Ladies and Gentleman. What we just witnessed is not normal. Undoubtedly the greatest World Cup AND the greatest World Cup final that I’ve personally witnessed in my lifetime. And the pendulum that was that final match was ebbing and flowing in ways that were impossible to keep up.
For Argentine and French natives, I can only imagine that the actual heart attacks overwhelmingly outperformed the expected heart attacks. As for the Neutrals, it was perfect
There is so much to unpack from this tournament that it is probably impossible to even try. But, perhaps, the majority of that doesn’t really matter. The biggest talking points from that belter of a final were two-fold.
Firstly, as they had done in 1978 and 1986, La Albiceleste came out of this one as the top dogs. RIP Diego Maradona. I know you would have been proud of the boys
And from what we know about the man’s lifestyle, he probably also would have been proud that the amount of babies conceived and alcohol consumed in Argentina has likely broken records in it’s own right.
And secondly, we witnessed the dying embers of a debate that has been raging on since the very first round object was ever kicked- who is the greatest of all time?
Guys, I think the debate is finished. Lionel Messi has only gone ahead and broke so many records that it’s hard to count them, while playing his socks off and rinsing teams like he has done for so long, at 35 years of age.
Unreal.
But, of course, he did not do this alone. Today, we’re going to be reviewing Argentina’s journey to the World Cup final. The mentality and ability of the man who is almost guaranteed to dominate world football for years to come. The match itself as well a few bits and pieces here and there.
In doing so, we may be able to answer the question of the day: how did Argentina win the 2022 World Cup?
Table of Contents
Unbelievable 2022 World Cup Stats
I want to do a bit of a stats dump and recap on the World Cup as a whole, so that we are all on the same page when it comes to how crazy what we just witnessed was. Then we can get into the journey of champions.
This World Cup was the highest scoring tournament in the history of the competition. 172 goals, topping both the 2014 and 1998 editions, which are tied at 171.
Qatar became the first host nation to ever lose their opening match. No surprises there, really.
Morocco became the first African team to make it to the Semi-finals. The boys really put in a tactical masterclass here and put in a crazy performance in the semi’s before being silenced . Walid Regragui, take a bow, buddy. Surely the manager of the tournament?
Since Croatia’s World Cup debut in 1998, they have finished in the top 3, 3/6 times they’ve appeared in the competition. They have a population of just under 4 million, guys.
No team had lost a World Cup knockout match after scoring first in extra time. Brazil became the first. Seems that they lost their wings.
And finally, for only the second time in history, a player has scored a hattrick in the finals of a World Cup. And for the first time, he was on the losing team.
While we’re on the subject, we have to take a moment to talk about Kylian Mbappe before going any further. This man is a mentality fiend. We can argue over whether his outrageous pay package, alleged dressing room drama and whatnot is justified. But what we can’t argue about is how, despite all of that, he is worth it.
Throughout the tournament, he has shown everyone just how dangerous he is in the transition, in the box and on the spot. With 8 goals and 2 assists in 7 appearances, the man drew level with Pele in terms of overall World Cup goals, with 12. He dug France out of hole after hole and did in style. Turtle power activated.
Also, can’t lie- it’s Gonna be awkward when Messi and Mbappe meet at PSG training in a week’s time
Speaking of which, let’s switch the focus to the boys in stripes. There will be more stats as we go along.
Argentina’s Road To Glory
Now, seeing as how the rest of this piece is primarily focussed around the team of the hour, I would typically do a dive into the nation’s history on the international stage to put this momentous win into perspective.
Only issue is that I’ve already done that. Last year, when Argentina won the 2021 Copa America. I’d recommend watching that if you’re interested in Argentina’s past. But long story short, starting in 1993, after a Copa America win in the same year, Argentina failed to win competition after competition, despite making it to the finals on numerous occasions. That all came to an end on the 10th of July 2021- victory at last.
An unbelievable achievement. All the same, continental glory is one thing. Despite that win, the World cup was a competition that Argentina had failed to grasp since 1986, despite 2 final appearances since then.
Anulo Mufa. Cancel the curse- a phrase that’s been doing the rounds for quite some time now, pertaining to the national team. Also one that reached critical retweet mass in the lead up to the 2022 edition.
Argentina’s World cup qualifying campaigned kicked off on the 8th of October 2020. 17 games later, 11 wins, 6 draws and 0 losses, had them in blistering form in the lead up the finals. Along with Brazil, they were the only undefeated team in the Conmebol qualifiers.
And in the lead up to this tournament, it really did seem like something was in the air. Lionel Scaloni was still in charge. At 44 years of age, he was the youngest manager going into this tournament. And already one of the most successful on the international stage.
The emergence of 21-year-old Enzo Fernandes was something of beauty. After impressing at River Plate, he moved over to Benfica in June of 2022 and continued his upward trajectory. Also, he only had 3 international appearances before this World Cup.
I know right. By the looks of how he was playing, it was hard to tell.
Julian Alvarez, now 22, only featured once in the 21 Copa America win, but has since earned a big move over to EPL giants, Man City. And as of right now, that £15 million is looking like literal robbery.
“Where is Messi? Where is Messi?” That’s what we were all asking ourselves for a big portion of 2021 and early 2022. But after that, our guy swiftly woke up and decided he was going to start ending careers again.
12 goals and 14 assists in 20 appearances for PSG at the season midway point and a renewed sense of purpose meant it was about to be a long day for all those who crossed his path in Qatar.
But it wasn’t all going perfectly.
Sadly Sergio Aguero was forced to retire from football due to a heart condition– Nevertheless, he found his true calling as a twitch streamer.
Angel Di Maria, Rodygo De Paul, Lautaro Martinez are all classy players, but were either injured or in patchy form by the regular season break.
Argentina were expected to do well in the tournament, but they could have just as easily completely fallen apart and few would have been surprised.
The 2022 World cup
Road to the Final
We’ll get into how Argentina set up in a bit, but first I want to briefly go over their journey to the finals.
Going into the World cup, Argentina were on an absolute hot streak. 36 games unbeaten. 75 goals scored and 17 goals conceded.
Up against Saudi Arabia first, I don’t think anyone saw anything other than win for Scaloni’s men. Especially after Messi slotted home from a penalty and Argentina proceeded to pepper the Saudi goal. Only problem was that they failed to stay onside throughout all of this.
Saudi Arabia made them pay.
37 games. 1 loss. The dream was beginning to crumble almost as soon as it began it seemed. Only once in World Cup history had a team managed to win the World Cup after going down in their first match- Spain 2010.
Argentina were now forced to emulate these lot if they wanted their dream to live on.
Luckily, they were up for it. 2 straight wins against Mexico and Poland ensured their qualification for the knockouts.
First came Australia- a routine victory. Then came the Netherlands- anything but. They surged to a 2-0 lead by the 73rd minute, but after a few lapses in concentration, the Dutch drew level in the 101st minute and took the game to pens. Can you imagine?
This was a feisty affair. The Netherlands had come under fire throughout this tournament due to how Van Gaal had seemingly abandoned many of the pillars of total football- especially against Argentina. Long balls, hit and pray- you know the deal. The ugliness wasn’t limited to the field of play. Scuffles across the pitch, words being exchanged before and after the match.
And most significantly, during the penalty shootout itself. The Dutch took quite a few liberties before each Argentine player made the long walk to the spot. Getting up in their faces as an intimidation tactics.
As we can see here, this did not work.
Argentina got to the semis against a team that can no longer be referred to as dark horses. Croatia seem to be most team’s kryptonite in knockout football.
Which is probably hard to believe for some. Especially after hearing what the final score was. 3-0. Argentina gave up possession for most of the match in this one- instead choosing to pick their punches with intricacy. And they did just that.
The standout goal for me was the third and it came from Julian Alvarez. Messi turned back time and robbed Josko Gvardiol, arguably the defender of the tournament, of his dignity and teed it up for his young compatriot, leaving do doubt that Argentina would get their shot at exorcising their World Cup final demons.
Final Line-up and tactics
Okay then. Throughout the tournament, Lionel Scaloni’s mind must have been visibly steaming, with the amount of shape changes and tactical amendments he was making.
We saw 442s, 532s, 433s and much much more in game. I guess one of the perks of having a truly gifted crop of players is that the tactical freedom and positional permutations allowed are essentially unlimited. Nonetheless, the main pillars of the team in terms of tactics and players were somewhat consistent.
Because of all of this I’ll only be going over the finals.
In terms of personnel, there were no real surprises here. We had all seen the 433 before. But something we hadn’t seen all too much of is this – Angel Di Maria. Not the fact that he is on the pitch, he is an all-time player and one of Argentina’s greatest ever.
No, it’s the fact that he is HERE. On the left. Something we’ve rarely seen of him for Argentina. We’ll get into the significance of that in a second.
Onto the actual tactics. At a very high level- Argentina were brave in this match. Well, brave is one way of putting it. But what I really mean is that they took calculated risks.
As I mentioned in my previous piece on Argentina’s Copa America win, the team has accountability, running and positional awareness bursting out of the seams. In more ways than I have seen from an Argentina team.
Possession of the ball was a formality for these boys throughout the match, particularly in the first half. And this was because of how high the entire team was playing. The fullbacks were continuously pushing up, forcing France into their own final third. Messi was dropping deep, pulling more than one player out of position whenever he did so. Coupling Messi being on the right with Mbappe’s natural hesitancy to track back and what we had is a lot of build up play happening down that side, forcing France to react.
Which left Angel Di Maria with a lot of room to explore. Now, I’m a huge fan of Jules Kounde, but Di Maria had him on string in this one. The man still has scary agility at 34, so it’s no surprise that he won a pen in this match and scored Argentina’s second.
As is usually the case, the team was pretty much built around Messi. In attack, there would always be off the ball movement that both kept opposing player occupied and offered him passing options- which is kind of an irrelevant phrase when it comes to Messi. His accuracy makes everyone a passing option, even if they’re being marked.
In defence, even though he did apply some pressure, Alvarez and De Paul did most of Messi’s pressing for him, freeing him up to block passing lanes and analyse the game at his own pace. It was some classy game management by Scaloni.
Up until the 81st minute.
The final of all finals
As I’ve already said, Argentina surged ahead to a 2 goal lead with no reply in the first half and were looking beyond comfortable. France were chasing shadows.
But Didier Deschamps didn’t become one of French football’s greatest icons for no reason. I think we need to talk more about how he managed to bring France all the way to pens in the final, despite the drama and mass hospitalization that France experienced in the lead up to this tournament.
In truly rare turn of events, he made 2 substitutions 5 minutes before halftime. Olivier Giroud and Ousmane Dembele for Kolo Muani and Marcus Thuram.
This drastically changed France’s shape. The instructions from Deschamps were also clear in having Griezmann drop back to strengthen the midfield that was being overrun. As a result, France were much more competitive in the second half. But perhaps the most significant of alterations by Deschamps was putting the golden boy up top as the loan striker.
97 seconds. That’s all it took. 97 seconds was all he needed to rip up the script. In the 80th minute, the game was 2-0. In the 82nd minute, the game was 2-2.
The world was stunned. Argentine celebrations were halted
We had a game on our hands.
Argentina keep pushing and who else, but Messi puts them ahead. Surely now it’s ove- Kylian Mbappe scores his hattrick.
After his performance, Kyllian Mbappe deserved this victory. This would be his magnum opus. His crowning work- a win would solidify this as a very strong contender for the greatest performance in recorded history. If we’re all being honest, given the context of the GOD DAMN WORLD CUP FINAL, it was already in contention.
It would’ve made a great story. But the destiny of another man on that pitch was just far too strong to be denied.
Argentina, no longer cursed, came away as the kings of the world. Emi Martinez once again showed that he has balls of steel and deserves yet another shithousery award. A penalty save, some killer dance moves and maybe the greatest photo in world cup history. This man is a legend.
And then we have Lionel Messi.
The GOAT
What on earth is there to be said about this man that hasn’t already been said. Lionel Messi has quite literally won everything that there is to be won by a man that kicks a ball for a living. He’s mesmerized us all for years and years now, we should all be thankful that we were all alive to witness it all happen in front of our own eyes.
And this World Cup has only served to further prove his greatness. First player to score in every stage of a World Cup in a single tournament. First player to win two Golden balls. Most World cup appearances in history- 26. 7 goals, 3 assists. Man of the match in 5 out of the 7 games Argentina played. Most goal involvements of any player in World Cup history, with 20.
All of that on top of being a 7-time Balon d’or winner and already widely considered arguably the greatest player to ever do it.
At this point, there can surely be no argument.
Over time, the game has changed. And with each increment in time, players have become faster, stronger, have been blessed with more options to increase their longevity. Right now, from a tactical, speed, mental, officiating and technological perspective, human error still exists, but it’s hard to argue that football isn’t currently in it’s most advanced form.
All the same, this man’s ability to keep pulling off what most people would deem to be impossible. What most people would deem to be improbable. Over 2 decades. is unprecedented.
There was simply no way that the universe was about to let this man walk away from the game without a World Cup trophy. Without being immortalized even further beyond that which he already is.
He’s magic. That’s all we can really say. Magic.
Congrats to Argentina. Here’s to the third star.