Top Sports Moments of 2022
Nothing in the world of entertainment invites partiality the way sports do. By nature, you have a rooting interest in any game or match you watch. As such, it can be difficult to separate the subjective from the objective when considering the quality of the year in sports. That said, rest assured, my personal opinion doesn't matter all that much in the context of this piece. I will do my best to take off my fan cap, and assume the role of the objective, uninvolved sports reporter.
It's hard to think of a cultural arena that was more inextricably linked with the coronavirus pandemic than Sports. The event that essentially touched off the shutdown across the United States in March 2020 was the NBA suspending all games in the wake of Rudy Gobert's positive COVID test, with the NCAA following suit by cancelling all Spring sports shortly thereafter. From there, the rest of American sports and soccer leagues across the World suspended play, Even when they resumed, at various times for various sports, the sight of empty stadiums with cardboard cutout fans became the visual representation of the COVID-19 era, and artificially piped-in crowd noise the audial.
While 2021 still had some remnants of the pandemic, however, especially with the Omicron variant's return around this time last year, 2022 saw a full return to 'normalcy.' Fans packed arenas, stadiums and domes, and we saw the end of games frantically rescheduled or scrapped altogether, players missing time, and events moving locations due to COVID-19. On the various fields of play, however, the year of sports was anything but normal. It was a truly spectacular year, with all the best the world of athletics have to offer; plenty of good, at least, to offset some of the worst athletics have to offer, too.
But first, to make a perfect 22 in 2022, here are twelve noteworthy events that just missed the list (in chronological order):
"13 seconds of madness": Patrick Mahomes engineers a miraculous mini-drive to help the Chiefs edge the Bills in a playoff thriller
4 years after a disappointing performance in PyeongChang, Nathan Chen finds redemption with record-breaking performance, Olympic gold for Short Program Figure Skating
Manchester City's epic 3-goal rally sees them win title, end Liverpool's groundbreaking "quadruple" chase in enthralling Premier League finale
Spanish minnows Villarreal make a Cinderella run to the Champions League semifinals
Eventual Ballon d'Or winner Karim Benzema and Real Madrid pull out multiple miracle comebacks in knockout stages en route to record-setting 14th Champions League title
Frances Tiafoe and Casper Ruud shine, Carlos Alcaraz triumphs in U.S. Open that highlights the rise of the next generation
Albert Pujols becomes only the 4th player in history to reach 700 career home runs
One wild college football weekend in October: 9 ranked teams lose, TCU's huge comeback stuns Oklahoma State, North Carolina beats Duke with walk-off TD, Utah ends USC's perfect season with walk-off 2-point conversion, and Tennessee ends Alabama's perfect season with walk-off FG
Aaron Judge breaks American League home run record
In Sonny Dykes' first season as coach, TCU goes from 5-win team to 12 wins and college football playoff
Morocco becomes first African nation to reach World Cup semifinals
Erling Haaland bashes Premier League record for "fastest player to 20 goals" in first season in England
Now, to the Top 10:
10. The greatest MLS Cup Final of all time?
Perhaps lost amidst the ramp-up to the unprecedented winter World Cup, and in the thick of a wild college football weekend, America's domestic soccer finale was one of, if not THE best, we had ever seen. MLS Cup featured the two teams that had clearly been the best in the league all season, trading 3 goals apiece, one team scoring the would-be winner in regulation only for the other to immediately counter, only for that latter team to surely score the winner in stoppage time of extra time, only to then concede a last-gasp equalizer, courtesy of 'Super Sub Supreme' Gareth Bale. Oh, and amidst all of this, Los Angeles' goalie both broke his leg and earned a red card saving the would-be winning goal from being scored on a breakaway, and then their backup keeper made two saves in the penalty kick shootout to deliver the trophy to the team. From both an objective and subjective standpoint, it would have been a sweeter story if it ended with the "underdog" Philadelphia winning rather than the big-money, nouveau riche Los Angeles FC, but it's hard to get too mad about a club winning its first-ever trophy in front of a raucous home crowd. It was a match for the ages on its own, but throw in the stakes involved? Legendary status. It could not have been a more perfect segue into the thrilling World Cup we were about to be treated to.
9. Warriors return to the mountaintop
Love them or hate them, there's no denying that the Golden State Warriors' mini-dynasty from 2014-2018 completely changed the sport. (And, full disclosure, though my own emotional investment in the NBA is minimal, I was more on the side of loving them.) It wasn't just that a long-dormant franchise were now winning, it was that they were dominating the league through up-tempo, quick-fire team basketball, centered around an unexpected generational talent in Steph Curry. But when the injury-riddled Warriors fell in the 2019 Finals to Toronto, and then star Kevin Durant announced his departure to Brooklyn, many wondered if that marked the end of their reign as league bullies. An injury-decimated, atrocious 2019-20 season followed by two mediocre, postseason-less seasons did nothing to dispel those thoughts. Yet, this past season, the "Splash Brothers" of Curry and Klay Thompson were back at full health and in vintage form, leading Golden State back to the playoffs as the 3-seed. Their team made stunningly easy work of the Western Conference, dispatching of the Nuggets, Grizzlies and Mavericks all in 5 games. By the time they reached the Finals, with all due respect to the Boston Celtics-- and especially Jayson Tatum who is one of the next generation of megastars --, there could be little doubt over whether the Dubs would secure the trophy. It was a triumphant and wholly unexpected return to the top for Steve Kerr and his men. There's a reason why, amidst the celebration and falling confetti in Boston, a 1st-time Finals MVP Curry broke down in tears, and stated, "this one hits different."
8. Georgia finally breaks Bama duck, wins Natty
For my entire lifetime, Georgia fans have only known what I call "Green Bay Packer heartache." This isn't the pain of never having a good team to cheer for; no, that would be "Detroit Lion heartache" (or closer to home for me personally, "UNC Football heartache"). This is the pain of near-consistently cheering for a good team, good enough to make you believe in winning it all, but never quite actually being good enough to win it all. Their 40-year national championship drought was hard enough, but one school in particular seemed to relish doling out pain to Georgia fans: Alabama. Though not traditionally a chief rival of the Bulldogs, Alabama, especially in the Nick Saban era, time and time again crushed Georgia's dreams. There were the 2008 and 2015 matchups, where a rare underdog Crimson Tide derailed an undefeated Georgia season by dominating their high-stakes showdown. There were the 2012 and 2018 SEC Championships, where they snatched not only an SEC title but a title game spot from the Dawgs in excruciatingly painful fashion. There was, most famously, the 2017 National Championship, where the SEC Champion Bulldogs seemed to have the trophy halfway home to Athens before Nick Saban threw on an unknown freshman QB named Tua Tagovailoa, who rallied a young Alabama team to win on an overtime Hail Mary. So, despite spending the entirety of the 2021 season as the clear #1 team, racking up comfortable win after comfortable win from a very difficult schedule, you can forgive Georgia fans for wavering in their confidence when their beloved team laid an enormous egg in the SEC Championship against-- you guessed it, Alabama, and had to crawl into the playoff as an "at-large" bid. After comfortable semifinal wins for both teams, those same fans would be "treated" to a rematch in the National Championship, and nails were likely bitten completely off fingers when a close game seemed to turn in the 4th quarter off a questionable, fluky 'fumble' call that led to a late Alabama touchdown to take the lead. But this time, at long last, the story would have a different ending. Former walk-on Stetson Bennett, fresh off his turnover that might have cost his team the title, instead displayed the resiliency of a champion, leading Georgia right back down the field to take a late lead back. Several minutes later, with time nearly running out, the vaunted Dawg defense salted things away by intercepting Heisman winner Bryce Young and running it back to the end zone, cathartically ending years of pain and suffering for Georgia at the expense of their frequent tormentor.
7. Lionesses roar
While Summer of 2022 was sadly devoid of the World Cup, it was not a summer devoid of quality international football. England played host to the Women's Euro Cup, the first of its kind to be televised in the United States. It's difficult to call the tournament anything other than a major success; if ESPN's coverage alone didn't speak to the popularity and quality growth in women's football, the level of play itself did. The knockout stages of the tournament in particular featured thriller after thriller, and although many underdog nations put up brave fights throughout the tourney, results yielded an unsurprising pairing for the Final: hosts and upstarts England against 8-time champions Germany, easily the most successful European nation of all time. Each one of England's matches, played in Premier League and Championship stadiums across the country, saw a near-capacity crowd, every bit as loud as they would be for Three Lions matches, and that came to a head in a sold-out, raucous Wembley stadium for the final match. Even down star player Alexandra Popp, it was the perpetually-dominant Germans who spent most of the match on the front foot. England did open the scoring against the run of play through tournament revelation Ella Toone, but when they conceded a late equalizer to Lina Magull and the Germans seemed to assert their presence in overtime, you could feel the doubt taking hold among the hopeful fans in Wembley. Enter Chloe Kelly. The Manchester City substitute booted home a scrappy ball from a corner kick in the 110th minute, sending Wembley into a frenzy and giving England a lead that this time, they wouldn't relinquish. The Lionesses hoisted their first-ever major trophy in front of 80,000+ proud fans, giving a much-beleaguered, football-mad nation something to unreservedly celebrate, and putting the rest of the world on notice in the buildup to the 2023 Women's World Cup.
6. Saint Peter's dares to dream
There was a whole lot to love from this year's March Madness, annually the greatest postseason in all of sports. There's almost always a lot to love: buzzer-beaters, Cinderella runs, instant classics in the latter stages, etc. But the 2022 tournament had perhaps the most extreme, heightened versions of the above (in fact, this won't be the last you hear about this year's edition of March Madness in this article). Case in point: St. Peter's. We have never seen an underdog like St. Peter's. Not just in my lifetime, in anyone's. Since the creation of the 64-team tournament, only one 16-seed has ever won-- UMBC in 2018, who immediately lost in the next round --and though a handful of 15-seeds have upset 2-seeds over the years, previously only two-- Florida Gulf Coast in 2013, Oral Roberts last year --had reached the Sweet 16, and that was the furthest they went. None of that history evidently fazed St. Peter's, a tiny school from Jersey City, making their first-ever tournament appearance. With a team name of Peacocks, scrappy and smart 'team ball,' a star turn from a dweeby white guy with a 70s porn 'stache? They were the most Cinderella team to ever Cinderella.
St. Peter's captured the hearts of the nation as they took on and ultimately knocked off Kentucky (a trendy national champion pick) in the first round of the tournament. While we were all laughing at Kentucky for their 'fluke' loss, though, the Peacocks set to work making sure we understood it was no such thing, comfortably closing out their 2nd-round game against Murray State and booking a spot in the Sweet 16. If we were initially charmed and then impressed by St. Pete, though, we were full-on shocked by them venturing into uncharted waters for a 15-seed: the Elite Eight, thanks to yet another tough win against yet another trendy Final Four pick (3-seed Purdue). Although the clock ultimately struck midnight against North Carolina in that round, they threw a serious gauntlet down to stake a claim as the most overachieving team in tournament history. And look, yeah, I'll say it: from a biased perspective, I also love that these guys dispatched of multiple heavy hitters before ultimately reverting to form against my beloved Tar Heels. They're absolute legends for that. 10/10.
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5. Emotional, triumphant farewell to two legends
For fans, one of the more emotional events in sports is saying farewell to a legend. Spare a thought, then, for tennis fans this year who had to see not one, but two of the all-time greats (perhaps even THE all-time greats) in the sport hang it up.
Regardless of where Roger Federer ends up in the G.O.A.T. debate, he was such a singular figure in tennis that to many, maybe even most fans, he will forever be the greatest. In recent years, though, it was becoming increasingly clear his now 41-year old body was starting to let him down. His last Grand Slam title was in January 2018, last appearance in a Grand Slam final in 2019 (where he lost the Wimbledon Final to Novak Djokovic in one of the all-time classic matches), and he had appeared in only a small handful of Grand Slam tournaments since then. Still, most fans held out hope for one more glance at him atop the trophy podium before he called it quits. Sadly, that particular moment never came, but his send-off in the Laver Cup was arguably even sweeter: his last match would be in a doubles match alongside longtime rival, G.O.A.T. competitor, and friend Rafael Nadal, and on a team for the first time with both Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, the other two best men's players of the last 20 years. As an emotional Federer broke down in tears, many of his teammates did as well, and a raucous London crowd sent their hero off with the adoring farewell he deserved.
Similarly, Serena Williams lays an undisputed claim to being the most dominant women's player of the 21st century, and certainly warrants consideration for the greatest women's player of all time, but the signs of the end of her career were starting to show. Although she had knocked on the door more recently than Federer, reaching the latter stages of multiple Grand Slams in recent years, her last major title had come in January 2017 at the Australian Open. Between multiple injuries and the birth of her first child, she was missing many more tournaments than usual. So it perhaps came as little surprise that she announced the 2022 U.S. Open would be her last tournament before retiring. Coming into the tournament off of months away from the sport, she was in the unfamiliar position of being unseeded. However, in front of perhaps the starkest home-court advantage any player has ever experienced, she got back in a familiar position: winning. Despite being the "underdog," she delighted packed crowds at Arthur Ashe Stadium with victories in the first two rounds, including a win over #2 Anett Kontaveit, before her run would come to an end at the hands of Ajla Tomljanović after pushing the youngster to an epic 3rd set.
Although neither great got the trophy-lifting sendoff both undoubtedly wanted, there is a large amount of wisdom in knowing when to step away, and both can live with the confidence that they did it at exactly the right time, to the loud celebration they had earned.
4. A Super Bowl for the ages
Ahead of Super Bowl LVI, I talked and wrote at length about how likable this particular matchup was for the neutral fan like myself, and also touched on how excited I was for the Super Bowl's halftime show. Just a few days ago, I wrote about how said halftime show was one of the best moments on television in the year 2022. So clearly, all the ingredients were there for an enjoyable Super Bowl Sunday! Even if the game itself proved to be a bust, the way it was the year before.
But fortunately for us, the game itself was anything but a bust. A rare (perhaps unprecedented? I'm too lazy to look it up) matchup of 4-seeds played out almost exactly how you would expect it to. It was a showdown between two evenly-matched, very good teams that were not without their clear flaws. Playing in their home stadium, the Los Angeles Rams struck first and seemed to be on the front foot early. But just as they done all postseason, the young Cincinnati Bengals proved skeptics wrong, and stuck around. Sophomore QB Joe Burrow built on his impressive resumé by dropping two dimes to fellow second-year receiver Tee Higgins and leading the team to 17 unanswered. But right when it seemed Cincinnati might have the edge for good, the star-studded Rams defense bowed up, decimating Cincy's troubled offensive line and rattling Burrow, to the tune of not allowing a single point from the 10-minute mark of the 3rd quarter onwards. The defensive prowess set the table for Matthew Stafford to write his own fairy tale ending, which the veteran gladly accepted, dinking and dunking his offense through a late-game drive, ultimately firing the game-winning touchdown to eventual MVP Cooper Kupp with less than 90 seconds left on the clock. Though I personally had thrown my support behind the underdog Bengals (and especially Burrow. perhaps my favorite non-UNC and non-Green Bay Packer-affiliated player ever), even I could get behind the enthusiasm for a first title for a young head coach who revolutionized the NFL, one of the all-time defensive greats in Aaron Donald, and long-time warrior QB Stafford.
3. Rafa lays claim to G.O.A.T. status
As a lifelong Rafael Nadal fan, I've often mourned that apart from his annual French Open dominance, my man has never really enjoyed the undivided attention of the tennis world. I know tennis fans reading this are probably rolling their eyes heavily, and I get it; nobody disputes Rafa is one of the all-time greats, everyone recognizes him as the "King of Clay," and he's reached similar, if not the same, levels of crowd adoration that Roger Federer always enjoyed. But still, I would counter with the fact that everyone in tennis seems to be a Federer fanatic first of all, and the few that aren't tend to go in the total other direction, opting to back the more controversial 'bad boy' Novak Djoković. Nadal has had both the benefit (from a fan perspective, as well as a "stay on your toes!" mentality perspective) as well as the misfortune (from a...well, obviously) of being sandwiched between the prime of two other all-time greats, and given the two others' proclivity for winning a more widespread array of tournaments, he often slips to 3rd in the longstanding "G.O.A.T." debate.
This is why I found myself awake at 3 A.M. on a January morning, watching Nadal compete in the Australian Open. A win in this tournament would give him the record of 21 Grand Slam titles, eking ahead of both Federer and Djokovic, fresh off a year comprehensively dominated by the latter. It mattered not to me (nor, I imagine, to any of his fans) that the other two greats would not be competing in Melbourne, Federer because of injury and Djokovic because of a steadfast refusal to acquiesce to Australia's COVID vaccination requirement. After all, injuries/withdrawals happen all the time, and the history books don't put asterisks by those title. In fact, the others' absence lent an air of desperation to the whole thing for Rafa; this was his chance. This was his window to pull ahead for the first time in his career, and everyone, least of all him, knew it. And for a while, the script played out pretty much as you would expect; the Spaniard coasted to the quarterfinals, dropping only one set in the process. That stage is where things got a little more murky, however; an epic quarterfinal bout with Denis Shapovalov saw him cede a two-set lead, only to dig deep and finish off the youngster in the 5th set. World #7 Matteo Berettini awaited him in the semifinals, and the Italian got a set on him, and pushed him in the 4th set, but it would be Nadal to go through to the Final. That's where it all seemed to go awry, though; just as he had in the 2021 U.S. Open-- where a straight-sets domination ended Novak Djokovic's dream of winning all 4 Grand Slams in one year --Daniil Medvedev appeared hellbent on ruining the fairy tale. With Djokovic's forced withdrawal, the Russian was the highest seed in the tournament, and had played like it. Just like his foe, he had been pushed mightily by a Canadian in the quarterfinals (it was Felix Auger-Aliassime that pushed him to a 5-set epic), but otherwise had advanced fairly easily, and in the Final, he was unmistakably on the front foot. By the time my alarm jolted me awake to catch what I thought would be the second half of Nadal's coronation, Medvedev was serving out a competitive tiebreak to go up 2 sets to 0. I considered going back to sleep as my favorite player looked wiped, weary, and beaten. But then something funny happened.
As he has done so, so many times in his career, Rafa somehow tapped into an inner strength nobody else seems to possess and held off multiple break points to close out the 3rd set 6-4. The 4th set was enormously competitive, but ultimately ended the same way, with him taking the set 6-4 and amazingly, forcing a winner-take-all 5th set. By now, the dream was very much back on, but Medvedev continuously refused to bow to fate. With both men fending off multiple break points, Nadal finally edged in front with a break midway through, and would serve for the title up 5-4. However, despite being two points from glory, he would commit multiple unforced errors and double faults to allow his opponent right back in it at 5-5. Then came another twist: Nadal broke Medvedev right back, to once again set the stage to serve himself to victory. This time, at long last, he would make no mistake: after 5 and a half hours, he dusted off the 53rd game of the match easily to complete the comeback and win his 2nd Australian Open. Oh right, right, and also win Grand Slam #21, pushing him to the top of the list for the first time in history, a place he's continued to hold, and will still hold until at least this summer.
Look, chances are Djokovic catches and surpasses Nadal in all-time Grand Slam titles, and it will be near-impossible to convince any fan of Federer or Djokovic (perhaps even Pete Sampras or Rod Laver, for that matter) that the guy they're backing isn't the greatest. But for those of us who have been #TeamRafa since Day 1, it's yet another objective measure-- perhaps THE objective measure --to stake a claim as the greatest to ever do it.
2. "Armageddon" arrives... and delivers
Coming back from the last TV timeout of the 2nd Final Four matchup in April, CBS' Jim Nantz posited "Who would have believed if, a month ago, you said, "You know what? Duke and Carolina will both be in the Final Four, they'll be matched up against each other, and with less than 3 minutes remaining, it will be a tie game"? The question was rhetorical, because of course, the answer was nobody. Nobody would have believed that. And the reasons are myriad, but most significant among them was the fact that the two members of the most famous rivalry had never faced off in the Final Four. This rivalry is so good, and so highly competitive, that the lack of a Final Four matchup was famous; if the two ever played at that stage, the two fanbases have said for years, it would be "Armageddon." But also, there was the small matter of the fact that, quite simply, neither team looked anything like a Final Four team. Duke, the eventual ACC regular season champion and a 2-seed in the tournament, were at least closer to that territory, but were still yet to prove themselves against a really quality opponent in 2022. Their rivals North Carolina? Not even close. The Tar Heels weren't even a lock to make the tournament, and had lost in the first edition of the rivalry game by 20 points on their home floor.
And yet... call it fate, call it divine intervention, call it poetic justice, call it "the NCAA rigging it," whatever; we finally got Armageddon. In the final year of Duke's Coach K, the winningest coach in college basketball history, in a season where neither team had won any postseason praise or earned a 1-seed, we were finally going to get Duke vs. North Carolina in the Final Four. If you wrote this script, Hollywood producers would tell you it was a bit too on-the-nose. And speaking of Hollywood endings, boy, was the stage set: three weeks after Carolina spoiled Coach K's farewell to Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke would have the chance to exact revenge on their rivals on the biggest stage, and confirm that their iconic coach's last game ever would be for the National Championship. Perhaps most remarkably of all, though, was that despite the unbelieveable amount of hype and anticipation, the game delivered. And then some. The two teams battled toe-to-toe from start to finish, Duke finally playing as a team instead of merely a collection of wildly talented individuals, and North Carolina discovering a level of toughness and 'never-say-die' attitude that had simply not existed from December through February. The stars for both teams showed out, with eventual #1 NBA draft pick Paolo Banchero leading the way for Duke and Armando Bacot dominating the interior for Carolina, but in truth, no player played poorly. After 18 lead changes and a stretch of gameplay that didn't see either team get ahead by more than 7 points, it came down to the final seconds, where UNC's oft-beleagured point guard Caleb Love capped off a remarkable 2nd half with a stone-cold, game-clinching 3-pointer that will be remembered in the annals of Carolina folklore for eternity. After two epic, unforgettable hours, Coach K's career was over, Duke's dream was over, and their hated rivals would play for the national championship instead. Sometimes, and perhaps increasingly in this era of cynical, postmodern art, the 'Hollywood ending' isn't the predictable one.
1. Messi, Argentina get their World Cup trophy
I'm almost tempted to put the entirety of the 2022 World Cup in the #1 spot, much as I did last year with the 2021 Euro Cup. But I fear doing so might be a tacit endorsement of all the insanity that went on off the field and controversy surrounding the tournament. I'll spare you a lengthy rehashing of the finer points of each controversy, but to give you a SparkNotes version: slave labor! Bribery and corruption! Onsite deaths of migrant workers building the stadiums! No same-sex couples allowed in the host nation! The tournament being plopped in the middle of Winter and disrupting club seasons! Last-second ban of alcohol in the stands as well as each and every kind of protest! A clinic in sportswashing! Weeee didn't staaart the fiiiiire!!!
But, in terms of the action on the pitch, there were so many things to celebrate at this World Cup. Hosts Qatar hilariously falling flat on their face, stunning upsets like Saudi Arabia over Argentina and Japan over Germany and Spain, Christian Pulisic's balls of steel, Croatia defying odds and progressing to the semifinals yet again, Morocco's shocking and inspiring semifinals run, thrilling and unforgettable matches along the whole way. And when all the dust cleared, we we were left with a Final of mouth-watering prospects, talent galore and meaty storylines there to be consumed. (Yes, I was hungry when I wrote this.) It was Argentina and France. It was the reigning champion against the once-proud titans looking to reclaim their standing in the world order. It was a rematch of the 2018 Round of 16, which, in one of the most exciting games of that tournament, saw France dismiss Argentina at their earliest stage in the modern era. It was Argentinian all-time great Lionel Messi's pursuit of his ever-evasive World Cup trophy against France's pursuit of the distinction of the first back-to-back champions in the modern era. It was, perhaps more than anything, the people's G.O.A.T. (Messi) playing against his club teammate and perhaps the most profound challenger to his throne as greatest-ever (Kylian Mbappe).
Sorry to steal from Jim Nantz, but would you believe me if I told you that, even with as much hype expectation that this particular Final would generate-- dwarfing the viewership and excitement of previous editions of the biggest sporting event of the planet --the match itself would not only match but rather surpass expectations? If I told you that with 10 minutes remaining in regulation, you certainly would not have believed me. For most of the match, it appeared a pedestrian affair; a shorthanded France side looked completely shellshocked against an inspired Argentina side who jumped all over them early on and didn't relent. A Messi penalty (the result of some magical movement in the box from the seemingly ageless Angel Di María) put Argentina ahead within the first quarter of the match, and then Di María finished off the prettiest team goal of the entire tournament to give his nation a 2-0 lead in halftime. Even with some drastic substitutions by their manager Didier Deschamps, France did not exactly look like a team inspired after the break, with Argentina arguably coming closer to getting a third goal than they did to getting their first. Then, out of absolutely nowhere: Mbappé. Clumsy defending by Argentina gifted France a penalty, which young Mbappé dispatched with enough force to bounce under the paw of keeper Emiliano Martinez, who had guessed the right way. Nary 90 seconds later, France pushed forward in search of an equalizer, and a headed ball found a shockingly wide open Mbappé on the edge of a box, and the ingenue sweetly struck home a volley to level affairs at 2-2. It was Argentina's turn to be shellshocked: team, coaches and fans alike. Unbelievably, both teams came incredibly close to winning it in regulation, with France's Kolo Muani missing an open header, and Messi himself belting the last kick of the game from outside the box, hurtling towards the roof of the net before French keeper Hugo Lloris tipped it just over. (In retrospect, I'm kind of glad Messi didn't win the World Cup with that goal, as I actually, 100%, think I would have had a heart attack and died from the jubilation.) If you thought the match's pandemonium would end in extra time, you would be sorely mistaken. The 30-minute period proved to be a microcosm of the 90 minutes that preceded it: Argentina on the front foot from the jump, and a scrappy goal touched home by Messi restored their lead. Yet, just as in regulation, with mere minutes separating them and glory, Argentina gifted an equalizer back to France and Mbappé, committing a needless handball in the box to tee up another Mbappé penalty. Penalty kicks would decide the outcome, but not before Martinez made perhaps the most clutch save in World Cup history on Kolo Muani, springing a last-gasp counterattack that yielded an open French net for Lautaro Martinez to head into, only for the Argentine to head miles wide. Madness.
Nobody wants a World Cup Final to end in penalty kicks, as it had three times previous, not least anyone who had vested emotional interest. However, there was no other way to separate two teams who were clearly the cream of the tournament, one of whom who had been brilliant for 95% of the match, and another who just refused to quit and let the storybook ending play out the way seemingly everyone wanted it to. And though many complain about shootouts being a game of chance, this time fate won out; the team that seemed destined to win, and the one that was better on the day would indeed triumph. Messi and Mbappé both calmly put away their penalties to start the shootout, but from there the story was Argentina's clinical finishing (they went a perfect 4 for 4), and the antics and heroics of keeper Martinez, which yielded two French misses. Argentine defender Gonzalo Montiel, who had conceded the last penalty of overtime, showed he had ice in his veins by calmly stepping up and knocking in the Cup-winning penalty. The Argentine celebration, which felt like it could be heard around the world, quickly consumed him and Emiliano Martinez, but a more significant contingent, including the worldwide audience, made a direct beeline for one man: Lionel Messi. At long last, the little magician, the unstoppable flea who played with a ball attached to his foot, the greatest player of our generation and perhaps of all time, had the one trophy he had yet to add his case. How sweet a feeling.
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