Will be tough against Morocco and Croatia. Both are better than Belgium and will handle the pace better IMO. It's a shame
Day 4: Morocco vs Croatia | Germany vs Japan | Spain vs Costa Rica | Belgium vs Canada
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Belgium will go out against the first decent team in the KO. They were there for the taking.
Feel for Canada
exactly not a lot of choices, Lareya signalled to the bench to come off, he was excellent. Hutchinson can't play 90 mins, certainly not at that pace at 39 years of age.
KDB didn't celebrate the goal but went over to Martinez to complain about the setup. Must be hell for him to go from Pep to playing under this clown. We were very lucky to get away with a win here.
I didn’t get that impression at all, he was driving forward and getting on the ball. Range just wasn’t there, over and under hit passes. But also terrible movement in front of him, they looked poorly coached and lacking cohesion in attack.
I think your game against Morocco will be interesting. A lot of pace in their team but they lacked a cutting edge in their game against Croatia this morning, who looked very slow and ponderous on the ball. Croatia will be tough as they’ve got the experience but if your players can find their shooting boots then I reckon yous could potentially take them. It’s just your finishing that let yous down tonight.
The penalty miss turned out to be really costly, if that went in the momentum would have been fully on Canada's side.
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Nah. I would rather pick a player who is proud to represent his own country. He can fight for his chance with England.
KDB should be "grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck"
Unlucky tournament for North American teams so far. Both Canada and the US should have won their games.
Asian/AFC teams have been piss-poor (Qatar, Iran & Australia) or great and heroic (Japan and KSA). Looking forward to seeing more African teams tomorrow (not specially optimistic as to their chances though.
Asian/AFC teams have been piss-poor (Qatar, Iran & Australia) or great and heroic (Japan and KSA). Looking forward to seeing more African teams tomorrow (not specially optimistic as to their chances though.
Still waiting for our first WC goal. Missed penalty is such an annoyance.
I can't wait for Belgium to crash out so I won't hear anything about this alleged golden generation again.
I did only see bits so it may not be a fair impression.
Nah.
So frustrating but gives me hope that Canada can do something against Croatia and Morocco.
US got battered in the second half.
Belgium has a decent bench with the likes of Doku & De Ketelaere.
I qm still in shock about refs and VAR on this game. How shit they were?
But they were the better team, by good margins, in the first half. They should have buried it then and there... Even though their performance wasn't as good as Canada's.
Gutted for Canada. Should've won the game comfortably but that's tournament football for you. Think they'll still get out of their group.
Yeah, would have been a different game if they scored any of the... zero shots on target they had other than the goal.
Canada need to sort the penalty situation out, that is 2 games in a row where David hasn't hit the penalty. He hits them for his club in France. You can't leave it to the players to sort that out, manager should have that role delegated. Davies is a good player but he isn't someone who hits them on a regular basis. He stood for a whole minute with the ball on the spot , experienced penalty taker doesn't set the ball down until he is ready. He'd too much time to think before hitting it.Hopefully lesson learned.
Germany v Japan aside for obvious reasons I didn't enjoy any of today's games. Morocco v Croatia was a snoozefest, Costa Rica were an absolutely disgrace to the tournament and Canada never for one minute looked like scoring despite their best efforts (I even knew beforehand that they were going to miss the penalty).
Fingers crossed for a better day tomorrow.
Fingers crossed for a better day tomorrow.
That's Concacaf football level for you, apart from Costa Rica who were a joke, we saw very similar performances from th US, Mexico and Canada. Just a severe lack of quality when it comes to the final ball.
But you could see from the pace they were playing in the first half that the inevitable drop in performance in the second half will happen. There's no way they can sustain that intensity over the course of 90 minutes. If they played like that against England they'll concede 4 goals in the second half alone, they need to pace themselves better or they won't get a result against England and will probably be going home in the group stage. Canada's overall performance was far better and actually looked like a controlled team.
Yeah, this seemed a little over the top. I hoped he was trying to be funny or ironic. Or maybe a Canadian transgressed against him at some point in his life.
As a Canadian, I can't imagine being this vehement about... Belgium.
De Bruyne shouldnt complain he killed three counters by not playing to the player on the right. He had a bad game.
When NTs are playing people forget that we are not on the same page anymore. Last world cup i remember that one poster called us "dirty cnuts".Yeah, this seemed a little over the top. I hoped he was trying to be funny or ironic. Or maybe a Canadian transgressed against him at some point in his life.
As a Canadian, I can't imagine being this vehement about... Belgium.
When United is playing, we are all on the same page, this is United forum and it is "normal" to say feck Chelsea, Pool, City etc...so i guess people forget to switch off from that thinking when NT football kicks off.
Errr did you see their game today?
You can win against both of them. You could’ve easily won tonight as well but wasted your many chances yourself so nothing much to complain about. I don’t get this vibe that a team “deserved something” just because they missed a lot of chances.
That's probably what VAR saw also. But, if you look at their feet Witsel clearly steps on top of his foot and causes him to go down.
Morocco and Croatia are a lot better defensively than Belgium, don't think they get the same chances.
Mexico did okay against Poland, although Ochoa saved them near the end.
Ah, good point. That's probably what it was. It's funny, though, because at that point Canada were playing very well and all the neutrals in here were rooting for them, so his comment seemed especially random and hostile!
They both looked extremely uninspiring to me today, maybe they were both happy with a point but Croatia will need a win against Canada, I think they’ll be a lot more vulnerable next game.
I agree with you in principle, but there's a whole context to this Canadian team that outsiders understandably won't get. The Canadian men's team has traditionally been atrocious. And the sport itself has lagged behind others, especially hockey, partly because of Canada's poor showing in the men's game. But this team caught the imagination of sports fans in Canada and even Canadians who don't follow sports. There has been a unity and determination to them that has really attracted the admiration of many here. Our last World Cup finals appearance was thirty-six years ago, and we didn't score a goal. We were pedestrian, although we didn't embarrass ourselves. This time around, we have a world class talent in Phonzie and very good players in Buchanan, Larin, David, and Eustachio. So in terms of the arc of their story, and given their opposition (who even most Canadians thought would beat us easily), the way the team played in that first half especially gave us plenty of hope we could get something out of our opening game. I think we surprised Belgium and perhaps many others watching. So with all of that, it feels like we didn't get what we deserved after putting in that amount of sheer energy against the world's second best team while playing largely on the front foot. As a football fan, you must know that feeling, of not getting something from a game when you've outchanced and dominated for long periods even though you came in as rank underdogs.
Those watching the game without context would have seen a good side in the first half and a fairly scrappy but technically poor team in the second half, but you have to realize that Canada had beaten the US and Mexico during qualifying and were consistently good. The first half here was more indicative of their recent standards.
That said, Canada lost composure in front of goal far too often and Phonzie tried to do it all himself too often, so no complaints in that sense. Should have won but didn't even get a draw. It happens.
feck Belgium. Poutine over mayo + fries all day.
Deserving is always subjective tbh. The unlucky bit is not getting the 2 pens IMO, but other than that yeah just couldn't finish.
I did! Very unimpressive. But i think Canada's strengths lined up perfectly with Belgium's weakness in a way that most other teams won't allow. Martinez as a coach who doesn't pay attention to opposition and defence at all, the selection having an ancient back line with 0 pace and no balance to the team up against an area that is Canada's only strong area where we have as fast of a front line as any in the world. Was lucky for Martinez that he got away with it as it was complete coaching negligence.
Morocco on the other hand have Hakimi to counter Davies, have an aggressive and hard working team (who aren't old and slow), and Croatia is just a lot more measured and balanced as well. They aren't impressive, but they can play through the press and once you do that, Canada doesn't have much going on IMO. Hope I'm wrong, hope we get a few goals and a win somewhere but Belgium I feel was our best opportunity matchup wise.
From the comments about Canadian lack of quality, it seems like some people only watched the second half. I thought they were really good in the first half - apart from the finall ball, of course. (Which is ultimately obviously a huge issue!)
With that level of quality (it wasn't just intensity), Canada should stand a fair chance against Croatia and Morocco as well. I just hope David finds his scoring boots back, it's the one player we know can actually do it.
With that level of quality (it wasn't just intensity), Canada should stand a fair chance against Croatia and Morocco as well. I just hope David finds his scoring boots back, it's the one player we know can actually do it.
You certainly didn’t surprise many of us over here - we knew beforehand you were a side to be reckoned with give your attacking quality. Buchanan and Larin play in Belgium, David used to play here, and of course everyone knows Davies. The fear here was that they were gonna tear our old and slow defence apart actually.
But cheers for the context - I hope you go through alongside us tbh.
Yeah fair enough - and spot on about Martinez indeed.