French soccer reigns supreme
Victory over Croatia, title come as team plays as efficient unit
MOSCOW — France’s first goal arrived off a Croatian’s head, and its second after the intervention of the Argentine referee.
But the next two goals — the low, hard shots that delivered the World Cup back into French hands and the goals that crowned its latest generation of stars — confirmed what everyone knew before its 4-2 victory over Croatia was complete Sunday: France was the best team in the field this summer — a potent mix of greatness, grit and good fortune. And it can call itself the world champion again.
“We do not realize yet what we just did,” France left back Lucas Hernandez said. “When we arrive tomorrow in Paris, we will realize.”
The title is France’s second and the country’s first since it won on home soil in 1998, and it ended a thrilling run by Croatia over the last five weeks. The Croats survived three consecutive extra-time games — and two penalty shootouts — in the knockout rounds to reach their first final, and they had the better of the game Sunday. But bad bounces and a better team made the difference.
“We have no regrets because we were the better team for much of the game,” said Croatia midfielder Luka Modric, who
was honored with the Golden Ball as the tournament’s outstanding player. “Unfortunately, some clumsy goals swung it their way. They will be celebrating, but we can hold our heads high.”
France won by doing what it had done for six previous games — it fought off its opponent when it had to and punished it when it could.
And when the final whistle blew, its players raced off the bench in glee, gathering in jumping hugs and tossing coach Didier Deschamps in the air. Deschamps, a midfielder on the 1998 France team, had become something of a fatherly figure for his young team — a guiding hand on the wheel, keeping everything in line on a methodical march toward the title.
When the night ended, when France was the champion again, he became the third man to win the World Cup as a player and coach. The players honored him with their boisterousness, bursting into his postgame news conference and showering him with Champagne before he could answer a question.
Each player knew his role
His France team will not be remembered as the most elegant champions or the most creative. Instead, it will be remembered for what it was — a team of exceptional talent and ruthless efficiency, a group in which every player knew his job and performed it flawlessly.
But all that it achieved — through diligent planning, hard work, relentless discipline and the occasional brilliance of the young striker Kylian Mbappe, the galloping midfielder Paul Pogba and the steadfast defense of N’Golo Kante, Raphael Varane and Samuel Umtiti — was remarkable nonetheless.
France was not so much great as fundamentally outstanding — a team of top-class talents willing to sublimate their individual games to a collective mission, confident enough to surrender possession against lesser teams and strike back on the counter, and capable of scoring superb goals but willing to accept what it was given.
Historic video replay
Even Sunday, as Croatia’s talented midfield of Modric, Ivan Rakitic and Ivan Perisic controlled the play in the first half, France came out ahead. Presented with an own-goal and a penalty kick — the first goal in a World Cup final attributed to a video-assistant-review decision — France pulled away with the help of Mbappe’s unmatched speed and skill after halftime, turning one break into a Pogba goal and a second into Mbappe’s third of the tournament.
Not even bad luck of its own, like a blunder that handed Croatia a second goal late in the game and cut the French lead to 4-2, came with a price. France regrouped and saw the game out.
“We did not play a huge game, but we showed mental quality,” Deschamps said. “And we scored four goals anyway.”
The French scored first or rather Croatia did — with striker Mario Mandzukic heading a free kick over his goalkeeper in the 18th minute. Stunned, Croatia found its footing and tied the match 10 minutes later through Perisic but soon was behind again in a moment historic and controversial.
The incident came in the 35th minute, when a ball served into the box tipped off a French player and onto the hand of Perisic. Referee Nelson Pitana of Argentina signaled a corner kick. But as France’s players appealed for a penalty, Pitana awarded a corner.
The VAR system, approved controversially this year for use in its first World Cup, had performed above expectations in the tournament. Pitana went to the sideline between the benches and, with the VAR’s voice in his ear, scrolled through the play before returning to the field to signal a penalty kick for a handball.
“With respect to VAR,” Croatia manager Zlatko Dalic said, “when it goes in your favor, it’s good. When it doesn’t go in your favor, it’s bad.”
Antonie Griezmann stepped up and calmly rolled the ball in, and just like that history was made and the French led 2-1.
Pogba, Mbappe add goals
Pogba, controlling his own rebound to score in the 59th minute, and Mbappe, firing around a defender and past Croatia’s screened goalkeeper Daniel Subasic in the 65th, soon made the VAR-assisted goal a footnote.
Not even goalkeeper Hugo Lloris’ blunder could stop France by then; as it had in most of its games at this World Cup, it sent on a few substitutes and strangled the life out of the game.
When the match ended, when the skies opened and the rain poured and the confetti flew and the trophy was theirs, the French players let loose. They slid in the grass and danced and took flags on victory laps.
Many of the Croatians fell to the turf, unable to give any more. A few began to cry. It was, for once this month, not their day.
It was a day for Deschamps. For Pogba. For Mbappe. It was a day for France to celebrate a new generation of heroes, to eagerly await their return for a Parisian celebration, and to hope it will not be 20 more years before they can do it again.