Kylian Mbappe is the top scorer in the World Cup now and is the top scorer in the tournament, surpassing Lionel Messi with his two goals. England lost 6-4 in the third place match on Saturday. But there must be an asterisk. Let’s be honest about these third-place games — they’re as useful as a surfboard in Nebraska. The third place football game really gives you “glory” that no one ever cares about or remembers. It’s a stage above a glittering friendly and a few stages below a Club World Cup final. Quick, who played in the 2006 World Cup third place match? Time out. It was Germany vs. Portugal, but you didn’t know that.
In England’s 6-4 win over France on Saturday, Mbappe took his World Cup tally to 22, surpassing Lionel Messi’s 21, in a game where the defense was decidedly his own. He also became the first player since Gerd Muller in 1970 to reach double goals in a single World Cup, finishing the tournament with 10. These are the two greatest goalscoring records in a game, and Mbappe held them both on the same afternoon, in a game that decided nothing but who would stand a little higher on the podium and nobody wanted to be in first place.
Of course, France did not lose in the group stage, round of 32, round of 16 or in the quarterfinals, but Les Bleus lost in the semi-finals, 2-0 to Spain, in a game where Mbappe did not get a sniff. The favorites to win it all were humbled, produced from nothing and had to be sent packing.
Under the normal rules of the game, that loss should have ended his tournament. Everywhere in the bracket, one loss in the knockout rounds means you go home. Lose in the round of 16 and your world cup is over. They lost in the quarterfinals, same thing. Lost in the semi-finals, and suddenly there was a bonus game, played 72 hours later, against another team that had just lost. Title match for losers, successfully. The Copa America has made every show since 1993, and all I remember is Lionel Messi and Gary Medel’s near misses. The UEFA European Championship was established in 1980, which is one of the many things Europe does best.
I get it — the Olympics still play for the bronze medal, and that makes sense in the world if medals are everything. FIFA has certainly heard the requests for it to be abolished because no one concerned is taking it as what they did in the semi-finals in which they were recently defeated. The coaches go around all the teams. The stars sit out completely (enjoy the show, Harry Kane?), and the coaches make decisions they normally don’t. Didn’t you see Thomas Tuchel not back off and bring on Dan Burn?
Compare that to an Olympic bronze medal match. Boxers and wrestlers empty the tank in the third place because it is a real medal, hanging around your neck, in your eternal record. Meanwhile, Dean Henderson goes 90 minutes here.
Look, Mbappe deserves everything he has done in the World Cup before this. But this record is built in part on a game that the game itself seems to be in disbelief.
Maybe it’s time for FIFA to rethink. But it won’t. There is money for them and the host city, and if you haven’t read by now, that’s all that matters. The game? It’s the second time.
Mbappe got two more games to score goals that the loser in the quarterfinals, like Erling Haaland, doesn’t get. Doubling the stats in an existing game because two teams aren’t enough sounds like another bad option to pursue, but it’s not the only one.
This World Cup has brought a bit of “Americanization” to the world game, whether we like it or not. On Sunday, we will have to sit down the first ever World Cup halftime show. The winners to get championship rings.
Can you imagine the NFL or the College Football Playoff having a third place game?
Tom Brady, Nick Saban — time to call.
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