Rise of Ronaldo (and maybe the best Portuguese team of all time), Czechs with Nedved, Koller, Rosicky, the England team that SHOULD have done it and then those Greeks....how can you NOT rate that tournament? Atmosphere was also fantastic.
Is this going to be (or already is) the best WC in living memory?
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
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It's been an unusual tournament but that's not such a bad thing. Definitely one of the best group stages. Still a toss up between 1998 and 2006 for me, probably then 2014. 2010 was rubbish, dull group stage, Suarez cheating Ghana out of the competition and Howard Webb ruining the final.
And those fecking vuvuzelas.........
There were a lot of major shocks and a surprise winner, but Greece were also incredibly dull to watch.
I remember Euro 2008 very fondly. A Spain team that came of age and was perhaps at its most entertaining, a strong Germany side, Arshavin demolishing an impressive Dutch side, drama in the Croatia-Turkey game, a group consisting of France, Italy and the Netherlands with a 2006 final rematch etc. Plus England not even making it to the tournament due to that game against Croatia was hilarious. Albeit countered with Scotland's dramatic game against Italy which made their eventual exit all the more satisfying.
Now I'm a Ronaldo fan but "the rise of Ronaldo" means diddly to me. The "rise of" any player means diddly to me.
Greece were awful.... to comment that you don't rate some of the games in this WC but liked Greece is just
."Should have"..... thats up there with "rise of". Sounds like you rate potential and almost more than actuals. Plenty of England teams could have down better ... 1996 and 90 were nearer/better.
This has been the best World Cup in my lifetime that's for sure. England doing so well has been an added bonus. Of course if we do end up winning will be the best ever no matter what .
.Contrary to this tournaments underdogs, they actually archieved something more. Certainly more than reaching a round of 16 or being third in the group stages. So yeah, of course I rate them higher. It’s the greatest underdog archievment in modern international football. And you want to compare them to Japan or South Korea or what? Not to mention that Greece archieved what they archieved in a great tournament with a lot of prime teams (including England who were very strong but went out against an even stronger golden generation) instead of mediocre performances and ultimately going out after almost all top teams failed to show up. 2014‘s Algeria archieved as much as any of the „underdogs“ this tournament and I have seen nobody mentioning them since that very dayNow I'm a Ronaldo fan but "the rise of Ronaldo" means diddly to me. The "rise of" any player means diddly to me.
Greece were awful.... to comment that you don't rate some of the games in this WC but liked Greece is just
"Should have"..... thats up there with "rise of". Sounds like you rate potential and almost more than actuals. Plenty of England teams could have down better ... 1996 and 90 were nearer/better.
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I mentioned their efforts before and how brave they were in that WC.
[URL="https://www.redcafe.net/threads/how-good-is-this.439584/page-4#post-22731972"]How good is this?[/URL]
You literally compared Greece to „some games“ of this tournament. Pretty natural to assume you mean these WC’s underdog wins. So there you go. The game that‘s just goibg on is really just proving my point in regards to this tournament by the way. Lame game between probably the best sides left in this tournament.
Thomas Hitzlsperger (pundit on German TV) just called it a really bad, disappointing World Cup. Not sure I agree. It certainly hasn't been great and the overall quality has been low but we've seen some really great goals and interesting matches.
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I literally didn't.
Nothing to do with underdogs, it's quality of football..... Greece were shit to watch. I'm a football fan not an underdog fan.... sometimes they collide (Leicester, Forest 40 years ago) but not with Greece.
imo
Like the Murphy's, he's not bitter?
Unpopular opinion but I loved 2010. Forlan was incredible.
He was..... back in the day Uruguay had a goalscorer we could like?
It’s not. People really get hung up on the vuvuzela team but that tournament had some really memorable matches and teams
Yes! 2010 could have been the most exciting tournament in the world but I'd still have ranked it last largely because I just outright couldn't watch 90% of the games.
Could have muted it I guess but the commentary is half the fun for me.
I quoted you. You replied to me after I brought up Greece because of underdog status (as others hailed these tournaments underdogs). Either you haven’t followed the discussion at all or you are trying to weasel out of this.
Sigh, try again.
You said (and I quote), "you want to compare them to Japan or South Korea". Fine me my quote where I literally said that.
I get it, you're pissed, Germany were shit (uber-shit), you don't like this WC.... that's fine, leave the thread then? But stop looking for arguments that aren't there and stop using "literally" incorrectly.
So you haven’t followed the discussion at all. Thanks, all I wanted to know. Why even pointing out Greece then if you couldn’t be bothered to read more than one comment?
Pretty solid world cup but that's about it. Lack of heavyweight matches between top nations has been a bit disappointing . Bar france- Argentina there was no other heavyweight clashes. I like underdog stories and croatia for one deserves to be in the finals, but there have been too many underdog stories in this WC. Overall, a fun tournament which I will be missing once it is over.
Worst WC in the history, a tournament with Belgium England France and Croatia in semi can't be taken seriously sorry. There was like only 4 or 5 interesting games and that's about it.
Belgium France and Croatia were red hot favorites
It was pretty awesome. I counted 58 interesting games so far.
It was alright to be honest, pretty well organized event, no fights no shite like that.
On the other side, stadiums were not full and the football wasn't especially great. Belgium, Russia, England, Croatia, Sweden doing alright in the tournament is good for the future tho.
On the other side, stadiums were not full and the football wasn't especially great. Belgium, Russia, England, Croatia, Sweden doing alright in the tournament is good for the future tho.
There are so many closet elitist football fans out there...
O, I really miss the heavy-weight clash of Argentina-Netherlands semifinal last WC, or the extremely suspenseful and dramatic Germany-Brazil semi. Thinking back, what an unbelievably fun and entertaining game Spain-Germany was in 2010, or France-Portugal in 2006. Germany-France last World Cup, what heavyweights, what a classic it was.
That semi-final last night was the best and most tense semi in World Cup since Germany-Italy in 2006...
People "missing" likes of Germany/Argentina/Italy/Netherlands etc ...I have a question: If Germany weren't good enough to beat the worst South Korean team of last 20 years, what chance in hell would they stand against a better team? The same Italy that stank the last two World Cup failing to get out of their group (one of which was with New Zealand, Slovakia, and Paraguay?)...or the same Netherlands that only 2 years ago finished F.O.U.R.T.H in a Euro qualifying group below Czech, Iceland and Turkey, only a few points above Kazakhstan.
Yea...those teams would have definitely given us more quality and entertainment than Croatia/Japan/Russia/Belgium/etc who dared to step out of line and advance further than the hierarchy class set by the football elitists.
Really hope Croatia wins on Sunday just to further piss off the football elitists.
The gap is narrowing...San Marino and Gibraltar aside, we don't even have many maulings in qualifiers....this tournament is the first sign into future of this sport. Get used to it
O, I really miss the heavy-weight clash of Argentina-Netherlands semifinal last WC, or the extremely suspenseful and dramatic Germany-Brazil semi. Thinking back, what an unbelievably fun and entertaining game Spain-Germany was in 2010, or France-Portugal in 2006. Germany-France last World Cup, what heavyweights, what a classic it was.
That semi-final last night was the best and most tense semi in World Cup since Germany-Italy in 2006...
People "missing" likes of Germany/Argentina/Italy/Netherlands etc ...I have a question: If Germany weren't good enough to beat the worst South Korean team of last 20 years, what chance in hell would they stand against a better team? The same Italy that stank the last two World Cup failing to get out of their group (one of which was with New Zealand, Slovakia, and Paraguay?)...or the same Netherlands that only 2 years ago finished F.O.U.R.T.H in a Euro qualifying group below Czech, Iceland and Turkey, only a few points above Kazakhstan.
Yea...those teams would have definitely given us more quality and entertainment than Croatia/Japan/Russia/Belgium/etc who dared to step out of line and advance further than the hierarchy class set by the football elitists.
Really hope Croatia wins on Sunday just to further piss off the football elitists.
The gap is narrowing...San Marino and Gibraltar aside, we don't even have many maulings in qualifiers....this tournament is the first sign into future of this sport. Get used to it
As it draws to a close, I've loved it, but I do agree it's a shame we didn't see a few more of the big hitters playing each other, you wait four years for those matches, and we barely got any of them.
Some of the games were entertaining (maybe ‘dramatic’ rather than entertaining) and we saw some incredible goals, but on the whole, it was devoid of genuine quality. France do look to be deserved winners but I don’t think they’d have been winners in most other editions. They’re too pragmatic to be really enjoyed and celebrated. Then you’ve got the whole lop-sided draw which certainly detracted from the tournament, but fair play to usual also-ran nations like Sweden and England for capitalising on it.
All in all, it’s been a good tournament (most fan experiences have been particularly praiseworthy) but certainly not the best ever.
All in all, it’s been a good tournament (most fan experiences have been particularly praiseworthy) but certainly not the best ever.
The tournament was fantastic in groups and 16th round. I think the quality started to drop heavily starting from QFs, excitement is still there and in most matches, but the matches themselves don't have high enough quality of play, just 2 competitive teams very close to each other is what brings the excitement of the result.
Complete opposite I think. Belgium and Brazil was the highest quality match in the competition. Belgium v France was high quality too. There aren’t crazy scorelines because teams who get this far can actually defend.
Belgium and Brazil was great, but the rest of QF lacked quality.
France and Belgium was crap in the second half.
You pretty much sum up my own view. It's been good to watch a bit of footy during the summer, but apart from a few games, most of it will have faded from my memory in four years time. I find only occasional enjoyment in watching tight games with little attacking intent, unless I'm heavily invested in one of the teams, of course.
As of today, two things sum up the tournament for me: From about 30 minutes onwards, Japan vs Belgium made most other games seem like a complete waste of time. And just like Italy '90 proved the need for a back-pass rule, this tournament has been an absolute disgrace when it comes to timewasting and it has highlighted the need for stricter rules. Sort it out, FIFA!
This tournament has provided good entertainment and drama but, to be fair, it's likely my memories of WC'14 matches will be considerably fonder in comparison with these ones after the heat of the moment. WC'18 must be rated higher than 2002, 2006 and 2010 though.
Group stages were brilliant but aside from the occasional good game I don’t think the knockouts have been great. Not expecting much from the final either, France are a very boring team and once they inevitably score the first goal that’ll be the game done.
I think it's been a good world cup, I've enjoyed it. Certianlly feel the void now that it's almost over!! And it made a welcome break from seeing United.
The one slight negative, I didn't like the fact that the fans were mingled in the stadiums.
I think this affected the atmospheres somewhat as supporters were scattered all over the ground.
I'm not sure if it's always been like this, I cant remember if this was the case at the previous world cups?
The one slight negative, I didn't like the fact that the fans were mingled in the stadiums.
I think this affected the atmospheres somewhat as supporters were scattered all over the ground.
I'm not sure if it's always been like this, I cant remember if this was the case at the previous world cups?
Overall the best and most memorable since France '98
After that final, definitely the best WC in my lifetime (post-94). Can't complain about six goals in a final.
This. What a great great World Cup.
Gutted it’s over, been brilliant from start to finish. Bangers everywhere, shocks, last minute winners, even England making English people happy for once.
Not looking forward to a monotonous Pep title win and us lot bitching and moaning as we play awful football and get nowhere near City for another year now though.
Not looking forward to a monotonous Pep title win and us lot bitching and moaning as we play awful football and get nowhere near City for another year now though.
Ah feck. After a summer of attacking football, I hope you are wrong.