Spain Beat France 2-0 To Reach First World Cup Final Since 2010!

Project 90 Soccer: Marco Welcome to another episode of Project Ninety. My name is Antonio and I'm here with my man, my hermano, Marco Antonio Munoz. Marco, how are you doing?

Marco: I'm doing great baby. Let's get this show on the road.

Project 90 Soccer: Let's get this show on the road. We just finished up the first semi-final, France versus Spain. And I'm gonna be completely honest, man. I am a little surprised. I'm a little surprised, maybe not so much that Spain was able to win, because I believe that it was possible, but more so surprised at sort of the lack of intensity, the lack of danger coming from the French side. It just didn't seem like today the same France team that we've been seeing showed up. Against Spain. What did you think about that?

Marco: Yeah, bro. I feel like everyone was turned off. I mean, typically these games, right, they're a little close, they're a little tight, a little bit back and forth, but nothing too crazy. But I just think Spain, they just locked them all down.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, no, I agree. And it started pretty early, right? In the twentieth minute, which Dinier I'm kinda shocked that Digne started this game for France, to be honest, knowing that he was gonna be up against Lemin. I thought they'd maybe throw in someone a little more youthful, like a Teo Hernandez, someone like that. But nonetheless, twentieth minute cross comes in and Dinier kinda tries to get under control, kinda bounces kinda weird, uses his head and then just swings for glory. And who's there anticipating that was Lemin Yamal. Got got straight. A kick straight to the midsection to the leg, went down, got a penalty, or Yarzabal finished one to zero. What did you think about maybe the starting lineup, Digne being in there for France, and just that penalty, that clearance? That was kinda that was kinda wild if you ask me from him.

Marco: Yeah, I'm right there with you. with DNA being playing playing on that side. I don't know. Maybe the champs just wanted to hold that line in the back, but clearly it didn't work. and for Digne, I also think that's a little tough luck, right? He didn't see Lamin come in. It was one of those things where he was anticipating hitting the ball. And then Lamin, right, he's quick. He got in the way and he got hit. So yeah, nothing too crazy. Kinda kinda expected that after that first PK. I mean

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm. No. Yeah.

Marco: France really couldn't react after that one.

Project 90 Soccer: No, no, it was a good PK, it was a good goal. I thought in the first, you know, twenty, thirty minutes of the game, or specifically maybe the first twenty minutes before the PK, it was kind of both teams trying to find their rhythm, trying to to settle into the game. I felt like Rabio started pretty well. He was intercepting a lot of passes. I thought he was starting to hold it down for the in the middle there for France. I was surprised though seeing Chuameny start. for France considering he had not been playing, he just came back and became available. I was expecting to see Kone in there. You know, he had been playing the previous previous game, so he did come on later in the game. But yeah, I think there were some questionable maybe starts there for France, Dinier and Chuimani in in particular. I did think that in the middle there for Spain they had Rodri obviously and You know, during this game we had two of the previous Ballond d'Or winners. We had Dembele and Roger on the field. And for Spain, I thought Roger had just a massive game, solid game there in the middle. but yeah, man, seeing seeing Truamani, seeing the center mids from France, it just the whole team today just didn't did they didn't feel like the energy was high, the team cohesion was there, the chemistry was there. They weren't really firing on all cylinders. And

Marco: Yeah.

Project 90 Soccer: You know, leading into the thirtieth minute right here was I think a big component of what led to the second goal was LaCroix was in there. He got subbed on for Saliba because he went down in the thirtieth minute. Not sure what the injury was, but how do you think that impacted France going forward? Do you think that sort of sort of exposed the back line, you know? A little bit about LaCroix who went on. He he had only played ninety minutes in this in this tournament so far, and it was only his fifth appearance for France.

Marco: Yeah, yeah.

Project 90 Soccer: For a big game in the semifinal, you think they'd go maybe with a a little more experienced, Konate or someone like that. So what did you think about that substitute and and that back line after that?

Marco: And experience. De definitely Konate. But I would like to think if Rabbiot didn't get that yellow card, maybe things would a little bit different. I mean, Spain potentially could still won, right? But you're taking out a guy that's that's pretty solid, right? yeah, he had like a a mistake earlier on with that foul, but that happens, especially when you're going for going for attack or going for a ball and when you're fighting for it for these plays. But yeah, maybe if you wanna had that yellow card and

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Marco: Des champs maybe being too cautious and took him out too early versus later on in the second half. So I think that attributed to that. But going back to you were saying, like Spain having some solid players, Roger. I actually thought Ulmo was pretty solid for the amount of time that he was there. He continues to be solid. And Cukureya was solid, bro. Cukuraya was all over the place. Potentially could have been one of Mbappes goals, right? But Cukuraya came just just in time to send it to the corner kick. So I thought he was pretty solid.

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes, he was. Yeah.

Marco: But ultimately, I don't know, Francis couldn't get anything going, Dembele couldn't get anything going, Barcola, very, very quiet. which I was actually surprised that Dua didn't start this game. I I thought the champs was gonna go all in, but I don't know, man. I don't know what was going on there.

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah, you know, and and Deschamps seems to be he took a lot of risks today, I think, you know, coming coming from the previous games, Douay's been starting, is Kone's been starting and he kind of made some big, I think, changes to the team. That yeah, maybe they're like for like substitutes in in certain ways, but I think he should have stuck with Douay, Kone, and these players, I think, just because they've been playing and it's been working for them. So it was a bit of a shock there, I think, for France. And then another shout out though for Spain. I forgot to mention this last episode when we were talking about the Spain Belgium game was their right back, Pedro Porro, right? Solid game against Belgium, solid game th playing throughout the tournament, to be completely honest. I I don't think he's too flashy of a player, but he's really getting the job done over there on the same side as Yamal. And today, obviously, he he got a goal, right? Playing it in, like you said earlier, Danny Olmo.

Marco: Mm-hmm.

Project 90 Soccer: holding the ball up, kind of doing a one-two. But that's where that substitute for France, I think, hurt them because that was LaCroix. And it seemed like as soon as Poro played that ball on to to Omo and made that run into the box, nobody tracked him. Nobody followed him. And, you know, it seemed like they were, as the English would say, sixes and sevens, right? They're a little all over the place. And he got in there, scored the second goal. And yeah, man, France though, they Plenty of chances, plenty of shots, nothing though of serious, you know, threat, in my opinion.

Marco: Well, in the first half, there was no shots on target from France side.

Project 90 Soccer: Right. Yeah.

Marco: So I just think they couldn't get out of their way, man. They're making a lot of small mistakes. They're losing the ball a lot. And then I mean, look at Manyan, dude. Many, we were talking about this World Cup not having elite goalkeepers. That would have been an elite mistake on his end. And would have been two zero earlier on. But yeah, man, they just couldn't get out of their way. And ultimately I was thinking earlier, we used to talk about the old Spain, right? Tiki Taca, right?

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Marco: off from the base coming from Barcelona with Pep Pep Bardiola, these these guys just making Spain and and football, football look beautiful. Now it's not Tikitaca. Now it's like structured. It's not fancy. at times it's boring. But every guy in that system right now in Spain has a job and they're getting it done.

Project 90 Soccer: No. Yeah, they definitely are. And we've definitely seen Spain change over the years. That twenty ten team that they had, two thousand eight, two thousand twelve, they were definitely just something special, right? They were Tiki Taca, the the possession, they were just the masters of it. And Spain now, you know, comparing them to France this tournament, I would say France has been far more solid, decisive, convincing throughout the tournament, more so than Spain, but yet Spain just has this way of just getting these wins, grinding out the victories. And you know, that's I saw a stat about this actually. Simone, big game again today, had some pretty big saves, some good moments. He kind of sketches me out sometimes. He comes out quite often, kind of throws me off sometimes when the camera moves and you see this guy's outside of the box already. And I don't know, it's just it's kind of makes me nervous, but he's the first goalkeeper, which I did not know this, to have six shutout games in a men's world cup tournament.

Marco: Well.

Project 90 Soccer: So, I mean, he's had six games, no goal scored against him. Obviously, there's more games now in this World Cup, right? There's seven, eight games. So, but but to hear that and to see how Spain, you really look back on who they've played and they have not conceded. And, you know, is that is that that to me that points to Kubarsi, who's another youngster, 19 years old. He's played every single minute for Spain this tournament. It was just huge. And then ironically, Laporte. Who was French, right? He was a a French youth international, switched over to Spain. I think they held it down today and they've been holding it down. And you know, in the final now, whether they play Argentina or England, they're gonna have to have a massive game, obviously. but coming up against the attack that France has, it kind of proved that they can pretty much handle any attack, you know, going forward.

Marco: Yeah. Yeah, and good good point because when the game was almost over, I was I was looking at that and I was looking at Laporte in particular. I'm like, this guy went from Spain. You thought he took the bag, went to the Saudi league, and you we were just gonna forget about him, but he comes back to Spain and he's a very important figure on the back line. But kudos to Roger also. You know, we I know we keep talking about him, but that guy he holds it down for them.

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: great communicator and ultimately everyone feels like they're never out of place.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. No, I agree with that. And another stat here for Spain, the longest unbeaten streak for an international team, ironically crazy enough, was Italy, right? Two thousand eighteen to twenty-one. They had thirty-seven games unbeaten, yet we couldn't qualify before or after, which is incredible. But Spain right now is sitting at thirty-six games. The final would be thirty seven, right? So not only are they going unbeaten, keep getting clean sheets, right. They're literally breaking records here at 36 games unbeaten, which is wild. Luis Delafuentes unbeaten as the head coach in competitive games. They obviously just won the Euros coming into this tournament now. Looking like, you know, depending on Argentina, England, we'll see how they play tomorrow. But they have a strong chance, I think, at winning this tournament at this point, right after today. What you think about that?

Marco: And another thing I was looking at is they don't have any quote unquote superstars outside of Lemine Guillon. Right? All these guys, I mean, Roger plays for Man City. I mean, Athletic Big Athletic Bill Bow, we got to give that team a lot of credit for what they've been doing the past couple years. I mean, they got quite a few guys on the squad. But yeah, man, no quote-unquote superstars. France was full of superstars. We kept talking about France's midfield.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Marco: How they're all solid, they're all great players, but look what happened today, man. It's this this is not an individual game. This is a cohesive game where there's gonna be games like this and everybody needs to come together.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, cool. Yeah, you know, France they they seem to fall apart. I see Cherokee come on and he's always throwing his hands up every pass that goes wrong, this and that, and just I I d you know, I got a vibe from him, just terrible attitude. I don't know if it's true. Obviously I'm not in the locker room, but the attitude he brought to the game and seeing Olisse having having the game he had today and he had a wild tackle on Roger with his like studs up, which I mean wasn't even I'm not even sure if he got a yellow card for that, to be completely honest. So

Marco: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Project 90 Soccer: That kind of falls under the category we've been talking about of just the refereeing and the VAR and all these things. Like who who knows what they're even looking at anymore. But you know, it's it's crazy to see such a strong attack, such a strong team with so much promise roll into the semifinal and kind of in a sense, I don't want to say get completely dominated, but they kinda they were dominated. You know what I mean? And and yeah, I'm the one one thing I'm

Marco: They were dominant.

Project 90 Soccer: really shocked at is just how their attack for f the attack for France was never able to just get into this game, it felt like. So I guess that's props to Spain. but again you got Mbappe, you got Duay coming on, Dembele, Olysse, you know, the list goes on and on and it just didn't it didn't work today.

Marco: Yeah. Yeah. And I I understand a lot of these powerhouse nations, right, don't aren't gonna have any adversity early on in the rounds or in the group stages. But I think that's the importance of it, of seeing the adversity early on. So not only does the manager know how to react to it, but the players as well. In France, bro, they had none of that in the early stages, the group stage, the knockout rounds. It was they were just cruising through everything. So the first time they see adversity, they fold it.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah. It's a little bit of a a little bit of a shock to their system to be honest. And you could tell today that you know, it's like they were on the back foot. They were just chasing the game the whole time, trying to put something together, kind of getting desperate for chances and yeah, man, it's it was it was shocking.

Marco: Yeah. It and and maybe I'm just nitpicking here, but like when I see a captain, I see every the captain after like a loss like that going to his team and lifting them up, right? Hey, don't cry, held hold your head up high. I didn't see any of that with Mbappé. And and and we've talked about this before how there's divided locker room, right? Not everyone's on Mbappe's side, right? There's supposedly beef with him in Kante, but I would have liked to see that on his end, encouraging his guides, like they made it far, they're they were previous champions.

Project 90 Soccer: No.

Marco: Tough pill to swallow, but hey, we we still showed up and we made it to semifinal. I didn't see any of that. Maybe it happened when the telecast stopped recording, but I just wanted to see a little bit more of that. But it seemed like he just went towards the bench and just standing, looking into the abyss.

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm. Very upset it looked like. And even during the game, you know, do you you would think once the second goal goes in for Spain that that they would, you know, try to encourage their team, try to, you know, get them going, start clapping their hands, raising their hands, getting the fans involved, really putting some energy and some effort, you know, because that th this is the semifinal of the World Cup. You know what I mean? This isn't just like another game for France or you know, this is a big, big game. You're in this moment, it's win or go home. And To me, d the team that wanted it more today ultimately won the game. It's the bottom line, I think. France, they can hang their head high, I guess. I mean, to me their expectation though was nothing short of winning it. So I mean, you can say it's a disappointment and a failure, but yeah, man, they just I don't think they wanted it bad enough today, to be completely honest. I think Spain just outclassed them.

Marco: Mm-hmm. Well shout out to Spain and then tomorrow what do we got? England versus Argentina.

Project 90 Soccer: Tomorrow, big one. Argentina, England. This is a game about, I think it's going to come down to who wants it more, right? England. They do have a lot of good players. We were talking about depth the other day coming off the bench. You know, they have Ollie Watkins, they have Marcus Rashford, a lot of speed, a lot of quality players in defense. We saw Spence have a great performance last game. Argentina, though. undeniable when it comes to the those comebacks or those those late winners and really grinding it out to the very end. England, Jude Bellingham. I mean the list goes on and on, right? Harry Kane, Argentina, they got Lotaro, Messi, of course, one of the GOATs. Julian Alvarez kind of getting that banger last game. So I think this is this is going to be a massive, massive game. I think for me personally, I'm expecting a little bit more of an exciting game tomorrow in that semifinal.

Marco: Yeah, so

Project 90 Soccer: maybe some more goals being scored on both sides. And but yeah, man, I I see I s I I think England's gonna come through on this one. I think we're gonna see a England versus Spain final. But hey man, I guess I guess we'll see, you know. Not too

Marco: Well, this is lighting up. This is lighting up to be the perfect opportunity and tournament for England to bring it home for the first time in a long time.

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm. A long time. It'd be cool to see Spain, England in the final both have one World Cup, obviously. So I think that would kind of end or somewhat end the talks of everything being sort of rigged for Argentina if they go out tomorrow. I think it'd be nice though to see two different teams in the final, to be completely honest. And obviously Spain, 2010 wasn't that long ago, but for England it's been a very long time. So we'll see what happens, my friend. But we'll be back tomorrow with that recap. if you're new to the show, Project90Soccer.com, find us on Spotify, Apple, Instagram, TikTok, like, subscribe, comment. Until tomorrow, this has been another episode of Project 90.

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