Exit Messi, enter Mbappe
COMPARISONS BEGIN AS TEENAGER TOUCHES A RARE SCORING LANDMARK SINCE PELE
The notion of this World Cup as something mercifully light on dreariness while unusually rich in sparkle deepened in Kazan Arena early Saturday evening, when a heaving, crackling gem of a round-of-16 bout saw France best Argentina, 4-3, while momentous scene piled atop momentous scene.
In the final such scene, Lionel Messi stared off blankly with trademark opacity while a billion or so Earthlings accustomed to watching him might have wondered which thoughts coursed behind that absurdly famous face. The fourth World Cup venture of the player widely deemed the world’s best had wound up sooner than any of the other three, which had gone quarter-final, quarterfinal and final.
Yet somehow, as a player who just reached 31 might have surmised a final trudge away, a player who hasn’t yet reached 20 supplied a bouquet of scenes that also matter globally. At the moment when France’s charismatic Kylian Mbappe followed one of the two goals he scored and the three he caused by sliding on his knees with his arms folded, the 19-year-old stated his grandest “Here I Am” to date.
And to think: His goals in the 64th and 68th minutes, which finished a young France team’s strong-stomach climb from a 2-1 deficit to a 4-2 lead, somehow gave way scene-wise to something way back in the 11th. In that, Mbappe materialised at the midpoint of a dreary Argentina pass atop the French box and began making his way alone down the pitch like some cartoon giant with seemingly half of Buenos Aires giving chase, his stomping steps seemingly audible, until Marcos Rojo spilt the big lad and met with referee’s arrest.
Antoine Griezmann slid the penalty behind a sliding Franco Armani, France led 1-0 on a goal awarded to the outstanding Griezmann yet wreaked by Mbappe, and the audience buzzed about having seen something powerful. A Norwegian reporter would ask after the match if maybe France didn’t get two trophies in 1998, with its World Cup title that July 12 and Mbappe’s birth in Paris that December 20.
That coaxed a smile from the teen with the movie-star looks, followed by, “People remember more the World Cup victory than that I was born.”
By the time he said that, he also had become the first player younger than 20 to score twice in a World Cup knockout game since P-P-Pele in 1958. So while France manager Didier Deschamps wisely tried to fend off all the comparisons to past greats who played and finished umpteen years, he noted “a lot of room to make headway, to progress, but in such an important match, he showed talent”.
The kid did so with the help of another set of scenes from this day on which 42,873 saw a slew of the skills ticket-buyers crave: scenes of French beauty. French beauty had been forecast, all his given France’s set of dazzling attackers. French beauty had been awaited, in that manner maybe only French beauty can be. French beauty just had not quite been seen, even through the lossless but thrillless group stage.
“We played against a team that was very, very fast in transition,” Argentina manager Jorge Sampaoli said.
Worst finish
After the inevitable first question to Sampaoli about having Argentina’s worst finish since 2002 despite having the “best player in the world,” and whether Sampaoli would stay on, he would say such things as “too soon to analyse,” “I’m sad,” “I’m frustrated” and, “They fought until the very last minute and they nearly equalised in the end and I really, really value that.”
That they did, because this game, like this World Cup of Spain-Portugal, GermanySweden, Switzerland-Serbia and Mexico-Germany, of Peruvian and Colombian fans, of Iran almost advancing, Russia making noise, England thriving and Germany going out, just couldn’t and wouldn’t quit. While it stirs, it has put bright lights on a guy born in December 1998, who has found just the stage for sending the shine right back.
“Bien sur!” Mbappe said, meaning, of course, “of course.”
“In the World Cup, you have the top-level players so you have the opportunity to show what you can do and what your abilities are. There is no better place than the World Cup,” just as there are few World Cups any better than this.
I’m sad. I’m frustrated and they fought until the very last minute and they nearly equalised in the end and I really value that.” Jorge Sampaoli » Argentina manager