It All Comes Down to This

Eden Hazard finishes off his excellent World Cup with a goal

Earlier today, Belgium beat England to claim the bronze medals in this year's World Cup.  Belgium scored in the fourth minute on a play that demonstrated how dangerous excellent forward passing with great movement off the ball can be.  The ball was sent long by their goalie, Thibaut Courtois, to the midfield line where Nasser Chadli headed it to Romalu Lukaku.  After heading, Chadli raced down the field. Lukaku controlled the ball and took a few steps forward before sending a perfectly weighted pass to the streaking Chadli in the corner.  Chadli immediately crossed to Thomas Meunier who beat his man to the ball in front of the goal and scored.  The ball traveled about 95 meters in 10 seconds.  Direct, efficient, ruthless, 1 - 0 before England knew what hit them.  After that, Belgium were happy to give England a lot of possession because when they won the ball back, it was full speed ahead with their incisive passing to cut open England's defense.  Lukaku had a chance to overtake Harry Kane and win the Golden Boot today, but he wasted two or three great opportunities in the first half and early in the second half.  When he was subbed off the field in the 78th minute the lethargic and mostly anonymous Harry Kane was essentially given the Golden Boot, even though he has done very little since England's group stage match against Panama.  England did create some chances, but Belgium always seemed to be in control.  Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne were always threatening to make the perfect pass to Lukaku or score on their own, but it took until the 82nd minute for Hazard to finally put the English away.  This time it was De Bruyne who made the pass to Hazard who got behind England's defense and easily dribbled at their helpless goalie before smashing it home.

Belgium's to 2 - 0 victory over England was the perfect result for Kelley.  Her rival for the BISERGS crown, Rick, has both teams in the final, but it is Kelley that will start tomorrow with a slim 1.88 point lead.  That means that if Croatia wins, Kelley wins, if France wins, Rick wins.  There are two exceptions to the simple outcomes above.  First (not that unlikely), if the game is still tied after 120 minutes and goes to penalty kicks, Rick will be awarded a tie for the eventual losing team (3 points in the final).  That would mean that Rick would win the BISERGS even if France lost the penalty kicks.  The other way Rick could win (very unlikely) is if France looses but they score a lot of goals.  For example, a Croatia 5 - 4 victory would mean Rick wins the BISERGS or a 7 - 5 Croatia victory.

A France victory, depending on the number of goals scored, could lift Dawn all the way from 7th into 2nd.  It could also move Lindsay and Krista into 5th and 6th place and Sharleen into 9th.  A Croatia win would have very little impact on the leader board, since five of the top six have Croatia as one of their teams.  A Croatia victory would move Lisa back ahead of Gray, who passed her with Belgium's victory today.

As for the game on the pitch, I'm hoping this will be a great one.  France are the favorites to win, but

Kylian Mbappe's speed and skill has been the individual story
of the tournament and made Neymar, Messi and Ronaldo's
exits seem like no big loss.  A French victory in the Final
could make him a legend before his 20th birthday.

Croatia has been overcoming obstacles for the entire month and doesn't mind the underdog label at all.  France is disciplined and very fast with tons of talented players that can change the game in a heartbeat.  Croatia is tenacious and works together as a collective unit in a way that has been impossible for their opponents to overcome.  France has won five games and drawn one this summer.  Croatia has not lost yet, but they have been pushed to the brink three times in a row.  In the knockout stage they've won on penalty kicks twice and in their other match they had to go an extra thirty minutes before finishing England off.  In fact, in the three knockout games, Croatia has played a combined 90 extra minutes.  That adds up to an entire match more than the French have played in the last three games.  Will all of those extra minutes and the emotional stress of such close matches catch up to them in the final or will it give them the further belief as a unit that they can overcome anything and do it one more time.  We'll all be watching to find out, but none of us more closely than Kelley and Rick.