Remember When: Stu Holden and John Strong Relive the 2022 World Cup Final, 3 Years Later

Stu Holden never takes his phone out during a broadcast. But this time, he had to make an exception.

Argentina defender Gonzalo Montiel calmly walked from midfield to the penalty spot at a sold-out Lusail Stadium at the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar. All he needed to do was make this penalty kick and La Albiceleste would clinch its first World Cup since 1986. Montiel spun the ball a couple of times on the turf, walked a few steps back, took a deep breath and then converted the penalty with a right-footed shot to the bottom left corner past France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. When the ball hit the back of the net, Montiel took his shirt off and cried as his teammates swarmed him in celebration. Argentina won an epic final, and legend Lionel Messi finally captured a World Cup trophy.

Meanwhile, Holden, sitting up in the broadcaster tribunal, got his camera ready. He stood behind broadcast partner and friend John Strong, who was calling the shootout for FOX Sports. When Montiel scored, Holden panned from Strong to the Argentine broadcast crew to his right, fully capturing the emotionally charged scene.

"I knew in the moment that I’m not going to talk for two minutes," Holden said in a phone call we had recently, where he reflected on the match from three years ago. "There’s nothing I can say that’s going to be better than what you’re hearing and seeing. And so I stepped back and videoed John’s call. I just felt like this was a moment that John would want to have, and I’d want to remember it as well. 

"You just want to bottle that moment up and put it in a time capsule."

Dec. 18, 2025 marks three years to the day that Argentina beat France in that dramatic World Cup final. Holden and Strong are now gearing up for the 2026 tournament on home soil but recently spent time reminiscing about once-in-a-lifetime moments in Qatar.

The match didn’t kick off until the evening, so Strong and Holden went through their own daily routines. For Strong, it was a lot of packing with his flight home scheduled for the next day. He worked on his notes and acknowledged the pregame butterflies he sometimes gets before a big match such as a World Cup final (of which he’s done two of so far in his career, in 2018 and 2022). Holden got his morning workout in, had some lunch and went over his notes, too.

It became a well-rehearsed pregame tradition at this point for them to get to Lusail Stadium early to avoid traffic and relax at a little café in the village built just outside the grounds. It gave them time to soak in the buzz and have a cappuccino or gelato.

"I remember sitting there with John and not going over notes at that point," Holden told me. "We were bouncing different ideas off each other about how he’s going to set me up early in the game and what I’m going to talk about.

"The street is filled with fans from all over the world, predominantly Argentina and France. When you step outside the booth, you understand and can feel the energy and emotion and what it means to so many fans that the next 90 or 120 minutes will dictate their mood for months and years. I always think that gives us good context of what the game means beyond what happens on the field."

After a while, Strong, Holden and Eric Olson — who does stats and research alongside the duo— walked to the stadium. They passed the VIP entrance, which was elaborately set up for the Emir of Qatar and other dignitaries in attendance, before making their way to the FOX Sports spot in the broadcast tribune. Strong loves coffee, but they didn’t sell any at the concession stands inside the stadium. So instead, it became a tradition for the three of them to sip on Karak Chai, a spiced milk tea that’s popular in the Middle East, before kickoff.

"Just finding those moments to soak in the scene and take advantage of where you are while also making sure you’re mentally prepared to perform when the time comes," Strong said to me in a phone call.

What’s often forgotten from what ultimately became a spectacular final is that things really didn’t get interesting until late. Argentina held a 2-0 lead in the first half, and somewhere around the 70th minute, Strong thought it was time to go into storytelling mode and use the final 20 minutes of the match to build up a crowning moment for Messi and Argentina. He wanted to go into past World Cup triumphs and heartbreaks and discuss their journey of this tournament.

The world broadcast feed showed some players from the 1986 team in attendance, so Strong thought, "Perfect, this is my launching point here to get into the story," told me.

Then in the 80th minute, Kylian Mbappe converted a penalty kick after Randal Kolo Muani drew a foul in the box. And in the 81st minute, Mbappe scored again. The game was tied.

"You’ve gone in the span of a few moments from, let’s just start doing some big-picture storytelling to, nope, we’re done with that," Strong told me. "And from that point, Stu and I, we don’t even have to look at each other. We have an understanding of when the broadcast has shifted. 

"Leave all the other stuff behind and hold on for dear life."

When Mbappe scored his second goal 90 seconds after his first, Holden remembers looking at Strong and mouthing, "Oh my god!" he told me.

"I’m buzzing with adrenaline, and I think that’s where John and I get to our best level is when we’re just shifting into this gear of matching that intensity and that emotion and riding through the chaos," Holden told me. "That was truly one of those games where you’re just thinking and hanging on the edge of, ‘What’s going to happen next?’"

At the end of regulation, there were a few minutes where Strong and Holden threw it back to the FOX studio before extra time. That meant it was finally time for a bathroom break. Holden remembers all the broadcasters sprinting into the stalls.

"You’re in these urinals with all these other broadcasters, and everybody is looking at each other going, ‘Oh my god, this is crazy! Can you believe it? What’s going to happen next? This is going to go down as one of the best World Cup finals ever!’" Holden told me with a chuckle.

"Then everybody is washing their hands and running back to their commentary positions, all within like a minute and a half, two minutes. Then you get back to the booth, and Messi scores, Mbappe scores a hat trick, and then I will still never forget the big save from [Argentina goalkeeper] Emiliano Martinez at the very end of extra time and just seeing that play develop out of nowhere."

In the end, Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said it best: "The match was completely insane." 

After Argentina hoisted the trophy, Strong and Holden signed off for the last time. They sat in their seats for a second longer, caught their breath and fist-bumped.

"It was kind of a holy s--t moment," Holden told me. "I think that would probably be an apt description."

After the game, Holden was needed on the FOX set miles away back in Doha. He recalls the traffic into the city being so bad and so many roads were blocked off that at one point, he got out of the car and ran through the streets to make it on the post-game show. It wasn’t until he went to the hotel bar later that night that he could fully digest the previous several hours and recenter himself.

"I think that was the first moment where we all had a beer and sat around just dissecting every moment that just happened," Holden told me.

Strong and Holden will always be able to say they called Messi’s legacy defining moment. But now it’s time to look ahead to the 2026 World Cup, and they are prepared for more theater. More Messi and more Mbappe. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lamine Yamal. And while the 2022 World Cup had an aura of fantasy about it because it was in a far away place with a fairy-tale ending, Strong and Holden are anxious to be part of a World Cup in the United States.

"What will Times Square look like on the day of the final?" Strong told me, adding that he can imagine what traffic might look like going through the Lincoln Tunnel with everyone trying to get out to MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

"I’m of the opinion that these things are always better than we think they’re going to be and history has proven that over and over. …

"My hope is that something happens next summer that blows [2022] out of the water. That would be pretty epic."

Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of "Strong Like a Woman," published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her at @LakenLitman.