no country for old wainds
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The World Cup Thread
- Thread starter crimsonfloyd
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USA actually played surprisingly well against England. I thought they could have won it. Now watch them lose to Iran
no country for old wainds
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ahhh that was the england i know and lo--the england i know.
power rankings i wrote after the first round of games (so before today's shitty performances by 4 and 6):
1) Brazil
didn't see anything that ought to shake their favourites tag in this game. perhaps the best opponent a top team has faced, and they comfortably controlled a slower scrappier game before turning up the gears when they felt like it, putting in probably the most blistering half hour we've seen so far. just casually bringing on jesus, antony, martinelli, fred and rodrygo... yeesh.
2) France
slow start, defensive frailties, but they have IMO the best player in the tournament and overall superior talent to most of their rivals despite all the injuries. this was also one of their finest offensive performances of the entire deschamps tenure; really nice to see this squad flowing for a change, we didn't even see it that much in 2018.
3) Spain
a very impressive training session. not gonna get carried away 'til we see it against a team with a heartbeat, but they couldn't possibly have done more than they did, and their young talent is pretty freaking scary.
4) England
same thing i said about spain except the scoreline was more flattering and contained 2 conceded goals, which did not alleviate the very real defensive concerns.
5) Argentina
99 times out of 100 some of those goals weren't razor-thin offsides, the opponents don't score any of the very few chances they create, and we're talking about a routine win. not writing them off just yet given their next two fixtures are very winnable. if they get through the group they're still one of the favourites.
6) Netherlands
i was fairly high on them going in and they were solid against a decent side in the opener.
7) Portugal
well, they won. they have good players. they just always seem on the verge of some kind of calamity, the tactics and chemistry and overall morale continue to look pretty weird, it's hard to imagine them being solid and consistent enough to get all the way to the end. then again i think i felt the same way in 2016. i dunno, hard one to read right now.
8) Denmark
still think they may be sneakily very good again, but it was a bit of a nothing performance in the first game.
9) Belgium
on the one hand they won. on the other hand it was pretty comfortably the worst performance of any team on this list, including the ones who lost. horrible chemistry, painfully easy to play through. i have no confidence in them whatsoever.
10) Germany
their performance was honestly pretty good aside from when they committed too far forward and got completely shredded by counter attacks, but that's kind of flick's m. o. and i'm not sure it's gonna fly in an international tournament. i think there's a world where they still have a very good tournament but it will require some compromises and, more concerningly, a result against spain. i would maybe have them as high as 6th if they had an easier second fixture.
power rankings i wrote after the first round of games (so before today's shitty performances by 4 and 6):
1) Brazil
didn't see anything that ought to shake their favourites tag in this game. perhaps the best opponent a top team has faced, and they comfortably controlled a slower scrappier game before turning up the gears when they felt like it, putting in probably the most blistering half hour we've seen so far. just casually bringing on jesus, antony, martinelli, fred and rodrygo... yeesh.
2) France
slow start, defensive frailties, but they have IMO the best player in the tournament and overall superior talent to most of their rivals despite all the injuries. this was also one of their finest offensive performances of the entire deschamps tenure; really nice to see this squad flowing for a change, we didn't even see it that much in 2018.
3) Spain
a very impressive training session. not gonna get carried away 'til we see it against a team with a heartbeat, but they couldn't possibly have done more than they did, and their young talent is pretty freaking scary.
4) England
same thing i said about spain except the scoreline was more flattering and contained 2 conceded goals, which did not alleviate the very real defensive concerns.
5) Argentina
99 times out of 100 some of those goals weren't razor-thin offsides, the opponents don't score any of the very few chances they create, and we're talking about a routine win. not writing them off just yet given their next two fixtures are very winnable. if they get through the group they're still one of the favourites.
6) Netherlands
i was fairly high on them going in and they were solid against a decent side in the opener.
7) Portugal
well, they won. they have good players. they just always seem on the verge of some kind of calamity, the tactics and chemistry and overall morale continue to look pretty weird, it's hard to imagine them being solid and consistent enough to get all the way to the end. then again i think i felt the same way in 2016. i dunno, hard one to read right now.
8) Denmark
still think they may be sneakily very good again, but it was a bit of a nothing performance in the first game.
9) Belgium
on the one hand they won. on the other hand it was pretty comfortably the worst performance of any team on this list, including the ones who lost. horrible chemistry, painfully easy to play through. i have no confidence in them whatsoever.
10) Germany
their performance was honestly pretty good aside from when they committed too far forward and got completely shredded by counter attacks, but that's kind of flick's m. o. and i'm not sure it's gonna fly in an international tournament. i think there's a world where they still have a very good tournament but it will require some compromises and, more concerningly, a result against spain. i would maybe have them as high as 6th if they had an easier second fixture.
rms
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no country for old wainds
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rms
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Haha I saw that interview after their last game. Still, ranked top10 and getting rocked by Morocco seems like a big deal? Idk, I always read up on rankings before the Cup and they always seem to love Belgium.
Seems like a lot of upsets this year which is fun. Did you guys catch the drama with Iran asking for FIFA sanctions because we didn't put symbol of Islam in their flag?
hilarious. Hope it doesn't get them all fired up on Tuesday
Seems like a lot of upsets this year which is fun. Did you guys catch the drama with Iran asking for FIFA sanctions because we didn't put symbol of Islam in their flag?
hilarious. Hope it doesn't get them all fired up on Tuesday
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iran are also upset because klinsmann was in our studio talking about how cheating is ‘part of their culture’ lmao. and when he was given a chance to apologise he doubled down and said they deliberately misconstrued his words because he used to be USA manager.
and yeah i mean purely in terms of talent belgium are probably top 5 in the tournament, this is definitely a huge underperformance. just… not a surprising one, ‘cause they’re serial chokers with a weak coach, too many old players and terrible team chemistry. we’ve seen this story before.
lucky for them, nearly everyone else is shit too. only really been impressed by france and brazil so far.
and yeah i mean purely in terms of talent belgium are probably top 5 in the tournament, this is definitely a huge underperformance. just… not a surprising one, ‘cause they’re serial chokers with a weak coach, too many old players and terrible team chemistry. we’ve seen this story before.
lucky for them, nearly everyone else is shit too. only really been impressed by france and brazil so far.
rms
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no country for old wainds
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rms
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randomly 3 south and central American countrieshe also mentioned guatemalans for some reason
bitter about his run here
rms
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These Iranian mother fuckers lmao acting like Russian bots
https://twitter.com/usmntonly/status/1597256936092618752?s=20&t=dK9TNXvsxPEoUBfRFeni5w
https://twitter.com/usmntonly/status/1597256936092618752?s=20&t=dK9TNXvsxPEoUBfRFeni5w
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Bloopy
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I watched a bit more but not really following too closely. Too bad no Middle Eastern teams got through to the 16. Iran's play against Wales was great as nearly every time they got the ball they sprinted up the field with it to try and score a goal.
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power rankings now:
1) brazil
2) france
3) argentina
4) portugal
5) england
6) netherlands
7) morocco
8) croatia
1) brazil
2) france
3) argentina
4) portugal
5) england
6) netherlands
7) morocco
8) croatia
I’ll throw my picks in. I don’t watch as much soccer as I used to, but I’ve watched most of this tournament.
Brazil 2 Croatia 0
Argentina 2 Netherlands 1
France 2 England 1
Morocco 1 Portugal 0
I’m half Moroccan, so biases on the table. But they have a really good defense and they allow very few real chances per game. They also essentially have a home field advantage at these games.
Brazil 2 Croatia 0
Argentina 2 Netherlands 1
France 2 England 1
Morocco 1 Portugal 0
I’m half Moroccan, so biases on the table. But they have a really good defense and they allow very few real chances per game. They also essentially have a home field advantage at these games.
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ha almost identical to mine, only difference is i have morocco portugal going to pens and argentina winning 1-0 instead of 2-1.
i’ve loved this morocco run, my first world cup i remember was ‘98 when they had a very fun team with the legend hadji, chippo, naybet etc so it’s all been very nostalgic for me. although i wouldn’t call this team fun lol, more of a defensive juggernaut. there still hasn’t been a single goal scored against them in the whole tournament aside from an own goal.
i’ve loved this morocco run, my first world cup i remember was ‘98 when they had a very fun team with the legend hadji, chippo, naybet etc so it’s all been very nostalgic for me. although i wouldn’t call this team fun lol, more of a defensive juggernaut. there still hasn’t been a single goal scored against them in the whole tournament aside from an own goal.
rms
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Fucking boring lame ass Croatia. Fifa gotta make it harder to make it to pens (thankfully Neymar just scored )
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