ARGENTINA WINS! ARGENTINA WINS! ARGENTINA WINS!!

It has been very difficult to write this blog because I cant get my fingers to type fast enough to show all of you how we feel in this household.

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Sorry, this will happen a lot while I type this blog up which is taking me way too long to type because I just cant get my thoughts straight. THERE IS JUST TOO MUCH TO WRITE!

The History!

Firstly, I need to talk about my Dad! He is one reason I fell in love with the beautiful game. We had many arguments on and off the field about how we played or how the teams we cheered for played. Dad was a Brazil fan (probably still is and brainwashed my sister, Noni, to be one as well) but because we liked jawing at each other I cheered for Argentina. Sticking to my guts I cheered for them in 1986. I was 10 when Maradona won the 1986 world cup, especially to move forward on the tournament with the Hand of God goal (sorry Shamir, it will always be historic). This win basically sealed the deal with me to be an Argentina fan for life. It was incredible at the time where we all would play soccer and pretended to be like Maradona and trying to juggle with untied shoelaces. We fell flat on our faces a ton! In 1990 when we lost against Germany (West Germany at the time), my dad was suddenly a Germany fan too. I came to realize that all Brazil fans will always cheer against Argentina no matter what. For the last 36 years, every world cup has been excruciating especially when I was actually in Brazil 2014 and to lose in the finals against Germany (AGAIN!!). When Messi was 12 years old, I told Arifa, "watch out for this kid, he is going to be something!" and she responded with "soccer sucks!". Fast forward to today and she pretty much watched every world cup game and was all in on the family world cup pool and wanted to win as bad as Messi wanted to win! It only took 25 years!

The Road to the Final!

We started the group stages not really well with getting embarrassed by Saudi. The amount of grilling I got from everyone was just insane. One it was definitely embarrassing and I really had no words but to claim that this World Cup has a lot of talented teams and expect upsets. Which I had said in my first blog for this World Cup. On the other side, I was actually impressed how many people knew to check in on me to see if I was ok (nope! to gloat obviously) and I also appreciate all those who know I am a die hard Argentina fan :) I decided to make a bold move to not wear the 2022 Argentina Jersey from that day on game days and wear my oldest jersey from the 2006 World Cup in Germany where we lost to Germany in the Quarter Finals! (UGH!). That seemed to have changed their luck (yes! i didn’t wash it until after the finals) and go on to beat Mexico, Poland and Australia to get through the Round of 16. In the Quarters they go on to play Netherlands, who I watched in World Cup 2014 in Brazil which went to shootout and Romero was the hero! Once again Argentina gave up the lead with a ton of controversy around this game. Never have I seen Messi so emotional against a team in this game. There were stories about Riquleme's time in Barcelona with Netherlands coach Louis Van Gaal. The reffing was atrocious against both teams, yet an Argentina goalie, Emi "Dibu" Martinez, comes out a hero again for us. This put us in the semis against a very stingy Croatian team led my Modric.

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I kept thinking that Modric has everything in him to put up the best World Cup for himself since he hasn't won and has come really close to winning like Messi. We will be getting a very strong game from them BUT Argentina came up with a very good tactical plan to drive through their defenders and breaking their trap which was the opposite of what Brazil was doing with all the passing. It was a commanding win by Argentina that put us in the Finals against France. A special mention to Morocco for being the HEART of this World Cup. They put together the best run by an African team that we are all proud of and hope to build on their success with other nations looking at that as the next bar.

The Final!

We couldn't be more excited about this game than anyone else in the world. Both my boys cheer for Argentina so I was able to brainwash them better than my dad was able to brainwash me (LOL). I continue to brainwash other people and their kids to become Argentina fans as well, SORRY NOT SORRY! My older sister, Zemeen, being the only one cheering for Argentina in the Dosani house is pretty awesome too :) The game started off with some epic runs by Di Maria who was a constant threat on the left wing. He got us the first penalty with Dembele giving up a penalty and Messi tucking that away nicely. Messi becomes the first to score a goal in every stage of World Cup! Then Di Maria finishes a beautiful flick from Messi to Mac Allister to Di Maria to finish a beautiful sequence of passes in the back of the net. We are now going into the second half and we can all feel the win here. Then they pulled out Di Maria to put Acuna and in a flash that threat was gone. Personally should have kept him till the 75th mark or so to continue the threat even though he was starting to not come back. It would have kept France honest. Then comes Otamendi, as I have said before who always has at least one boneheaded play in the game which turns into a penalty that Mbappe finishes. You can see that gave life to France. and within 90 seconds they equalize! The idea to remove Di Maria and perhaps bringing a guy like Lisandro Martinez - "The Butcher" for Otamendi should have been the right move. This went into extra time where both teams traded on some really good chances. Messi gets one at the doorstep to get a goal to put us up 3-2 with a shot from Lautaro Martinez that rebounds to Messi's feet. With the offside flag up and I could see the green "Goal" image on the refs watch, we knew this was a goal!

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But sure enough we France gets a penalty on a blocked shot by Montiel. We later see that there was a handball in the box from the corner which should have been called and that penalty given to Mbappe should have never happened. One chance that it would have been game over for Argentina was when there were seconds left in ET to go to shootout and Emi Martinez makes a historic leg save on Kolo Muani with a breakdown in defense, note that it was Otamendi's guy to cover (ugh). We end up going to penalty shootout Mbappe and Messi trade goals with Messi calmly tucking it by Lloris. "Dibu" gets into Koman's head and saves a penalty! Dybala who had come in at the 121st minute takes the penalty and rips right through the middle! Then Tchouameni goes and by this "Dibu" is totally in their head and he misses the net entirely!! Paredes comes in and finishes his shot cleanly. Kolo Muani comes in and tucks it into the net which Emi Martinez almost got to it as well. Finally comes Montiel whose handball in the extra-time (which shouldn't have been a penalty because of the handball in the box) gave up the tying goal. Here he is now to score and that would win the World Cup for Argentina! The PRESSURE! He puts it away from Lloris and wins it!! ARGENTINA WINS! ARGENTINA WINS! ARGENTINA WINS!! This was the best team for Messi where had lot of support from various players who really impressed the world compared to 2014, when Messi had to carry the whole team. Players like Alvarez, Fernanadez, Mac Allister, Paredes, De Paul, all the Martinezs... all stood out. What was most important to see Messi become a playmaker and once in a while he can dial it back as Gvardiol found out the hard way :)

We will be champs for 4 years and we hope to be back in the final when the tournament comes to US/Canada/Mexico in 2026! I hope Messi comes back for one more as a bench player to play a few minutes here and there and be more of a voice in the room and when needed available to torch it up!

This is the sequence of how things went in the Nathooligans household that I posted on Instagram. ENJOY!

The World Cup Pool - Nathooligans Challenge!

Here are our top 10 finishers and huge Congratulations to Naaz Nathoo to finish first, I mean of course you finished at the top, you are a Nathooligan!! It makes sense a fellow Nathooligan won! An honorary mention to Koosoo (almost 2yo) and Zizi (10 yo) really making a push for it. Arifa gets a wins against me so now apparently I dont know anything about soccer because she beat me by 2 points, this is the same person that said soccer sucks!