103/104ths of the World Cup
France and England have a storied history. Aside from their 41 military battles, they have played a raucous match of football 32 times. They've met 3 times at a UEFA European Championship and 3 prior times at a FIFA World Cup. Overall, England has lead the way with 17 victories, 5 draws, and 9 losses. France were looking for their 10th win against the 3 Lions, and to finish the last 3 World Cups in 1st, 2nd, and now 3rd. England wasn't about to let that happen. The side in white kits came out scoring early and often. Declan Rice had the first goal of the match in the 3rd minute. Ezri Konza would double the English lead in the 18th minute. Bukayo Saka would score in the 37th minute, and the 1st minute of 1st half stoppage time to give England a 4-0 lead after the first 45 minutes. The trouble with scoring that many goals in a single half is that it proves if you're opponents are as talented, or more, they can also do the same. France came out firing not just in another gear, but with a more powerful engine. Kylian Mbappe would open France's scoring with a goal in the 48th minute to put his side down 1-4. Bradley Barcola would put another goal back in France's favor in the 54th minute. Kylian Mbappe would score his second goal in the 66th minute to put France down 3-4. The comeback would hit a speed bump when Djed Spence would bring the ball for England into France's box. Malo Gusto would slide to tackle the ball, but miss and take Spence down instead. Bukayo Saka would step up and fire low to the right. France's Mike Maignan would dive the other direction leading to England's 6-3 lead. Ousmane Dembele would score the 4th for France in the 6th minute of stoppage time for the match. The heart and fight for France was plentiful, but the time would run out. The last match of Didier Deschamp's tenure as head coach would be a second straight loss. He now hands the reigns over to Zinedine Zidane. For Thomas Teuchel and England, they have a lot of young talent that just needs to develop into World Champions. If anything, you cannot argue that the players don't care for the 3rd Place Playoff. Both sides went above and beyond to try and win this match.
For the highest scoring match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, it was a relatively low scoring match for the tournament. No one had selected England to finish 3rd, or France to finish 4th. Absolutely no one picked up an oracle point. A few players correctly selected the Semifinal 2 loser to finish 3rd, but that wasn't France. Two players did receive 25 points for correctly putting France and England in this match. Those two players were Historicus and Scriptor who sit in 1st and 2nd place. As impressive as that is, it isn't enough to qualify a performance of the day. We will leave things as they stand.
The final will kick off at 3:00 pm from New Jersey. Hopefully the smoke from the wild fires will not be a factor. Spain and Argentina meet for a Final that will go down in the books for one reason or another. Historicus and Scriptor have all to gain with a Spanish victory as the two jostle for first place with a difference of 3 points between the two. With an outside chance to win is MalumSigma who needs an Argentina victory to have any chance of winning. There is all to play for when it comes to these 3 players. Good luck to those still in contention.
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