Seth Romsa

One of the greatest spectacles in world sports came to a close with the perfect ending as Lionel Messi and Argentina won one of the best finals I have ever seen against Kylian Mbappe and France on Sunday.

Despite the continued off-field criticism of hosts Qatar, the play on the field produced some of the best moments in a long time at the World Cup — alongside the highest scoring World Cup ever with 172 goals, just nudging out Brazil 2014 and France 1998 that were tied at the top with 171 each.

Kicking off in groups A and B, it was all essentially as predicted besides some drama on the final day for group B.

Group C started out with insane drama with eventual champions Argentina losing the opening match to Saudi Arabia and needing to win both of the remaining contests just to make it out of the group.

Argentina still came out on top, with Poland sneaking ahead of an underperforming Mexico on goal difference.

France cruised through its group, and the first surprise that made my predictions wrong was Australia coming out second in group D and Denmark finishing in last place.

That was where everything started to go wrong, when group E had Japan finishing as the top team in the group, while Spain finished second and Germany had another disappointing finish, not advancing to the knockout stages in a repeat of 2018.

Group F was a disaster for me, with Belgium proving they were the aging squad instead of Croatia, who advanced out of the group behind shock Morocco topping the group well ahead of a young upstart Canadian side.

Brazil cruised through its group despite Neymar’s injury, and Switzerland edged out the final spot ahead of competitive Cameroonian and Serbian sides.

Portugal won its group with ease, and South Korea found a way out in second place on goals scored ahead of Uruguay after being level on points.

Heading into the knockout stages it started well for my predictions, with Argentina and the Netherlands knocking out Australia and the United States to meet in the quarterfinals.

Unfortunately for me, I made my prediction before Sadio Mane was officially announced out of the World Cup, and Senegal did not have enough attacking power to knock off England as they advanced to face France who cruised past Poland.

The next shock of the tournament came when Spain lost in a shootout to Morocco who ended up putting up defensive masterclasses in the knockout stages to become the biggest surprise of the tournament.

Portugal dominated the Swiss after benching Christiano Ronaldo to set up a quarterfinal against Morocco.

Brazil danced past South Korea while Croatia survived in penalties against Japan to set up another chance to make a deep run after an incredible 2018 tournament.

Argentina defeated Netherlands in quite possibly the most drama-filled match of the tournament, with the Netherlands scoring two goals in the last minutes to tie the game before Argentina won in shots from the mark to advance to the semifinal.

Croatia put on a defensive masterclass, scoring a late equalizer in extra time to win in penalties for the second consecutive match and advance to the semifinals for the second tournament in a row to face Argentina.

France outlasted England, after a late penalty miss by Harry Kane (I heard they are still looking for the ball) kept France ahead for a 2-1 win.

Morocco shut down Portugal who again benched Ronaldo for over half the game as he was unable to come on and produce at 37 years old.

Argentina dominated Croatia in the semifinals to advance to the finals for the second time in the last three World Cups, while France was the first team outside of Morocco to score on Morocco to advance to the finals to try and defend its crown.

Croatia won the third place match, and the final on Sunday did not disappoint.

Argentina was in cruise control for more than 70 minutes, making France look like a bottom five team in the world despite being the defending champions.

Just over 90 seconds is all it took for Mbappe to equalize the match and send millions, if not billions of fans, including me, into a mini heart attack.

Messi regained the lead for Argentina in extra time, but Mbappe had the second ever hat trick in the World Cup final to tie the match once again.

Emi Martinez came up clutch in the final minute, and saved a penalty in the shootout to help Argentina win its first World Cup since 1986.

GOAT DEBATE

This title alongside winning the Golden Ball helped Messi establish himself as potentially the Greatest of all Time (GOAT) — winning an elusive title some people believed he needed to separate himself from the pack.

Just six years ago Messi had lost a third final with Argentina and retired from the team, but he has now won three international trophies at the senior level in just over two years.

He was already the greatest player I have ever seen, and please do not use the “more goals” debate for Ronaldo.

Messi has 116 more assists than Ronaldo, while scoring only 26 less in 142 fewer appearances while also having an elusive trophy that Ronaldo will have never won with Portugal (with zero knockout stage goals in five World Cups).

While some may still have Ronaldo first, this tournament separated the two infinitely apart, while Mbappe may be starting his charge toward the conversation at only 23-years-old.

If this was your first time watching football (soccer) it doesn’t get much better than this, but I hope the love for the game continues to grow before the United States, Mexico and Canada co-host the tournament in four years.

My streak of calling the winner four years in advance stopped at two, but I came super close to making it three.

If England loses Gareth Southgate as their manager and improve in that aspect I have them potentially winning in 2026, but I have Brazil winning it all in the U.S. to claim their sixth title and first since 2002.