Every team that reaches a FIFA World Cup™ Final has a story. Not all stories are the same. Spain’s is one of calm, relentless quality — a side that has barely broken sweat in seven matches and arrived in the Final looking entirely capable of doing it all again. Argentina’s is something different: a tournament […]
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Nobody goes to a FIFA World Cup to finish third. Both France and England came to the World Cup believing they could win the whole thing. They didn’t. Now they play each other for a bronze medal. So, does this matter? The honest answer is: it depends on who you ask — and in this […]
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Football has a particular kind of sadness reserved for teams that had everything and still could not do it. The Netherlands of 1974 — Johan Cruyff, Total Football, the most revolutionary side the sport had seen — lost the Final to West Germany. Brazil in 1982 — Zico, Sócrates, Falcão, Éder, perhaps the most beautifully […]
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England had Argentina. For a full hour at Atlanta Stadium, they matched the defending world champions in every department — every ball contested, no free space conceded, the kind of skill and attitude that had carried them through the knockout rounds of increasingly difficult opposition. Then Anthony Gordon scored. And then Thomas Tuchel made the […]
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