The World Cup Thread

[no country for old wainds]

pretty crazy WC so far. brazil, germany and argentina all not only failed to win but weren't even unlucky in that failure, just bad. france were a bit lucky to win as well, and i don't think croatia were impressive.

i thought spain were actually pretty damn good, if it wasn't for ronaldo they might've been comfortable in that game, but they do have trouble defending fast counter attacks.

uruguay, serbia and peru were all my picks for dark horses and i've seen nothing to change my mind, although losing to denmark means peru are kinda fucked. i reckon colombia will do well again as well, maybe not as well as last time but they have a nice draw.

big surprises for me are mexico and russia, but the latter only performed like that because their opponents were laughable, i don't think it meant anything. they have a chance against egypt 'cause egypt are also bad, but i expect uruguay to win that group comfortably. mexico were 1000x more awesome than i predicted though.

and i was delighted for iran, i've been saying all along people were underrating both those teams and they could give spain and portugal tough games. iran were great against argentina in the last WC too, they have a really smart well drilled gameplan against superior teams. morocco could still do something i reckon, plenty of good players and they're probably better suited to being underdogs as they will be in the next two games.

spain are probably favourites right now i think, but they were my second choice behind germany and i'm gonna stick with the latter. it's gonna be like 2010 when spain lost their opening game and went on to win. i don't think they'll have much trouble against sweden or korea, and they'll grow into the tournament. i still think france have a good chance too if they can get things to click, their squad is possibly the best of them all on paper imo. i don't trust deschamps to get the best out of them though.

sort of looking forward to england tomorrow. i guess. lol. nah i actually like this team and southgate's my favourite manager we've had since the '90s. unfortunately we're just way too short on quality behind the front 4 to mount a title challenge, but i think we could reach the quarters, which would be considered a success here. we'll see.

 

[EspaDa]

ALL HAIL MEXICO!

England is a fucking garbage man, they couldn't even beat fucking Tunisia lol...Kane is going to be the saviour, lol, maybe it was a good decision to make him a captain. we'll see, I hope to see them get smashed by Belgians. But so to speak some pretty surprising results thus far, especially by Germany, Argentina, and Brazil.

Tomorrow is a very important day. Poland v Senegal and Colombia vs Japan. If we lose against Senegal, then we're fucked. I predict a hard-fought draw.

 

[Sirjack]

Oz was robbed

 

[no country for old wainds]

ALL HAIL MEXICO!

England is a fucking garbage man, they couldn't even beat fucking Tunisia lol...Kane is going to be the saviour, lol, maybe it was a good decision to make him a captain. we'll see, I hope to see them get smashed by Belgians. But so to speak some pretty surprising results thus far, especially by Germany, Argentina, and Brazil.

Tomorrow is a very important day. Poland v Senegal and Colombia vs Japan. If we lose against Senegal, then we're fucked. I predict a hard-fought draw.

most of the top teams have been garbage tbf, feel like i've seen that same game like 5 or 6 times at this point.

 

[no country for old wainds]

lol argentina

 

[Talos of Atmora]

lol Caballero, more specifically.

 

[Bloopy]

So that's why I cringe most times when players pass back to their goalie.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Fucking insane comeback from Germany! I expect them to hammer South Korea and advance now.

 

[EspaDa]

Belgians to win the WC.

 

[-CC-]

Fucking Germany...we were so close

 

[Phylactery]

I’m sad with how poorly Argentina are doing as they’re actually my favourite team.

 

[Bloopy]

I root for Argentina in theory as my brother-in-law is from there, but haven't gone out of my way to watch them play. Luckily he also has Swiss heritage as a backup plan!

 

[Phylactery]

I’m by no means a football fan, but I like Argentina because I always played them when my friends forced me to play Fifa. I grew attached to some of their players.

 

[EspaDa]

FVCK POLISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM. FUCKING TRAVESTY, MAN!

 

[no country for old wainds]

you jinxed them when you gave me shit about england but yeah jesus fucking christ dude, they looked so ponderous and lacking in ideas or gameplan. seems like the chance of this talented generation doing something great is over with. as an englander i can sympathise.

having seen every game so far ('cept when there's two at once anyway lol), i think this is still fairly open, but if i was gonna bet on someone right now it'd be brazil. they're not the kind of team that looks good against opponents who sit back, but they're extremely solid and have a lot of match winners in there. if they can show some mental strength (unlike last time) in the clutch moments i think they'll do it. france would be my other pick, they aren't quite clicking offensively yet and the full back situation is an issue but they're getting results so far and they just have an absolutely ridiculous squad - they look much better when giroud plays IMO, and if he sorts the midfield balance out as well they'll be terrifying. germany and spain just look too flaky right now; both have the talent to win of course but a good counter attacking team will rip them to shreds unless they change things drastically. both seem uncharacteristically messed up mentally (understandable given spain's situation).

those are still the big four to my eyes. england and belgium are completely untested IMO, they've both always been flat track bullies and i don't think these performances mean anything. we might learn something from their game against one another, but i'm not sure they'll be playing their first teams or putting 100% in. personally i think belgium have an outstanding first XI but a couple of injuries/suspensions may fuck them, and i'm waiting to see whether they can really play as a team in a big game. they might regret leaving nainggolan out, he's an upgrade on witsel. england are doing well mostly because of set pieces so far, trippier's been the best crosser in the tournament, but our general play isn't anything special and i think our midfield/back line will get battered when we come up against a top team. people are going crazy here but panama are hot garbage let's be honest. the last 16 will be a bit more of a test for both, as colombia are legit good, senegal are very dangerous on the break and have two excellent centre backs, and japan, while kinda low on quality, are one of the most cohesive, hard working teams in the competition.

portugal are pretty bad and i reckon uruguay might beat them unless ronaldo does his thing. uruguay are a bit boring but solid as fuck, definitely my 'dark horses'. i'm not as convinced by croatia as a lot of people, but the midfield controls games so well that it makes them very defensively solid as well.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Ugh super shitty perfomrnace by Germany today. Just so few legit opportunities created. Sadly, they deserve to go home. That said, having seen my favorite soccer team win the World Cup in 2014 and my favorite football team win their first ever Super Bowl this year, I can stomach this disapointment.

 

[no country for old wainds]

i think their defensive frailties have been the real problem. they were really unlucky not to score more, statistically they're up there with the best of the tournament in terms of chance creation, shots from inside the box, shots on target etc, if they still had klose instead of werner/gomez they'd probably have breezed through. defensively they're really shit though, arsenal-esque dareisay. transitions when they lose the ball are really slow, they keep getting blown out by counter attacks.

this is now the fourth time in five world cups that the holders have gone out in the group stage (and in three of those cases they've finished bottom of the group). pretty weird pattern emerging.

 

[Bloopy]

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Uploaded by the official youtube account of Sweden's anti-immigration party, lol.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Bummer Spain is out after today. We're losing a lot of the talented teams quite early in this tournament. Thank god Croatia pulled through, otherwise that chunk of the bracket would have been really mediocre.