The next World Cup will begin on Monday, June 8, 2026 and will end on Friday, July 3, 2026.
Will France still attend as the defending champions and possibly set the record of successfully defending World Cup title three times in a row? DREAMS! Nothing is impossible but 2026 is far from now.
They can begin to nurse such a dream if they win this edition here in Qatar tomorrow. They face Argentina who have won the World Cup two times (1978 and 1986), same number of times they have equally won the diadem – in 1998 and in 2018.
France are determined to defend the title. Some of the players who will line up for them tomorrow have tasted the World Cup, not so for Argentina who won the cup last in 1986 with the then best player in the world, Diego Maradona as captain. Tomorrow, Argentina will also be led by another world best in Lionel Messi who has won everything but the World Cup. He is hungrier than the French. He is 35 and will be playing his last World Cup match tomorrow. Doing so in a final delights him and winning it will be the greatest for him.
At Barcelona FC where he played his best football, Messi was like a god. He won matches and inspired the whole city of Barcelona. The team looked ordinary without him. It was not so with the national team where he couldn’t quite display same magic until this World Cup although one cannot forget his laudable outing in last year’s Copa America.
Here in Qatar 2022 World Cup, Messi has led well and hopes to end it well tomorrow. They overcame the 2-1 opening round shocking defeat by Saudi Arabia and have fought their way to the final. They play a very good side with a Kylian Mbape whose speed can earn him a race with Cheetah. Mbape is the force, the strength of France in this World Cup and Messi, the inspiration and face of Argentina. The two players may directly or indirectly determine the winners of 2022 Qatar World Cup.
ARGENTINA
One thing was clear in their semifinal match with Croatia. Argentina quickly corrected their past mistakes and they have been tactically progressive after the Saudi Arabia shocker. From that match they learnt not to underrate any side again. The gave the Saudis so much space, couldn’t just lift their game and paid for it. 2-0 victory against Poland and another 2-0 victory against Mexico signalled what people later saw in them – potential winners. They beat Australia 2-1 in the round of 16 but the quarter final clash with the Netherlands exposed one fault which they corrected against Croatia in the semifinal. Football is not about scoring goals only, it is also about defending. In fact, many teams that enjoyed greater possession of the ball lost the matches here in Qatar. It was evident in the two semifinal matches – Croatia against Argentina and Morocco against France.
Argentina led 2-0 before Holland equalised and stretched the quarter final game to penalties. Against Croatia, they organised their defence so superbly that the greater ball possession of the Europeans didn’t threaten them. People expected more from the team that eliminated Brazil and generally felt that Croatia failed to re-enact the feat against Brazil. Many attributed this to poor fighting spirit that lowered their output. False. Argentina’s game simply knocked them out of their stride. They allowed Croatia all the space to enjoy greater possession in their own half but completely marked them out in Argentina’s half of the field especially in approaching the box area. They divided the field into three, did only shadow-marking in the first, closed up in the second and blocked the third. It was brilliant. This worked well with a counter-attack approach that made their forays so deadly. And they scored their goals with Messi mesmerising Croatia’s defenders, scoring a penalty and setting up Julian Alvarez to clinically finish up in the 3-0 victory.
