And teenagers will say it's all nostalgic nonsense
Is this one of the worst quality World Cups ever? | Probably not
- Thread starter Solius
- Start date
They clearly don't. I can just imagine them reacting to a grassroots or mid division game.
It's the Champions League and Man Utd or a top PL game for them.
National team football is never as good as top level club football. Teams simply don't have enough time and training together to play gourmet football
I love world cups, but I can't remember one group game that Ireland weren't playing in. This stages are just to be navigated by big teams but for teams like Wales and Ireland they are where your world cup is, 3 guaranteed games.
Too early to judge it surely?
It's hilarious that broadly speaking people who don't like the idea of a word cup in Qatar think the football is shite but people who think the protests should stfu think the games and atmosphere is great. Makes most discussions tedious and pointless.
Too early to judge it surely?
It's hilarious that broadly speaking people who don't like the idea of a word cup in Qatar think the football is shite but people who think the protests should stfu think the games and atmosphere is great. Makes most discussions tedious and pointless.
What happened?
Cut-in and shoot inverted wingers happened
Spain winning the Euros with Fabregas upfront happened
So here we are in the age of The Cyborg, the aging sacked Sioux and Darwin's missing link.
Been thinking about this. The 442 era developed strikers in a way the modern game doesn't.
Almost no one plays two strikers now, it's all 4 3 3 or 4321. Lots of fast pressing players but few real goal scorers.
Tactically it's better, not for entertainment though...
The hilarious thing is most people aren't in either of those two camps.
Clearly @Solius did this to anger the football gods and deliver us these two games today.
I'm very happy to be wrong
Great games today so far.@Solius they've heard you.
That's true, but is it hilarious?
Quality aside, I think it's got more to do with the tactical setup where teams, especially the underdogs, are happy just to get a point from their 2nd game to stay alive on the final day. I'm looking forward to more amazing stories in the final group-stage games.
Probably not.
3-3 and so 3-2 in this game. Just learn to appreciate each game for it is
Seems a strange thread to me. I actually think it's been a very good tournament so far and love the added time change. Only halfway through second round of games and already plenty of drama and food games
That was amazing game.
People create these type of threads after every WC but truth is WC is the biggest pinnacle. I am definitely starting to enjoy this WC
The deliveries from wide areas in this Korea Ghana game was sensational. Wow. So much quality. Probably the highest quality game of this World Cup thus far.
Maybe. But maybe the so called tier 3 and 4 teams are better than ever and are making it hard for the big boys? Except Qatar offcourse. Japan 2 Germany 1, S Arabia 2 Argentina 1, Morocco and the USA having a 50/50 draw against Croatia and England. In all honesty when Spain trashes poor Costa Rica 7 0 its more a reflection of the poor quality of the losing side than the so called quality of Spain. Cameroon and Serbia had a great game as well. In conclusion, no I dont think the quality of the WC has declined.
Morocco beating Belgium alomst sliped my mind.
Morocco beating Belgium alomst sliped my mind.
Couple of great games today. It's been fine tbh outside of the opening day Qatar game
Yeah, some absolutely brilliant balls into the box in that game.
Yesterday and today have been great. Tournament is starting to come alive!
It's a brilliant WC, to be fair.
Ya i feel as if it's the same every time while the group stages take shape.
I know 2 more games are to be played before the 2nd round of games are over but the fact that only 2 teams so far are out shows how tight the group stages have been.
Good point. Qatar being one of them is a huge plus as well!
I looked at the groups. Regardless of how the next 2 games end, no more teams will be out before the final round!
Still feels like a nations league, just slightly higher stakes in the end
Because its exciting, or because of the quality on show? (or both?)
I haven't seen much of nations league so can't comment
It's just that feeling of big teams not taking it seriously or going all out.
not even close to being South Africa bad.
I don't get that feeling at all.
The big football nations always take turns actually being good. Among the 12 I consider big football nations(Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Croatia), only about half of them tend to play well. Usually fewer, now that I think about it.
We've seen many good games since Sunday with still the third group games to go and then the knockouts. Could end up being one of the better ones now teams have settled in.
So nothing like the world cup then
Interestingly Darwin, Australia is closer to 4 other capitals than its own.
Hey Samid
This thread seems to be so knee jerk and pointless - even before today's brilliant games. Was it made out of spite due to it going against the wishes of the boycott gang? I mean, when was any international tournament filled with club quality games? World cups mostly are tight and cagey affairs. What makes the WCs worthy is the spirit and pride and how hard it actually is to win due to this. On that front , this has to be one of the best WCs ever. When was there these much upsets and unexpected results by this stage? Not in recent times for sure. And besides, the atmosphere and attendances have been mostly great. The attendance for the last Argentina game was the highest since the 94 final.
Again if you read the thread I said many times I wanted it to be good and I am very happy it has gotten better. Knee jerk would’ve been after one or two games and not nearly two entire rounds of fixtures. It was a question posed to generate a discussion on it. The answers were all there if you looked.
If you really want the mind blown look at the strikers who were not at that tournament. Feck it, will do it myself
Cole
Yorke
Fowler
Shevchenko
Rebrov
Elber
Marcio Amoroso
Sonny Anderson
Romario was still killing it in Brazil
Totti
Zola
Signori
Montella
Henrik Larsson
George Weah
Recoba
Anelka
Nuno Gomes
Pauleta
Probably dozens more, and as many have said shows the changing styles.
Great day today by all accounts, missed the first 2 games and only saw the last 15 of Brazil, but yesterday was an improvement so hopefully this is the start of the real tournament.