Lionel Messi has held the World Cup goalscoring record since 2022. He lost it on Saturday night, in a third-place playoff he was not playing in, while resting for a final. That is how the biggest record in the tournament changed hands. The last week also produced the highest-scoring World Cup match in 44 years, and it ends today with a final nobody would have drawn in June.
The record moved in a game that did not matter
Kylian Mbappé scored twice against England in Miami Gardens and took his World Cup tally to 22 goals in 22 matches. Messi’s 21 came from 33. Mbappé is also the first player since Gerd Müller in 1970 to score more than eight goals at a single men’s World Cup, and he finished this one on ten. Messi plays today and can still take the Golden Boot. He cannot get the all-time record back in one afternoon. There is something bleak about the timing, and something fitting too: the man who broke it was three years old when Messi made his Argentina debut.
Read it → https://thearchv.ca/explainers/oldest-world-cup-goalscorers/
England 6-4 France, and nobody knows what to do with it
England led 4-0 at half time through Declan Rice, Ezri Konsa and two from Bukayo Saka. France scored four in the second half, through Bradley Barcola and a Mbappé brace, before England shut it down. Saka finished with a hat-trick. Ten goals is the most any World Cup third-place match has ever produced, and the most in any World Cup game since Hungary beat El Salvador 10-1 in 1982. A dead rubber produced the game of the tournament. Football does that.
The upsets ran all the way to the end
Germany went out in the round of 32, on penalties to Paraguay, a third straight early exit after 2018 and 2022. Uruguay were gone in the group stage. Cape Verde, on debut, twice pulled level with the holders before Argentina finally beat them in extra time. Four of the eight quarter-finalists were not the ones anyone picked in June. Our upsets canon has been the most-read thing on the site all summer, and this tournament kept adding to it.
Read it → https://thearchv.ca/explainers/biggest-world-cup-upsets/
The final
Argentina against Spain at MetLife, the holders against a side who have conceded once in seven matches and are in their first final since 2010. The only previous World Cup meeting between them was 1966, which Argentina won 2-1. The all-time head to head is level at six wins each. If Argentina win, they become the first nation to take four consecutive major tournaments. The last time they walked into a final in North America was 1986, and we have that one drawn in full.
Read it → https://thearchv.ca/finals/azteca-1986/
One for tomorrow
The World Cup window shuts tonight. From Monday the transfer market unfreezes properly, and the biggest story waiting is Jürgen Klopp. Germany confirmed Julian Nagelsmann’s departure on Friday and said in the same breath that Klopp had been approached. Terms are agreed in principle. Nothing is signed. We will have the detail as it lands.
That’s this week, and that’s the tournament. If there’s an era, a club, or a final you want drawn next, reply and tell us. We read every one.
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