Jump to content

World Cup 2018 thread


jackhasler23

Recommended Posts

10 minutes ago, David said:

Paul Ince was right. 

Lol....i think it was the Wasserman scouting report that named Mbappe.

in fairness i signed him for Lincoln city a couple of years ago too. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 3.5k
  • Created
  • Last Reply
1 hour ago, G STAR RAM said:

So what did everyone make of the World Cup?

England's run aside I can't say it's one that will live long in my memory. 

Can't really think back to many games that got me on the edge of my seat...maybe Spain v Portugal, France v Argies and Belgium v Japan.

No real standout players.

Very few goals that will be replayed over and over.

VAR pretty much a joke. A good idea in principle but not clearly thought through. Should not be using the World Cup as a guinea pig for a system that's still in its infancy. The fact that it was incorrectly used in the final sums it up.

Only 4 red cards despite most penalty boxes looking more like a wrestling ring than a football pitch at set pieces. 

Strip back the hysteria caused by Englands run and I have to say it was pretty average with most excitement created by run of the mill underdogs upsetting the supposed bigger teams.

I enjoyed it immensely. Standout games for me were Portugal v Spain, Sweden v Germany, Croatia v Argentina, Japan v Belgium, Brazil v Belgium, France v Argentina. All for different reasons. And I loved England putting 6 past someone, even if that someone was especially rubbish. And the penalty shootout.

Watching Modric and Rakitic together, Mbappe, Hazard, Debruyne, The partnerships of Cavani and Suarez, Gimenez and Godin for Urugauy.

Loved Argentina making a pig's ear of the match against Croatia and Germany making berks of themselves (especially with the winger goalkeeper thing against Korea). And The world laughing at Neymar may well have been the cherry on the top.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I enjoyed it overall. There were lots of shocks and a good deal of schadenfreude to be had at Germany/Neymar's expense. England had a decent showing for a change. I was rather disappointed with the final though. The previous two tournaments have seen two teams in Spain and Germany who played exciting football and were clearly a cut above their opposition, I don't think the same can be said of this French team. They've been defensively solid and well disciplined, but I expected more than sitting deep and attempting to hit on the break from a team with the players they have at their disposal. I would've loved to see Croatia take the lead in the final to really test France and force them to come out and play to their full capacity.

There wasn't really a stand out team, but I enjoyed watching Belgium the most. I don't begrudge Modric, who was excellent, but I think Hazard can consider himself very unlucky not to be named player of the tournament.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the one thing this World Cup lacked was two outstanding heavyweights facing each other.

It was a World Cup where there was only really one outstanding team, and on reflection they won the tournament pretty easily winning every game bar a dead-rubber in 90 minutes and even some weren’t that impressed.

I think Brazil vs Belgium was the only game where the standard on both sides were excellent.

Maybe that’s doing a disservice to Croatia, but I really don’t think they’re anywhere near as good as some of the best nations of recent years. I think they were lucky to make the final without winning a knockout game in 90 mins.

It’ll be looked at as a World Cup of missed opportunities. England and Colombia will feel they had enough to reach a final. Mexico blew their chance of going really far too with that Sweden defeat.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, IlsonDerby said:

It was interesting to see how poorly South American teams did. 

Was this down to VAR and not being able to defend the way they like to defend? 

Would Italy be just as stuffed with this in mind? 

 

 

Only one South American team has reached the final in the last 4 tournaments and as for a South American team winning it, it is starting to be a distant memory. 

I'm not sure the performance in this world cup is anything new, though it is worse than normal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fair play award was given to Spain! Holy duck the times they are a changing. 

For those who don’t know:

golden glove = courtois

golden ball = modric

young player = mbappe

golden boot = dunno. Some random from a poo team I’ve never heard of. Scored a couple off his arse (should’ve got a golden arse). 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, MuespachRam said:

Best World Cup in my lifetime by a long way. 

Loads of the “big” nations getting dumped out, some great goals, amazing games, England finish as the fourth best team in it what’s not to like..?

What were the amazing games?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

What were the amazing games?

Russia Saudi Arabia

Portugal Spain

Germany Mexico

Colombia Japan

Iran Spain

Denmark Peru

Argentina Croatia

Serbia Switzerland

Germany Sweden

Belgium Tunisia

England Panama

Japan Senegal

Poland Colombia

Spain Morocco

Nigeria Iceland

South Korea Germany

Senegal Colombia

France Argentina

Spain Russia

Croatia Denmark

Belgium Japan

Colombia England

Brazil Belgium

Russia Croatia

Croatia England

France Croatia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 minutes ago, MuespachRam said:

Russia Saudi Arabia

Portugal Spain

Germany Mexico

Colombia Japan

Iran Spain

Denmark Peru

Argentina Croatia

Serbia Switzerland

Germany Sweden

Belgium Tunisia

England Panama

Japan Senegal

Poland Colombia

Spain Morocco

Nigeria Iceland

South Korea Germany

Senegal Colombia

France Argentina

Spain Russia

Croatia Denmark

Belgium Japan

Colombia England

Brazil Belgium

Russia Croatia

Croatia England

France Croatia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure how Argentina v Nigeria didn't make this shambles of a list.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, ViewsFromTheMiddle said:

Not sure how Argentina v Nigeria didn't make this shambles of a list.

sorry i thought i had put that in.

every single one of those games was fantastic.....better than any game you will watch on Murdoch TV next season thats for sure

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is FiFA’s Team of the tournament, I don’t know how to embed tweets so here it is, they never fail to surprise me:

                        Lloris

Trippier  Varane  Lovren   Young

               Paulinho   Modric

Hazard           Griezmann    Neymar

                        Mbappe 

 

 

FIFA sneaking in Neymar, Lovren and Paulinho as if we wouldn’t notice and not including the golden glove winner Courtois.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, McLovin said:

Here is FiFA’s Team of the tournament, I don’t know how to embed tweets so here it is, they never fail to surprise me:

                        Lloris

Trippier  Varane  Lovren   Young

               Paulinho   Modric

Hazard           Griezmann    Neymar

                        Mbappe 

 

 

FIFA sneaking in Neymar, Lovren and Paulinho as if we wouldn’t notice and not including the golden glove winner Courtois.

I think that Loris is the right choice and he should have got the (terrible name) golden glove Courtois wasn’t as good as Loris over the whole tournament- just that final mistake when they had the final win that cost him. 

As for Neymar....!! Give me strength, he wasn’t even the best in the Brazil strike force. I am surprised hey didn’t crow bar Messi and Ronaldo in there too..

if Ashley Young is the best left back at the World Cup then I give up...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No golden glove or golden boot winner in there. So how many you score is not necessarily a metric of how good you are. Interesting. I’ll have to bookmark that for a few debates we’re bound to have over the coming season. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, MuespachRam said:

I just noticed that Lovren was in there too.. ha ha. That is about as funny as Neymar... the one thing that looked rubbish for Croatia all through the tournament was their centre halves..!

lovren is a pub player, not even a very good one.

thought Mina of Colombia was pretty sensational and generally there were many a CH better than lovren

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...