World Cup 2018 thread

[Alph]

Is David Silva better than Iniesta now? He plays those clever passes between the lines to like break formations. And when the pass isn't on he seems to float through gaps.

Iniesta seems to fail a little bit more often at It? 

[Alph]

7 minutes ago, McLovin said:

Whilst I am impressed with him for scoring a hat trick, that’s the norm for him so wasn’t too surprising. Seems a silly thing to say after he scored a hat trick but I was more impressed with his general play such as his touch, his hold up play back to goal and passing,  like a proper number 9. Whenever he plays as a sole number 9 for Real Madrid, he tends to struggle with all of those things, Bayern away this year sticks out like a sore thumb.

And he's excellent in the air. Not just beating his man to the space but even looping "hoofs" he managed to flick on tonight when up against Ramos and Pique who must be 6ft and 6ft 4(?) heavier and attacking the ball in front of them. 

 

[Andicis]

15 minutes ago, Bris Vegas said:

Ronaldo is such a brilliant player. He dived for both the penalty and the freekick, and the ref fell for it both times. That’s what brilliant players do.

Probably the least deserving hat-trick you’ll ever see, but it was a brilliant end to a brilliant game.

Nacho’s goal was so sweet.

Oh come on Bris. You can't actually believe some of the rubbish you come out with right? It was a stonewall penalty and easily a foul for the freekick. You just sound bitter if you can't actually praise Ronaldo for the things he did well.

[Sexydadbod]

2 minutes ago, Alpha said:

Is David Silva better than Iniesta now? He plays those clever passes between the lines to like break formations. And when the pass isn't on he seems to float through gaps.

Iniesta seems to fail a little bit more often at It? 

Iniesta is still better for me but he’s older than Silva and plays in a  deeper position. Iniesta seems to have taken up “Xavi’s role” whilst Silva has taken up the role Iniesta used to play if that makes sense. Iniesta has to do the dogged defensive work whereas Silva is given a free role along with Isco. 

[Sexydadbod]

3 minutes ago, Alpha said:

And he's excellent in the air. Not just beating his man to the space but even looping "hoofs" he managed to flick on tonight when up against Ramos and Pique who must be 6ft and 6ft 4(?) heavier and attacking the ball in front of them. 

 

That especially I was surprised with. Whilst he is absolutely brilliant in the air, he usually isn’t the best with heading  flicks ons and getting it out of the air back to goal, he is usually far better heading when facing the goal.

If he masters particular aspects required to be a number 9, which I’m sure he will with his drive, then he can extend his career by at least another 5 years. Credit to him, he knew after his serious knee injury in 2014 that he could no longer be the pure winger that he used to be and has slowly adapted his game to be a proper striker.

[ViewsFromTheMiddle]

11 minutes ago, Andicis said:

Oh come on Bris. You can't actually believe some of the rubbish you come out with right? It was a stonewall penalty and easily a foul for the freekick. You just sound bitter if you can't actually praise Ronaldo for the things he did well.

I think it was a dive for the penalty. Difficult to tell on the free-kick.

[Andicis]

5 minutes ago, ViewsFromTheMiddle said:

I think it was a dive for the penalty. Difficult to tell on the free-kick.

VAR didn't. There was contact in the box. It was stupid from Nacho to dangle his leg there. I'd have given both.

[Alph]

Looked like a dive for the penalty but at the end of the day when Portugal play Spain you have Ronaldo, Pepe, Busquets and Diego Costa on the same pitch. Someone will feel cheated and it's a massive opportunity to laugh at them

[Jourdan]

Is it just me or did both teams look ordinary tonight?

Spain looked exactly how they have at every recent tournament - great at keeping possession and wearing down the opposition, but no real X factor and likely to fire blanks against a team with even an ounce of defensive nous.

What frustrates me about Spain is that they have some fantastic young players but they lack a brave coach, a coach willing to implement young players and move away from the old guard that are still dining out on past glories.

Ramos and Pique, you can understand because they don't have top defenders coming through. But why persist with Iniesta, Busquets and David Silva? Masters of their craft no doubt, but where is the next generation? Why are the likes of Saul Niguez and Marco Asensio twiddling their thumbs on the bench? Why has Thiago only got 30-odd caps in 7 years of international football? Isco aside, it was disappointing to see the lack of fresh talent on the world stage.

As for Portugal, they are just painfully average and one-dimensional and being propped up by the only world class player they have had in their ranks for almost 15 years.

Joachim Low will have watched that tonight and taken heart from it, I'm sure.

[TimRam]

Some of that fast, accurate passing made England look like snails.

[CWC1983]

Ive always said that Iran were a decent side. Especially the 78 vintage. ?

[Bris Vegas]

3 hours ago, Andicis said:

Oh come on Bris. You can't actually believe some of the rubbish you come out with right? It was a stonewall penalty and easily a foul for the freekick. You just sound bitter if you can't actually praise Ronaldo for the things he did well.

You’re in the minority if you think that was stonewall. Most on here said it was a blatant dive.

Ronaldo literally jumped forward and used his right leg to kick Nacho. It was a classic Ashley Young dive.

And for the freekick, Pique didn’t even touch him. He felt the hand in the back when he closed the space and went over.

Ronaldo is a brilliant player. He has a habit of scoring such simple goals on such a regular basis. That’s the mark of such a brilliant player. I mean, his three goals tonight - you don’t have to be a special player to score a penalty, freekick and gk error in the same game. But hardly anybody else can do it. Weird.

[Alph]

40 minutes ago, Bris Vegas said:

You’re in the minority if you think that was stonewall. Most on here said it was a blatant dive.

Ronaldo literally jumped forward and used his right leg to kick Nacho. It was a classic Ashley Young dive.

And for the freekick, Pique didn’t even touch him. He felt the hand in the back when he closed the space and went over.

Ronaldo is a brilliant player. He has a habit of scoring such simple goals on such a regular basis. That’s the mark of such a brilliant player. I mean, his three goals tonight - you don’t have to be a special player to score a penalty, freekick and gk error in the same game. But hardly anybody else can do it. Weird.

Tbf a lot of players struggle to get the number of shots off that he does. Most will actually pass and try to serve the team. He kind of drags teams on his personal mission

He's extremely talented and very selfish isn't he? I guess they feed into each other. Not many players have the ability he has and even less have the ego to serve themselves. 

Look back at how he used to frustrate his teammates at United and that was a selfish player that didn't quite have the ability to get away with it in the early days.

Without his ego he'd probably not be so selfish. Without his ability he wouldn't get away with the selfishness. 

Don't like the bloke but him and Messi have been so far ahead of the other greats of our generation it's kind of diminished the likes of Raul, Henry, Inzaghi, Ronaldinho and even Luis Ronaldo. They're just legends. It wasn't a great hat trick for his YouTube reel but it's great if him and/or Messi light this world cup up. Just more to add to the legend. 

[Bris Vegas]

3 hours ago, Alpha said:

Tbf a lot of players struggle to get the number of shots off that he does. Most will actually pass and try to serve the team. He kind of drags teams on his personal mission

He's extremely talented and very selfish isn't he? I guess they feed into each other. Not many players have the ability he has and even less have the ego to serve themselves. 

Look back at how he used to frustrate his teammates at United and that was a selfish player that didn't quite have the ability to get away with it in the early days.

Without his ego he'd probably not be so selfish. Without his ability he wouldn't get away with the selfishness. 

Don't like the bloke but him and Messi have been so far ahead of the other greats of our generation it's kind of diminished the likes of Raul, Henry, Inzaghi, Ronaldinho and even Luis Ronaldo. They're just legends. It wasn't a great hat trick for his YouTube reel but it's great if him and/or Messi light this world cup up. Just more to add to the legend. 

He’s a brilliant player, but as a person I get the impression he’s really insecure and a bit weird. He has the attitude of David Haye, where he has to keep telling himself and the rest of the world that he’s the best to feed his own ego, and thus keep confidence levels at an all-time high and thus have the confidence to do what he does.

As you say, he’s a selfish player, but a person who isn’t as confident wouldn’t be so selfish, and therefore would probably pass up opoortunities by running down blind alleys or passing when shooting is on.

He’s also the sort of player who has the attitude of the team will always perform to their best if they get him performing to his best.

Whereas Messi has sacrificed positions and roles to help accomodate Suarez and Neymar in their better positions, thus benefiting the team, Ronaldo demands that the team is built around him and getting the best out of him = more chance of winning.

I just don’t like his attitude. I understand why he is this way, and why he needs to make everything about him. I just don’t like it and I’m probably not alone.

He would take more glory and satisfaction from Portugal drawing 3-3 and him scoring a hattrick than Portugal winning 1-0 with a goal from Bernardo Silva. As a football fan, I just can’t agree with that at all.

He’s the only player in my lifetime that I can remember who actually looks gutted when his teammates scores and he doesn’t. Maybe if it wasn’t for Messi being a better player he wouldn’t be so egocentric and he’d be a completely different player. Deep down, like David Haye, it probably kills him to know there is/was somebody better out there.

 

 

[Day]

Ronaldo the GOAT.

[Boycie]

Well Ronnie’s set the bar for Lionel now hasn’t he?

[richinspain]

I don’t like Ronaldo as the perceived person. I don’t like Ronaldo’s persona on the pitch either. He “won” a cheap penalty in the second minute and a cheap free kick on the edge of the area in the 88th minute of his team’s debut in the World Cup. He also scored a goal which I could have scored. Kick the ball a bit hard between the three white sticks and let the goal keeper mess it up, I could have done that. However, to say that “anybody” could have done the rest does Ronaldo, and for me football, a miss justice. To take a penalty in the fourth minute of the team’s debut and place it where he did, with power, took cojones. Even if De Gea had dived early and the right way I doubt very much that he would have stopped it. If he had missed Spain could (my aunt if she had.......) have gone on to crush Portugal with the added impulse. And as for that free kick! Blame the wall or blame the keeper all you like but that was a brilliant free kick. As I said I don’t like Ronaldo (please Frank don’t make him your first signing ?), but give him credit for the skill he has got.

[JoetheRam]

Thought the ref got every decision correct. Definite penalty, people blinded by hate for the winker to admit he did Nacho all ends up and he dived in.

Ronaldo had his best game outside of just scoring that I'd seen of him for a while. Some really nice flicks, especially in the first half. People say he's selfish, but you can see why when he puts it on a plate for that young guy in the first half and he bottles it. He's Portugal's only good player really so why not have everyone else serve him?

Spain were at their best when chasing the game, some really great quick passing. After that they reverted to type and started boring me with their negative hold on to the ball at all costs stuff. Isco and Costa were superb and the latter being subbed probably cost them the game.

[angieram]

Some of you don't half know how to suck all the joy out of a game of football, don't you? 

It's going to be a long world cup. 

[Carnero]

14 minutes ago, angieram said:

Some of you don't half know how to suck all the joy out of a game of football, don't you? 

It's going to be a long world cup. 

For reference, which game(s) will you be tuning into today Angie? ?