I can't stopping this bloody boring tournment when it is on.
I am too addicted to football. At least it is one trophy Liverpool will not win
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I am too addicted to football. At least it is one trophy Liverpool will not win
.June internationals (WC qualifiers and Nations League)
- Thread starter VanDeBank
- Start date
Correct call
Ogbene is poor. Can't run with the ball today at all.
Kenny needs to freshen it up soon after half time we're chasing shadows
Kenny needs to freshen it up soon after half time we're chasing shadows
I dunno. I'm pretty sure they were trying to claim AFCON as theirs.I can't stopping this bloody boring tournment when it is on.
I am too addicted to football. At least it is one trophy Liverpool will not win
Yeah but fine margins.
Ireland have been very poor vs the Ukrainian B team.
Netherlands score. Koopmeiners
Sign him up erik
Haha yeah maybe. If Van Dijk wins it they claim it as a Pool title?
The keeper who can't get a game for Sheffield United didn't cover himself in glory. I think the one who can't get a game for Leicester or the one who can't get a game for Burnley might have had that.
Reus was injured in 2014 and 36 year old Klose didn't exactly get to play because he ran circles around defenders at that stage of his career. The second "best" goalscorer after Müller was actually Andre Schürrle.
Germany won the tournament so people choose to remember the games where Portugal (always of service against Germany) and Brazil shit themselves, but the same team would have lost to Algeria if it wasn't for Neuer.
Frenkie finally on
Seems like we have gone backwards again under Kenny. Level of passing and technique with doing basics things have completely deserted us.
Ah balls.
One rush by FdJ and we win.
Ahhh I feel bad for Wales. They were so happy 
And Holland have won it
Nice work from Roberts there. I expect he is another one Burnley will have to fight to hold on to in the Championship.
Frenkie wins it for Netherlands.
We had our 'being happy' moment on the weekend. We're due another in about 60 years I think.Ahhh I feel bad for Wales. They were so happy
FDJ price just gone up (??)
Yeah fair enough, but the stadium was finally alive after that equaliser. And you deserved a draw.
Might need to see if Big Nev fancies being 3rd choice in Qatar. Not quite got the moves anymore but he fills the net quite literally these days.
Nah, you lot looked like you went to sleep after the first one and would have put us away properly in a game that mattered. Always seemed like you had the extra couple of gears to go into if needed even with the second string side.
A better watch than I was expecting it to be though, to be fair.
If he has a pub team, he's probably playing more actual football than any of the keepers we have as well.
Poland losing 6-1 to Belgium. Their biggest loss in a competitive game in over 50 years.
We also beat a very good France team as well, and were comfortable in the game I would say. The Algeria performance was down to poor tactics more than anything with Low going a bit extreme with his high line and playing Mertesacker in that system (with Lahm at DM and Mustafi at RB). He gladly went away with that right away after the match and we became much more structured in the matches after.
France weren't very good in 2014. Look at you trying to make yourself look prettier.
It was an up and coming France team, certainly not their strongest of the decade, but still a very good team. Lloris, Pogba, Evra, Varane, Griezmann, Matuidi, Benzema, Valbuena. The core was almost the same as that that reached the Euro final two years later.France weren't very good in 2014. Look at you trying to make yourself look prettier.
It was akin to Germany's team in the 2010 WC, not at their peak but certainly a very good team still.
Hummels scored the sole goal of the game and Neuer had show some great saves at the back. I think it was a pretty even game.
It wasn't a very good team, it wasn't close to be a very good team, in fact France weren't a very good team the following year either. It was at the start of new cycle with a lot of question marks, holes and inconsistencies.
I don't remember Neuer making spectacular saves other than a good one versus Benzema towards the end, Germany had chances themselves. One thing I do clearly remember is France not showing urgency to attack in the last 10 minutes given that they were a goal back, it seemed quite odd that they weren't attacking more.
Hey, if I'm honest, I don't France are a great team right now as well
I think we're just in an era without a superteam such as Spain or Germany in the past. France have an immense pool of talent who are being criminally undercoached by Deschamps, they certainly should be at that level.France haven't been undercoached by Deschamps, they have improved significantly. And France will never be like Spain or Germany, we don't have the benefit of having the backbone of the team playing the entire season together.Hey, if I'm honest, I don't France are a great team right now as well
You can't say they are playing at their full potential though? With the quality of players in the team they should be at the level of Spain; I'll hesitate to say Germany because technically France has accomplished as much as that German squad did, though I'd also argue Germany might have won more had it not been for Spain.
Of course I can. France deservedly won the last world cup. If you think that France should be equal to the best spanish team then you are wrong because they had better players and also these players were playing together all year long.
There was also a pretty good save against Valbuena. But my point wasn't Neuer's quality anyway. It's that this game and the ones against Algeria or Argentina could've easily gone the other way and that people use the lense of nostalgia to create a standard for the current team that the WC winners never reached.I don't remember Neuer making spectacular saves other than a good one versus Benzema towards the end, Germany had chances themselves. One thing I do clearly remember is France not showing urgency to attack in the last 10 minutes given that they were a goal back, it seemed quite odd that they weren't attacking more.
Hey, if I'm honest, I don't France are a great team right now as well
This was the run up to the 2014 WC
This is "lack of quality":
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Just saw two minutes of De Bruyne's highlights against Poland. That match was a pointless exercise. Players walking around and trying to avoid injuries on themselves and others.
You can make the same Algeria and Argentina argument for Spain during their run in Euro 2008, WC 2010 and Euro 2012 since they had multiple 1-0's and penalty shootouts in those tournaments. It can be used to discredit every championship win because you'll hardly find any cup win where a team has won every match by multiple goals. The fact is Spain were still the better team in almost all those matches and deserved their wins, same with Germany who deserved all their wins in WC 2014 and were by far the best team in the tournament.There was also a pretty good save against Valbuena. But my point wasn't Neuer's quality anyway. It's that this game and the ones against Algeria or Argentina could've easily gone the other way and that people use the lense of nostalgia to create a standard for the current team that the WC winners never reached.
This was the run up to the 2014 WC
This is "lack of quality":
Regarding the run to the tournament, it's disingenous to compare friendly matches against smaller teams with competitive fixtures. Low had a terrible record in friendlies throughout his time, he did a lot of experimenting with the team and largely did not take them very seriously. When people talk about the 2014 team, it's also taking into account the level of performances for that squad, which were largely the same, from 2010 to 2016. The level that team achieved for that long a period was consistently high.
Also, going man for man, I wouldn't take anyone from this current team over the team we had during that period, the only argument you'd have is over LB and hell even Howedes played great over there during the WC. Schmelzer was a pretty good LB during the early 2010's as well and I'm sure he would be starting in today's team.
The last three WC winners exited the group stages at the next tournament, the current EC winners failed to qualify for the WC not 12 months after their triumph. France had a rather disappointing EC after winning the WC. So yes, I think most tournament winning teams don't play highly functioning top tier football. And aside from the English few nations go into a tournament feeling certain that they are going to win it. It's just something that happens.
Regarding 2014 things didn't get a lot better once the tournament started either: the games against Ghana and Algeria were just bad for a title aspirant. But in the end they won the cup, so every game was great after all, Höwedes became a top LB, Mustafi a top RB. The defense that made their GK the MVP was infallible, the attack that only produced in one knockout game and had to rely on a defender's goal and extra time in the other three games was elite too.
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Which makes what Germany did over those 8-6 years even more impressive by reaching the semi-final in every tournament, something no team had done during that era and few have done previously.
We began the the 2014 World Cup with a host of injuries. Leaving out the fact that Gundogan and both Lars and Sven Bender were injured for the tournament, Schweinsteiger and Khedira entered unfit, which was why Low had to go with Lahm in central midfield for the first few matches. Hummels was also unfit throughtout the tournament and was replaced with Mustafi against Ghana and Algeria at RB. Mustafi didn't play at all after that so I don't know why you're judging a team based on someone who played only twice.
Our attack wasn't awe inspiringly amazing, granted, though Spain again were winning most of their matches 1-0 in 2010 as well but no one will say they were crap, but again we were hamstrung with injuries in that area since Gomez wasn't available as a backup to Klose and Reus, the best German player at that time, was also injured. Despite this we still scored a decent amount of goals against good teams.
I honestly don't know why you're so depressed over the 2014 win and make it out as if we were lucky to win or weren't that good a team. We had one sloppy game granted against Algeria but that was down to the extreme tactics Low imployed, and also not having Khedira/Hummels available so Mertesacker/Mustafi played. Also, you can say we were lucky but the reason why we played with such adventurous tactics was because of Low's faith in Neuer's sweeping ability, so he would say he was vindicated in that decision.
It's ridiculous to take down that team we had just to make a point that our current team is good. Tell me, who from the current team would you have over the squad we had from 2010-2016? Kimmich would be it I would presume, over Khedira? Khedira was an amazing player himself who fit into that team perfectly as a foil to Schweinsteiger and Kroos/Ozil so that is debatable.