Underwhelming from both Netherlands and England but it doesn’t matter how you top your group. It’s the next phase that really counts.
Although Southgate will have to abandon the inherent safety first team selection to progress deeper than the quarter-finals. Also Kane looks unfit.
Expect Mexico to duly fold (as per usual) against Argentina.
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If you were to lose Corden, we’d be sure to send you Piers Morgan as a replacement 
Can’t believe I took time out of my Shoot the Living Pray for the Dead marathon to watch this shite.
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France are back in ominous form (and similar to 2018) with several gears to move up too - but probably won’t need them.
Argentina haven’t a cat in hell’s chance.
Germany thrown a lifeline by Costa Rica and a draw against Spain should suffice to see both teams progress.
Not a huge shock Morocco beating fading ‘flat-track bully’ Belgium - but their ‘Golden Generation’ was utterly wasted on Martinez (and Wilmots).
[quote=“Montero, post:43, topic:6959”]
Not a huge shock Morocco beating fading ‘flat-track bully’ Belgium - but their ‘Golden Generation’ was utterly wasted on Martinez (and Wilmots).
[/quote]ot
The atmosphere within the selection seems to be very bad, lots of disagreements between the players and several players are unhappy with the coach and his line-up. That’s at least what I read on several Belgian news sites. Not a good omen for the final and decisive game in their group against Crotia. Unless a miracle happens, Belgium will be hammered out of the tournament
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“Flat track bully”, hah what a term, never heard that before. “Schönwetterspieler” in German, I assume …
But I don’t think Belgium needs a miracle, but they have to change a few things to beat Kroatia. Difficult but possible, they still have enough quality for that.
And Germany is back in the game, and I think now they will make the eight-final. With 4 points Spain is forced to win against Japan, they must bring their best players, and I’m sure they will not lose.
Not so sure about Argentina …
Btw it was only 2 days ago that I realised that in this tournament the goal difference is back to decide between teams with the same amount of points.
The term is more nuanced than the German one. It originates from Australian sport and is both a compliment and an insult. Belgium’s record under Martinez would suggest they are one.
There are obviously problems in the Belgium camp and they’ll need to defeat a resurgent Croatia - or draw - and hope for a big favour from Canada. Both unlikely on the strength of the first two rounds.
The first tie-breaker should always be the head-to-head not the goal difference. Stupid decision by FIFA to change that.
I didn’t know that one either. I knew Schönwetterspieler because we have the same term in Dutch: Mooiweervoetballer. But we also use another term for such a player, speeltuinvoetballer, which would be in English (literally translated) Kindergarten Player. I like that term as well.
I haven’t see anything to change my opinion: the new world champion will either be Brazil or one of the European Super Powers France, Germany or England. Argentina didn’t convince me and neither did Spain, the Germans had their problem with the Spanish passing game in the first half, when they were to passive (probably afraid to lose), but in the second half, when they pushed more forward and played forechecking, they were clearly the better team.
If I’m not mistaken, this was always the case, it is the UEFA (for instnace for the European Championships) that uses the head-to-head result as a tie-breaker
A variant (goal average) was first introduced at the 1962 World Cup. FIFA have stuck with the goal difference as the first tie-breaker ever since.
Ahh ok, then my memory betrayed me here.
I was quite sure that the Fifa had changed that for the last tournaments too.
The head-tohead result seems more logical to me, but apparently those guys from the Fifa think otherwise
Holland qualified as group winners, without playing one decent game. Most people in Holland are giving up hope. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Americans put an end to this misery on saturday.
A well-deserved win and qualification for the USA, by the way. Exciting game against Iran. Hopefully Pulisic and Sargent will be able to play on saturday, they need those two players
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I am far from being the expert that you gentlemen are (my forte is American football), but I have been pleasantly surprised by their performance thus far and enjoyed every game.
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Yes, he was! He was definitely leaving it all out there on the field.
Thought I’d get involved now that my country are out of he World Cup [ my congratulations to our conquerors and Masters , England - FWIW I think you’ve got an outstanding chance of winning this year’s WC ] .
Not seen a whole match as of yet , don’t know why , boredom maybe and knowing that Wales had peaked upon qualification .
Did you know we were the smallest country by population to qualify for the Qatar World Cup ?
We deserve to go out on that stat alone , effing no-hopers shouldn’t have bothered going .
As for the rest -
Brazil - not seen anything to convince me they’re winners but individually they do look good .
France - not got a proper focal point up front - won’t win .
Argentine - hmmm .
Spain - I’d like to see them win but don’t know why .
Portugal - if they beat England they could go all the way . Probably not though .
England - they’ll beat Senegal no problem - 3-0 . It’s the rest that’ll be difficult . My dark horse .
Germany - might not even qualify , Wales are in good company what with Denmark and possibly Uruguay going out .
Ah well , soon be Christmas , speaking of which , at the grand old age of 66 I made my very own Christmas puddings this year - 2 x 2 pint puddings and 2 x mini puds one of which I had tonight with some custard - best Christmas pudding I’ve ever tasted ,
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A well-deserved win for USA over Iran. Difficult to call Netherlands v USA in last 16. Probably extra-time and penalties.
If England start with Rashford and Foden they look well set for a quarter-final clash with France.
Little to read into France’s ‘dead rubber’ (for them) defeat against Tunisia.
Denmark disappointing in deserved defeat to Australia. Maybe they overachieved at last Euro.
Poland fortunate to advance ahead of Mexico. Slow, laborious and negative. Although great penalty save by Szczęsny.
Given a very favourable draw (Australia, then Netherlands or USA), Argentina should progress to the semi-final - but no further.
Croatia should have enough to eliminate fading Belgium.
Expect Ghana to get revenge on Uruguay. The South Americans looked pretty toothless against dark horses Portugal - with (and without) the declining Suárez.
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What a day on the World Cup, Belgium and Germany on the way home
The Belgian fiasco wasn’t a surprise after their first two games, in fact they did a bit better against Croatia than I had expected. They were far from great, but they looked like a real team, not like a group of individuals, and created a couple of good chances near the end. With a top fit Lukaku they most probably would have made it. But that said, it was a lacklustre performance of the N°3 of the previous World Cup in Russia: scoring only one goal and only beating a team like Canda is simply not enough. In ice hockey it would have been quite a result to beat the Canadians, but in football/soccer this is of course a different story.
And the Germany … What the hell happened to them? Okay, if Spain had beaten Japan they would have made it to the second round, but it’s never a good thing to be dependent on other teams’ results. Germany showed some good attacking football on this tournament - Musiala, Kimmich, Sané, Havertz are all good players - but they looked very shaky in defense: Germany dominated Japan and Costa Rica for most part of the game, but once those opponents managed to put some pressure on the German defense, they were in trouble. They simply give away goals to easily. And the magic of Manuel Neuer is over: he had a few good reactions, but he never looked calm, often was a source of unrest for his team. What do you think @stanton ?
PS: Can anybody tell the Spanish team that football is about scoring goals, not about ball posession?
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Yes, the German defense (including a less sure Neuer) was still as wobbly as suspected, and that’s the main reason why they bit the dust. But on the other hand they should have made twice as much goals as the did, and they made more goals than most others.
So it was unlike 2018 also some bad luck combined with some disability.
Was the elimination deserved?
Yes and no, they had enough chances to make it, but it seems they are definitely not longer the tournament team, which gets far even when they play not that good. Lineker’s famous, funny and telling statement was already changed by him in the last EC.
I would have preferred them to continue instead of this boring Spanish team (I’m not able to dislike the qualification of the Japanese team, they really deserved it - what a team spirit! What a performance!). When Spain scored 7 against Costa Rica I had the idea they had solved their goal scoring problems, but in the Germany and Japan games we saw the type of Spanish football we have seen too often in the past: passing the ball to each other almost endlessly without making much progress and without creating any chances. At least the German team was energetic and courageous. But yes, they will have to solve their defensive problems.