At the start of the World Cup tournament Brazil was favored heavily to win the Cup with France and England following behind and although Argentina was also favored early to be a contender, not many thought they’d be one of the last teams standing.
Early on Portugal and Brazil were the only domination teams with wins over Switzerland and South Korea. Both of those teams lost in the quarterfinals to Croatia and Morocco, who both lost in the Semi-finals to Argentina and France.
Both Argentina won their matches against Australia and Poland in the Round of 16. Argentina and France defeated the Netherlands and England in the quarterfinals, before their wins over Croatia and Morocco in the semis.
The stage was finally set at Lusail Stadium in Qatar after over a month of posturing, and two of the Worlds top teams were ready to give fans one of the most exciting World Cup matches in decades. Lionel Messi scored the first goal on a penalty shot. Argentina’s second goal came at 35:22 from Angel Di Maria giving Argentina the early 2-0 lead.
France scored their first goal on a penalty shot by Kylian Mbappé. At 80:58 France scored the equalizer on a goal by Mbappé. Argentina’s third goal came from Messi at 107:55 to give Argentina the lead again. France once again tied up the game on a penalty kick taken by Mbappé.
The game went to a shootout with France up first. Kingsley Coman’s kick was blocked by Argentinian goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. Argentina’s Gonzalo Montiel snuck his kick past France’s goalkeeper Hugo Lloris for the win.
With all the critics offering their opinions about who the best football player is in the World (with most siding with Cristiano Ronaldo) Lionel Messi put those questions to rest as he added the World Cup trophy to his mantel.
In other sports the Denver Broncos finally broke their five game losing streak with a win over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. The Broncos jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, however; the Cardinals answered back with two field goals of their own to gain the lead heading into the half.
The Cardinals added another field goal in the third quarter to take a 9-3 lead over the Broncos. The Broncos added a touchdown when quarterback Brett Rypien found Eric Tomlinson heading to the corner of the endzone giving Denver a 10-9 lead.
In the fourth quarter the Broncos found some consistency and added two more touchdowns to take a 24-9 lead over Arizona. The Cardinals added a touchdown with 6:04 to play but missed the two-point conversion, essentially ending their attempt to keep up with Denver’s offensive prowess.
The Denver Nuggets have won four of their last five games with their only loss coming from the Lakers in L.A. last Friday. On Sunday the Nuggets defeated the Charlotte Hornets 119 – 115 in a game where Nikola Jokic accomplished one of, if not his best game of his career recording 40 points, 10 assists and 27 rebounds. Kentavious Caldwell- Pope added 20 more points while Aaron Gordon added 19, with 10 rebounds.
