Hello everyone, but especially to…
LIONEL MESSI AND ARGENTINA
When people talk about the “greatest game ever”, they often exaggerate. Not this time.
In Sunday’s World Cup final, Argentina and France delivered what was, under the circumstances, the most entertaining and best international football game I have ever seen. Tied 2-2 after 90 minutes and 3-3 after extra time, Argentina won on penalties, giving Lionel Messi — in its fifth and final World Cup — his first World Cup title and his country his first since 1986.
- Messi scored the first goal from a penalty in the 23rd minute, and Angel Di Maria followed 12 minutes later by a marvelous counter-attack.
- But Kylian Mbappe brought the French back in emotional fashion by converting an 80th-minute penalty and then scoring a superb strike in the 81st to even things up.
- It was Messi again in the 108th minute, knocking home a rebound after a Hugo Lloris to safeguard. But Mbappé had the answer with another penalty in the 118th minute to complete his hat trick.
- Messi and Mbappé both scored the first penalty shootout attempt. However, Emiliano Martinez stopped Kingsley Comaneffort, and Aurelien Tchouameni missed wide, while Paulo Dybala and Leandro Paredes both scored. Gonzalo Montiel marked the winner.
Messi’s GOAT status was already assured, but this victory also defines his legacywrites James Benge.
- Benge: “No one else has been so brilliant for so long, the best player in the world for much of the past 15 years. He hasn’t burned bright and faded or slowly crept his way towards the top. For most of his career he has been the North Star against which all others are judged. … Either way, his case is damning. His two goals in the final propelled him to the beyond Pelé in the list of top scorers of the World Cup, the first player to win two Golden Balls for the best player at the end. He now has every major honor bestowed on him.”
The legend of Di Maria also grewwrites Roger Gonzalez.
As for France, The Blues can hold their heads high after narrowly missing out on becoming the first repeat champions since Brazil in 1962. And Mbappé showed that he on his way to becoming the next footballing legend of all timewrites Jonathan Johnson.
As for everything else…
Honorable mentions
And not such a good morning for…
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS…
If Argentina-France was one of the best things I’ve ever seen, the end of Patriots-Raiders was one of the worst – or at least the dumbest.
Leading by a touchdown with just over half a minute to play, New England somehow found a way to lose, 30-24…in regulation.
Keelan Cole caught a touchdown with 32 seconds left, and the extra point tied things up. The Patriots had two timeouts to use for the practice that followed, but didn’t get much out of it. The game seemed to be heading for extra time until…
Our John Breech described it as “a complete mental meltdown”. I think that’s nice.
…AND ALSO NOT SO GOOD MORNING FOR DALLAS COWBOYS
Leading 27-10 at the end of the third quarter, the attack turned. The defense dominated. A fifth straight win was in sight for the Cowboys. Leading 34-31 at the end of the fourth quarter, the defense made yet another turnover, its third of the day. The offensive was at a standstill, but victory still seemed assured.
Then the Cowboys did everything to lose.
- After Jayron Kerse forced one Trevor Lawrence grope and Micah Parsons restored, the Dallas offense got the ball with 1:28 left and went running, running, incompletion. It took 27 seconds behind the clock.
- Then it’s the turn of the defense to collapse. Trevor Lawrence led a 41-yard drive with no timeouts, and Riley Patterson drilled a field goal from 48 yards.
- After a Jaguars hat-trick to open overtime, Dak Prescott thrown behind Noah Brownand Rayshawn Jenkins ran 56 yards the other way for a starting pick six.
First of all: Lawrence is awesome. If you wrote him off after his rookie season or even after his slow start to the year, think again. Since Week 9, he leads the NFL in passer rating and completion percentage, is third in expected points added per setback behind Jared Goff and Patrick Mahomes and threw for 14 touchdowns and just one interception. Him and the Jaguars rightfully earned an “A” in our weekly ratings.
As for someone who hasn’t been great, Prescott has the highest interception rate in the league. The Cowboys’ mediocre wide receivers outside of Lamb CeeDee haven’t helped, but Prescott’s ongoing ball safety issues are a huge contributor to the Cowboys’ overall inconsistency. That makes our Jeff Kerr wonder about Dallas’ playoff potential.
Football Five 🏈
- the giants picked up a massive victory, winning one against the Commanders20-12. Kayvon Thibodeaux had a monster game including a strip sack, a scoop-and-score touchdown and a controversial late no-call helped things go the giants way. the updated playoff image shows why it was so big.
- the the Lions won six of seven. Jared Goff hit Brock Wright for a 51-yard touchdown on late 4th down and a Jets kicker Greg Zuerlein missed a 58-yard field goal when time expired.
- Jalen hurts ran for three touchdowns and the Eagles beat the Bear, 25-20. Hurts now has 13 rushing touchdowns this season; the all-time record for a quarterback is 14 Cam Newton in 2011.
- It wasn’t pretty, but the Chiefs picked up their seventh consecutive AFC West title with a 30-24 win in overtime above Texas.
- After losing 17-0 early, the bengals rallied then dominated Buccaneers34-23. The lost 17-point home lead is the biggest of Tom Brady’s career.
The Vikings achieve the biggest comeback in NFL history 🏈
If you watched the first half of Colts-Vikingsturned off the TV and called the Vikings and their impressive track record cheats, I wouldn’t necessarily have blamed you. Then again, you would have missed the biggest comeback in NFL history.
The Vikings turned a 33-0 deficit into an incredible 39-36 overtime victory to improve to 11-3 this season, clinch the NFC North and etch their name in the NFL record books.
- Kirk Cousins thrown for 460 meters (417 after half time) and four touchdowns. The last of four was a 64-yard one-screen for Dalvin Cookand the two-point conversion changes to TJ Hockenson equalized the game.
- This exceeds “The Comeback” – a 32-point rally by the Invoices against the Lubricators in the AFC Wild Card Game in 1992 — for greatest comeback ever.
- Cols Coach jeff saturday said there was “a lot of blame for everyone.” Certainly some of that belongs to matt ryanwho is accumulate historically significant tracks.
- Entering Saturday, teams trailing by 30 or more at halftime were 0-132 in the Super Bowl era (since 1966), including playoff games.
Anthony Davis out for several weeks with a foot injury 🏀
Just when he was starting to look like his old dominant self, Anthony Davis experienced another health-related setback.
the Lakers Star will be out for at least a month with a right foot injury sustained on Friday against the Nuggets.
- Davis is averaging 27.4 points (on pace to be his highest as a Laker) and 12.1 rebounds (on pace to be career-high) this season. He’s shooting 59.3% from the field, also on course to be a career high.
- This is the third year in a row that Davis has suffered a serious injury. After helping lead Los Angeles to the 2020 NBA Championship, he’s only played 76 of a possible 154 games in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
The Lakers are 13-16, 12th in the Western Conference. Fair or not, it’s up to you james lebron to keep ’em afloat with Davis outwrites Sam Quinn.
Winners, losers and a new Top 25 and 1 after a huge college basketball weekend 🏀
We promised a huge weekend of college basketball, and it delivered. In case you’re too busy watching, oh, I don’t know, all the other sports, here’s what you might have missed.
Arizona was among the big winners of the weekendand Gary Parrish has them in the top five of his last Top 25 and 1.
- 1. Purdue (prev. 1)
- 2. UConn (prev. 3)
- 3. Houston (prev. 5)
- 4. Arizona (prev. 8)
- 5. Kansas (prev. 15)
What we’re watching on Monday 📺
🏈 Rams at Packers8:15 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Lakers at the suns9 p.m. on NBA TV