...::[The Footy Desk]::... (Part 2)

[Shyabang Shyabang]

Japan equalized!

[Mexicola9302]

Lol now they bring Mario Götze, he should make a miracle goal now i guess, like in the 2014 WC finale.  

 

Edit: I just had to laugh so hard.  

Edited November 23, 2022 by Mexicola9302

[Shyabang Shyabang]

WOWOW!

[Mexicola9302]

Pathetic performance by the german team.

[Cordohen]

Wow. Japan sure was heroic here aswell. What a second half. The substitutes at the front really improved their game. Germany definitely should have killed it in the first half, so many missed opportunities. Now they gonna have to make something of their second game against Spain to avoid elimination. Gonna be tough.

 

Also that Rudiger run, lmao.

[Donald Lov]

17 hours ago, Jason said:

 

The 2018 WC should have been the USA and the 2022 should have been England (or Spain/Port I think it was?). Those countries had the best bids but they went for Qatar in this very recent trend of hosting the WC in countries in countries with no infrastructure for it to supposedly grow the sport in those countries. Now I'm not at all against the idea that a world cup should be hosted in the Middle East, it's a world cup, and I'm not against a world cup being used to ignite interest in the sport in countries where it's not as big as others.

 

But we all know the reasons that Russia and Qatar got the WC was because of corruption, it's a literal established fact. Even the people involved (Blatter and co) have admitted it. People are happy to just gloss over that and instead kick up a fuss over rainbow clothing and armbands, it's... pathetic IMO.

 

And yea, the next World Cup is going to be incredible, of that I have no doubt. The sport is growing a lot in the US and Canada and I bet we'll see packed and amazing stadiums, fanzones, etc. None of this people not being able to get water in the middle of a f*cking desert stuff. 

To me personally, nothing sounds quite as terrible as the WC in America . This all-consuming modern-day empire has its arms, legs and noses everywhere, so at least in football there must exist some breathing room, somewhere people can rest from America's tiresome hegemony. Corruption or not, the cup in South Africa was awesome, in Russia, arguably one of the best in history, so it is what it is. Other places need their time to shine as well. I like their idea for the entire North America as a host for 2026 and not just the U.S. We need more initiative from Asian countries.

Edited November 23, 2022 by Donald Lov

[Eutyphro]

Damn Germany, what the hell happened? I consider Flick a really great manager, and expected him to do well. I expected a World Cup hard to predict, but this one is even more unpredictable than I expected. We're seeing serious flops occurring. Us Dutch people love seeing the Germans lose though, so I'm not complaining.

Edited November 23, 2022 by Eutyphro

[TheSantader25]

This is what happens when you bench in form Ter Stegen

[smokeless6]

Is Low still coaching?

 

Shocker, though Japan is not strangers to this sort of result. They switched tactics and started pressing when the subs came on and it changed the game. Well done. And their fans again stayed to clean up the stadium.  Winners!

2 hours ago, Donald Lov said:

somewhere people can rest from America's tiresome hegemony.

 

Yeah, it will only have been 30 years since the last one. 

[Eutyphro]

I remember back in 2014 when Costa Rica was a quite tough team. Now Spain also plays quite well, but this is a bit much.

[Donald Lov]

Poor Keylor😥 Spain took him on a trip down the memory lane of what it felt like facing prime Barca and Real as a Levante goalie

[TheSantader25]

Loved the display of the Barca youngsters. Seems like Enrique knows what he's doing. Though it's very hard to see Spain winning it because the backbone of the squad is very young.

[Eutyphro]

I find it interesting that a player like Cucurella is left at home, and Alba starts, a player who is not a starter at his club. He makes some interesting choices, but you can't argue with a coach that wins 7-0 to be honest. I think there's loads of experience in that team in players like Alba, Azpi and Busquets, but Spain misses players that are in their prime range. There's a bunch that are a bit over the hill and a few kids in central positions. Like I said earlier though, I really like Luis Enrique and I mentioned Spain among who I thought might do well for a reason.

 

I'm mostly still confused about how Germany did, but I missed that match. Also seems Japan might be underestimated, and I see much of the Japanese squad play in Bundesliga themselves, or other decent teams, and are thus of a good level. Compare this with the Costa Rica team, who mostly play in Costa Rica, or other clubs noone ever heard about, and the reason for this result becomes clear. The middle/north America qualifying groups are probably garbage.

Edit: Oke, I looked it up and found out Alba starts at Barca again these days. I saw earlier in the season he didn't and was going off that. He must be in good form then. Or probably it is due to the injury of Bellerin.

Edited November 23, 2022 by Eutyphro

[Jason]

Germany has a squad full of talent but very few players I'd class as real quality. The front line being led by Havertz is the prime example, he's a player with bigs of quality but he blows hot and cold a lot and that's without touching on the idea of playing him as the central striker, which is iffy. It's not so suprising that they struggled in hindsight really. For teams like Japan this is their final so they're going to be up for it.

 

Meanwhile, Spain looking veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery good. Gavi and Pedri are incredible talents. Wasn't sure if their front three was good enough to score when it counts, and today is not proof of that, but it's a hell of a good start for them.

[TheSantader25]

@Eutyphro

 

I really don't think Cucurella has had a good season at Chelsea. I would even pick Alonso ahead of him. Alba found some form again in the past month due to the injuries in the Barca defense. The interesting point though is that Luis Enrique himself benched Alba back in 2017 at Barca.

[Cordohen]

Sad for Canada, they probably should have earned at least 1 point. Belgium was clearly vulnerable. Canada lacked accuracy on the last gestures. Like Ochoa, Courtois is in for a great WC I can feel it.

 

Spain was doing Spain stuff, always in control of the ball, with 99.8% of possession. Costa Rica – probably the weakest team of the tournament – being destroyed makes me wonder why the f*ck FIFA chose to include 16 additionnal teams for the next World Cups. Can't wait for Mali or Jamaica getting obliterated by the top nations.

[Jason]

Canada's fault (if you can call it that, it's not actually their fault) was inexperience and it's as simple as that. They got a bit frantic in the final third, not making the right decisions, not composing them self, one or two moments where players tried to play hero as well.

 

Belgium looked sh*te. They struggled massively with the legs and pace of Canada, so going against a team with that plus experience and quality could end up being a bit of a bloodbath. Also, how Martinez is still in that job I honestly don't know lol.

[Shyabang Shyabang]

 

[Craigsters]

 

We now know what Budweiser will do with the beer it can't sell at the World Cup

 

source ctvnews.ca  alternative CNN

Edited November 24, 2022 by Craigsters

[Cordohen]

Is this even a beer tho

[Eutyphro]

Brazil is playing too many attacking players, and I expect that they are gonna flop. Let's see.

[TheSantader25]

I'd prefer a Guimaraes-Casemiro midfield behind Neymar for them. They might get away with it against this group but not against tougher opponents.

[Eutyphro]

If Serbia and Switzerland play well organised and as a team they will not get away with it in my estimation, but let's wait and see. For me the France - Switzerland Euros match was kind of defining in proving what happens with a Galacticos team that is not well organized, or just plays as a group of gifted individuals, playing against an actual team. I expect something along those lines might happen, because that France formation was not even that unbalanced, but this Brazil formation really is.

Edit: Seems like today I was wrong lol. Serbia just hasn't enough quality to make an upset I guess, but I do think it will go wrong in the not so far away future for Brazil with this formation.

Edited November 24, 2022 by Eutyphro

[Edward RDRIII]

3 hours ago, Eutyphro said:

Brazil is playing too many attacking players, and I expect that they are gonna flop. Let's see.

Two brazilian flops for ya.

 

Edited November 24, 2022 by Edward RDRIII

[Eutyphro]

The second goal was very beautiful I have to admit. I'm also rooting for the way Brazil is playing to work, but my common sense said it would not. I don't know much about Paqueta, but from what I've read he's a number 10. Playing a midfield of him, Neymar, who is not a midfielder, and Casemiro to me seemed there is no way it will work, and like I said, I'm rooting as a football fan for it to work, but common sense says it can't. And my common sense still says this might have worked today but is going to flop sometime soon.

Edited November 24, 2022 by Eutyphro

[Edward RDRIII]

17 minutes ago, Eutyphro said:

The second goal was very beautiful I have to admit. I'm also rooting for the way Brazil is playing to work, but my common sense said it would not. I don't know much about Paqueta, but from what I've read he's a number 10. Playing a midfield of him, Neymar, who is not a midfielder, and Casemiro to me seemed there is no way it will work, and like I said, I'm rooting as a football fan for it to work, but common sense says it can't. And my common sense still says this might have worked today but is going to flop sometime soon.

I kinda get what you mean, Neymar did absolutely nothing today, sure Brazil can flop eventually but so can other teams, their formations and players too, all we can do is hope for the best.

[Eutyphro]

If they dominate against Cameroon and Switzerland I'm gonna change my view, and to me they'll have proven you can play 4 defenders, 1 DM, one number 10, and 4 wingers with your national team and make it work. If they dominate the rest of the group my theory will be proven wrong, but up until then I remain skeptical. I've never seen a formation like that succeed at a national team, so it would be a new accomplishment, and as a fan of attacking football I'm rooting for it to work out. I do think that what helped is that some players defended very well, and I'm specifically thinking about Alex Sandro, who I think plays as a centerback at Juve. He brought balance to he team I think. If you had played a Marcelo type there, or Telles, you would have run into even more problems in terms of balance in the team.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Eutyphro

[TheSantader25]

Alex Sandro is a LB but can play as a center back too. Similar to Alaba. Brazil's full backs are quite defensive with Danilo and Alex Sandro. This could help them play more offensively at the front. I think they'll easily walk this group with this formation. But I expect Tite to play a more defensive player instead of Paqueta in the knockout stages.

 

It's always a joy to watch Brazil though. They play so beautifully and unique.

Edited November 25, 2022 by TheSantader25

[Eutyphro]

I think one of the Brazil players that definitely did not have a good game was Raphina, and I hope we can see Anthony start next game.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Eutyphro

[Shyabang Shyabang]

After Iran scored that goal at extra time, I had a feeling that Iran would soon score another.