YouTube Gold: Argentina’s Astonishing Comeback

First things first: we didn’t watch the whole match, so while Egypt made its anger clear about calls and non-calls, we don’t have an opinion on that here. Did they get bad calls?

Maybe. Couldn’t say.

The key thing though is that Argentina, down 2-0, scored three goals after the 78-minute mark, and whatever complaints Egypt has about FIFA, FIFA wasn’t the goalkeeper who let those three goals in.

That would be Mostafa Shobeir, and when you look at what Argentina did, he was the last line of defense, and he failed three times late in the match.

Goal : a near-perfect header by  Cristian Romero in the 79th minute. Shobeir got a glove on it, but it slipped past.

Goal : Julian Alvarez made a brilliant pass to Messi (83rd minute). As far as we’ve watched, that was the best pass of the World Cup. Alvarez knew where Messi was and dropped the ball to him in perfect position for him to attack the goal. There was not one millisecond of wasted motion by either player. Magic Johnson would be proud of that pass. You couldn’t have possibly done it better.

Again, Shobeir made contact, but did not stop the goal.

Goal : Enzo Fernandez got another near-perfect header in the 90+3, and this time, Shobeir was nowhere near the point of attack. He fell helplessly to the ground, understandably agonizing. It’s a team game, and he could have used some help, but he’s still the last line of defense, and he let three goals through.

After the match, Egyptian manager Hossam Hassan complained bitterly that Egypt had been screwed, saying this:

“Life is unfair. The world is unfair. Okay, but why isn’t there any fairness in sports? I’m not convinced by this outcome and by the way things unfolded in this match.

“The referee is unfair, God is sufficient for me and the best disposer of affairs. He’s wasting the effort of an entire nation. The cup is directed towards Argentina.”

Not to say that we agree with him, but we can see why you might make an argument that FIFA wants Argentina to advance (Duke fans are used to this argument, unfortunately). He’s the biggest star in the game, and having him around is good for business. Fine. It’s not a crazy argument by any means.

However, there is nothing FIFA could do to force Shobeir to miss three blocks in the closing minutes. There was no way for FIFA to force the Argentines to hit two brilliant headers into the net, and there is certainly no way for FIFA to manipulate the game to let Alvarez give Messi an unspeakably perfect, soft setup for his flawless goal.

However Argentina got those opportunities, they absolutely made the most of them, and Egypt, despite stalwart goaltending for most of the tournament, could not stop them.

Whatever beef the Pharaohs may have with FIFA, their real problem was their defense collapsed.

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