[ContrarianMalazanReader]

I hope the match vs those scumbags has made Flick realize that Müller won't cut it anymore and assign him the role of team cheeleader, much like Podolski in 2014. He must play a proper striker.

Enough of this false 9 nonsense!!!!

This post has been edited by ContrarianMalazanReader: 28 November 2022 - 12:37 AM

[Tsundoku]

My goodness that Cameroon-Serbia match had everything plus the kitchen sink!

1-0 to CAM
then
1-1
1-2 to SER, both in first half injury time!
1-3 to SER early in the second half. That's all done bar the shouting we thought. But no!
2-3 to SER as the sub former captain for CAM comes on and scores the cheekiest chip shot we all thought was going to be offside (and was called, but overruled by VAR).
3 minutes later he assists for 3-3 with another cheeky almost offside.
And then it was just run run run until fulltime.

3-3 the end result. Some ordinary defence in there from both teams at times but entertaining AF!
And CAM didn't have their first choice goalie as he was stood down for "unspecified reasons" hours before the match.

Would have been nice to see Serbia lose but oh well ...

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 28 November 2022 - 12:18 PM

[Mentalist]

That's quite a match for Ghana, too. Koreans tried insanely hard to pull that 3rd one back.

EDIT: Swiss loss was predictable; they were too cautious when going up, and didn't fight for possession. Something was gonna give, and they'd probably have been better off with that 1st goal being allowed, to get them energized earlier.

EDIT2: Welp, Uruguay couldn't eke out a draw.

GO, KOREA!!!!!

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 28 November 2022 - 08:57 PM

[Mentalist]

Heartbreak for Ecuador, but Senegalw as the better team. Ecuador's chance was in the Netherlands game, where they dominated, but couldn't seal it.

Now to pick whether to watch the States or England. Which would be the spicier game?

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 29 November 2022 - 05:03 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Fierce local rivalry between England and Wales so it might be quite a passionate game I guess?

[Gorefest]

Southgate and passionate?

[Mentalist]

Watched the Iran game. States continues to be a very quick team. Iran's plan to sit back and defend was pretty poor and ended appropriately.

[Gorefest]

Come on, US, put us out of our misery on Saturday.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 29 November 2022 - 09:27 PM

[Mentalist]

Well done, Sombra, your boys beat the Danes (who couldn't place a cross in the box if their life depended on it). Now you'll probably have either Saudis or Argentina to face

It'll be interesting to see how the Argentina game goes. The snippets of the Saudi-Poland game I saw indicate that Poland finally got around to having a more or less competent D, which is a first for them.
Might be another nailbiter.

[Slow Ben]

“USA USA ISA”!


Me, once every 4 years.

[QuickTidal]

Slow Ben, on 30 November 2022 - 05:08 PM, said:

“USA USA ISA”!


Me, once every 4 years.

Saw a really nice video of an American player hugging an Iranian player who was crying I assume not just because they lost, but moreover because of what's happening in Iran and he just let it out and the American supported him.

Sometimes your country makes good'uns.

It made me emotional.

[HoosierDaddy]

Slow Ben, on 30 November 2022 - 05:08 PM, said:

"USA USA ISA"!


Me, once every 4 years.

Not this time. It's been 8 years! 8 LONG FUCKING YEARS!

The Netherlands game should be entertaining!

[Slow Ben]

HoosierDaddy, on 30 November 2022 - 06:15 PM, said:

Slow Ben, on 30 November 2022 - 05:08 PM, said:

"USA USA ISA"!


Me, once every 4 years.

Not this time. It's been 8 years! 8 LONG FUCKING YEARS!

The Netherlands game should be entertaining!

Right?

Heck ya. LFG!

[Mezla PigDog]

Our family watched England V Wales sat on one sofa last night. 2/3 grumpy Welsh sofa, 1/3 English party sofa. Trying to coax the little 'un around to accepting he is English but he will not have it. Witnessing the brainwashing of your own child in real time is weird.

[Mentalist]

Poland barely scrape in. If not for that 95th minute Saudi goal to make it 2:1, they'd have squeeked past Mexico on Fair play score, lol

Honestly, I have no idea what their game plan is against France, though. Clearly, they can't park the bus well enough against top-tier teams, and their attack and possession was nonexistant.

More fireworks tomorrow with CRO-BEL, as Canada will try to spoil Morocco's party.

[Mentalist]

Well, Belgium is out. Lukaku should be Croatia's Man of the Match. he missed 4(I think) point-blank chances to put the ball in the net.

Morocco wins the group, and while Croatia is likely to face Spain (which went terrible for them back in Euros), literally anyone could take 2nd spot.

EDIT: and just like that, Japan does another double comeback.

GER and BEL out the same day, insane.

At one point Japan and Costa Rica were leading the group. Insanely good tourney, if you can factor out all the big picture stuff.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 01 December 2022 - 08:52 PM

[ContrarianMalazanReader]

Germany are shit.

I hope this World Cup brings us a brand new World Champion.

[Mentalist]

ContrarianMalazanReader, on 02 December 2022 - 01:01 AM, said:

Germany are shit.

I hope this World Cup brings us a brand new World Champion.

If anyone original makes it to the last 4 I'll consider it a success.

[Tsundoku]

So the inevitable conspiracy theories have started circulating regarding a number of big name teams that had already qualified for the round of 16 tanking that last match in order to make sure other big name teams didn't make it, or possibly line up against a team they preferred to play in an eliminator (a bit of a stretch, surely). I mean, France losing to Tunisia, Argentina losing to Poland, Spain losing to Japan, Portugal losing to South Korea and Brazil losing to Cameroon? All in the same last round, when they had already qualified?
Sure, they may have been running their "B" teams to give them some game time and at a world cup final tournament after getting this far, any team can stun any others. And Poland, South Korea, Japan and Cameroon aren't exactly shit teams. But geez ...

Hell, I didn't expect Australia to beat Denmark, even though the Danes hadn't been playing like the World #10 team. But Denmark didn't have anything to gain unless there were some godawful massive bribes floating around to make it worth it.

Thoughts?

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 03 December 2022 - 11:32 AM

[champ]

Tsundoku, on 03 December 2022 - 11:31 AM, said:

So the inevitable conspiracy theories have started circulating regarding a number of big name teams that had already qualified for the round of 16 tanking that last match in order to make sure other big name teams didn't make it, or possibly line up against a team they preferred to play in an eliminator (a bit of a stretch, surely). I mean, France losing to Tunisia, Argentina losing to Poland, Spain losing to Japan, Portugal losing to South Korea and Brazil losing to Cameroon? All in the same last round, when they had already qualified?
Sure, they may have been running their "B" teams to give them some game time and at a world cup final tournament after getting this far, any team can stun any others. And Poland, South Korea, Japan and Cameroon aren't exactly shit teams. But geez ...

Hell, I didn't expect Australia to beat Denmark, even though the Danes hadn't been playing like the World #10 team. But Denmark didn't have anything to gain unless there were some godawful massive bribes floating around to make it worth it.

Thoughts?

The only result that had a real impact on the bracket draw was Spain losing to Japan. That placed them 2nd in the group thus potentially avoiding Brazil in the quarter finals and also knocking out Germany. Most likely fixture for a conspiracy as that moved them to the other side of the bracket.


France losing to Tunisia didn't matter as for that group the deciding game was Denmark vs Australia. France still finished top.


Argentina beat Poland, not the ohter way around.


Portugal losing to South Korea knocks out Ghana/Uruguay, not sure how much of a consideration that is for Portugal and they still finished top as expected.


Brazil losing to Cameroon was similar to the France game, didn't really matter as Brazil finish top as expected and the deciding game for the final place was the Serbia vs Switzerland fixture.


Squad rotation was probably the more likely cause of the unexpected results.

This post has been edited by champ: 03 December 2022 - 12:26 PM