World Cup 2018... OFFICIAL THREAD....

[DevilRedeemed]

the final was belgium against france....i think france will bash these croatians!!!

they won't bash anything. if they do what they do, they'll put one away early on and then smother any Croatian initiative, maybe scoring again for good measure.
I hope Croatia win though. going to be tough.

3rd place match is a horrible idea, such a shit match. it's the same as matches between teams at group stages that have no chance in going to the next round.

 

[oliverclaude]

Yeah. Remember 2006?

Absolutely, excessive details included, and I wish England's footie fans the same: to witness the birth of a new Golden Generation right before their eyes. He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance... you're already dancin' Lions, next time you'll fly .

 

[DevilRedeemed]

Absolutely, excessive details included, and I wish England's footie fans the same: to witness the birth of a new Golden Generation right before their eyes. He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance... you're already dancin' Lions, next time you'll fly .

in all fairness this team, though pretty impressive was maybe somewhat over rated.

too many spurs players.
spurs mentality is not a winning mentality unfortunately. massive team and fanbase, never really delivers.

 

[oliverclaude]

in all fairness this team, though pretty impressive was maybe somewhat over rated.

Sure, if one confuses capability with winning, it's easy to overrate. But in this case, it's not the team and its undeniable potential that's overrated, but rather all expectations around it. After '06, Löw needed eight more years and four consecutive turnaments to turn potential into winning. Just a matter of the right handling and patience.

too many spurs players.
spurs mentality is not a winning mentality unfortunately. massive team and fanbase, never really delivers.

Well, I guess choosing most players from one team has its merits and flaws. They'll be already operating well together, but they may follow a different strategy. It's important for the management of said team to consult such things with the manager of the national team. In Germany most players come from Bayern Munich, which dominates the Bundesliga. BTW, Belgium's main defense (Alderweireld & Vertonghen) is also Spurs.

 

[games_sk]

England won't win any major tournaments with these players unfortunately... Their teams in '90, '96, '98, '02 & '04 were more competitive and pushed the big teams to the limit. This team lost to Belgium twice and Croatia whereas only beating mediocre teams like Tunisia, Panama and a decent-ish Sweden within 90 minutes. Not good...

If you can't win a tournament with players such as Barnes, Lineker, Beardsley, Butcher, Gascoigne, Beckham, Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard, Ferdinand, Campbell, Terry, Owen etc... then what chance does the current team have?

 

[games_sk]

I think that Cuney Suker shouldn't be allowed to referee games outside of Turkey. Dejan Lovren would have been carded out in the first 30 minutes with a competent referee. At the very least he would have received a card for his early antics and compelled to chill the fuck out. Second half had good play form Croatia, but this ignores the psychological effect on a team that knows that ref is bent double. England was gutted already. Lot of bad decisions. The goal from Croatia from the ridiculous high kick could have caused an injury. Like I said, Cuney Suker shouldn't officiate games.

It seemed to me FIFA ordered all of the referees to take it easy and not dish out too many cards especially in the first 15 minutes of matches...

Cüneyt Çakır is a solid referee. Every referee misses a few fouls here and there it's just the human nature of the game we all love. Perisic's goal was legit. The England defender ducked and dived to try and head the ball away. England had opportunities to double their lead before half-time. They only have themselves to blame...

 

[oliverclaude]

Well, there was a slight controversy regarding the first goal, but weather Griezmann was fouled or not...

Hate to say it but France played like a world champ.

...Tak nailed it!

Congratulations France!

 

[wyo]

Griezmann dive and bullshit penalty...

 

[games_sk]

Very harsh on Croatia. Unlucky...

 

[RAZO]

It is what it is. You would think that the attacking team would be France but instead it was Croatia. Well played by France for switching it up and playing the Counter Attack. When you have a lighting Fast Mbappe up front who could shred any defender on the planet, Giroud, Progba, Griezmann, why the hell not just sit back and play counter attack. Croatia fought well but they just couldn't penetrate the French defense. Hats off to Croatia, they had a hell of a tournament.

 

[DevilRedeemed]

Griezmann dive and bullshit penalty...

lol
alright there champ, keep it together

 

[wyo]

lol
alright there champ, keep it together

 

[evil wasabi]

It seemed to me FIFA ordered all of the referees to take it easy and not dish out too many cards especially in the first 15 minutes of matches...

Yet the refs did call things penalties that were suspicious. Today was a huge showing, where the ref called a penality after Greizmann dived. I mean for that alone, every Frenchman who cheered should be castrated. You don't cheer for that. Greizmann's family should be pelted and forced to eat each other's skins. But that's just what I think should happen to cheaters. Of course any French person who laments that free kick given is okay with me. And If you were happy that France won, that's fine too. But don't cheer for cheaters. And don't defend it. He dove. It's objective.

 

[Naika]

Yet the refs did call things penalties that were suspicious. Today was a huge showing, where the ref called a penality after Greizmann dived. I mean for that alone, every Frenchman who cheered should be castrated. You don't cheer for that. Greizmann's family should be pelted and forced to eat each other's skins. But that's just what I think should happen to cheaters. Of course any French person who laments that free kick given is okay with me. And If you were happy that France won, that's fine too. But don't cheer for cheaters. And don't defend it. He dove. It's objective.

Happy for France and all as a Les Bleus fan, but that dive was unacceptable. Not a fan of Griezemann for sure.

 

[DevilRedeemed]

France played pretty badly to be honest. Their 2018 WC campaign reminds me of Portugal winning the Eurocup. That said, their counterstrikes where pulverising and more damaging than what any other team had to offer.

 

[games_sk]

Yet the refs did call things penalties that were suspicious. Today was a huge showing, where the ref called a penality after Greizmann dived. I mean for that alone, every Frenchman who cheered should be castrated. You don't cheer for that. Greizmann's family should be pelted and forced to eat each other's skins. But that's just what I think should happen to cheaters. Of course any French person who laments that free kick given is okay with me. And If you were happy that France won, that's fine too. But don't cheer for cheaters. And don't defend it. He dove. It's objective.

Awarding penalties through VAR still needs work. Most of them were still dubious and not clear cut with referees needing plenty of time to watch the footage over and over. I believe some of the referees weren't 100% sure when watching the replays...

Griezmann's dive was terrible (how long would it have taken for the VAR team to have communicated this to the referee? Not much...) and unfortunately this is how the modern game is unless there is retrospective bans of at least 5 matches (let's see how many players would dive around then...). I don't watch nearly half as many matches as I used to purely due to this play acting culture.

 

[evil wasabi]

I’ll tell you what - take away the Griezmann dive and Mbappe’s diving in the semi, and you have a very elegant French team, with excellent passing from Pogba and Giroud. That team could have still beaten Croatia, but the psychological effect of being cheated can be devastating on any team, and thus makes this WC a metaphor for every country touched by Russia.

 

[DevilRedeemed]

I’ll tell you what - take away the Griezmann dive and Mbappe’s diving in the semi, and you have a very elegant French team, with excellent passing from Pogba and Giroud. That team could have still beaten Croatia, but the psychological effect of being cheated can be devastating on any team, and thus makes this WC a metaphor for every country touched by Russia.

their defending was all over the place though. if Croacia where just a little more accurate they could have done some real damage