World Cup 2022

Scotland have a World Cup goal...

 

Mexico now 2-0 up

Well that confirms Denmark as "Most Disappointing Team" in the post-tournament vote, doesn't it?

 

They’ll take it
If O’Nana gets one for Belgium, Ireland can claim one too

 

On the subject of Onana, quite impressive that he announced his immediate retirement from the Cameroon national team after two WC matches

 

Get ****ed Szczesny!

 

Poland sleepwalking their way to WC elimination at this rate

 

Go on, Saudis. Score a 113th minute OG to send Poland home

 

An OG is at the other end, you Yemini-slaughtering, journalist-murdering, woman-oppressing, 9/11-planning ****wits...

 

It shouldn't be in tournament competition and I have my doubts if it should be in league competition either.

Ultimately if a team has navigated a set number of games well enough to leverage an advantage in remaining game(s), why should they be penalised for performing better than expected/better than most other teams?

It's something I've never fully understood even at league level. If say a team has outperformed everyone else over 36 games so much so that the title is already wrapped up and they have a CL final coming up a few weeks after the season ends, why is it fair to force them to play and risk injury to key players in games 37 and 38?

 

Missed the games yesterday as I turned the grand old age of 33 and headed into Exeter for a day trip. If you’re ever in the Exeter area over the next month I highly recommend going to their Christmas market just for the street food stalls, some unreal grub, the hog roast especially is ridiculously good and the bratwurst place was great too, opted for the chilliwurst which did not disappoint.

Caught up with highlights though, buzzing for the Aussies especially as it meant Hojbjerg gets to come home and rest! In a couple days one or both of Bentancur and Son will join him too , safe to say my pick of Uruguay being the dark horses for the tournament isn’t looking too smart at the moment. Poland looked extremely lucky to qualify after that display vs the Argies, France probably licking their lips at facing them especially as they more or less rested their strongest players yesterday and agree with what CK said in that they had every right to rotate and avoid fatigue for the latter rounds, I reckon Tite will do similar with Brazil on Friday too, we could’ve done so if we actually turned up in the USA game.

 

Anyone else dreading Murdoch's Hate Comic's front page on the day England play Senegal?

 

1. Is that why they won so decisively ??

2. Your punt on Argentina being champions is looking more sound

 

Poland were poor, Lewandowski looked so isolated, I don’t think it was a tough game for any of the Argentina defenders was it.

With Messi, they have a chance but Brazil and France won’t be easy to defeat in the knockouts.

 

Yes, it should.

A team in competitions earns the right to field a "dead rubber" side.
However that has to be tempered with the fact that taking
the p*ss could have serious material consequences for
others (promotion, relegation, qualification) .

I looked at the France starting XI in rhe context of games
such as Belgium vs England WC 2018, Spurs vs APOEL
CL 2017-18.

Even with my declaration of low education on the ratings
of all of the France squad, it looks to me like their starting
XI was not comparable to the starting XIs in the above games.

 

Poland set up to not lose 4-0 or worse, and barely managed that

The best thing I can say is they've made my choice for Worst Team in the post-tournament polls a lot easier...

 

Poland was like watching some of Spurs under Jose/Nuno ball.


"With Messi, they have a chance but Brazil and France won’t be easy to defeat in the knockouts."

Good fortune or appalling officials decisions aside,
Argentina will have to earn it. Perhaps the path fate
has chosen for them will mean they will play their
peak game from now until their end.

 

It’s different in a World Cup too because a top nation is picking from a subset of 20-25 usually very good players. Any team they put out is going to be decent.

More ****housery is possible in the league. Rotation obviously important but I imagine they’d take a dim view if we had most of the senior players fit but started 11 academy players against City to deny Arsenal a title, for example. Though that would be somewhat hilarious.

 

Argentina are a lot like Italy, where if they hit the ground running in a WC they flame out in the quarters - but if they struggle to get going to drag themselves into the semis eventually

 

VAR is getting worse, wasting time bringing the ref over to a monitor to view what is surely a 'factual' offside decision. After the penalty award for Messi last night and the handball in the Uruguay match you begin realising that it's not just premier league refs that are **** the problem is endemic across the world.

 

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