(Poem written on the 2022 World Cup Final between France and Argentina played on 18 Dec 2022 by Dr. Duke Jeyaraj)

A first half without a single goal attempt – France started very slow

Messi and Di Maria made it 2-0 by the time Half Time said hello

With 10 mins to go for the final whistle, it was still an impeccable Argentina Show

But that’s when Mbappe’s late twin strikes, including a wow twitter-storm stirring volley, forced the game’s length to thankfully grow

When Messi’s extra time second half goal came, it was party time again for the team in light blue and snow

But Mbappe’s ice-cool, on target, penalty kick got France, once again, out of the certain defeat deep burrow

The Score could have been 4-2  easily after Extra-Time First Half, but for the brilliant defending by Guinea Bissau-origin French Defender Dayot Upamecano

Randal Kolo Muani missed the opportunities of a lifetime in Extra Time second half to make it 4-2 for France and irreparably spoil Messi’s final bow

As the match meandered to the penalty shoot-out stage, the tension was unbearable, you wanted to close your eye-brow

Thanks to the gigantic Emiliano Martinez’s goal-saving antics, France for the World Title, Argentina did barely manage to out-elbow

As Gonzalo Montiel scored, watching the match in India using Jio Cinema you could heard the Argentine fans in Lusail Stadium bellow

It was a sight to see Messi, like Maradona once was, being paraded on shoulders and posing with the trophy, with his wife and kids in tow

It didn’t matter if you watched this final from one of the nine countries represented in the immigrants-overloaded French team or if you were an Argentine, brown, white or yellow

Or if you watched this goose-bumps giving game sitting in Glasgow or Lucknow,

For many of this was simply ‘The best game of football I have ever watched’, (as Sunit Chhetri put it), a game that made our hearts, swell and glow!

In his day of no error, Mbappe made it 1-0 in the Penalty Shootout, before Messi restored the Status Quo,

But the Bible truth is all of us are full of errors, sins, blunders, and we rightfully deserve God’s Woe!

Just as Mbappe wiped out Argentina’s lead 2-0 in under 2 minutes, Jesus, the only God-in-flesh can wipe out your sin, right now, and make it go!

Into the football pitch to comfort the disconsolate and disinterested Mbappe – came Emmanuel Macron, France’s ‘Pharoah!’

Jesus himself came to our pitch to take our sin punishment – his back became like a field ran through by a crude plough!

After Angel Di Maria scored, we saw Olivier Grioud blowing his nose – did he and teammates have a virus – as  the press did incessantly crow?

But the bigger and more important discovery would be this one: each one of us reading this – except Jesus – belong to the sinner row!

After Angel Di Maria scored to make it 2-0, he flashed the love symbol with tears cascading down below,

While as Jesus went to the Cross, he demostrated God’s grand love even for us (us who are sinners though),

Come to Jesus in repentance and faith, and receive the joy which the most thrilling football match cannot give, a joy He alone can bestow!

Mbappe was livid that he did not take a shot at the goal at the fag end of extra-time, after dribbling into the Argentine Penalty area somehow!

And you could be livid with yourself on judgment day if you stubbornly choose not to come to Christ now!

(To know about Jesus further, download the ESV Bible App and read or listen via audio. If you have further questions, feel free to WhatsApp the author at +91-8886040605 or email him at emailduke@gmail.com).