Off Topic World Cup Thread

Very astute on all points!

 

After his extraordinary semifinal save from Harry K, I thought the Croatian keeper might nick the Golden Boot from him as well!

 

Hugo's now got a Legion d'Honneur to add to his collection of trophies he was supposed to leave Spurs in order to win...

 

Time for a little review, methinks...

BEST GAME(S)

Belgium vs Japan
- While the first half wasn't much, the second half was perhaps the most thrilling 45 minutes of football in the entire tournament, with Japan taking a deserved 2-0 lead that had Belgium staring down the barrel until Roberto Martinez had the genius idea of maybe playing Kevin De Bruyne in his preferred position, and doing so led to a fightback that saw Belgium clinch victory in the dying seconds of the game with a superb counter attacking move

France vs Argentina
- On paper it looked like the French would stroll this one due to Argentina being utterly dismal in the group stages as they apparently expected Messi and Di Maria to make something out of the nothing the rest of their team was providing, but instead we got a game where a motivated Argentina played their best football of the tournament against a France side clicking into gear that saw them win the tournament, with some cracking goals flying in from all over the place

Honourable mentions
Morocco vs Iran: While not the spectacle of so many other games, it was a hell of a lot of fun to see the two teams kick seven bells out of one another
Germany vs Sweden: An all-action game reminiscent of the "Bloody Germans" trope of old, won with a sublime free kick from Kroos
Croatia vs Argentina: After an open and reasonably even first half the combination of Croatian brilliance and Argentine collapse was breathtaking
Spain vs Portugal: Spain played some casually beautiful football once tiki-taka was off the table, while Portugal's cheating was masterful

WORST GAME

Uruguay vs Egypt
- A dreary affair from start to finish, with Uruguay's players seemingly not bothered while Egypt's weren't up to the task

Honourable mentions
Sweden vs Switzerland: I legit fell asleep during this match
France vs Denmark: Two teams content to spend ninety minutes having a leisurely jog in the sunshine
Croatia vs Nigeria: Nigeria were ****e and Croatia couldn't be bothered

"WHERE THE HELL DID YOU COME FROM?" AWARD

Jo Hyeon-woo (South Korea)
- Plays for K-League space-fillers Daegu and mocked for his ginger duck's arse hairstyle before Korea's opening game against Sweden, but he did a hell of a lot to boost his stock in Korea's truncated tournament, especially his heroics against Germany

Honourable mentions
Jordan Pickford (England): Looked like the pick of a bang average bunch before the tournament, but had some superb performances
Domagoj Vida (Croatia): Was so far off the radar at Dynamo Kyiv only Besiktas came in for him in January, now he's on many transfer wishlists
Denis Cheryshev (Russia): After years of being an afterthought at club and international level, elevated his international tally from 0 to 4
Yerry Mina (Colombia): Scored in every single match he played, which isn't bad for a centre back
Yussuf Poulsen (Denmark): Overlooked ahead of the tournament in favour of Eriksen and Sisto, but his all-action performances stood out

"WELL THAT SUCKED" AWARD(S)

Argentina
- While there was some quality in their team (Messi, Di Maria, Aguero, Higuain, Banega) so much of it was nullified by a combination of inept tactics which appeared to consist of telling the teams "Just give the ball to Leo, he'll did you out of a hole" and a dreadful defence, while comparisons to Argentina sides of old (not least the 1998 or 2006 teams) are pretty damning given their lack of a Simeone, a Riquelme, an Ayala, a Sorin...basically any player capable of dictating or changing games from deep.

Raheem Sterling
- I haven't seen an England player receive so much hype before a tournament only to deliver so little since Steve McManaman did precisely nothing during the course of Euro '96. There's approximately 276 examples dotted through the various match threads on this board.

Honourable mentions
- Serbia: Conspired to throw away qualification with a collapse against Switzerland followed by a toothless performance against Brazil
- Poland: Hapless against Senegal, obliterated by Colombia, gave up despite being 1-0 up against Japan
- Saudi Arabia: Well they were pretty ****...
- Egypt: ...yet The Mohammed Salah Team managed to be that little bit ****tier

WORST FANS

Denmark, Sweden & Columbia
- I don't care if they missed a penalty in a shootout, conceded the free kick that led to Germany winning 2-1, or were sent off and conceded a penalty for handball, YOU DO NOT SEND DEATH THREATS TO PLAYERS AND THEIR FAMILIES. Is that ****ing clear?

Honourable mentions
England fans: "Yay, we won! Let's trash this ambulance that's on call!" Dickheads
Croatia: Any reason why they booed harry Kane when he was awarded the Golden Boot?
Iran: Vuvuzelas? REALLY?

TOP GOALSCORER

Harry Kane
- This appears to have upset fans of Arsenal, Chelsea and Saltypool. Well **** 'em, he won the Golden Boot, and those bitter little rants aren't going to stop that from being a fact

Honourable mentions
Did anyone else score six goals? No? Well then...

BIGGEST DERP

Toni Kroos (vs South Korea)
- The defending equivalent of the Hindenburg disaster as, in the space of a second, his attempt at clearing the ball instead nutmegged teammate Niklas Sule while setting up Kim Young-gwon with a goalscoring opportunity that he looked genuinely surprised to have received, and thanks to VAR it was proven that Kroos played Kim onside so the goal stood and Germany were heading home

Honourable mentions
David De Gea (vs Portugal): Set himself for a routine save as a tame shot dribbled towards him, yet somehow conspired to spill the ball across his own line
Hugo Lloris (vs Croatia): Apparently wanted to give Loris Karius a message of support by proving that good goalkeepers can **** up too
Carlos Sanchez (vs Japan): What did he think was going to happen with that blatant handball? I mean the penalty and straight red, not the death threats...
Willy Caballero (vs Croatia): Ante Rebic's finish was great, but Caballero's assist was nearly as good - shame he played in goal for the other team
Paulinho (vs Belgium): The ball falls to his feet in the Belgian area with the goal at his mercy...and his mishit shot goes flying to his immediate right
Marouane Fellaini & Axel Witsel (vs Brazil): When protecting a narrow lead, DON'T CONSTANTLY HOOF THE BALL TO THE BLOODY OPPOSITION
Neymar (vs everybody): Made himself an international laughing stock with his rolling around
Mark Lawrenson (vs Benjamin Pavard): It never did occur to him that Pavard is a centre back, did it?
Alan Shearer: Was his half-time analysis of any incident actually correct, rather than contrarian bollocks?
Tim Farron & Stephen Kinnock: Remember how they were saying England should boycott the tournament? You do now...
Arsenal FC (vs reality): Congratulating a player they sold to Chelsea in January for his World Cup win was bloody embarrassing, even for them
Various Twitter dickheads (vs common sense): Italy, Holland, Chile and Ivory Coast would've qualified if it was a 48-team tournament, you know...

 

Superb review. Not sure where to put it but VAR has to be in there somewhere. I was very concerned about it, having seen the total bollocks that the FA made of it in the cup this year. There were some decisions that I'd definitely disagree with but that's mostly down to officials bottling red cards and the odd penalty.

However, the absence of South American teams in the semi-finals was partly down to the fact that their [and the Germans, Portuguese, etc.] diving, rolling around feigning injury and general cheating weren't as successful as they have been in previous tournaments. I think that there's work to be done but it definitely had a beneficial effect and the tournament was much the better for it.

Maybe we could get Collina in to oversee its introduction over here in 2019/20?

Great World Cup. Really great.

 

Now that the world’s television is not focussed on their country will the Russian fans go back to racially abusing black players and causing mayhem wherever they go. or will they realise that you can actually enjoy football without all that stupid stuff

 

I hope that Croatian goal will be Hugo's only mess up this coming season! But I never thought to see a Spurs goalie lifting THAT cup!Well done. May you get to do that many,many more times with us,Hugo…….

 

From the World Cup to the Asian Games,so we lose Son for a month? As Harry doesn't score in August (and July!!!?),that's not a good start.

 

Lots of likes but nobody noticed its 12 players. Hmmmm.

 

Do referees ever count the players before kick off? Perhaps we should try that against the mousers when we open the new WHL, actually give them something real to complain about

 

They should, it was one of the things taught to do at the beginning of each half when i did my refereeing qualification with the FA.

Wouldn't surprise me if it fell to another official in the prem etc though

 

I''ll edit Toby out when he leaves. I had Belgium 2-1 England in the 3rd v 4th play off game.......

 

The Sky statto summary :

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/12098/11440649/which-domestic-clubs-excelled-at-the-world-cup

Again just more general illustration (even if you claim
Lloris is an "outlier" ) of how Spurs players represented
this summer.

 

Lidl have dedicated a bay at each of the England teams local stores. For some reason they have given them to Jack Wheelchair at every store!

 

Quick! Everyone to the Paris Metro!

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Why has Harry got a beard?

 

Because he had one the entire WC?

 

Hello Spurm, welcome back. I never noticed

 

You never noticed he had a beard? I came back? I left? All are acceptable.

He hasn't been cleanly shaven for a while iirc. He's a man now, lol

 

well! I'll go to the foot of our stairs!