Argentina and France look a class above

On the day that Lionel Messi broke the all-time goals record for the competition, Kylian Mbappe made it clear that it might not last through 2030. Are we heading for a final rematch?

Messi rejects gift, obtains record ethically

Argentina were in control against Austria from start to finish, and never looked like dropping points. But we got a sold 30 minutes of Discourse out of Lionel Messi missing a 9th minute penalty, something he does more often than most people expect. Despite all the hyperbole about it being UNTHINKABLE that Messi could miss, he is pretty much a bang average penalty taker.

That miss will be forgotten thanks to his 38th minute strike to break Miroslav Klose’s record for most goals in the men’s World Cup, and his absolutely fantastic stoppage time goal to make it 18 in the tournament for his career.

As I said last game after the hat trick, I feel very out of things to say about Messi, and I feel like you have already read everything there is to read about him if you are old enough to subscribe to this newsletter. But it remains absolutely astonishing that 4 years after we all assumed he was really, truly done at the top, he’s still one of the absolute best players in the world.

Argentina couldn’t figure out how to build the right team around Messi to maximize his skillset throughout his prime, but now that he’s 38 and down quite a bit of top speed, they’ve put all the pieces together. Enzo Fernandez and Alexis MacAllister are currently doing the defensive and transitional work of 3 midfielders, allowing Messi to focus on nothing but finding space. I wish Argentina knew how to do this 12 years ago, but I’m glad they know how to do it now. —KM

France win again; we still don’t know how good they are

It’s weird to say about a team that’s won their first two matches with a goal difference of +5, but I’m still not quite sure how good France are. Obviously they’re one of the contenders to win the World Cup due to the ridiculous talent at their disposal, and that’s been on display so far in the tournament.

However, they were 2nd best to Senegal in the opener for 55 or so minutes before eventually blitzing them through transitions. While they did beat Iraq 3-0, it’s hard to know how much can be taken away from the encounter. There’s the obvious talent gap between the two sides. As well, Iraq essentially gifted France their second and third goals from blunders during buildup play. Goal #2 in particular was a howler that you just can’t give up.

Surprisingly, even though Iraq lost by a big scoreline, they did a decent job of curtailing France in the first half. The one goal conceded was from a left footed screamer by Kylian Mbappé, but otherwise they held firm defensively and even had a few bright moments during buildup (before the wheels came off later on). The worries about playing Mbappé as the starting striker popped up once again during the first half, with France producing very little.

How much France will go for it in their final group match versus Norway will be interesting. Both teams are on 6 points (France hold the superior goal difference), and the winner of the group will have a date with Germany in the round of 16 should both teams take care of business. For now, Mbappé is scoring at a frightening rate as France continues to chug along in the World Cup. —MM

Sloppy Senegal punished by Norway

This was expected to be the most evenly-matched contest of the day, and while it turned out to be an entertaining game in bursts, it didn’t quite live up to expectations in terms of quality.

Senegal grew into keeping some more possession and territory after an equal start, but they couldn’t really find a way through the Norwegian low block. The Europeans also left something to be desired with their final balls as they looked to pose a threat on the break, and did little with settled possession for the first half an hour or so.

The match started to open up before half-time, with the better chances falling to Norway. Martin Ødegaard had a close-range effort blocked by Édouard Mendy, but found a way past soon thereafter as a howler from Kalidou Koulibaly presented the substitute with a golden opportunity.

Senegal could have been two down at the break after Erling Haaland closed down another keeper with frightening speed, but this time he had to finish and ended up hitting the post from a somewhat tight angle. The superstar striker did not falter with the second big chance he got, clinically converting a counter quickly after half-time to put his side in a commanding position.

Ståle Solbakken’s side dropped back once again but were quickly opened up this time by a well-worked move that ended in Ismaïla Sarr finishing past the keeper while falling over. Haaland restored the two-goal cushion within five minutes with a deft first-time finish, and only one result looked likely from thereon. Sarr eventually got his second in stoppage time, but it was too little too late.

On the whole, this wasn’t a particularly impressive performance from either side. Senegal were subpar in most departments, leaving themselves in need of a big win against Iraq. Norway, on the other hand, benefitted from errors more than imposing their superiority. They certainly showed why even the big teams should be scared of their counterattacking threat, but whether their defence can hold firm enough against better attacks in the knockouts remains to be seen. —NS

Mahrez changes the game for Algeria

When it comes to Algeria's win over Jordan, much will be made about Riyad Mahrez, who was dropped by Vladimir Petkovic in his side's opener against Argentina. You can see the logic: speed on the break and in pressing/counter-pressing situations would probably be more routinely useful against the reigning World Cup champions than a wide playmaker who arguably runs less than ever.

Nevertheless, Petkovic was criticized online, and, per Fox's Jacqui Oatley, jeered during the introductions at Levi's Stadium. However logical it was to save Mahrez for two more winnable group games, you can forgive fans from wanting to see their side take chances at 0-0 rather than when already down 2-0.

Mahrez certainly made his mark in this game, with an assist on Algeria's equalizer, but the key to this game wasn't necessarily just plugging Mahrez in and letting him rip. Rather, Mahrez got to be the center of attacking gravity, while those around him worked relentlessly to give him options to pass to and combine with.

Ibrahim Maza pulled towards Mahrez from the no. 10 spot, while Rafik Belghali relentlessly overlapped. In the first half, Hicham Boudaoui was quite sharp in finding pockets inside of Mahrez, playing combinations to get behind the Jordanian back five. Petkovic gave the Nice midfielder and the less effective Ramiz Zerrouki the hook at halftime, with Nabil Bentaleb inserted as a lone 6 who routinely dropped between the center backs to further free Belghali and Rayan Aït-Nouri to stretch the field horizontally.

With the 4-2-3-1 chosen from the start and a 4-3-3 in the second half, one thing didn't change: Algeria were heavily right-sided, choosing to gamble it all on getting Mahrez his touches in high-leverage areas:

Credit Jordan — who per FIFA have three of the top 23 players in terms of raw distance covered, and four of the top 28 in high-speed runs — for working relentlessly to make this difficult, but eventually Algeria's field tilt and proficiency on dead balls paid off. Mahrez got his assist on a precise corner shortly before being subbed off, and Amine Gouiri's winner came in similar fashion.

It's all set up a bizarre finale in Group J, where Argentina-Jordan is a dead rubber while Austria-Algeria is a pure battle for 2nd place…or to avoid 2nd place, since that's the path to a likely round of 32 clash with Spain. It's gonna get weird. —JA

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