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Endgame

I'm huddled in my man cave again. Just me, two bottles of Old Speckled  Hen (one for each half), and the World Cup final. It is already a belter, with Croatia looking good in their gorgeous kit. As I type, VAR is making a dramatic return with Perisic's handball being reviewed by the ref.  And whilst it is borderline harsh, I think the ref has got the penalty call right. Perisic is rarely unaware of what he is doing, a wily and brilliant pro - so I'm pretty certain he batted that one away. Minutes before he scored a cracking equalising goal, a reminder of the positivity, directness and sheer will that set him and his midfield colleagues apart from England the other night.

With three goals already, the final is looking like a fitting symbol of the tournament as a whole. The whole thing has just been excellent; the best I can remember in entertainment terms. Normally speaking, if some big teams get knocked out, the tournament suffers as a result. Not so this time - with big teams only making way to better or more in-form ones. I guess the best barometer is that even Sweden and Switzerland were entertaining in their own way; and that really is saying something.

I think France will see this one out, Mbappe now has a chance to exploit any gaps that Croatia leave as they chase the game.

A few random musings to sign out:

BBC or ITV: I've sided with the BBC for this one, but I'm not entirely sure why in truth. I think I am punishing ITV for their terrible record in covering England games, because actually BBC really wind me up - over VAR in particular, where they seem to overly dwell and criticise decisions, often as if they have scripted rants prepared and then trotted out irrespective of context. I'd rather they respected that subjective calls will remain so, only better informed by replay technology. I get it - this afternoon's call was massively marginal, but I'd rather a ref had a chance to see it 4 or 5 times and make a call than just making a call and hoping for the best.


Fan violence: And what of the violence (or lack of it)? Admittedly I am pretty much a news recluse these days. I gave up watching the news for the same reason I gave up watching Eastenders, too fucking depressing. But even still, I have seen so very little aggro. Why is this I wonder - Russian media control? A nation that instils so much fear that even our most aggressive 'fans' stayed away? Or just a clean World Cup? Time will tell as the fans make their way home. It could just as much be the fact that England gave our fans something positive to focus upon and a healthy dose of hope. Whatever it is or was, it has been surprising to us all - and Russia should take a bow for putting on such an amazing tournament. On this basis, there might even be hope for Qatar yet.

Management styles: I threatened to write about this earlier in the tournament and didn't. And I'll spare you all the long version now, but suffice to say that one significant element of my job is to 'make the world of work a better place'. It's an actual thing and it brings me into conflict with management continually, because they typically just want to push people as hard as they can, irrespective of the underlying system's conduciveness to success, to get results. To me this represents a massive parrallel with the England experience. We normally have an overpaid manager, a squad of players ill-suited to one another and the system we play, an atmosphere of distrust in the squad  and a lack of respect in both directions between fans and players. Southgate has somehow managed to unravel that tangled ball of wool, and by living the essential value of 'not being a dick', he has made the England World Cup experience better. I salute him for this and hope he sees through this attitudinal revolution.

A big thanks to Stevie C: I've enjoyed the blogging, as I do for every World Cup on here (and of course the Euros over on our sister blog http://euroblabber.blogspot.com/). I particularly love the fact that Stevie and I forge a virtual synergy every other year, based around a shared passion. His posts always make me laugh, impress me with his recall (or research!?) and they also always seem to be perfectly timed, taking the pressure off on days where the keyboard and I are not seeing eye-to-eye. Stevie - you are the Modric to my Rakatic, the Umtiti to my Varane - cheers fella.

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