Is this one of the worst quality World Cups ever? | Probably not

Sandikan

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The current always has to be the best or the worst to people on forums doesn't it.

Rather than the actual truth of being somewhere in the middle.
 

mu4c_20le

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Just doesn't feel like a real World Cup being in the middle of the season.

Like the Club World Cup version of the World Cup.
 

cyberman

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It seems that way because we desperate for football in the summer. We would appreciate lower quality games a bit more but we’ve just come off playing 3 games a week for months now
 

Smacky The Frog

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every tournament is the worst tournament i've ever seen until the next one which is somehow even worse. god i hate football.
 

2 man midfield

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TBH some were going in and out of their prime, plus 442 was the formation most teams used.
Most teams didn't have the wingers we have currently in world football.
In a few years team, we could just simply take a list of France and Brazil's attackers and be astonished at how world class it was.
Similar with Portugal too.
There are also some strikers on that list who were good, but were nowhere as good as lots of people remember. Imagine putting 1998 Benni McCarthy on a list of quality strikers.
Your point about wingers was a good one but I dunno, prime or past it that’s a mental list.
 

Chief123

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Just on strikers, had a quick look at the 1998 tournament and it had;

Suker
Batistuta
Vieri
Bergkamp
Kulivert
Shearer
Owen
Ronaldo
Salas
Zamorano
Baggio
Henry
Bebeto
Klinsman
Bierhoff
Hernandez
Moreintes
Raul
Mijatovic
Benni McCarthy
Claudio Lopez
Trezeguet
Edmundo
Solskjaer
Flo
Etoo
Del Piero
Inzaghi
Chiesa
Van Hoojdonk
Jimmy Floyd
Asprilla
Crespo
Balbo

I mean, god damn.
Holy chicken! We really were blessed with strikers back then!

I do think the lack of strikers nowadays is down to how the game has changed. Teams are obsessed with working the ball right to the 6 yard box. Always looking for the extra passes for the high probability goals. I think that has led to players moulding into ball retainers and passers rather than instinctive shooters and risk takers.
 

DickDastardly

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It's the shit atmosphere for me.

The lack of real fans is disturbing.

The fact you can only travel to the WC by plane, and not going weeks in advance with vans and cars has made this event an "rich feckers" only.

The fake "bought" fans are also crap.

A single city world cup was a bad fecking idea. Zero travel in between, zero mingling of fans traveling throughout the country....

Not to mention the lack of alchohol and the strict laws...

And the women.....
 

Orton

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There’s just a lack of top top players just now, and it shows. Most teams are pretty bang average compared to what they once were. Then there’s the obvious points regarding location, fans etc and it’s compiled into the least memorable World Cup I’ve ever watched anyway. Just lacks any of that magic.
 

The Corinthian

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Which international tournaments are top quality? Brazil 2014 had a lot of goals scored but is that a sign of quality football? Or just piss poor defending? Spain won in 2010 and won every game 1-0 including the final playing ‘quality’ football but was that exciting?

This tournament has been great - lots of stoppage time meaning lots of late late goals (both of Iran’s goals came after the 97th minute).

We’ve had 3 big upsets already so far - showing that the smaller teams are maybe getting closer in quality with the bigger ones. It also means that the groups are still open and going to the final group game.

So yea, I don’t have any issue with the quality on show as there’s been so much drama.
 

11101

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Forgetting the moral and political issues that shade the tournament, there just aren't many great players and teams about at the moment.

I think a lot of individual brilliance and unpredictability is now being coached out of players to make the team work better, but that's for clubs where they train together daily. Stick those same players in a team where they play together once every few months and it shows. All the teams look disjointed and there are few individuals able to drag a team to a result.
 

Scarecrow

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Then where are all the strikers? We've already had 4 0-0 scorelines. When was the last time we had so many goalless GS matches?
I’m saying the quality is lower than club football and it always has been.
 

Champ

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The issue is we got told this would be a different world cup because the players would be 'in their stride' and 'ready to go', yet all we are seeing is pragmatism and tactics set up not to lose, even in the second round of games.

For me it's a lack of quality throughout.

Take away a handful of quality players and you are left with averageness.

We are blessed with watching the Premiership that we get to see the best week in week out.
 

UnofficialDevil

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I'm not anti Scottish, I just wanted Moyes out.
Lack of quality attackers in general. So few creative players of any use in teams. Same with wingers and wide players. It just means so many games are boring, defensive minded snore fests where teams create feck all.

France, Spain, and Brazil are the only three teams that I’ve found in any way entertaining to watch.

Edit: to be fair Denmark gave a good showing yesterday.
Were awful tonight. Boring world cup.
 

fen4e

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I dont remember Spain, Germany or Holland having such bland squads, mostly in the attacking department. There always used to be a handful of players in each team you're looking forward to bring some magic.
 

noodlehair

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It's been noticeably rubbish. It's not so much the lack of excitement in games which can just happen at any tournament. Its the lack of any quality or energy, and kind of "meh" feeling about the whole thing. It just seems like someone's taken the real world cup and created a kind of less important europa league version. A lot of the games are more on par with friendlies than what you'd expect from world cup games.

I mean, it's almost like having a world cup in December, where most teams have less than a week to prepare, and have a squad of players who are knackered from having to cram half a season of domestic games in before the end of November, is actually a really bad idea. Like, as if weirdly there's an actual reason why world cups usually aren't in the middle of the season.

Not just that but there's a lot more players missing through injury, younger players who've missed out because the managers haven't had time to fully assess or integrate new people into their squads, etc.

Also aside from that, cramming 4 games in every single day is a terrible format. Three is about ok but four means I'm binning off at least one a day which just forces me to be less invested as a whole. From tomorrow I'm basically sacking it off other than the standout games because its just not worth giving yourself no time in the day to do anything else over.
 

DRJosh

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This is Brazil's World Cup to lose. None of the traditional European heavyweights look the part
 

noodlehair

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The current always has to be the best or the worst to people on forums doesn't it.

Rather than the actual truth of being somewhere in the middle.
Nah this is the worst one since I've been watching. So many factors due to the mid season thing which are taking away from it.

A great knockout phase could save it but I don't see that happening.

2010 was pretty dull but it at least still felt like a real world cup.

This is on par with the past couple of euros which I've hated due to the format rendering 90% of the group games semi pointless.
 
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Mr. Robot

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It’s absolutely terrible. So sanitised. Just a complete dearth of culture.
Perfectly summed up.

I was saying to my partner earlier - what I love about the World Cup is the culture of whatever city that particular match is in. I loved Italia 90 and Euro 96, excited for the matches at San Siro and Old Trafford respectively.

The 2022 WC is utter gash. A corrupt money making exercise which I have zero interest in.
 

Mr Smith

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Too early to say for me, but it definitely hasn't been on par with the quality of the last two World Cups, which particularly during the group stage were excellent.

I still think this one has had its moments, but I'm definitely enjoying it less than I have in years gone by, and I dont think the issue is me.
 

iammemphis

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For me its not the quality of the games but the shit build up to the tournament itself. Usually we have an end of season lull, where teams have 2-3 weeks to prepare. There's no football so everyone is buzzing and waiting for it to hit the screens full time again. This time round it's just popped up, football is happening and then its back to the exciting prem season again.
 

tothetop96

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There's been more shocks than ever. Besides, the group stages are always shite, give it a chance. There's nothing that makes me think this is any worse than 2002/2006/2010/2018. It just stinks of recency bias.

I feel like the agendas and the negativity behind Qatar has just left a bad taste in people's mouth despite the football being no worse than usual.
Currently at 2.32 goals per game it is in 19th place out of 22 world cups for goal scoring. That's pretty bad/boring

Two of the WCs behind it are South Africa which I thought was a terrible world cup as well and Germany which I was too young to properly remember.

Brazil and Russia are well ahead of it
 
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noodlehair

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Confused how anyone can be claiming "recency bias" is why people think its been rubbish.

It's just been noticeably shite. I don't remember any other world cup where half way through the group stage I was genuinely bored with it.

There's some debate around whether it's down to the quality, lack of build up or preparation time, a combination of things, etc...but it just doesn't even feel like a proper world cup.
 

GifLord

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I’m saying the quality is lower than club football and it always has been.
Yeah but it's never been this bad when it came to quality of the strikers and wingers.

As for the 0:0 draws
2022 5 so far and we haven't even started the last round of GS matches
2018 1 0:0 game in GS
2014 4 0:0 games in GS
2010 6 0:0 games in GS
2006 5 0:0 games in GS
2002 2 0:0 games in GS
1998 3 0:0 games in GS
1994 2 0:0 games in GS
1990 3 0:0 games in GS
 

KeanoMagicHat

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Slow boring football, created like 1 chance, just really boring to watch.
I wouldn't call that slow, they were pressing in the opposition box, defenders on the halfway line and created a few chances (Olmo shot that hit the post, the goal, Torres messed up a few, Asensio missed a chance). Spain have been one of the better teams to watch in this tournament.
 

DRJosh

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Perfectly summed up.

I was saying to my partner earlier - what I love about the World Cup is the culture of whatever city that particular match is in. I loved Italia 90 and Euro 96, excited for the matches at San Siro and Old Trafford respectively.

The 2022 WC is utter gash. A corrupt money making exercise which I have zero interest in.
In all honesty, I suspect the organising committee is trying to avoid any overt emphasis on the cultural aspects of this World Cup as it opens them up to further criticism on human rights abuses.

Hence we have a culturally bland and somewhat sterile showcase of a tournament that doesn’t have the same dynamism and feel.

This WC is a dour indictment of FIFA’s corrupt agendas.
 

Mockney

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I actually think the second round of matches has improved it somewhat. There’s been more intense games that feel like actual matches, whereas the first week felt like a lot of weird friendlies with the occasional thrashing/big shock thrown in…

Also seen a few people say the group stages are always like this, which is absolutely not true. The group stages usually have quite a few goals (my dad is a big gambler and always bets the spread on goals at a WC) which then dry up once the knock out rounds get more cagey. There being 5 goalless draws after only 2 games each is way down on most WCs.

I’m getting into it more and more as it goes, but it’s definitely been a bit lacklustre so far compared to ‘14 & ‘18.

Also a lot of shocks in the group stage can often begat a crap knockout phase. Everyone loves a giant killing, but Ideally you actually want the big match ups in the latter rounds.. or at least most of them. With maybe one plucky upstart getting to the semis.
 

NewGlory

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There are many obvious reasons why the WC is extremely underwhelming, most of them have already been mentioned in this thread, but here is a other less-talked-about aspect:

Club football level has gone up so high that watching national teams feels like watching Championship game. You cannot possibly expect that forced selection (by nationality) plus very limited training time together to produce teams anywhere at the level of EPL. Most people here watch EPL regularly, of course we find national teams football of much lower quality
 

Gringo

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There are many obvious reasons why the WC is extremely underwhelming, most of them have already been mentioned in this thread, but here is a other less-talked-about aspect:

Club football level has gone up so high that watching national teams feels like watching Championship game. You cannot possibly expect that forced selection (by nationality) plus very limited training time together to produce teams anywhere at the level of EPL. Most people here watch EPL regularly, of course we find national teams football of much lower quality
The quality is lower but the passion is higher which makes up for it. Seeing Morocco score, Iran win, Japan celebrate against Germany, it's beautiful stuff.
 

AshRK

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People tend to overrate club football. There are lot of dull /lackluster games on weekly basis in PL itself let alone other leagues. Atleast world cup brings some passion and some purpose.

Cl is fun but again not all game. You get to see some real crap there also. And some club football matches are just bland. I rather see a bland WC match where fans care than a bland club football.