The football (soccer) thread

[Madiel]

I noticed that there will be a match to determine third place on Saturday.  A couple of questions about this:  do many people normally attend this match?  And also, does the winner of this round and the finalist on Sunday receive any sort of awards and/or prize money?

As an aside, I was surprised to read about the mess up between Morocco and Qatar regarding extra flights and apparently also conflicting news sources re free tickets.  A lot of upset and disappointed fans. 

PD

The third place match has largely lost its meaning. It used to be that the top 3 teams automatically qualified for the next tournament, so there was a good incentive to finish 3rd rather than 4th. But now it's a bit redundant.

Mind you, the pressure being off can mean some good football.

Yes there is prize money. But 3rd versus 4th doesn't make much difference in the scheme of things.https://sports.yahoo.com/world-cup-prize-money-table-165437791.html

[vandermolen]

I noticed that there will be a match to determine third place on Saturday.  A couple of questions about this:  do many people normally attend this match?  And also, does the winner of this round and the finalist on Sunday receive any sort of awards and/or prize money?

As an aside, I was surprised to read about the mess up between Morocco and Qatar regarding extra flights and apparently also conflicting news sources re free tickets.  A lot of upset and disappointed fans. 

PD

As Madiel says PD, it's a bit of a non-event but I think that the 3rd place team receive a medal.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

The third place match has largely lost its meaning. It used to be that the top 3 teams automatically qualified for the next tournament, so there was a good incentive to finish 3rd rather than 4th. But now it's a bit redundant.

Mind you, the pressure being off can mean some good football.

Yes there is prize money. But 3rd versus 4th doesn't make much difference in the scheme of things.https://sports.yahoo.com/world-cup-prize-money-table-165437791.html

As Madiel says PD, it's a bit of a non-event but I think that the 3rd place team receive a medal.

Wow, that's a lot of moolah involved!  I suspect that the coaches and trainers, etc., also get some sort of bonus/cut out of it?

And how has things changed with regard to the third place and qualifying (Madiel said tournment.  By that do you mean next world cup or another event before then?).

PD

[Jo498]

There is a pre-tournament qualifying round for everyone. Even the defending champion has to qualify now, the only auto-qualified team is the host nation. Surprises in qualifying are rare but do happen, e.g. Italy missed this time and it also had happened to the Netherlands for the 2002 event (which spawned abundant Schadenfreude in German boulevard press, TV etc. "Ohne Holland fahrn wir zur WM").

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification

[Pohjolas Daughter]

There is a pre-tournament qualifying round for everyone. Even the defending champion has to qualify now, the only auto-qualified team is the host nation. Surprises in qualifying are rare but do happen, e.g. Italy missed this time and it also had happened to the Netherlands for the 2002 event (which spawned abundant Schadenfreude in German boulevard press, TV etc. "Ohne Holland fahrn wir zur WM").

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification

Thanks for the info and link Jo! 

PD

[springrite]

I noticed that there will be a match to determine third place on Saturday.  A couple of questions about this:  do many people normally attend this match?  And also, does the winner of this round and the finalist on Sunday receive any sort of awards and/or prize money?

As an aside, I was surprised to read about the mess up between Morocco and Qatar regarding extra flights and apparently also conflicting news sources re free tickets.  A lot of upset and disappointed fans. 

PD

Well, the only World Cup match I ever watched was the (meaningless) third place match in 1994 between Sweden and Bulgaria in the Rose Bowl. The tickets were only $10 and I bought 12 tickets to treat many friends.
We were in the front row, between the corner flag and the goal. We'd have the perfect view for attacking plays and goals at this end.

 In the first half, Sweden scored 4 goals, at THE OTHER END. Bulgaria hardly ventured into our end. The Swedish keeper was so bored, he talked to us and even did handstands to amuse the audience and himself. In short, WE SAW NO FOOTBALL.

We hoped that we'd see more action in the second half after the two teams switched ends. However, since Sweden was already 4 goals up, THEY STOPPED ATTACKING! Again, WE SAW NO FOOTBALL!

Anyway, to summarize my World Cup experience: I saw NOTHING.
Well, nothing except the handstands by the Swedish Keeper.

[Madiel]

Well for a match that supposedly doesn't mean much, the Moroccans got rather worked up in the second half.

[Florestan]

Don't know what happened to France but they are a pale shadow of their former self. Not that I mind it, Messi really deserves to win his last WC match and his last WC. Go, Argentina!

[Lisztianwagner]

France has tied, 2-2, incredible!

[Florestan]

Yes, unbelievable. Two goals in two minutes after they had been playing nothing for 80 minutes. That's the beauty of this game.

[Florestan]

Penalty kicks! What a crazy match to end a crazy WC! I love it.

[Lisztianwagner]

Yes, spectacular!! Let's follow the penalty kicks now....

[LKB]

Argentina have won. 

[Florestan]

Bravo, Argentina! Bravo, France! A fantastic match, one of the best finals I've ever watched (I watch the WC since 1982). All things considered, Argentina deserves it, Messi deserves it. Congratulations!

And thus ends WC '23, a spectacular one.

[Brian]

Bravo, Argentina! Bravo, France! A fantastic match, one of the best finals I've ever watched (I watch the WC since 1982). All things considered, Argentina deserves it, Messi deserves it. Congratulations!

And thus ends WC '23, a spectacular one.

Truly spectacular, one of the best matches I've ever seen. A real emotional ride, so many great moments for individual players, changes of momentum. Thrilling!

[Papy Oli]

Good game, good game...probably fair overall 

It's been a little bit stressful, not gonna lie   

Merci les Bleus.

Good night 

[Jo498]

Yes, it was deserved. I would have become mad if France had won in the penalties because Argentina was superior during the main match. The three in-game penalties were all for rather soft offenses, especially the "elbow-ball" of the last one.*
Sure, it was great how France got back into the game but they were mostly very disappointing in the first hour.

*This is almost impossible to solve. Penalties should be very rare because there are so few goals in soccer and half of the goals in a match resulting from penalties should almost never occur. On the other hand, if one lets players off with too much, it will be advantage for the more brutal or ruthless team.

[Herman]

It was an incredible rollercoaster.

I was rooting for the French...

[Madiel]

Well that was epic.

All the penalties were legitimate I think (certainly our local commentators thought so). The comeback was astonishing, even given how many times this tournament Argentina had lost its grip on a game. And then they recovered. And then France equalised AGAIN.

Certainly the kind of match you want in a final. But in the end, the fairytale came true. Messi's trophy cabinet is completed.

[Herman]

It's interesting (to me) how this World Cup story has been told, and how totally different the story is from what it used to be in the past.
It was all about Messi.
The WC trophy was on Messi's bucket list (a concept that didn't really exist, say, twenty years ago), he had a right to the trophy.
If by some stroke of bad luck he had not won, I don't know what would have happened.
There has been some pretty bad losership and even bad winnership at these games (the stuff at the end of Argentine - Netherlands).
The whole concept of humility in winning is a thing of the past, or so it seems.