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Post by Father on Jul 12, 2018 1:05:45 GMT 1
Bye Bye England.
I'm guessing France should have this. But so I said at similar circumstances two years back, and this Croatia team is better than that Portugal team, but this France team is better than that France team. Also, that Portugal team had the fortune of Ronaldo getting injured so they put in Eder, which they should have done from the beginning (granted, together with Ronaldo, that is), I don't see Croatia managing to lift their game in that sort of fashion.
I also thought England had better chances of taking this one than Sweden or Columbia, but I think the reality is that if you chip away Panama, Saudi Arabia and a few others who's crap, most games really can tip either way.
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Post by Father on Jul 15, 2018 19:32:11 GMT 1
So I got at least one prediction right, see above post.
Game was closer than scoreline suggests, France had like 7 or 8 attempts on goal against twice that for Croatia, plus the referee decisions before both 1-0 and 2-1 can be debated (After seeing the replay, I had a feeling that VAR was about to do what they did, but that was at least 50-50).
I really did root for Croatia, but over three rounds of group matches and four of knock-outs, I think the top 3 is a reasonably fair representation, as usually has been the case since 2006 (my memories gets a little more unreliable further back).
My favorite teams out of this would be Croatia and Russia, truly good examples of the fact that the will to run a little bit more, to put in that little bit extra effort in every duel, on every loose ball. That is very much a force equalizer.
Biggest disappointments: Germany, against Sweden, they looked (mostly) like the Germany that won the cup four years ago. Against Mexico and espescially Korea, they looked like Norway would have handed their asses to them, at least now that we've ditched the manager that wanted us to play like Spain did with Xavi and Iniesta in their prime, when our best midfielders are to be found in clubs like AZ, St. Etienne, Fulham and Genk, Real Madrid says the hype, Herenveen says reality, that really doesn't work, we need to play like Sweden and Iceland does, or like we did back in the 90-ies, we pretty much wrote the book on how to beat the likes of Brazil in modern football when none of your players are anywhere near the level that they'd be considered for the squads of the likes of Brazil. An then Norwegian football got infested with managers and coaches that wanted to play the "Continental Style", wanted to compete in doing away with the "Boring Football", that filled the heads of the players with the idea that they didn't have to train as hard as they did before to become world class. Between 1998 and 2010, it's like, only John Arne Riise and Morten Gamst Pedersen of the ones getting their debut in those years and managed to claim a regular starting lineup position that trained as hard as they did in the 90's. In the 90's, Premier League managers liked buying Norwegians because they knew that Norwegians were the ones with the best attitude on the training field. In 2010, when Eggen came back as super-replacement for Rosenborg and reintroduced the training regimen he used to run back in the days it was really fun to be a football fan from Trondheim (and painful to be a football fan from anywhere else in Norway, but at least we had a good national side), the players had been so coddled that they couldn't handle it. When Ingebritsen came in and reintroduced it again after another two coddling managers, new players from Norwegian clubs needs six months to adjust, and we still got ways to go to catch up with the germans...yeah I rant because Norway isn't in this cup for me to talk about.
Spain, honestly, if they dispensed with the part about playing a hundred passes surely must lead to one of them getting a good shot from like 8-9 meters or so, they'd look ten times more dangerous than they did against Russia, and if that is how you want to win football matches, then you kinda need to have midfielders making runs into the sixteen yard box rather than running around it.
Argentina, well not really. Yeah, they have fantastic players, especially up top, but to get the ones they actually DO play to fit together on the offense you need to be a club team that can hone their style of play week in and week out, Guardiola has demonstrated that yes, it can be done, but with Argentina? I'd probably sacrifice a few of their offensive stars and get some hard working muscle into that offense that knows that the only reason they get to play is to go to war so that Messi can get to challenge defenders one on one. Brazil had that with Paulinho, I'd want more if I were in charge of them. I don't think it's a coincidence that 9 out of the final 16 had that sort of player and 7 out of them were found in the quarter-finals, including all four proceeding to the semi's.
Overachievers: Russia is the biggest one, I wouldn't really call Croatia that, I think Croatia played at max, and got a bit lucky with the draw (and Spain and Germany being shit) just as England did, but with a little bit more margins on their side, France could have been in a lot more trouble at their hands. England is actually giving Russia a run for the money on this prize. Weakest semifinalist by far since South Korea and Turkey in 2002.
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Post by Cleyton Bolton on Jul 17, 2018 6:13:44 GMT 1
It should have been a 3-2 in the end, but that first free penalty that the guy got for falling by himself lol made it a 4-2.
Mexico did as expected and qualified for the next round in either first or second (surprised it was first considering Germany was the tough guy in their group), but Mexico is cursed to always face a big team right after like Brazil.
Basically all the "great teams" did terrible this year other than France, and I continue to think Neymar is not as good as they say, he should be able to get an Emmy for his drama skills.
France is still coddled by FIFA and not surprised that the referee's had unusual tendencies of favoring them throughout their harder matches.
Spain needs to stop being indecisive and pass the damn ball a million times looking for the "perfect" opening lol it will rarely come just shoot the damn thing.
I agree in general with your assessment.
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Post by Ser Donnel Blackbriar on Aug 30, 2018 17:58:29 GMT 1
Wow! The champions league draw looks incredible! 2 hard groups with 3 incredibly good teams!
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Post by Father on Aug 30, 2018 18:16:58 GMT 1
2? I mostly see PSG, Napoli and Liverpool. Rest seems to be one or two teams much stronger than the rest.
Except Lokomotiv Moskva, Porto, Schalke, Galatasaray, that's like best possible outcome for just about each of them.
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Post by Ser Donnel Blackbriar on Aug 30, 2018 18:18:54 GMT 1
A, B, C, and H all have 3 excelent teams in my opinionš¤ I think we will see a few upsets!
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Post by Father on Aug 30, 2018 18:40:10 GMT 1
I think Atletico, Tottenham/Barcelona, and Juventus is at least one class above Dortmund/Monaco, Inter and Man U/Valencia respectively.
Man U kinda should be up there with the big guns, but Mourinho looks like he's on his usual trajectory: Gets results fast, he always wins something in his first season, but the team stagnates and just doesn't improve and when things goes wrong, and in football as in life in general, they always do, he makes them worse. They sort of needed him after Moyes and Van Gaal, the first signing was just stupid, the second...well, I don't know, at least Van Gaal had the CV, though it seemed to me like a hasty signing if there ever was one.
At this point, I suspect Man U is going to float about somewhat aimlessly until they find a manager that can stick around. Probably they'll have to take a chance on a legend like Cantona or Giggs, still might not be good enough.
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Post by Ser Donnel Blackbriar on Aug 30, 2018 19:03:52 GMT 1
Very true, they are better! But I feel that today, with all the influx of new players, and with the margin of error so small, I feel we can see quite a lot of upsets! I only see Barca and Atletico as clear nr 1 of their group (obvious Spanish football fan) and even there it will be battling for second seeding! So I am exited to watch the matches unfold!
I feel like United will always bounce back, due to their extreme financial might! City conglomerating is the only long term threat I see!
Short term I think if they can sign Zizou as an interim manager, it will be great, otherwise they should keep Mourinho and try to get one of the promising young managers! Howe and Nagelsman might be perfect, if they can get them. Someone like Marco Silva would be great for a while, but might prove to not have the tactics needed!
I am generally sceptical of attacking legends going straight to management, but I was proven wrong by Zidane! And both Cantona and Giggs seem like highly intelligent and charming men, and Giggs at least have expressed a desire to be a manager and seems to be well disciplined!
Will be exiting anyway!
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Post by Father on Aug 30, 2018 19:57:30 GMT 1
The issue in modern football, now more than ever, is that there is almost zero tolerance for managers not getting results, one bad season and you're done. Since I'm from Trondheim, Man U past Fergie resonates a bit with what Rosenborg have been doing since Eggen retired. We've sacked like six managers since then, one of them twice (though it's 15 years..but we add the two that left to manage national teams and that's still less than two full seasons on each). I am not sure if the first guy sacked really was to be faulted for having to deal with a bunch of 30+ year olds that was collectively becoming over the top and abused their status as living legends to undermine him. Just about anyone would have been fucked in that situation. The other five just weren't good enough.
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Post by Father on Sept 18, 2018 21:46:13 GMT 1
Watching PSG and Liverpool right now, and can't help to wonder if signing Neymar and Mbappe for "fantasy sums" drained their resources elsewhere. Their offensive lineup is scary, but their more defensive minded players seems to be not quite on the level you find among the other favorites.
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Post by Roland Cordwayner on Sept 18, 2018 23:23:43 GMT 1
Didn't catch tonight's games as I have friends over, but lots to look forward to in the highlights from a skim of the match reports. Sympathetic to your point on PSG's lop-sided team.
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Post by Ser Donnel Blackbriar on Sept 19, 2018 19:22:20 GMT 1
Given how they are not being punished for clear breaches of FFP I do not think they will have any monetary issues with squad balancing... I think their problem is more with how they do not get to test their squad... Neither Marqinhos nor Kimpempe has gotten to develop like they should, and the manager apparently has been led to believe that Di maria is suited to play like Kante in the 3-4-3... The match was great, and Liverpool barely got the win, but I feel like Liverpool has been smarter than PSG, in both moneyspending and in managerchoice! The difference between city and PSG proves that money only matter if you spend it right. Give Pep money, and invest in third- party clubs to carry your brand and supply you with talents, and you will have a lethal squad. While just buying whatever is most expencive and praying for it to work is basically like setting your money on fire! I hope PSG gets sent straight out of Europe for financial misconduct, and that we can have a footballing industry where countries play in the world cup, and stops bying out clubs for publicity! I know I am a dreamer
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Post by Titus Blackbriar on Sept 22, 2018 12:31:33 GMT 1
Sure football is fun and all but how about that Eminem and Machine Gun Kelly beef, huh?
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Post by Ser Donnel Blackbriar on Sept 23, 2018 20:44:02 GMT 1
I would not mess with somebody named machine gun Kelly! Eminem might have made a big mistake there!
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Post by Ashara Starkwood on Sept 23, 2018 22:22:45 GMT 1
What's in a name?
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