Football 18/19

[Gucci Piggy]

19 hours ago, mjsell said:

There's not many players at the whole tournament that would make that France 98-00 team. 

France's full backs were atrocious today. Mendy and Sidibe cant get fit quick enough if you are the french.

Its the one area where I actually feel England have the depth over the likes of France. 

Sidibe has been poor recently. Pavard has been performing better at RB and there were calls for him to start regardless of Sidibe's fitness, despite him not even being a RB.

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, Gucci Piggy said:

Sidibe has been poor recently. Pavard has been performing better at RB and there were calls for him to start regardless of Sidibe's fitness, despite him not even being a RB.

On the guardian podcast they said Debuchy has been great this season.

[Gucci Piggy]

4 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

On the guardian podcast they said Debuchy has been great this season.

Yeah by all accounts he has been. Not long ago there were reports that France were considering withdrawing Sidibe from the squad due to his injury and I saw a lot of responses hoping they'd call up Depuchy to replace him.

[jyoung]

Some nice games today, lads. 

[jyoung]

Patrice Evra and his casual sexism making an appearance on ITV this afternoon...

[dentalplan]

Loving the succession of the big boys being unimpressive.

[Gucci Piggy]

So, finish 2nd in the group now and our quarter final opponent looks more likely to be a Mexico/Switzerland/Serbia than Germany.

Will be weird going into our final group stage game against Belgium with the loser having the better run to the semis, if it's still looking that way (winner of the group would play Brazil/Germany in the quarters).

[jyoung]

Just now, Gucci Piggy said:

So, finish 2nd in the group now and our quarter final opponent looks more likely to be a Mexico/Switzerland/Serbia than Germany.

Will be weird going into our final group stage game against Belgium with the loser having the better run to the semis, if it's still looking that way (winner of the group would play Brazil/Germany in the quarters).

If today proves anything it is that anything can happen. There will be more twists and turns, I'm sure.

[Gucci Piggy]

6 minutes ago, jyoung said:

If today proves anything it is that anything can happen. There will be more twists and turns, I'm sure.

Aye starting tomorrow when we get pumped by Tunisia.

[zahidf]

4 minutes ago, Gucci Piggy said:

Aye starting tomorrow when we get pumped by Tunisia.

Dunno what you mean, Germany threw the game to avoid us in the quarter finals

[zahidf]

13 minutes ago, Gucci Piggy said:

So, finish 2nd in the group now and our quarter final opponent looks more likely to be a Mexico/Switzerland/Serbia than Germany.

Will be weird going into our final group stage game against Belgium with the loser having the better run to the semis, if it's still looking that way (winner of the group would play Brazil/Germany in the quarters).

Real Loew point for Germany

[pink_triangle]

48 minutes ago, jyoung said:

If today proves anything it is that anything can happen. There will be more twists and turns, I'm sure.

I think people are underrating Mexico. I would put them in my third tier of teams with the likes of England, Uruguay and Colombia. When I think about the next new world cup winner, they would be near the top of my list.

[pink_triangle]

53 minutes ago, Gucci Piggy said:

So, finish 2nd in the group now and our quarter final opponent looks more likely to be a Mexico/Switzerland/Serbia than Germany.

Will be weird going into our final group stage game against Belgium with the loser having the better run to the semis, if it's still looking that way (winner of the group would play Brazil/Germany in the quarters).

I think you can't discount travel and the fact the draw never goes to plan. 

[pink_triangle]

Labour supporting safe standing, great news.

[Hugh Jass]

We knew from the draw that if all went as expected the winner of our group would face Brazil in the quarters and the runner up would face Germany. Germany’s defeat to Mexico means there is a strong possibility they’ll finish second and end up having to face Brazil in the second round instead.

It’s quite possible that England could play Belgium with both teams on 6 points knowing that coming second in the group might offer a better chance of progression deeper in the tournament than coming top, especially as there’s no obvious advantage to finishing top in terms of the potential second round teams.

An interesting scenario...

[dentalplan]

Yeah Gucci lad said as much. Don’t particularly agree, seeing as it supposes that the 1st and 2nd team in Group H are no different and that a Mexico team on maybe 9 or 7 points would be a cakewalk.

If Germany (and Brazil now) are showing faults then let’s have them rather than trying to put off all the big teams until we surrender at the semi final stage. The tournament so far is showing that it’s all to play for.

[mjsell]

As if England are ever going to be in a situation where they can decide if they want to finish top or second in the group. You'll all get what you're given you greedy bastards 

[pink_triangle]

3 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

Yeah Gucci lad said as much. Don’t particularly agree, seeing as it supposes that the 1st and 2nd team in Group H are no different and that a Mexico team on maybe 9 or 7 points would be a cakewalk.

If Germany (and Brazil now) are showing faults then let’s have them rather than trying to put off all the big teams until we surrender at the semi final stage. The tournament so far is showing that it’s all to play for.

I think many overanalyse group games. Teams have won world cups while dropping points in the group. Didn’t Spain lose their first game when they won it?

[Hugh Jass]

34 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

I think many overanalyse group games. Teams have won world cups while dropping points in the group. Didn’t Spain lose their first game when they won it?

Absolutely, it’s interesting though that all of the big hitters have struggled in their opening games. Only the French, who were arguably the poorest of all, managed to grind out a win.

Edited June 17, 2018 by Hugh Jass

[pink_triangle]

4 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

Absolutely, it’s interesting though that all of the big hitters have struggled in their opening games. Only the French, who were arguably the poorest of all, managed to grind out a win.

Very different opposition though, I think Spain and Brazil will both feel fairly content after one game.

[dentalplan]

3 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Very different opposition though, I think Spain and Brazil will both feel fairly content after one game.

I feel like Spain are the best team we’ve seen going forward, but even they conceded three in various poor circumstances. Big day for Belgium and England to put their case forward tomorrow.

[mjsell]

1 hour ago, pink_triangle said:

I think many overanalyse group games. Teams have won world cups while dropping points in the group. Didn’t Spain lose their first game when they won it?

They still talk here about how New Zealand were the only unbeaten side at the the 2010 World Cup.  

[Gucci Piggy]

1 hour ago, mjsell said:

As if England are ever going to be in a situation where they can decide if they want to finish top or second in the group. You'll all get what you're given you greedy bastards 

To be fair we certainly won't be in that position. But it's entirely possible we go into our final group game with both us and Belgium on 6 points. If the path of progression from there looks better for the team finishing in 2nd place it'll be strange. I'd expect us to lose to Belgium in any case, of course; but I'd also be happy to lose if that was the situation.

[pink_triangle]

15 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

I feel like Spain are the best team we’ve seen going forward, but even they conceded three in various poor circumstances. Big day for Belgium and England to put their case forward tomorrow.

De Gea mistake, a penalty and a good free kick. I think these are things they won’t worry about. It didn’t look like there were anything wrong that will impact on future games.

[pink_triangle]

6 minutes ago, Gucci Piggy said:

To be fair we certainly won't be in that position. But it's entirely possible we go into our final group game with both us and Belgium on 6 points. If the path of progression from there looks better for the team finishing in 2nd place it'll be strange. I'd expect us to lose to Belgium in any case, of course; but I'd also be happy to lose if that was the situation.

I think you overestimate Belgium. An average (but spirited) wales beat them in the Euros and it wasn’t a fluke. They are a team of individuals with a manager who doesn’t do tactics. I see England beating them. However I see Belgium more likely to win the world cup than England.

Edited June 17, 2018 by pink_triangle