Men's Soccer (Football) Thread Soccer • Page 107

My dad was saying recently that he doesn’t think he could go to the US again. He grew up in Iran between ages 2-13, and despite being English/German by nationality he just doesn’t know if he would be safe. A sad state of affairs.

 

Wales look terrible

 

We’ve looked good in these last two games. Hard to tell if we’ve suddenly clicked or if Serbia and Wales are bad.

They haven’t looked bad in their other games but who knows.

 

The amount of people who have learned that Puerto Ricans are US citizens in the last week is alarmingly high.

I’d like to hope this will be a very small hiccup in history. But… sigh.

 

Wales have an important qualifier v Belgium coming up in Cardiff on Monday night. England will breeze past Latvia. Tonight was always going to go in one direction.

I can appreciate the Alzheimer's gesture, though!

 

Why is Saka even playing? England don't need him for these two games and he's just off injury. You want Saka healthy in June and July... you get that by protecting him now.

 

That’s why

 

All three assists so far by CBs. Total football.

 

Great goal but still not worth the risk lol

 

Tbf I totally agree. I want him to stay fit more than anyone else here, but I can understand why Tuchel wants to give him time in his system, I guess.

 

Bale's the only Welsh player to score against England in 41 years?!

 

I’m guessing it was because of this game coming up….but earlier today I saw a clip from some podcast and they were apparently debating Bale v Rooney (I didn’t actually listen, just saw the topic). I don’t know if it was better career or like, better player at their peak…

But it’s clearly Bale either way…right?

 

Wonder how Italy feels about an American with the last name Cremaschi scoring on them in the U20 WC.

 

This is definitely one of those where I've gotta say, "can I appreciate both?" haha

Just imagine if Rooney went to Barca in 2010, though.,.

 

Missed this, but love it.

 

Scotland were absolutely atrocious for 63mins tonight, equalised and then somehow won the game 3-1.

Beat Belarus on sunday, and hope Denmark beat Greece again then we're looking good for potentially qualifying in some form.

 

Sometimes, you can convince yourself that maybe San Marino aren’t THAT bad, they just play in the toughest confederation.

Then you see they lost 10-0 to Austria, and yeah, they suck.

 

Not clear at all, no.

Rooney was never very marketable, because he's got a face like a bowl of smashed hammers and so I don't think he ever had a profile quite like Bale. Bale's relationship with Wales was also very different to how England's media treated Rooney, which colours things quite a bit.

On seeing the premise above, my initial thought was to think Bale might have edged it as the better player, but Rooney maybe had a more impressive career. Then I went to Wiki and now I'm finding it hard to convince myself that Rooney's career isn't a bit underrated and that if you could only pick one, you'd be mad not to pick him.

Like, for one season, it's hard to argue against Bale (he's got a couple of utterly astonishing appearance/goal ratios), but Rooney was consistently a monster for a decade.

 

I think I would just about take male pattern baldness Rooney from 09-10 over any Bale season, although I do appreciate he couldn't get United over the line to win anything that year.

I just remember thinking he was absolutely terrifying, and could do just about everything better than anyone else at the time.

I would definitely take Bale in clutch moments though. He was just ridiculous in the UCL final vs Liverpool (although again I can appreciate that Karius was completely falling apart lol)

 

TBF in the 2010/11 Champions League final he played against arguably the best club side ever. Barca had THAT midfield trio, Rooney had 38 year-old Giggs...

 

Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this.

 

Also I think Rooney was slightly better, but Bale had a more impressive career.

It probably also doesn’t help that Wayne was a charisma vacuum who sounds like English is his sixth language.

 

Love this

 

Senegal might be dangerous at the WC. Strong team.