It's boring when they just pass it about to kill the clock. It's infuriating for the opposition. Fortunately, not everyone has the midfield to play that way. But what else would Iniesta and Xavi do? At least Pep-ball has goals at the end.
I'm still only half-arsed about it, I deffo won't rage when In-gerr-land go out on pennos. It's a promise I made to myself.
Re: The Armbands, why not put on the most-unlikely-to-be-used sub, once a game is safe and have him take the yellow? Small price to pay.
I don't usually care for sports, or what's on TV in general for that matter, but my step-sister's Brazilian boyfriend and her friend from SP, at the Thanksgiving lunch, went nuts when this happened...
The England game reminded me when, as a kid, my dad enrolled me in a soccer league. I chose goalie because that was the "safest". Chill for a while and slap away the ball. What could be hard about that? I had no idea...
That Richarlison goal was why people get hyped for the World Cup…
…the England vs USA game was not. Credit to USA, they actually looked like they wanted to win. Southgate’s tactics are so fucking negative. And he hasn’t got the balls to drop underperforming “names”.
watching King Leopold's heirs get fucked by an African nation is what I'm here for! Only thing that sucks is that FIFA decided to schedule all the crazy games for 3am Pacific Time, so I've missed out on the most exciting action.
Also fuck the nederlanders, they've been offering up some garbage since 2010 and it sucks that they'll make it out of their group.
And if it were up to me Neymar could stay hurt for the rest of the month.
England turned on the style after dropping Mason Mount & Raheem Sterling, and playing Foden on the left (where he excels for Citeh). Who’d’ve thunk it?
Happy for Rashford - have to admit he was an improvement on Saka. The assist from Kalvin Phillips for goal #3! Declan Rice can’t and won’t do that. I’d play Rice at CB alongside Ben White. Fuck Maguire & John Stoned.
Somehow Gareth will elevate their level to something beyond that which they perform at for their clubs. Like he's done with Rashford. #redemptionforslabhead
Once the whole sordid affair is over, he can f*ck right off for Uni*ed, of course.
What a wild tournament. For 2 mins today we could have had both Germany & Spain out in the first round. I can't remember a World Cup with so many big teams losing games to lower ranks teams. Belgium realllly looked shite this year.
Denmark were pathetic too. Feel bad for Mexico though, they were so close! Now we'll all be punished by one more Poland game.
Japan and Morocco topping their groups messes up everyone's predictions/bets, doesn't it?
Ghana v Uruguay should be crazy tomorrow. Normally I'd want Uruguay to go through, but this time I'd actually like to see Ghana make it out of the group and bury the ghost of Baby Jet.
France were on point yesterday. It wasn't just the execution from Mbappe and Giroud - they controlled the match with their passing. I haven't watched England yet this tournament - how are they shaping up?
They have been surprisingly decent with some aspects of going back to old bad habits.
I will say this. That Bellingham kid has the potential to be one of the best midfielders in the world IMO.
His bromance with Jordan Henderson yesterday has me wishing Liverpool would go all out and sign that kid in 2023.The fee is going to be ridiculous. But now might be the time to make it happen with Mané gone and Salah reaching in his 30's and still able to get big money.
They have been surprisingly decent with some aspects of going back to old bad habits.
I will say this. That Bellingham kid has the potential to be one of the best midfielders in the world IMO.
His bromance with Jordan Henderson yesterday has me wishing Liverpool would go all out and sign that kid in 2023.The fee is going to be ridiculous. But now might be the time to make it happen with Mané gone and Salah reaching in his 30's and still able to get big money.
I think every club in the Prem would view Bellingham as un upgrade: there aren’t many players around like him.
Of course, should he form a great friendship with Saka and be tempted by life in London with the cough, current, cough cough league leaders, I would not be upset.
England: Luis Enrique was asked why he was playing Rodri (a DMF) at CB for Spain and I wish Southgate paid attention to Enrique’s answer . He said (something like) ‘that in a game the CB will touch the ball 200-300 times’.
There’s no point training goalkeepers to play short passes if they’re just going to give the ball to a CB who loses possession, so he wants defenders who can play, or players who can defend at CB. Not every country is blessed with a Virgil Van Dyke or William Saliba. England’s best moments against Senegal came on the counter when a decent player was starting the move from deep. Maguire loses possession regularly and dangerously, and John Stones just doesn’t seem to play forward passes at all, so England’s build up play is laborious and easily nullified.
I feel hungover after watching those 2 games even though I had nothing to drink!
Honestly relieved that I won't have to watch Neymar lift a World Cup. He's a sack of shit, as exemplified by him not taking the first penalty just so he could hog the glory in the 5th one. Turns out the first one is more important than the 5th one, which he found out sometimes doesn't even need to be taken.
Messi on the other hand. I cannot process what happened in that game, but his date with destiny still seems to be on.
I hate pennos but it looks like everything gets decided this way in the final stages. My money is on France, they seem to be the strongest side left and must be confident now. Well done to Morocco but parking the bus isn't what World Champions should be opening with.
Congratulations Argentina. I was happy for Messi to get his winner's gong after all that. Winning a World Cup is hard, right?
I had France as favourites because they are younger and generally have enough pace to get something against every defence they've faced. I couldn't believe how slow they started though - it was like they'd already played through 120 minutes + a shootout in the morning.
Messi will be missed but there are very few players like him to go around. And happy to see Julian Alvarez do well through the tournament, can't believe City got such a bargain there. I think Martinez' golden glove gesture was definitely in poor taste, and therefore superbly fitting for a shithouse tournament in a shithouse nation. He should have put a rainbow armband on it for bonus points.
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I do remember Skel bored shitless by that iteration of tiki-taka.
I'm still only half-arsed about it, I deffo won't rage when In-gerr-land go out on pennos. It's a promise I made to myself.
Re: The Armbands, why not put on the most-unlikely-to-be-used sub, once a game is safe and have him take the yellow? Small price to pay.
There’s no real drama until we get to the knockout stage really.
But the armbands thing… just recreate this after a goal when all the cameras are on you:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ltGcTwLOFwQ&feature=emb_logo
The England game reminded me when, as a kid, my dad enrolled me in a soccer league. I chose goalie because that was the "safest". Chill for a while and slap away the ball. What could be hard about that? I had no idea...
…the England vs USA game was not. Credit to USA, they actually looked like they wanted to win. Southgate’s tactics are so fucking negative. And he hasn’t got the balls to drop underperforming “names”.
Both of the goals by Argentina today against Mexico were also gorgeous. Perfectly placed with small margin for error.
Happy for Rashford - have to admit he was an improvement on Saka.
The assist from Kalvin Phillips for goal #3! Declan Rice can’t and won’t do that. I’d play Rice at CB alongside Ben White. Fuck Maguire & John Stoned.
Somehow Gareth will elevate their level to something beyond that which they perform at for their clubs. Like he's done with Rashford.
#redemptionforslabhead
Once the whole sordid affair is over, he can f*ck right off for Uni*ed, of course.
For about 35 minutes England made scoring look easy. Then back to sleep-mode.
France is going to be a massive test.
I think every club in the Prem would view Bellingham as un upgrade: there aren’t many players around like him.
Of course, should he form a great friendship with Saka and be tempted by life in London with the cough, current, cough cough league leaders, I would not be upset.
England: Luis Enrique was asked why he was playing Rodri (a DMF) at CB for Spain and I wish Southgate paid attention to Enrique’s answer . He said (something like) ‘that in a game the CB will touch the ball 200-300 times’.
There’s no point training goalkeepers to play short passes if they’re just going to give the ball to a CB who loses possession, so he wants defenders who can play, or players who can defend at CB. Not every country is blessed with a Virgil Van Dyke or William Saliba. England’s best moments against Senegal came on the counter when a decent player was starting the move from deep. Maguire loses possession regularly and dangerously, and John Stones just doesn’t seem to play forward passes at all, so England’s build up play is laborious and easily nullified.
Portugal has entered the chat.
sorry for the outburst but that was in reference to the dutch penalty fake out.
France are looking strong for the future. Will be interesting to see how Argentina fare without Messi.
I had France as favourites because they are younger and generally have enough pace to get something against every defence they've faced. I couldn't believe how slow they started though - it was like they'd already played through 120 minutes + a shootout in the morning.
Messi will be missed but there are very few players like him to go around. And happy to see Julian Alvarez do well through the tournament, can't believe City got such a bargain there. I think Martinez' golden glove gesture was definitely in poor taste, and therefore superbly fitting for a shithouse tournament in a shithouse nation. He should have put a rainbow armband on it for bonus points.