IdleRich
IdleRich
Yeah, bit of history there... and i can see that they have a point when they rub it by showing their own flag instead of the Swiss one - which country are they representing?
Roiling football blather
- Thread starter crackerjack
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- alan smith 17 arsene the glum aesthete basic schoolboy errors benitez the sad clown borderline rivaldo shithousing bromley spiritual healer chelsea :facepalm: dracula and his war council henry does an adam smith i am a holding midfielder of your face. jumpers for goalposts lads it's tottenham large samuel ole's at the wheel serie a epic fail shearer yawn shed ted square balls the special one traffordish waving imaginary cards
WashYourHands
Cat Malogen
good enough for vampire gimp Suarez
WashYourHands
Cat Malogen
WashYourHands
Cat Malogen
Football is gnosis, decent tournament so far, none of which will change anything structurally at Fifa when so much money is at stake
Supporters seem noticeably older (more kids with parents too), looking at a few grand for a 48 hour in and out soirée. Rest of the world knows if England beat France the entire national narrative will shift to Little Ships Sailing to Qatar Full of Steve’s From Peterborough
Supporters seem noticeably older (more kids with parents too), looking at a few grand for a 48 hour in and out soirée. Rest of the world knows if England beat France the entire national narrative will shift to Little Ships Sailing to Qatar Full of Steve’s From Peterborough
IdleRich
IdleRich
I hope you guys are watching NL vs Argentina... NL were two down with less than ten two go, put on two big men and pulled one back in 84th min or something. Then, deep into injury time (sorry @Leo ) the Dutch equalised with a beautifully worked freekick... to have the brains and the balls to try it and the talent to pull it off.... damn! Best moment of the tournament for me so far.
Also watching the Argies begging the ref to disallow it... based on nothing really, just pleading with God to somehow save them. And I do understand heartbreaking to lead so long, they really thought it was over.
They should have been prepared though if they remember this...
Also watching the Argies begging the ref to disallow it... based on nothing really, just pleading with God to somehow save them. And I do understand heartbreaking to lead so long, they really thought it was over.
They should have been prepared though if they remember this...
WashYourHands
Cat Malogen
Orange long ball, seen it all now
IdleRich
IdleRich
IdleRich
IdleRich
I've been thinking about what you asked earlier @Leo when you wondered if there were an unusually high number of upsets. I think that the full answer to that was that there were some major upsets - Argentina losing to Saudi Arabia, Germany losing to Japan, Brazil losing to Cameroon and so on - but cos they fell in the group games they were not that serious on the whole, particularly the ones where Brazil and France lost their last group games knowing that they were either already through, or through barring a freak result. So the main shock at the end of the group stage was that Germany were knocked out - and Spain had a momentary scare.
However into the knock-out stages and Morocco knocking Spain out was a big one, and they have now proved it was not a fluke by beating Portugal too. So really they've been the surprise team. Of course Croatia beat Brazil which was perhaps unexpected, but it's not a major upset - Croatia were the beaten finalists last time around after all.
So, looking at the teams we have left - Argentina who many made favourites are in one semi against Croatia who were runners up last time. It's maybe not THE semi that most would have picked from that half of the draw but it's nothing too incredible. In the other half of the draw we're gonna have either France, probably the other team that many would have made favourites (and I think that's who I picked when you asked for a prediction a month or so back) or England who are a pretty good side as well, Euro finalists last year etc so no major surprise there. However I can't believe that anyone would have picked Morocco to make up the fourth semi-finalist. Apparently they are the first African side to get this far and no-one could have foreseen that they would get past Spain AND Portugal.
So, England v France kicks off shortly, whoever wins will face Morocco and fancy their chances of beating them.... just like Spain and Portugal did.
I dunno what's gonna happen now... if I were neutral I would a hundred percent be supporting Morocco, but just for the fun of it let's make a prediction - I say France are gonna beat England and then be too strong for Morocco. The other semi is an intriguing one, Croatia have so much experience... but then another way of saying that is that they're old. Both Argentina and Croatia had a gruelling quarter-final that went to extra time and then penalties, and for want of any other way of separating them I'm going to say that Croatia's old legs may find it harder to recover from that and get back to the required level*... so I guess that means I'm saying France v Argentina in the final and I'll stick to my original prediction there, France to win it.
Although I could be wrong in every single game so who knows.
One thing perhaps worth mentioning is that Argentina seem to have lost a lot of the neutral support as people feel that they were very unsporting; to some degree in their play against the Dutch, but particularly in the way that they celebrated their victory, seemingly gloating over their defeated foes. Of course watching on telly one has no way of what was said between Dutch and Argentines before that moment - presumably something had riled them up and there was a reason they were so angry, but either way, a load of pictures from last night showing the whole team appearing to mock their distraught opponents as they lay on the grass in tears, just didn't look very good.
*Although, come to think of it, Croatia have had an extra day to recover so maybe that won't be such a big factor.
However into the knock-out stages and Morocco knocking Spain out was a big one, and they have now proved it was not a fluke by beating Portugal too. So really they've been the surprise team. Of course Croatia beat Brazil which was perhaps unexpected, but it's not a major upset - Croatia were the beaten finalists last time around after all.
So, looking at the teams we have left - Argentina who many made favourites are in one semi against Croatia who were runners up last time. It's maybe not THE semi that most would have picked from that half of the draw but it's nothing too incredible. In the other half of the draw we're gonna have either France, probably the other team that many would have made favourites (and I think that's who I picked when you asked for a prediction a month or so back) or England who are a pretty good side as well, Euro finalists last year etc so no major surprise there. However I can't believe that anyone would have picked Morocco to make up the fourth semi-finalist. Apparently they are the first African side to get this far and no-one could have foreseen that they would get past Spain AND Portugal.
So, England v France kicks off shortly, whoever wins will face Morocco and fancy their chances of beating them.... just like Spain and Portugal did.
I dunno what's gonna happen now... if I were neutral I would a hundred percent be supporting Morocco, but just for the fun of it let's make a prediction - I say France are gonna beat England and then be too strong for Morocco. The other semi is an intriguing one, Croatia have so much experience... but then another way of saying that is that they're old. Both Argentina and Croatia had a gruelling quarter-final that went to extra time and then penalties, and for want of any other way of separating them I'm going to say that Croatia's old legs may find it harder to recover from that and get back to the required level*... so I guess that means I'm saying France v Argentina in the final and I'll stick to my original prediction there, France to win it.
Although I could be wrong in every single game so who knows.
One thing perhaps worth mentioning is that Argentina seem to have lost a lot of the neutral support as people feel that they were very unsporting; to some degree in their play against the Dutch, but particularly in the way that they celebrated their victory, seemingly gloating over their defeated foes. Of course watching on telly one has no way of what was said between Dutch and Argentines before that moment - presumably something had riled them up and there was a reason they were so angry, but either way, a load of pictures from last night showing the whole team appearing to mock their distraught opponents as they lay on the grass in tears, just didn't look very good.
*Although, come to think of it, Croatia have had an extra day to recover so maybe that won't be such a big factor.
IdleRich
IdleRich
A day or two back my friend and I were discussing the most important attributes for a goalie. Of course ideally a goalie needs to be able to stop shots from a distance and close-in, deal with crosses (and other balls into the box), come out to save or block one-on-ones, distribute the ball and also marshal the defence. And I think to most people it's "obvious" that shot-stopping is the main thing... but, in an average game how many non-routine saves does a keeper make? My guess is that your average keeper will face some shots that any top level keeper would be expected to save and quite possibly one or more that no-one could possibly save - and occasionally of course there will be the odd shot that is right on that boundary where one keeper will be unable to keep it out but another might just fingertip it round the corner. And undoubtedly those moments can be absolutely crucial but I would say that in an average match the small difference between the shot stopping ability of any two international keepers will not matter that much - however you can guarantee that every keeper will have to deal with a number - probably well into double figures - of crosses and other balls lumped, whipped, curled or otherwise played into his area and so it is absolutely crucial for a keeper to be able to dominate the area and gobble those up as efficiently as possibly, ideally not just deflect them but gather them safely into his arms so that one team's attack is over, and his team can begin to build their own.
Today the goal that separated the sides - and it's always harsh to pick out one person like this but on this occasion it's very much the truth - was entirely down to the way that the Portuguese goalie got a cross so horribly wrong. It was a really strange one cos he was so far away from the ball that you can't even say that he flapped at it, he totally misjudged the flight to the extent that he was stranded in a position where he wasn't even able to properly challenge for the ball, but at the same time, he had left his goal and come so close to the attacker that, once he had got his head on the ball, the keeper couldn't possibly block it, the goal was to all intents and purposes completely unguarded.
I dunno if he lost it in the lights or if he was impeded by his defender or what really, but nine times out of ten an international keeper would surely have plucked that out of the air with ease and we wouldn't have even been talking about that as a particularly major chance
In a way you could describe the game as being decided by the two keepers, cos, contrary to what I said above, in approx the 83rd minute or so the Moroccan goalie made one of those incredible finger tip saves of one of those shots I was describing above. The best (and certainly most important) save I've seen in the whole tournament so far... it's not exactly hard to imagine a parallel universe where this one went in and the other one did not.
Today the goal that separated the sides - and it's always harsh to pick out one person like this but on this occasion it's very much the truth - was entirely down to the way that the Portuguese goalie got a cross so horribly wrong. It was a really strange one cos he was so far away from the ball that you can't even say that he flapped at it, he totally misjudged the flight to the extent that he was stranded in a position where he wasn't even able to properly challenge for the ball, but at the same time, he had left his goal and come so close to the attacker that, once he had got his head on the ball, the keeper couldn't possibly block it, the goal was to all intents and purposes completely unguarded.
I dunno if he lost it in the lights or if he was impeded by his defender or what really, but nine times out of ten an international keeper would surely have plucked that out of the air with ease and we wouldn't have even been talking about that as a particularly major chance
In a way you could describe the game as being decided by the two keepers, cos, contrary to what I said above, in approx the 83rd minute or so the Moroccan goalie made one of those incredible finger tip saves of one of those shots I was describing above. The best (and certainly most important) save I've seen in the whole tournament so far... it's not exactly hard to imagine a parallel universe where this one went in and the other one did not.
WashYourHands
Cat Malogen
Typical boring England
Saka’s played ok, midfield doesn’t have real bite or fizz and Kane can’t run for an outball
Saka’s played ok, midfield doesn’t have real bite or fizz and Kane can’t run for an outball
Leo
Well-known member
I know shit about your football but this England-France match seems pretty good, lots of good passing nd playmaking compared to some of the other marches. France goalie has made some good stops too.
despite being married to a brit, I have no horse in this race. maybe even hope France wins. would be cool if Morocco takes it all, flashing the Palestinian flag on global TV.
despite being married to a brit, I have no horse in this race. maybe even hope France wins. would be cool if Morocco takes it all, flashing the Palestinian flag on global TV.
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Leo
Well-known member
welp, @WashYourHands, guess that means I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.