ok, this is one of the best sporting events I have ever seen - we go to penalty kicks at 3-3 after both teams score in OT

Crazy. Just crazy. This has been Ward-Gatti

Yeah that was a great finish.

It looked like the ref gave them one more attack after stoppage time was over. I havent followed the sport enuf now to know if that's kosher or not.

Is there anything to Lloris doing a fist bump rather than the hand clasp?

France was a clear second best today, but they made their moments count. Personally I'm happy that Messi didn't win the golden ball, as IMHO penalties shouldn't count towards the total.

On the other hand, I'm sad that it has come to penalties, as to me the result is basically a draw at this point.

What an enjoyable game.

Mesi just waits for the goalie to guess, huh?

Hate, hate, hate that this ends on PKs, but I guess you can't run these guys to death.

lloris guessing to his left and the ball right down the middle LOL

####### pressure

Martinez is a stud

That was something else.

Felicidades a Argentina

dont like PKs to finish, but what can you do.?

What an awesome final. Messi with goals, Mbappe with the hat trick, 2 ot goals. So fun.

My brother who couldn’t care less about soccer was glued to his TV. Just love it, great players doing great things on the biggest stage. Can’t be said enough.

If you have a Zoom meeting with anyone of Argentinian descent tomorrow I think you can free up some time in your schedule.

I kinda wish it had ended 3-2 with Messi's second goal as the winner -- that would be the most poetic possible end to the man's international career. But it was a thriller, and the better team won in the end. (Are they the better team with Paul Pogba on the field? We'll never know, but there you have it.)

But it was still close to the perfect end to Messi's international career. He finally won the two prizes he'd never been able to lay hands on before: the World Cup, and the Ballon d'Or at the World Cup. He scored twice, and his long-time partner in crime Di Maria, came back from injury to score as well. After all the tsuris about Messi & Di Maria's failures on the international stage, they got it. Argentina quit trying to be all-Messi-all-the-time, and in the end they got better and he got better for it.

And this team won me over in this tournament. The team that lost to Germany in the final in '14 played ugly, uninspiring football, which was really strange for a side that had not only Messi, but Di Maria and Higuain, all in their primes, and should have been a dazzling, goal-scoring machine. This team was so much more enjoyable to watch, with Mac Allister and Alvarez and de Paul all making contributions, Martinez's mid-career surge to world class status (I wouldn't be surprised if he made himself a huge stack of money with his performance this tournament), and Messi the maestro, still a genius but also a veteran, not pressing but holding on, coming through when they needed him and setting up other when they needed that.

Of all the athletes I've watched in my life, the only one who rivals him for pure wizardry is Roger Federer, and maybe not even him. I'm glad I got to see him win this thing.

Was an all-time match. A bit sad it was decided by PKs, but I think Argentina was the slightly better team on balance, Messi wins a WC, and nice to see a SA team win a WC for the first time since 2002.

I don't think Pogba being out had anything to do with anything.

I think Argentina waited way too long to make their 2nd and 3rd subs. They seemed very out of gas for the 20-30 minutes when France was playing well.

There's a considerable amount of luck needed to win a World Cup even with the best player in the world. When you are as good as Messi is, luck is bound to turn. Argentina was lucky that they played their worst game in the group stages and not in the knockout stages, and two of their victories in the knockout stages were by penalty kicks. That's not a criticism, just an observation. For example, Brazil outplayed Croatia but were unlucky, perhaps if they get some luck in that game, the story of this World Cup is different.

He's been unlucky in previous WCs, and this is a cherry on top of a glittering career.

Are they the better team with Paul Pogba on the field?

You misspelled N'Golo Kanté........

"You misspelled N'Golo Kanté........ "
At *this* date?
Not clear at all.
Sure ... 2018 Kante was a difference maker; not sure he is remotely close to that player anymore, even when healthy.
Which, of course, he wasn't and frankly, isn't so much anymore.

Even if they aren't starting having Pogba, Kante and Benzema available almost certainly would make France a better side. Messi and Argentina rightly are receiving the plaudits today but I think France deserves a ton of credit. That's three guys in the spine of the team that are really really good (the France Paul Pogba is almost literally an entirely different player than his club performances). Kante isn't what he was but that's three elite players. I think the fact that they were able to do what they did with those guys out is damned impressive. It's to their credit that guys like Tchoumeni and Griezemann stepped up (among others).

Go back to the Nations League semis and finals last year, Pogba and Benzema both started both games and Lucas Hernandez at left back started the semi and of course he got hurt in the first game of this tournament.

Even if they aren't starting having Pogba, Kante and Benzema available almost certainly would make France a better side. Messi and Argentina rightly are receiving the plaudits today but I think France deserves a ton of credit. That's three guys in the spine of the team that are really really good (the France Paul Pogba is almost literally an entirely different player than his club performances). Kante isn't what he was but that's three elite players.

I'm not sure.

Benzema, for sure.

Kante has been injured and out of form for a while now. He's almost 32 and his play style requires that he be able to run all over the field. He may just be done at a WC level.

Pogba has been out of form for a lot of years, imo. I think him being good for France mostly comes from 2 things: first, having Kante and Matuidi carry water for him in the midfield all those years, which France's current setup wouldn't have really done. Second is that there tends to be less pressure and more time to pick out passes in national team soccer. I don't think that was really true against Argentina at least, who pressed pretty well, and I think generally the tactics were a bit more modern across all teams this WC compared to last.

Argentina had key guys missing. (Argentina Lo Celso is at least as important to them as France Pogba is to France, imo). So did basically every team. That's the nature of how many games there are in modern soccer, only made worse by having a mid-season World Cup.

I think if France missed anyone, it was Lucas Hernandez. Theo Hernandez was pretty consistently terrible on defense this tournament, and Lucas is much, much better.