Tomorrow all from the cold Dublin.
We already know the two teams that will play in the World Cup final on Sunday after France beat Morocco 2-0 last night. I guess most people love the underdog story unless you’re the overachiever, and last night’s game threatened to give us that despite how early the French team took the lead.
Clearly Morocco was not helped by the fact that they lost a player in the warm-up and captain Roman Saiss after around 20 minutes. I think we can all understand trying under the circumstances, but hamstrings can… well… cripple you, even with the best of intentions.
There was so much to enjoy about this game. France came close a couple of times in the first half: Olivier Giroud hammered a shot off the post and then struck one casually wide in a way I swear I’ve seen him do a dozen times for Arsenal. At the same time, Morocco played very well and had some chances. I thought the Ounahi (what’s my name?) guy was fun in midfield, and there was such determination and grit in the way they played, particularly in the second half when they were way up in terms of possession and territory. And that Chilean that came off the pole? Imagine if she had walked in.
Some of the one touch stuff, especially down the right side, was great to see, but as with other sides in this tournament who have had a lot on them from a technical perspective, the lack of cutting edge/end product in the third end was the big problem. So when Kylian Mbappe’s beautiful footwork saw him take a shot that deflected to the back post with the defense caught a little off guard because of it, it was 2-0 and there was no going back at that point. It’s been a great effort, especially with the injuries and everything else, but congratulations to France.
Still, Morocco have had a tournament to be proud of. The fans in the stadium were incredible last night, and have been since the World Cup began, and this is a team that made history by becoming the first African team to reach a semi-final. It’s a small consolation this morning, I’m sure, but when you look at some of the teams that have left long before, it will be, on reflection, something to be really proud of. I remember how absolutely mental Ireland went when we reached the quarter-finals in 1990, I imagine it will be the same in Morocco when the team returns to what is sure to be a fantastic welcome.
So Sunday’s final will certainly be framed like Lionel Messi against his PSG teammate Kylian Mbappe, but what we have are two teams with obvious superstars, but also two teams that are far from perfect. Which should hopefully give us an entertaining game regardless of the outcome. More on that over the weekend I’m sure, and don’t forget our World Cup podcasts will continue on Patreon this morning with a review of the semi-finals.
—
Not much happens from Arsenal’s perspective. Tomorrow I’ll try to round up some of the transfer gossip that’s going around. The names are coming in fast and thick, and we’re still a long way from January. Is the fact that Mykhaylo Mudryk is supposedly in Dubai at the same time as Edu and Tim Lewis something to be encouraged?
Shakhtar Donetsk CEO Sergei Palkin confirms to @AdamCrafton_ @TheAthleticFC that Mudryk is being talked about but “quite far from what we want and what the clubs are proposing”. He adds: “He’s not that far away but he’s not what we need. We have discussions. It’s maybe 50-50 from the winter window” pic.twitter.com/3meXfCcDhE
— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) December 14, 2022
We are? Is the Brentford back? Has another club joined the race for the light-footed Ukrainian flier? I guess we’ll find out in due time from him.
Of course, we have to take a moment to think about those less fortunate than us. and after the news that Twitter has banned any kind of live tracking via publicly available flight data because the new owner is a paranoid nut who is ruining the place by being his main character every tedious day, the transfer guys will have to find another way to keep track of possible arrivals and departures.
I guess they’ll have to take their bullying to new levels, maybe in person. That’s always a nice and polite way to do it. Bring some flowers.
Right, I can’t feel my toes. Breakfast time. We’ll be back tomorrow with more and a new Arsecast.
