Author Topic: The World Cup 2018  (Read 4455 times)

Offline Torenico

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Re: The World Cup 2018
« Reply #60 on: 14-07-2018, 05:07:21 »
England being England... What the fuck was that?
I suppose you could say they went out against the first decent team they faced (as Colombia and Sweden were both awful) but to be honest a semi-final run is not bad at all. You can only play the teams in front of you, Croatia deserved the win and I hope they beat France on Sunday.

True, semi finals for the England squad is not bad, considering their latest WCs... especially 2014, and their overall age. They're a very young team after all, and may reach Qatar in a ideal age.

But I fear they lack some power. Sure their set pieces are very dangerous, but that's about it. They are not very dangerous to be honest, and when Croatia finally woke up they scored twice. As you point out, they faced two weak teams, well, they faced Colombia which despite their attitude can still be very dangerous and Sweden is well, Sweden. Croatia is very very tired and England are favorites to make it to the finals. As you can see, Trippier scored early on which made an already tired Croatia to look for the equalizer and then the victory goal, you have to start from behind already at like 5 minutes. Yet they did win. I will give credit to Croatia for the huge balls displayed in that match, but also I will say that England lost a rather winnable match.

England looks very weak when you take the ball and start to attack them.


IMO, they should continue to develop their players. Still, they seem to lack a "superstar". Kane is great yes, but he is no playmaker.

Look at Argentina with Messi, Brasil with Neymar, France with Mbappé and Griezmann, Croatia with Modric, Spain with Iniesta (back when the Spanish squad was in shape), Netherlands with Robben (back in the day, again). England seem to lack that "distinctive" player that sets them apart from the others... the one you need to make the difference when the difference is needed.

I don't know, maybe Sterling or Dele Alli in the near future can develop to such point?. Sterling sure is very skilled, but the boy never seems to pass the ball.
« Last Edit: 14-07-2018, 15:07:35 by Torenico »


Offline Zoologic

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Re: The World Cup 2018
« Reply #61 on: 14-07-2018, 06:07:29 »
Back then they had Scholes. After that they relied on deep defensive midfielders like Lampard and Gerard, which played far too deep in the back to make an effective attacks, England was very unproductive at scoring goals. Rooney was too traditional as a striker to play as a false 10.

Today, they have Kieran Trippeir, I think he could be the modern day Scholes.
Dele Ali was physically limited in this tournament, he was great in England's first game, but then after contacting that thigh injury, his pace was greatly affected.
Raheem Sterling, despite his matured age, still lacks in vision, which is why despite his dangeorus and imposing presence, his contribution to goal is minimal.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek is another surprisingly good player. He is big, solid, can dribble, and have all the unique passing skills necessary to play English attacking style. He could be a playmaker.

For English defense, I agree with you, they are full of holes. They often play too much risk with their dangerously close passing when the enemy is still pressing. But then, they are always like that since the day I first watch football with Sol Campbell, Paul Ince, Southgate himself, and Neville days.

Offline Zoologic

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Re: The World Cup 2018
« Reply #62 on: 15-07-2018, 05:07:22 »
Well, England, you have been measured, and found wanting by real contenders.

Forward? Lame.
Midfield? Awful.
Defense? Lacking.

The only good thing about this team is the goal keeper Jordan Pickford. He is excellent, although needs a bit more penalty box area control and initiative like Courtois has shown.

Don't put your expectations too high for 2022. Can EPL really produce good players? Well, only 3 out of 11 Belgian starters yesterday played outside England. All of their key players, played for the same team that the main English players played for. Vertonghen and Alderweireld played in the same club as Harry Kane, no wonder his moves are all predictable for them. Kompany and De Bruyne played in the same club as Sterling, Stones, Delph, and friends. Eden Hazard and Courtois played for Chelsea, and become the star players there. See? EPL can indeed produce great world winning players.

It is just the English team that is not only unproven, but lacking in measure. Belgium simply outclassed them alright. While they are seeking weird and one-off opportunity to broke off the quite disciplined defense. It is not a real winning game plan. When they have a chance to counter attack, they relented, scared, reluctant, and eventually got pushed back into their own half. What happened? Do they admitted that they aren't that good enough to outrun those scrambling Belgian defenses? England still have a mountain to climb if they truly want to win the world cup, even with this "young" squad.

Offline Zoologic

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Re: The World Cup 2018
« Reply #63 on: 15-07-2018, 19:07:53 »
What a bad show by France, very undeserving and pretty much helped by those 2 scandalous goals. Griezmann dived, which lead to Mandzukić's own goal. Then a VAR penalty kick that is still debatable.

Thankfully, Pogba and Mbappé answered back for the illegitimacy of their win.

Also, big thank you for Croatia, without their attacking play, this final will be a boring one to watch. Maybe this will be the last world cup where the number of audience beats every other sports, given how French and Deschamps' style of play are allowed to reign supreme in soccer tournaments, in addition to all the dives and theatrics.

Offline |7th|Nighthawk

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Re: The World Cup 2018
« Reply #64 on: 15-07-2018, 19:07:26 »
You're delusional if you think that sports even more boring than football will get more views despite such a borefest of a final.
Also playing destructively is what allowed Germany to reach quite a few finals. It's not a beauty contest.

I for one am satisfied and take it as a revenge for the undeserved loss in 2006 against the Italian professional cheaters.

EDIT: I'm a bit sad it was against Croatia though because they showed incredible willpower despite having a technical disadvantage. If it had been against any other than France or Germany, I'd have rooted for them.
« Last Edit: 15-07-2018, 19:07:57 by |7th|Nighthawk »
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Offline Torenico

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Re: The World Cup 2018
« Reply #65 on: 15-07-2018, 20:07:53 »
The Penalty was a Penalty, and with VAR on you just can't ignore it.


Mad respects to Croatia, but France has better individuals position by position.


Offline Slayer

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Re: The World Cup 2018
« Reply #66 on: 15-07-2018, 23:07:09 »
... such a borefest of a final.
Last two finals were both 1-0, so I'd rather see another 4-2. Yeah, I agree on the two first goals being unjustified, or at least a bit strange, and the way the goals came for both teams it wasn't super thrilling until the last minute. But calling a game with 6 goals in total a borefest is beyond me.

Offline Zoologic

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Re: The World Cup 2018
« Reply #67 on: 16-07-2018, 08:07:37 »
Yes, at least this is exciting, because the last 3 world cups went through extra time. Yeah the game concluded convincingly for the France. But I hate that the so-called "pragmatic" mentality. There is a reason why football rules such as golden goal and silver goals were added. The backpass rule too were made for the same reason: to discourage passive plays and sleazy game-destroying exploits.

Football is still a show to keep the populace calm. When pitting man against animals are no longer okay, football became the alternative crowd control measure. But, with the ever increasing cost and footballer's lavish lifestyle, can the show business sustain itself when all they did is exploiting the game mechanism just to win the game? I mean in the spirit of sportsmanship, that is perfectly fine. But how many revenue generating casual audience will be steered away by such boring show?

Look at Formula 1, it is struggling, it is very boring now with too much technical things going on. But then Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull will be happy to go on with their dominance. Like Deschamps and Mourinho, they don't care about the dwindling number of audience. But until it hits them, nobody will react other than the organisers.

The finals should be the likes of France vs. Argentina, Brazil vs. Belgium match. It is super entertaining. This finals clearly shows that France wants nothing to do other than winning, sometimes through dubious means. That is not encouraging.

Offline Nerdsturm

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Re: The World Cup 2018
« Reply #68 on: 16-07-2018, 21:07:45 »
The Penalty was a Penalty, and with VAR on you just can't ignore it.


Mad respects to Croatia, but France has better individuals position by position.

I can see how the referee would conclude contact was intentional, but it's still very frustrating to see the referee get so much power in the case of a very subjective call. Given how commonly penalty shots score, the penalty is severely disproportionate to the foul which was just a minor and quite possibly accidental redirection of the ball.

Offline |7th|Nighthawk

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Re: The World Cup 2018
« Reply #69 on: 17-07-2018, 10:07:10 »
@Slayer: I'll admit that I'm not an avid football fan and am probably spoiled by the "mad skills" football compilations on youtube where they condense the best moments out of hundred of hours of games into three minutes (oh and by that 7:1 against Brazil, certainly the most fun game I've ever watched). What I mean is that the game seemed a bit static to me and especially that first half was pretty unbearable to watch for me.

@Zoologic: Yes, some rules that would stop that "camping" would be cool but you always run into the risk of putting too much rules into the game that will confuse players, referees and audience so it's very tricky to solve that elegantly. The rules you named are very simple and effective but defining when a team is just "pushing the ball around" to save time, it gets problematic.

Yes, and that especially hurt Germany because they were very unhappy with their team and also quickly remembered how unhappy they were with the politics again. Very annoying for Merkel and co. Also notice how they wanted to pass article 13 in the EU while the world cup was going; sneaking by important stuff as always.
Well, when it hits them, they are either long gone or have amassed so much money that the sting will be rather minor, I suppose. Hah, you mean the "eco friendly" formula one with small engines and no grid girls? How could that go wrong? To be honest, talking for me only, I've never been that much into watching cars do 50 laps around a circuit; I'd rather be sitting in one of those cars competing :P

Who would not play "only" to win in a final though? Noone will ever remember how "nice" you played or how great of a fair player you were but that star on the shirt is what counts. The only thing one remembers except for that are totally wrong referee decisions and insults or brutal fouls.
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