WCS 07 16 26

Welcome to the underdog World Cup show from underdog podcasts. I'm Chris Horvidell and every day during the tournament, we're breaking down the matches, the moments, the teams under pressure and the games coming next. This is the underdog World Cup show. Welcome to the underdog World Cup show. I'm Chris Horvidell. Argentina is heading back to the World Cup final and England is going to spend a very long time thinking about seven minutes in Atlanta. England led Wednesday's semifinal with five minutes remaining. By the time stoppage time began, Argentina had equalized. Lionel Messi had created the winning goal and the defending champions were preparing for a Sunday meeting with Spain. For a matchup of two world class teams, this one did take a little while to resemble soccer. The first half featured 19 fouls, two yellow cards and zero shots on target. It was intense. It was physical and it occasionally looked like both teams had agreed that creating chances was optional as long as everybody kept running into each other. But England finally broke through in the 55th minute. Declan Rice started the move with a clever flick into space. Morgan Rodgers drove down the right and sent the ball across the face of the goal and Anthony Gordon arrived to finish past Emiliano Martinez. It was Gordon's third goal of the tournament and it gave England exactly the kind of situation Thomas Tuchel would have wanted. A lead, space to counter and Argentina needing to take greater risks. Instead, England slowly gave the match away. Gordon was removed for Ezri Cansa, Rhys James came off for Dan Byrne, Rice was replaced by Nico O'Reilly and England finished with five defenders protecting the penalty area. The idea was understandable. Argentina had started sending cross after cross into the box and Tuchel wanted additional size. The problem was that England removed nearly every available outlet at the same time. From Gordon's goal until Argentina's winner, a span of 37 minutes, England had possession only 12% of the time. Harry Kane became isolated, Jude Bellingham rarely received the ball facing forward and England stopped giving Argentina any reason to defend cautiously. Lionel Messi kept pulling towards the right side and asking the same question until England finally ran out of answers. In the 85th minute, Argentina took a quick corner, Messi worked the ball back towards Enzo Fernandez and Fernandez bent in a brilliant strike beyond Jordan Pickford from outside the penalty area. That made it 1-1. Argentina had spent a half hour pushing England backwards so the equalizer didn't feel like a sudden twist, it felt like a logical conclusion of everything happening on the field. Then, in the second minute of stoppage time, Messi received the ball on the right and delivered a perfect cross through the 6-yard area. Lataro Martinez separated from the defenders and powered his header past Pickford. Two Argentina goals in 7 minutes, England went from being 5 minutes away from its first men's World Cup final since 1966 to preparing for Saturday's third place match against France. Argentina came into the tournament with the third best odds to win the whole thing behind France and Spain. France is gone, Argentina has survived four consecutive knockout matches that became uncomfortable, and now it has one more opportunity to become the first men's repeat World Cup champion since Brazil in 1962. Messi didn't score against England, but he assisted both goals. He now has 8 goals and 4 assists at this World Cup, giving him the golden boot lead over Kylian Mbappe on the assist tiebreaker. Mbappe also has 8 goals and France's third place game means the race is very much still alive. Messi's also up to 21 career World Cup goals and he's now one victory away from lifting the trophy for a second time at age 39. Argentina's route to the final hasn't been smooth. It needed extra time three times during the knockout stage, they trailed Egypt by two goals, needed a late breakthrough against the 10-men Switzerland side, and it was 5 minutes away from elimination against England. But that's also part of what makes this group so tough to beat. Argentina doesn't require control for an entire match, it stays emotionally connected, keeps Messi involved and trusts that one decisive sequence will eventually come. Wednesday gave us two. For England, the tournament ends with a familiar kind of pain. Kane and Bellingham entered the semifinal with 6 goals each, but neither seriously influenced the final half hour. England had enough talent on the field to attack Argentina after taking the lead, but it chose survival before the match had actually reached a survival stage. Tuchel admitted afterward that England became too passive. That's going to become the defining argument around this loss, whether the substitutions caused England to retreat or whether the retreat had already began and the substitutions simply failed to stop it. Either way, England has to play France and Miami on Saturday. There's no World Cup games today or Friday, so both losing semifinalists get two days to recover before the third place match. These games are difficult to project because motivation and lineup rotation matter as much as tactics. France may give opportunities to players who didn't start the semifinal. England could do the same after a physical and emotionally draining loss, but the match does carry real importance in the golden boot race. Mbappe has 8 goals, Kane and Bellingham have 6 each, Ousmane Dembele also has 6. Goals in the third place match count towards the award, so lucky rebels should have an interesting collection of scorer markets once the lineups become clear. Then, Sunday gives us Argentina against Spain in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Spain have conceded only one goal in 7 matches and just shut out France 2-0. Argentina, on the other hand, have scored 19 goals and found ways to survive every kind of game this tournament has produced. The central question is whether Argentina can play without the ball for extended stretches without allowing Spain to suffocate the match. Rodri and Pedri will try to control possession. Laminha Mall is going to attack Argentina's left side. Mikel Oriazabal enters with 5 goals. Argentina will want to make this game uncomfortable. They're going to want to disrupt Spain's rhythm and create opportunities for Messi between Spain's midfield and defense. Then there's also the golden ball conversation. With Mbappe out of championship contention and Messi producing two semifinal assists, Sunday may decide that award as clearly as it decides the championship. A Spain win would complete one of the best defensive tournament runs we have ever seen. For Argentina, a win would give Messi a second consecutive World Cup and place this team alongside a very small group of nations that have successfully defended the title. It's a final that also has people making last-minute plans for the New York area, which naturally brings me to Airbnb. When a trip comes together quickly, Airbnb can help find a place that works for the people you're traveling with instead of forcing everybody into the same standard setup. Take a look at Airbnb while planning your summer travel. That'll do it for today. I'm Chris Horvidell. We'll talk to you soon.