The final countdown

Eight years ago, after leading an entire team to the final of the FIFA World Cup, a 113th minute shocker from Germany turned the Albiceleste camp and their captain gravely silent. If not anything, the image that stayed back with every football lover is that of this diminutive captain walking past the coveted holy grail, no remnants of the usual smile on his face, trying to come in terms with the burden of a loss, in a career that has blessed him with everything barring this sole streak of glory.

Eight years down the line, this very captain braces himself up to set foot on the pitch again at the same stage. Not as a relic of the past, but still as the captain of the footballing nation, with a similar head full of dreams, this man has a score to settle, now that he stands on the cusp of glory, yet again. The following 90 minutes of his career will probably be the one to define his dance, which has seen glory of all sorts, but this solitary title. Leo Messi, an embodiment of the collective imagination and dreams of the world, walks into the Lusail Stadium, with a bearded face, trimmed hair, a body that will probably speak of age, but the unflinching eyes fixated on the bewitching trophy. With five goals and four assists in this tournament itself, at the age of 35, the man plays his final international match this evening, bringing the opera to a climactic close.

Everything about Leo Messi’s 2014 campaign was just individually operatic. However, 2022 has made Argentina dream differently, with every player donning the colours, prepared to go out there, fight for him and seal the deal for a player who continues to be stapled to tags of comparison every time there is an opportunity. Being Leo Messi has never been easy, and neither will this very final evening be. Leading from the front, Messi has been the loudest voice in the dressing room, an outspoken aggressive representative during the game, the roaring captain on the greens and yet rooted in the very minimalistic cadence of his game. Much like a painting. This evening will certainly not qualify a career that has been dotted with accolades, but more important, one that has accommodated the vulnerability of a poet facing himself, cascading through time. And between Leo Messi and the coveted grail stands the defending champions, whose plan to defend the title will need 90 more minutes.

France has been moving the ball around with unparalleled fluency, basing it all around the spurt of one single lad. Twenty-three years behind him, he already has nine goals in the World Cup, five in the edition already. Labelled smug, overrated and incapable of functioning in a team, Kylian Mbappe hears all of that and delivers the answers on the pitch. Darting through the right flank, cutting in, shuttling out, and cutting again, before belting one into the net, Kylian Mbappe is stardust — a cheat-code that can alter the dynamic of the games in a snap. When the whistle goes off at the Lusail tonight, it will not be friends morphing into foes, but two mavericks at opposite ends of the spectrum of legacy, reading the game in hand. A gifted 23- year-old holding nerves of steel, and a man of 35 delivering and weaving magic every day are two very different stories, but of the same ink.

A face-off that promises to live for eternity, Leo Messi and Kylian Mbappe stand facing each other, armoured in their own individual brilliance, fighting two very different battles at the same war. Beyond everything banal, it is prized posterity facing off against pure potential. Aged royalty fusing into the redolence of youthful shimmer. It’s La Albiceleste against Les Blues, for the awaited shot at immortality.

Defence: Going with a back four, Achraf Hakimi holds the right flank. With pace, dribbling skills, ability to advance along the flank and fall back, Hakimi has been a propeller for the Moroccan side. The other flank has French full-back, Theo Hernandez. Fast and strong, Theo has always been noted for his advancing play, ability to find passes and operate within small spaces while having a clinical eye for goal. For the two centre halves, stand the young Croatian gun Josko Gvardiol and the veteran, Nicolas Otamendi. Gvardiol has probably been the find of the tournament, being an absolute wall, intercepting, tackling, heading and marking with enviable precision. For Otamendi, age is just a number, as he runs the drill better than most others. With the most number of long balls and short passes in the Argentine team, Otamendi has been one of the best performers of the edition.

Midfield: In a more defensive role will certainly be Moroccan defensive mid Sofyan Amrabat who has certainly had an immense tournament, being everywhere on the field, running like a machine. In the two playmaking attacking roles, will be Antoine Griezmann and Bruno Fernandes, sharing six assists between them. Griezmann has defined France’s fluency, orchestrating play and has created more chances than anybody in the tournament while Bruno was Portugal’s leading man on the pitch creatively.

Attack: With 14 goals among the three, the front three indubitably consists of Kylian Mbappe, Julian Alvarez and Lionel Messi. Mbappe has been nothing short of phenomenal operating on the right wing, assisting and scoring with similar panache. For the 22-year old Julian Alvarez, it has been a tournament to remember, having four goals to his name in his debut World Cup, it is nothing but a brilliant road ahead for the insanely clinical and energetic Alvarez. And the other person on the right, leading the team, would be Lionel Messi, standing on the top of every list again, and leading this stellar line-up with inexplicable flair.