Football Fever Cup Edition: The final feast and the lukewarm entrée

Let's talk about the final.

7am Monday morning New Zealand time in New Jersey.

Argentina v Spain.

The top two sides on the FIFA rankings meeting in the final.

And for the first time the reigning Copa America champion will meet the current European champion in the World Cup final.

This is undoubtedly a tough question to start with.

But do we have the best two sides? In the World Cup final.

Heavyweights.

Isn't it? It just

screams

a heavyweight bout.

Yes.

And it's really hard to argue the opposite.

You had France and England, the next ranked sides, having the chance to make it through to the final.

They faulted.

comprehensively dismissed.

France were by Spain.

England, we can probably get down into that at some point, but they missed their moment.

And when Thomas Tuchel defines his regime by needing to manage the moments better, they can't turn around and say that they weren't given their opportunity.

So it leaves us with Spain and Argentina, the kind of controlled aggression of Spain and then the out and out pit bullishness of Argentina.

What a confrontation that is going to be.

Yeah, and I think that's it.

It's a collision of styles and of cultures, isn't it? I think if it was Spain-England, for example, I think I'd be, OK, well, Spain will probably win that game between two European sides.

Argentina are an absolute wildcard when it comes to football, and this tournament has showed their ability to come back, to refuse to lose, to be serial winners, to overcome adversity, and to play for this absolute master who was right at their heart in Lionel Messi.

I want to get to Argentina in a moment.