2018 Football World Cup
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@kiwipie said in 2018 Football World Cup:
Recapping on the weekend's games.
Kevin de B's goal is my new goal of the tournament. Great run by Lukaku to drive into the heart of the Brazilian midfield, Kevin sees the bottom corner and hits the ball as true as a ball can be hit. It's one thing to pick a spot and quite another to execute it so expertly.
Martinez may actually be given some credit at last. He made the call to change the system and it worked - keeping Lukaku and Hazard forward with Kevin not far away meant Brazil could never truly lay siege to their goal without worrying about losing the ball. For Brazil, Willian is an odd player - devastating one day and totally average the next. Douglas Costa showed what Willian should have been doing in the first half.
France are looking very solid - again Deschamps may actually be given some credit.
England won in a similar way to France, all important first goal from a setpiece and the opposition without enough craft to come back. Southgate has the team playing to their strengths and to their potential and without a star like Gerrard or Rooney where the system had to be tweaked to allow for them. Now it comes down to whether they are good enough.
Croatia's players looked absolutely buggered at the end of the Russian game. Not sure they will be able to recover in 4 days given they have had 2 extra times in a row. They should have done the job before the end of 90 or before the end of 120. Solid team, plenty of class, a bit toothless in attack.
Think Mandzukic blows too hot and cold for them. In any case, he was physically totally and utterly spent at the end.
Hoping for an England vs Belgium final: either an unexpected fairytale for England or a first time winner for Belgium.
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@rapido said in 2018 Football World Cup:
Their World Cup history is really, really poor IMO. Way underachieve compared to their peer France for example who have won just as many world cups, but have a record of making finals or semis, knocking out favourites etc. actually I'd say Spain and England are very comparable. 1 good tournament then an entire history of tripping at the first slightly difficult hurdle. Although Spain managed to bookend their World Cup generation with 2 x Euros.
I do actually support England. Despite my contempt for their history and record above..
Oh puh-leeze
This is the France that this millennium has lost to Senegal, Denmark, South Africa and drawn with Switzerland, Ecuador, Denmark and South Korea.
they've had two good era's early 80's and the two final appearances (which bookend 2002 when they finished bottom of their group on one point
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@crucial said in 2018 Football World Cup:
I hope we never ever get to the stage where we celebrate an All Blacks win in a quarterfinal well into the night and crowd the streets to sing moronic songs.
Indeed. Although the NZ football team didn't even get out of their group and still won the Halberg.
Football is not rugby, football is football. For any team, getting out of the group is worth celebrating. Winning any sort of a knockout game is worth celebrating.
Just enjoy the ride.
Slaven Bilic was saying yesterday that Croatia's 3rd place in a WC in 98 I think was still the countries greatest sporting achievement.
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@snowy said in 2018 Football World Cup:
Definitely fake news
Yep. That Donald penalty never really went over the bar....
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@dogmeat said in 2018 Football World Cup:
@rapido said in 2018 Football World Cup:
Their World Cup history is really, really poor IMO. Way underachieve compared to their peer France for example who have won just as many world cups, but have a record of making finals or semis, knocking out favourites etc. actually I'd say Spain and England are very comparable. 1 good tournament then an entire history of tripping at the first slightly difficult hurdle. Although Spain managed to bookend their World Cup generation with 2 x Euros.
I do actually support England. Despite my contempt for their history and record above..
Oh puh-leeze
This is the France that this millennium has lost to Senegal, Denmark, South Africa and drawn with Switzerland, Ecuador, Denmark and South Korea.
they've had two good era's early 80's and the two final appearances (which bookend 2002 when they finished bottom of their group on one point
I think you misunderstand my point.
I'm not choosing to compare them to France because France is consistently awesome. If I wanted to compare them to an awesome football country of similar size, history and economics I'd have chosen Italy.
France, like England, have their flaws and their fallow periods where they entirely miss qualifying or getting out of the group . But France when they're up are capable of beating other top teams in knockouts, including knocking Brazil out twice, make semis and finals as well as win some Euros.
England have tripped at the first hurdle, always. Whether they have a good bunch that year or a mediocre bunch.
Croatia have good quality evenly spread through their team. So if England get past them I'd count that as getting past a peer or better.
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@victor-meldrew said in 2018 Football World Cup:
Yep. That Donald penalty never really went over the bar....
Your eyes are as bad as your maths.
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@chris-b said in 2018 Football World Cup:
@canefan said in 2018 Football World Cup:
They had an epic SF vs West Germany at Italia 90. One penalty shootout away from a meeting with Brazil
Italia 90 - Best Opening Ceremony ever!
Imagine the twitter brigades and outrage mobs comprising journos and internet feminazis if they did that today
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No dog in tonight's fight but if France win, it will be Belgium's first loss in a meaningful, competitive match in 26 outings, when they lost to Wales in Euro 2016
No small feat for France
From the England & Croatia perspective they'll want the match to go to penalties with plenty of bookings and injuries.
Surprisingly there have been few serious injuries in this WC and most teams have been able to pick from full squads.
Head says France, heart says Belgium.
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Like @MiketheSnow have no dog in the fight at all but in terms of my knowledge of the two teams I have heard of 4 Belgies (de Bruyne, Hazard, Lukaku and Kompanie) and only one Frog (Griezmann). That makes 4 Superstars (coz if I am conscious of soccer player they must be a Superstar) to 1. Therefore I expect Belgium to win.
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Absorbing game. Belgium giving away possession too easily at the back.
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Very enjoyable first half.
No clue how this one is going to play out
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France open proceedings early in the second half
France 1 - 0 Belgium
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Mpape is really good
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Feel sorry for the Belgians but France was definitely the better side. No way Croatia would beat them but England could snatch it off a set piece.
