FIFA World Cup: Russia 2018 [Archived] Soccer • Page 63

I love him

 

I don't think Jones covered himself in glory, think Walker probably has that position. Agree about Rose mind, offers so much more.

Don't think anyone else really played themselves into the team, apart from Loftus-Cheek but I wouldn't count him as he's part of the best 11 anyway in my mind.

 

I have no idea where you are from, and honestly there are so many nations with a real reason to hate us historically that it is fair.

Debatable.

 

The best thing about this post is him censoring the word fucked but doesn’t for shit

 

Ireland.

 

The defensive shape was better tonight, but there were still one or two shocking moments at the back, they went mostly unpunished though. It helps playing three centre backs at centre back in my view, although I don't think Jones is suited to a 3 man backline at all.

Rose was decent, but was made a mug of for the goal. Can't understand what he was thinking there. I don't think any of the midfield/strikers gave a good account of themselves. Don't see any of them going on to start the next round.

Little bit of a worry with the ice pack on Stones' leg when he came off though, any news on that?

 

As I said, fair

 

I'm glad VAR exists. What a great fucking tackle.

 

For the three guys who quoted me, I broadly agree. I thought England looked a lot more assertive in defence. There were still mistakes, but I think playing a better team made them concentrate. I don't think anyone played their way into the side though. Jones could maybe replace Maguire, but that feels like a coin toss.

Without Trippier, our deadball situations were far less effective too.

I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not, but I thought the same.

 

I'm not sure what to make about last night. I felt that Rashford and Loftus-Cheek had a good game, particularly in the first half, but everything else seemed slow and ponderous. It was Belgium reserves vs England reserves. I feel we should have aimed to get the win but it is hard to motivate for a game like that.

Everyone keeps talking about how we now have the 'easier' path. I think that's ridiculous. Colombia are dangerous and no worse than Belgium reserves - I hope our first team has enough to get past them but it's a tricky tie. If we get passed them I'll grow in confidence but I would have preferred playing Japan to (probably) guarantee a Quarter Final appearance (which was my pre-tournament hope). I'd feel gutted if we went out in the Round of 16 when the reality is that we could have beaten Japan more simply (no offence to Japan!)

Happy to be proven wrong with a brilliant march through to the Semis!

I'm pretty certain that Belgium were out to draw/lose - particularly with Courtios' keeping in the second half.

Also, Batshuayi!

 

The 2018 World Cup group stage was magical. Pretty soon, FIFA is going to ruin it

 

Idk if any of you are flag nerds like me, but I thought this was really cool





https://reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/8usmy0/world_cup_2018_combined_group_flags_oc/

 

If the top two advance... I'm not as concerned with the new approach.

The last game in a group will often matter for elimination, and if not will still matter for seeding.

Sure you don't get Spain vs Portugal in the first round, but can still easily get more games like that in the knockouts. Becomes easier for teams to reach the knockouts. And then in the knockouts, is easier for upsets to happen.

Sure you lose the drama of simultaneous games, but at least aren't doing "Groups of 3, top 1 advances" like i originally thought

 

It’s a terrible decision. What I don’t get is why they’ve chosen the format that they have.

With 48 teams why not have the extra 16 play a preliminary round? 8 matches, 8 winners. Each winner takes the fourth place in the 8 groups and then the tournament proceeds as usual.

Still annoying but a simple way of including more teams.

If they stick with the current format 2026 is really going to suck.

Edit: my maths did not work there!

 

The problem with more knock out rounds is that teams are often more cautious. We’ll see what happens tomorrow but we’ve often had great group games then dull, tight, nervy knock out rounds when no one wants to lose.

Only 1/3 advancing would have been worse but having 2/3 makes it almost pointless. Why do groups to just eliminate 1/3?

 

Those 8 groups already have 4 teams in them. If you do 16 teams in a preliminary round, you'd have to add a 5th team to each group. Or do you could do, 16 teams get automatic byes into groups, 32 teams play for the other 16 spots. But then you still have a lot of teams that only get one world cup game.

Short of having multiple group stages or 6 team groups that take a while to play through, I'm not sure what else you could do.

 

Idk I just hope it makes it easier for Ireland to get into the world cup

 

I don't like there being more games in a tournament. The same happened with the euros. In 2012, I watched most of the games, because there was quite a manageable number. I didn't do that two years ago. The more games you have, the harder it is to keep up. Having 48 teams is just going to make the whole thing overwhelming in my opinion. Too much of a good thing and all that.

 

I didn’t like the expansion to begin with but when you put it like this it sounds downright absurd.

 

My maths was really bad there! You're totally right. It sounded so good in my head, haha!

I do hope Wales, Scotland, Ireland & N.Ireland will qualify... that would be an advantage... but how many European teams will we have?

 

Sampaoli went all in and made Messi a false 9. Not the worst decision.

 

God I fucking hate Argentina

 

Mbappe just straight up assaulted the whole country of Argentina. What speed.

 

Mbappe is awesome.

 

Mascherano in front of Otamendi and Rojo must be the most frustrating spine of a team there is.