By Ori Martins
History has a way of repeating itself. Men and women are projected to repeat history.
First, Croatia defeated Morocco to bring back sweet memories of the France ’98 World Cup Finals where the team finished third as well.
Second, France bundled Argentina home four years ago in Russia. Thus, the game today is for France to confirm superiority over Argentina or for Argentina to revenge the 2018 loss.
Third, France is seeking to be the third country to have defended the World Cup back to back after Italy in 1934 and 1938 as well as Brazil in 1958 and 1962., but the first nation to do so in the last 60 years.
On the other hand, Argentina is all about Messi and it appears all the players are in agreement on “let us help Messi win the World Cup for him to retire truly as an icon”.
Fourth, Messi is seriously chasing Kempes and Maradona’s records of winning the World Cup for Argentina. Kempes did it in 1978 on home soil while Maradona aided his side to victory in 1986 and a silver four years after in Italy. Already, Messi has a silver to his credit in 2014 and now seeks to crown it all with the real thing – the World Cup itself.
Fifth, the French coach is on the crazy chase of being marked as the first coach to have lifted the World Cup back – to – back. His aggression is as much propelling as that of Messi.
There is Mbappe on the Fence side and there is Measi on the Argentina team. Both are hot, balanced and foxy. Mbappe is a long distance specialist., he can dribble and shoot perfectly from any angle. Messi is magical, sensational and deadly.
The French defence must find a way of dealing with Alvres’ speed, tricks and energy while Dembele, Giroud and Griezman are poised to punish the South American’ s back four.
At the end of the day, it is Argentina’s tenacity and flair, typical of the South Americans that usually produce wonder players who can carry their teams to glory, against the discipline and team cohesion of the French side, an example of a European team that normally relys on coordinated delivery for success.
Messi, now the primus inteperes in world football, has all it takes to power Argentina to victory, while Didier Deschamps the French manager is a fox and old war horse who can calibrate France to victory. It appears the latter is the card.
