truth, Deschamps had largely been out-thought.
World Cups, though, it should be said, are often won by the most talented team- whether it Germany in 2014 or Spain in 2010 or Brazil in 2002. Even the last arguable exception- Italy in 2006- won with a world-class back four, including Materazzi, Fabio Grosso, Cannavaro and Alessandro Nesta.
This French team, a collection of stars playing for a nation whose national teams have often struggled when they field collections of stars, used coherent, smart team soccer to reach the final and individual moments of brilliance to win it.
A year after Marine Le Pen notoriously asked whether this group of French players, led by seven dual-passport holders and sixteen players who are second-generation or newer French citizens, was “French enough” to adequately exemplify France, the answer was a resounding “Yes.”
In fact, they’re not just French enough to represent France.
They’re World Champions of perhaps the greatest World Cup that ever was.
Neil W. Blackmon co-founded The Yanks Are Coming. Follow him on Twitter @nwblackmon.