French teen phenom continues to turn heads
World Cup a coming-out party for Mbappe and a showcase for excellent refereeing
There was a roar here Tuesday night whenever Kylian Mbappe got on the ball.
It was somewhat dull. Mbappe doesn’t yet have the pedigree of a Lionel Messi.
But you can tell how special a player he is by the reaction in the crowd, the air of expectation when he takes a touch toward the goal.
Mbappe has already produced his best moments at this tournament. It’s unlikely Sunday’s opponent will be as naive as Argentina was.
But Mbappe is turning heads with every performance here in Russia, where he’s been akin to a world-class sprinter with impeccable ball control.
“Being a defender playing against pace creates panic,” former England defender-turnedBBC commentator Rio Ferdinand told the Daily Mail. “To be 19 years old and creating that panic at a World Cup is huge.”
Once considered one of the best defenders in the world, Ferdinand offered a concise answer when asked how to defend an attacker with Mbappe’s gifts.
“You look up and say, ‘please help me.’ You need people around you. You need bodies.
“Stop the ball in to him; Stop them at the source. As soon as the ball gets in to these guys, do not let them face you.”
The refereeing has been excellent at this tournament, something you don’t hear too often given the subjective nature of officiating.
What’s more, the introduction of video assistant referees ( VAR) has been as seamless as could be expected. Not that you’ll hear a peep from those who mocked its use pre-tournament.
That there have been just four red cards points to referees using more discretion in interpreting the Laws of the Game.
Contrary to popular belief, this game isn’t solely refereed according to the FIFA laws. The best referees have a feel for the game. They give leeway.
Officials at this World Cup are allowing the players to decide the outcome.
American referee Mike Geiger, a pariah at some MLS venues, is in contention to referee the third-place game or World Cup final, according to an updated list of FIFA officials still in contention.
Geiger was rebuked following a Round of 16 meeting with Colombia and England for “losing control” of the fixture. But Colombia’s intention from the start was to make that match as ugly as possible.
Could Geiger have booked more players? Perhaps. But then he would have been faced with the likely scenario of sending someone off. The last thing that game needed was a red card.
Instead, Geiger got the big calls right and kept everyone on the field. And it turns out FIFA agrees. Geiger has been one of the better referees at this tournament.
Mbappe was booked for a second consecutive match, but won’t miss Sunday’s final at Luzhniki Stadium.
World Cup overlords smartly changed a rule that once saw players suspended if they received back-to-back yellow cards in the quarter-finals and semifinals.
Imagine the best young player in the world being suspended for a World Cup final for timewasting against Belgium.
Oddsmakers originally put England at 18-to-1 to win this World Cup, the seventh-best odds of the 32 teams here.
They were better odds than coach Gareth Southgate gave the second-youngest squad at this tournament.
“At the moment we all feel the pain of the defeat,” Southgate said following England’s 2-1 extra-time loss to Croatia. “Did we expect to be in this position? I don’t think realistically any of us did.
“But when you’ve got to this point and played in the way we have and played as well as we did in the first half, then you want to take those opportunities in life.”
Southgate’s disappointment was at least somewhat levelled by the reaction the Three Lions received from their supporters just two years following an embarrassing exit at the European Championship.
“The reaction of the supporters at the end compared to two years ago tells (England’s players) that, first and foremost, experiences with England can be positive,” he said.
“The country are very proud of what they’ve done and the way they’ve played. There will, in time, be a lot of positives to take.”
One of those positives won’t be the throwaway third-place game that takes place in 48 hours.
“It’s not a game any team wants to play in,” Southgate added. “We’ll want to give a performance of huge pride. There’s no question about that.
“Any time we wear the shirt of our national team we want to play with pride, we want to play well and we want to win.”
England meets Belgium Saturday in St. Petersburg.
France is set to appear in its third World Cup final after topping Brazil in the 1998 final and losing to Italy in the 2006 title match … French coach Didier Deschamps is the fourth World Cup-winning player to reach the World Cup final as a coach, joining Brazil’s Mario Zagallo and Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer and Rudi Voller … Belgium coach Roberto Martinez, of Spain, missed out on becoming the first foreign manager to win a World Cup … Les Bleus remain undefeated against Belgium at major tournaments … Croatia is just the second team to win two penalty shootouts at the same World Cup (Argentina 1990). Croatia topped both Denmark and Russia from the spot … Croatia’s Luka Modric became his country’s all-time leader in World Cup appearances (11), overtaking Dario Simic.