It was a clash too good to be true, in real time. The first 60 minutes felt like a coronation. The second 60 minutes felt like holding on to the hood of a speeding car.
As for Messi and Mbappé: spectacular. As sports observers we harp so much on the failures and shortcomings of superstars—the great players who do not deliver in the biggest moments. It’s empty theater of scolding and schadenfreude, because it’s not what we actually want.
To see two of the greatest to ever do it—a 35-year-old generational superstar, and his 23-year-old successor—play at the height of their powers, is what we want, because it’s unadulterated joy.
Messi, seeking the first World Cup title, played with incandescent fury. Mbappé, well-defended and invisible early, burst back almost single-handedly to make it a match.
Messi was Messi, Mbappé was Mbappé. It was all you could ask for.
I haven’t even gotten to the scale of all this—how a World Cup is truly worldly, with the heart rates and birthrates of continents rising and falling with each shift in momentum. It all means so much more.
“Epic” championships and superstars seldom deliver on pre-game hype. That was not the case at Sunday’s World Cup final, where Argentina, France, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé delivered a match that will be remembered forever. https://t.co/zRzFA1bEAc
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) December 18, 2022