National Teams

Croatia players and manager Zlatko Dalic were gracious in defeat yesterday, admitting that France deserved the victory following second half goals from Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe. However, the likes of Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic still left traces of disgust and defiance in their words when discussing the final’s turning points, particularly the VAR-assisted handball call against Ivan Perisic that sent Antoine Griezmann to the spot in the 38th minute. 

That was a really ridiculous World Cup final. After getting extra time and a total of four goals at the last three World Cup finals, the 2018 event was a bit of magic theater. (“Not for everybody.”)

19-year-old France forward Kylian Mbappe put the finishing touches on a blistering World Cup campaign Sunday after scoring his fourth goal of the tournament — the PSG phenom entered the competition with just four international goals to his name. 

With his strike long-range strike against Croatia in the 65th minute, Mbappe joined Pele as the only teenager to have scored in a World Cup final. Pele, at the age of 17, scored a brace as Brazil defeated Sweden 5-2 in the final of the 1958 World Cup. 

Here’s the goal from Mbappe that effectively buried Croatia today. 

With France ceding 66 percent of possession to Croatia in the World Cup final, it should come as no surprise that the top five players in the match with regards to touches were all Croatian. It perhaps goes some way towards explaining the general belief that Croatia looked better than France for large swaths of the game given the amount of influence that both Luka Modric (89 touches) and Ivan Rakitic (85) had on the game.

If those two are allowed space and time on the ball, Croatia's going to look really, really good.

With France nursing a 2-1 lead at halftime of the 2018 World Cup Final, Croatia was forced to go in search of an equalizer against the planet’s premier counter attacking side. 

N’Golo Kanté is, in many respects, the best defensive player in the world because of the amount of turf the midfielder covers, combined with his tactical acumen, speed and tackling ability. But the Ivan Perišić goal vs France made Kanté look like a schoolboy.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup Final opened with Croatia’s high press and positive play causing all sorts of problems for France. The opening 15 minutes was dominated by the perceived underdogs, and that pressure was only relieved when Antoine Griezmann won a foul in a dangerous area just outside Croatia’s box.

In realtime, the Atletico Madrid striker appeared to get bowled over. Referee Nestor Pitana whistled for a free kick but replays revealed that it had been an expert piece of simulation from Griezmann — it was a dive, plain and simple.

Before today’s main event at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, World Cup final spectators were treated to the closing ceremony on the pitch. Around 80,000 got to watch 49-year-old Will Smith lip sync a pretty bad song and Ronaldinho slap a drum while a cohort of attractive women danced around him. 

So just another day in the life of Ronaldinho, I guess. 

The Croatia World Cup final vs. France is definitely something historic for the Balkan country.

Not many countries have had the honor of reaching that stage. 

This has all the more merit considering how young the country is — Croatia was formed as a nation state in 1991 after the dissolution of Yugoslavia.

When France and Croatia battle for the World Cup trophy on Sunday in Russia (learn how to watch it here), two national teams with iconic looks will take the pitch side by side for the first time in 20 years. The question is, will those iconic uniforms be the ones we see for the World Cup final kits?