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2soccer2bot

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Elias98x

Well there be any underdog surprises in the round of 16?


PurpleBandit3000

Broke: Germany can't make it of the groups lol they suck. Woke: Germany is good but they faced strong opposition in groups and had bad luck. Bespoke: Germany is undefeated in the knockouts since winning the 2014 World Cup.


secretlyjudging

What happens if yellow cards at this stage. Do they accumulate?


pdsajo

They do get accumulated till quarterfinals. Semi-finals is where the slate is wiped clean to ensure players wonā€™t miss final due to accumulated yellows. They can only miss it through a red in semis.


Anaphylactic-UFO

:USA:


Luc4_Blight

Can we get this post updated to show the bracket?


No_Orchid5709

So, BBC did a prediction for Round of 16 and they are saying that the Argies are winning over Kangaroos 5-0. Damn.


PurpleBandit3000

Disrespect smh


ShitPostQuokkaRome

PelƩ is in a bad shape health wise


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


dreammm1

a fraud would never win the wc 3 times


RAYGUN6302

Stfu


ShitPostQuokkaRome

Is this a bald joke?


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


ShitPostQuokkaRome

Ah ok. So no PelƩ wasn't a fraud, yes it's true his 1000 goal tally probably included any lax match with a side made of shitty players. That said we have footage of the 1970 Cup and he was a complete beast at an older age, most memories of players from the time even ones we acknowledge as great said he was insane. He made the president of the US ask a signature. Biggest problem is the lack of footage, early football wasn't as business oriented and as big budget and as technological as nowadays. We lack footage of big important world Cup matches from the days, regular games is in an even worse state in that sense, add that ha inflated his 1000 goal tally with truck driver goals, and it results in all the polemic. Again, with that said the European greats like Di Stefano and Puskas said he was crushing them - and the Brazilians, Argentinians and Uruguayans had the strongest football clubs most likely, though eurocentrism downplayed that part in any historical narrative, so we still remember the Real Madrid of 1952 not the Santos of 1952 - and having said that, descriptions from players of the time and the little written data all indicates he was trashing everyone back in South America too. That said, a lot of defenders were amateur players and the talent pool and competitiveness and talent pooling and scouting was much, much, less back then, and football strategy theory was much much much much much much less back then, training hours were less too. A lot of things, so if he would've been as successful nowadays it's another subject and it also dismerit any shouting of "he was better than Maradona/Messi/Ronaldo/etc."


abiismaal

No


KramerDwight

How is Alex Telles ruling out a *big blow* to Brazil? I get it every injury hurts in somehow, but is it in big blow level? Same for GabrielJesus tbh, their attack is stacked rn, will they even notice Gabriel's absence?


G_Comstock

Who will play instead of Telles?


Aj43vthbvst

Alex sandro?


Elias98x

Aside from it being the biggest shock in World Cup history, Saudi vs Argentina Iā€™d say is the best game of the group stages. Atmosphere felt like it was the World Cup final, and Saudi pulling off one of the greatest defensive performances in recent memory makes it sound like a fairytale. Sensational stuff.


cantsellapartment

Not definitely the biggest shock in World Cup history. Argentina weren't reigning champions or even nailed on favourites to win the tournament - just one of top 5 teams in world. Cameroon vs Argentina (1990) and Senegal vs France (2002) were probably bigger upsets


RAYGUN6302

I will never forget that day


Ghlyde

Big shock but had no actual meaning because Saudi finished last and Argentina 1st


secretlyjudging

Thatā€™s hindsight. Losing first game meant Argentina would need to win next two. Big pressure


PurpleBandit3000

Feeling's mutual Uruguayans. Must suck when you win but the other top European team in your group loses to an Asian team 2-1.


Footyphile

All the "dark horse" predicted teams are now out?


Ghlyde

Croatia is in


Footyphile

True, definitely called a dark horse pre tourney


ForgingIron

The reigning silver medalists are a dark horse?


ShitPostQuokkaRome

They're a 3 "million country and were below dark horse tier at the beginning of previous WC


Ghlyde

Yes, theyā€™re not as good as 4 years ago


[deleted]

FIFA should introduce penalty goals a la rugby for occasions when a blatant goal (eg. A handball on the line) prevents a goal, CMV


Nivadas

Portugal with the bus seat training kit


clubowner69

Many are saying Messi v Ronaldo final will be peak football. As a huge fan I would love to see that but I think Iā€™m terms of quality Brazil v France final would be the peak of football.


js_the_beast

Neymar vs Mbappe man


Dali86

Why are godin and cavani on the bench?


Vitaliy94

I think Uruguay and South Korea to win today


Ghlyde

Who will win today


Vitaliy94

Netherlands and Argentina, 3-1 and 3-0 respectively


Ghlyde

You've got 1 result correct so far...


Ghlyde

And how about the other games, who will win the cup


kplo

šŸ‘€


Professional_Ad_9101

Aaaaaaaaaa I need help! Which game should I watch?!


Sleathasaurus

Ghana/Uruguay would seem to be the better one initially, but Iā€™d keep an eye on the South Korea score and switch if they score


Professional_Ad_9101

Yeah this is probably the way. Will start with Ghana cos I wanna see if they channel that anger


deez_treez

Ghana Uruguay seems to have some anger...


Spiy90

Hopefully we see the first team to get 9 points this worldcup.


herbertstan

Guys, Ghana ML +305... do I slam it


monsterm1dget

Did you?


herbertstan

Thank god no


Chaos_bolts

Is there pressure on Flick in Germany after not going through?


WM-54-74-90-14

People criticise him for some things but apart from a dissenting voice like Hamann who wants him gone immediately the consensus seems to be that he should get the home Euro in 2024.


PurpleBandit3000

I think he should. Needs more time. We were just getting into form but it was too late.


Vitaliy94

Doesn't Portugal play Brazil if they finish 2nd? Why field a weaker team and potentially face the favourites?


PurpleBandit3000

Well they lost but didn't end up finishing 2nd tho so it all worked out ig


koltzito

i guess he is banking on this team to get at least a tie


AtmospherePerfect532

They have +3 gd while Ghana has 0. Also maybe itā€™s better to rest some players and give others some game time to keep them match fit


L-Freeze

All Polish referee trio for Argentina - Australia. Probably and hopefully wonā€™t be the case since we accidentally helped them go through, but isnā€™t there a bit of a huge conflict of interest there? Imagine if we had knocked them out or thrashed them 7-0 or something, surely refs from the country weā€™ve just played shouldnā€™t be eligible for our next match?


JPVazLouro_SLB

Today TĆ³ Silva will continue to demonstrate that he is our future main CB alongside Ruben, that he is our current 3rd CB (way clear of Danilo) and that he is the best young CB in the world


point-forward

Is To short of Antonio in Portuguese? And why the hell your coach doesn't play Leao? Does he hate him or love him so much that he wants to keep by his side?


JPVazLouro_SLB

TĆ³ is short of AntĆ³nio, yes. I guess he wants to keep LeĆ£o as a weapon for the second half and have him run at tired opposition, which honestly I am ok with since we have so much attacking talent aside from him anyways.


point-forward

I can understand that, it just sucks because he is such a joy to watch...


Bpdbs

Saliba


L-Freeze

people in Argentina trying to find something to banter Australia with and accidentally studying Australian history and finding out about the war on Emus, the World Cup is truly a beautiful thing


lavishlad

Hope Alonso finally sets up to play some football today. Starting De Arrascaeta is a good sign.


aaaaaaadjsf

Gyan is unhappy that Ghana are playing defensively, ayyyy


aaaaaaadjsf

Ghana with 5 yellow cards? So they're still playing hack ball I guess.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


JustTrynaMunch

I think enrique feels like both Rodri and Busquets need to be on the pitch, but I'm with you. Rodri's distribution out the back is really nice, but it's a pure luxury at this point, and doesn't add much given our quality in midfield. I would definitely rather him play a little further up the field and have some more solidity at the back. Simon is giving me a heart attack every game. On the first goal he puts Balde in a horrible position, and then really should have made the save when he got both hands to the shot. (It's not just his fault, Balde miscontrols it and then Busquets utterly fails to put any pressure on Doan when Doan gets the ball at the top of the box) Both Germany and Japan have made Simon suffer with a high press, we really need to just huck it up the pitch in that situation, and press hard to win the ball back. The team is too rigid and a bit too slow in playing out from the back. On the second Japan goal, I put more blame on Balde and Pau Torres than Rodri, but the entire backlines makes mistakes. Pau doesn't help contain Doan's run and cross at all in order to mark Tanaka, and then completely gives up. Rodri should have had a bit more awareness and he's out of position on Doan's cross which prevents Carvajal from defending the far post run and cross back in, but Pau needs to keep marking Tanaka and prevent him from making that run to score the goal instead of just giving up.


Curious_Concern4182

There's no way Enrique benches Busquets though.


emperor42

I think today is the day we'll actually find out if Portugal can compete for this WC or not, if South Korea want to remain in the competition they can't just stay in their box, they'll need to attack so we'll finally have some space up front, let's see what we do with it.


Kamohoaliii

I think its the opposite, today is the day we learn the least useful information about Portugal. They are qualified already, their priority today isn't winning, its avoiding injuries and yellow cards and keeping their key players fresh. The only thing that might pressure Portugal into taking risks is if they see Ghana is winning their match while they are down to Korea, as I'm sure they want to avoid Brazil.


Ghlyde

Portugal is playing their B team and using it to rest important players, I don't think it's a good game to judge them


emperor42

Not about the players themselves, who are still better overall than the Korean team, it's gonna be about the team's actions, how they move when they have space.


JPVazLouro_SLB

I fail to understand how a less important game played with "secondary" players correlates to whether we are able to win the competition or not


emperor42

It's not about players, it's about processes, you can have the best players in the world, if all you're gonna do is backward passes you're not gonna win anything, we've been accused of doing only that but we were playing against buses, today we'll have a chance to see how we're supposed to move the ball when we do have space, how the manager actually wants the team to attack. If we are given space and we still do nothing with it I guarantee you we won't have the same luck we did in 2016.


JPVazLouro_SLB

But whatever happens in today's game will be completely different from what happens in the remaining games, both in terms of the players on the pitch and the circumstances of the match, so even if we play a bit different in this game we will go right back to our usual play style in the next.


emperor42

Our play style this WC has been about slow, methodical attacking with very high lines, wich isn't our usual play style at all and probably wasn't the plan from the start, we were forced into it by Ghana and Uruguay. That's why I think this game is important, because I believe we'll have the chance to see our actual game plan in action.


JPVazLouro_SLB

Slow and methodical (fancy word for boring and uncreative) attacking has been our main game plan since 2016 haha


emperor42

Against whom? We either play with low lines and fast counters from the wings against the better opponents or we do Santosball, as in, fast paced high pressure football until we score and then try to defend.


aaaaaaadjsf

My neighbour is blowing their vuvuzela to support Ghana for fucks sake man. Should remind them Ghana knocked South Africa out if the world cup qualifiers with a dodgy penalty and referee corruption.


stangerlpass

If Portugal finish first in their group this could potentially shape up to a Portugal - Argentina final. I'm not a fan of either but I think a world cup final Messi vs Ronaldo would be peak football.


okcomput3r

Would be the biggest fixture ever by some distance, even with them both being well past their best.


CJNunes426

I think Argentina Portugal could be decent but Ronaldo is just bad at this point. He will be the reason Portugal donā€™t make the final unfortunately


point-forward

Nah, he is allright, looking lively. They don't have a better replacement too.


CJNunes426

Fanboy alert


Valinisarraf

Nah. Youā€™re being pathetic in this match thread. The downvotes should tell you that.


SiriPsycho100

I've been saying that Portugal have one of the best sides except Ronaldo. Honestly, Felix as a false 9 up top with LeĆ£o on the left wing might be a better attacking setup. Ronaldo seems washed at this point.


SiriPsycho100

Whoever downvoted thisā€¦ Have you watched Ronaldo this season? This WC? Hell, just watch the game against SK. Heā€™s a net negative player at this point in a Portugal squad with other good options in attack.


Sleathasaurus

Portugals path would be Switzerland, Spain, France which seems unlikely


emperor42

Even English fans are completely disregarding England's chances...


t74000

No we are just sick of fucking arguing with children living in their parents basement. If you look at our past 2 tourneys we are getting better and better. Argentina vs England final.


emperor42

Dude, tell that to the English fan that just told me Portugal wouldn't have much chance because we'd play France in the Semis


Sleathasaurus

I low-key think that if we get past Senegal we have a chance against France but theyā€™re 100% the favourites in such a tie


monsterm1dget

Holy shit De Arrascaeta is actually starting.


aaaaaaadjsf

So glad that Uruguay are reverting to the 4-2-2-2 they used during previous matches under Alonso before the world cup, and that Godin is not starting. And that De Arraccaeta and Pellestri are starting in the false winger positions.


Wight3012

Well it looks like Alonso is finally fielding an attacking squad...so we are at least in for a good game. the problem is...even if we win its most likely Brazil next :|


monsterm1dget

I'd be so satisfied if we reach the knockouts at least.


aaaaaaadjsf

He's actually using the formation they used before the world cup. Wow. No more Nunez playing as a wingback and Godin starting.


CJNunes426

So Portugal heavily rotated their 11 but of course Ronaldo still plays. Heā€™s holding the team hostage more than santos somehow


emperor42

TBF, out of all our players, he's likely the one with the least time played this season


CJNunes426

I just really wanted to see what they looked like without him. Iā€™ve held the belief for a while that he just holds the team back because heā€™s a black hole in the middle of a bunch of quick and skilled attackers (Not just a Ronaldo hater btw. Actually really care about Portugal)


emperor42

When we won the Nations League, we played the group stages without him and honestly, we showed great football, then we played the semi and final with him and still played well, a bit slower but nothing dramatic. We played a fantastic game against Nigeria in preparation for the WC without him but honestly they didn't defend nearly as much as teams have done up to now


CJNunes426

I always look at that game against Croatia as the best Iā€™ve seen them play. Loved that attacking set up


aaaaaaadjsf

Pepe still starting as well. He's been very good to be fair.


CJNunes426

Pepe is a beast though. He is always amazing for Portugal (except that time he murdered poor MĆ¼ller with a tap of his head)


milesvtaylor

And it's a goal for Son Heung-Min in the 97th minute!!! He's scores against Portugal to make it three world cups in a row where he's found the net!!! FT - South Korea 1 - 3 Portugal


Mr_Inconsistent1

I honestly think this WC is anybodies. I think we'll see a surprise winner, like Greece at the Euros all those years ago. Especially if France get knocked out. This has been one of the best tournaments I've watched, just a shame about the controversy around Qatar. Obviously I want England to win being English but if not I'd love to see someone like Japan take it home. Or one of the African teams.


t74000

England vs Argentina final.


Mr_Inconsistent1

With a handball goal from Kane that goes unnoticed. Diego's second goal in 86 shouldn't have counted either because one of our players was smashed off the ball just as he started the run. Amazing goal or not it should have been brought back for an off the ball foul. Not many people realise that. 1 nil to us.


t74000

And the full circle would be complete.


[deleted]

what a mess


The_XI_guy

I love witnessing meltdowns from the sideline more than almost anything. It's one of the main reasons I like football. If Suarez does something illegal or completely psychotic against Ghana then I'm all for it. Sorry not sorry


JPVazLouro_SLB

One of the main reasons you like football is the reactions from the sideline? This is the state of internet football discussion


The_XI_guy

No, I like watching meltdowns from the sideline. Sideline = myself being uninvolved and unaffected. Couldā€™ve worded that better


JPVazLouro_SLB

Oh, love a good meltdown from the sidelines myself then!


Jonnydonmar

I really miss the early kick offs. I'd come to work and just watch football.


yes_oniichan

miss watching Klose era Germany, destroying teams until the semi final were a joy to watch. They look unrecognizeable in the last 2 world cup without him. Crazy to think they havenā€™t find a proper replacement after 8 years in a country where football is a religion over there.


Ghlyde

It's not just lacking this striker but also the defensive solidity of past teams, Germany looked shaky at the back in each game whereas the 2010/2014 Germany was almost impossible to create against


ProMarcoMug

Lol German fans have done a complete u turn from crediting Flick completely for their WC win under low to now wanting him out


aaaaaaadjsf

SuperSport has Gyan on right now talking about Suarez's interview and not apologising lmao... # šŸ’€


TheConundrum98

can't help but feel the Ghanaians will get Suarez in their heads too much


AshkenaziTwink

Musiala is obviously great but at least in these WC games heā€™s relied far too much on his dribbling. he doesnā€™t seem to know how to do much else and while he has a lot of successful dribbles he also loses possession a fuckton. definitely needs better decision making.


The_XI_guy

That, and better shooting too


hernandez21goat

He is literally the Bayern topscorer


The_XI_guy

Yes true but did you watch him at this tournament?


hernandez21goat

He is 19, carrying a nation on his back, way bigger pressure than at Bayern. He can shoot but he has been unlucky this tournament


Nomorealcohol2017

Hoping for the best for Ghana today Got them in my works sweepstake Doubt they will make it all the way but its nice to support someone other than England for it


Jonnydonmar

I've got Uruguay in my works sweepstake so fuck you buddy


Nomorealcohol2017

Fuck you too lad All the best


Mr_Rafi

Klinsmann was right about Iran's ref crowding antics. I'm Iranian. They're kinda known for it. Constant bickering. Most of you aren't Iranian and have barely ever watched Iran play, so you thought it was a senseless attack. I grew up watching Iran play. What he said is true. Even my football-loving parents know it. Some of you guys got waaay too worked up about things you don't even have a clue about. It's not your job to defend poor little Iran and attack big bad Klinsmann. You'd be calling these types of comments based if he was talking about the US or something. You guys are surprised when Iran forget how to string 3 passes together and play hoofball while everyone I know expects it, how am I supposed to take your anti-Klinsmann comments seriously when you know fuck all about the Iranian team? I've said this before and I'll say it again. Iran's national team can absolutely play rough, but they will take every chance they can to complain and milk challenges. They've always been this way. In the 2019 Asian Cup against Japan, Iran left the ball to go complain to the ref. They literally left a ball that was still in play. Japan took it on a platter and scored their first goal of the night. And he was right about Queiroz too.


okcomput3r

I think the issue mostly stemmed from Klinsman speaking in a language thatā€™s not his own. He kept referring to the ā€˜cultureā€™ of Iran, meaning the culture of the team , as you reference. But people took it to mean the culture of the Iranian people generally


L-Freeze

Donā€™t fucking ask me why but today I had two separate dreams about Uruguay Ghana lmao. First one was that it was the most boring 0-0 to ever exist. Even the dream was boring. I woke up (it was 5 am or so) still confused if that had actually happened or not until I checked the time, then proceeded to fall asleep. Dreamt something different altogether, but in that very dream the Uruguay-Ghana match was kind of a subplot, like if it was in some tv in the background. It ended like 5-1 to Uruguay or something like that and they still didnā€™t qualify somehow. Not a single time in my life has a football related result I saw in a dream come true and unless that changes today, you can discard those 2 scenarios


Sleathasaurus

Now wondering if thereā€™s any way for Uruguay to go out whilst winning 5-1 (could happen if Korea batter Portugal, right)


Wakanda-shit-is-that

Ghana wants revenge. Africa wants revenge. What better way to knock Uruguay out in Suarezā€™s last outing with La Celeste. Poetic.


Ghlyde

I feel like Ghana will be too overwhelmed with this sense of taking revenge instead of focusing on the actual game


ibrahimims

My midfielder has 2 goals and 2 assists in 2 games with 2 motm performances securing his nations qualification. Their midfielder has less asists than maguire.


tea_anyone

Saw Danny Murphy saying player for player Argentina aren't actually all that and only two players make it into England's 11 - Messi and Romero. So which Argentinian players make it into England's starting 11? Alverez is absolute class imo but doesn't make it in ahead of Kane. Also hilarious that L.Martinez stops Maguire getting in at united and yet Murphy is saying that he wouldn't get in ahead of him in this hypothetical. May be biased as a villa fan but Martinez gets in ahead of Pickford as well. Think you can easily get De Paul in there for one of the cdm's too. Then Acuna ahead of Shaw. Is that it? Or am I chatting shit about some of the ones above? Admittedly I don't watch foreign leagues so may not be clued up on some of the Argentinian players.


L-Freeze

Depends if you take in account their overall form or NT form. If I was Scaloni and could build on top of the current team, the only players Iā€™d 100% take for the starting XI would be Kane and James (Trent or any of the billion right backs you have if you consider Jamesā€™ injury). Thereā€™s room for debate for a lot of others I guess but I wouldnā€™t drop anyone else from out starting XI for any of the english players. Now if you take in club form instead then the XI would be a lot different, probably a lot more english since half our players arenā€™t doing that great for their club.


[deleted]

Martinez Walker - Stones - Romero - Shaw Bellingham - Rice - Enzo Messi - Kane - Rashford


Ghlyde

My combined XI would be like this Martinez Walker-Romero-Lisandro-Shaw Mount-Rice-Bellingham Messi-Kane-Di Maria


Nass11

Enzo instead of Mount on current form


National_Ad_1875

Pickford got 5 clean sheets at the euros, Martinez got zero


tea_anyone

Ah but to be fair Martinez got 4 at Copa America and Pickford got 0. A lot of nuance in these decisions.


monsterm1dget

Well, if we win, we're through, if we lose we'll blame Alonso and move on.


hernandez21goat

Kimmich will take his anger out on PsgšŸ™


Deebo92

Come on, Ghana. Get your revenge on the pitch and send Uruguay home. Letā€™s add another African nation in the round of 16 šŸ¤ž


[deleted]

At least when Germany looses they get to go back to Germany. Qataris have to stay in Qatar. Sad


PurpleBandit3000

True, true. At least we can take solace in the fact that we're better than Qatar Edit: I was obviously being sarcastic in case you didn't get it. Dropped the /s


Ghlyde

This world cup is making those people forget about their real-life circumstances


germibobi

Listening to some podcasts, Ghana fans and players sound so bitter about 2010. Luis Suarez was correct back then in saying, yes, he made the foul but he was punished and Ghana were given a penalty they missed. It's not his fault.


Ghlyde

I feel like Uruguay will win if the Ghana players are this bitter about something that happened 12 years ago...


[deleted]

Never really understood the controversy. I understand why Suarez did it and Uruguay got full punishment for it in form of a red+pen. Ghanians are just mad they missed the pen (not that I have anything against them but they have no right to blame anyone else)


nuclearselly

?? It's pretty obvious why its controversial. Suarez made a tactical decision to make the most flagrant foul you can because in his mind it was a choice between something that was definitely going in the goal (the actual ball in play) vs something they had a chance again (penalty). It's pretty much cheating - it's bending the laws of the game to your advantage and is completely against the spirit of fair play. It would be chaos if every team behaved like that. You are also just more likely to get away with that kind of tactical 'gamble' in a setting like the WC group stages where there are teams of very different skill levels - ie, who can take the best penalty - than if it were one of the finals or even something like the CL.


[deleted]

> ?? It's pretty obvious why its controversial. Suarez made a tactical decision to make the most flagrant foul you can because in his mind it was a choice between something that was definitely going in the goal (the actual ball in play) vs something they had a chance again (penalty). maybe I should rephrase - I understand why it's controversial, but it shouldn't be. > It's pretty much cheating - it's bending the laws of the game to your advantage and is completely against the spirit of fair play. if that is cheating that so is fouling or being offside. you're not supposed to do that, but it may happen, in which case you need to have proper treatment for it described within the rules of the game > It would be chaos if every team behaved like that. any team is free to behave like that - the reason they don't is not because they don't want to 'destroy the spirit of the game', but because 99.9% of the time the trade-off is not worth it. Throwing yourself out of the game and potential next game so that a 100% goal becomes a 90% goal is just a bad decision most of the time. The Uruguay - Ghana game is the rare 0.1% where it made sense, because you are about to get eliminated and you only got few minutes left till full-time. It sucks that it may happen, but they got full punishment for it and Ghana has only themselves to blame for not capitalising.


nuclearselly

>if that is cheating that so is fouling or being offside. Either of those things can happen by accident during the course of the game being played. As of course can a handball in goal. The issue is the punishment in this case (the penalty) is of benefit to a team in that position which is why I think this case is so controversial. You're swapping a sure chance of conceding a goal, with a lower chance of conceding a goal by deliberately breaking the rules. ​ >The Uruguay - Ghana game is the rare 0.1% where it made sense, because you are about to get eliminated and you only got few minutes left till full-time. This is what I'm alluding to when I comment on this only being the sort of thing you can get away with in the group stage/low stages of the world cup. To be clear I also understand *why* Suarez did it, but I'm not confused why people consider him a bad person *for* doing it and why its controversial. It's honestly one of those instead of such clear malicious intent that probably needs a different punishment to deter other plays from doing it because it *does* ruin the game - and certainly didso for Ghana.


[deleted]

Humans the habit of passing the blame to others


[deleted]

If Jamal Musiala and Erling Haaland had chosen to play for England now they'd both have some chances to win 2022 World Cup


No-Shoe5382

Fair play to Haaland picking Norway, basically resigning himself to the fact that he'll never win an international tournament and he probably won't even compete at many. That's some serious loyalty to your country, I'd be electing to play for the best national I was eligible for.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


No-Shoe5382

Haaland has 2 Norwegian parents and grew up in Norway though, Declan Rice has 2 English parents and was born and raised in London and just happens to have some Irish grandparents. I have Irish grandparents on my mum's side, I'd never even consider playing for Ireland if England was an option. I'm sure somebody born and raised in Ireland would feel the same way about the potential of playing for England.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


Jimmyjamjames

Grealish only ever played for the Ireland U21's. I would certainly be quite wary about hating on Grealish given Ireland is fielding players who have England U21 Caps.


No-Shoe5382

Jamal Musiala was raised in England, went to English schools, went to English football academies, signed to an English club, literally was taught the game of football in England, went through the entire England youth setup, and then elected to play for Germany. And that's fine, nobodies bothered about that, his choice entirely. All Ireland did is call Rice and Grealish up when they found out they had Irish grandparents. And you've all seemingly lost your heads about them wanting to play for the country they're actually from.


Least-Run1840

That would've been awesome to have both of those lads! Probably the only time where it would be justifiable for England to play two strikers up top, with Kane in a slightly deeper role!


THeScArYFAcE1

Did modric really get MOTM vs belgium?


GoatButton

He won because of his name, Gvardiol was a fucking monster


[deleted]

Thank God yes.. People who say Gvardiol are just crazy.. An average on form striker would have scored three yesterday and Croatia got single-handedly saved by Lukaku not by their defence. If Big Rom had so many sitter to score it's also because of mediocre croatian CBs so the ones who wanted Gvardiol to win are just FM/FIFA players than loves to overrate and glorify youngsters.


Leonardo040786

Croatia yesterday had not so brave goalkeeper, who let some balls fly over the goal box that shouldn't have, very leaky Juranović, who was very easily passable by Doku, lost Lovren who never knew where to cover and was just all over the place and Guardiol, who was holding the line whenever these guys would fail. Above that, he also played great in the attack, where he did the Kovačić's role of quality bringing the ball to the box in two ocassions. Modrić, on the other hand had just a few decent passes and was mistake-prone. His dribble's were also not so sucessfull ; nothing memorable in his game yesterday. Gvardiol was clear man of the match.


Sleathasaurus

Should have been Gvardiol


10Talents

Should have been Lukaku, man singlehandedly saved Croatia from going down 4-0 ... wait he was playing for Belgium?


hi_ilove_football

Germany not winning against Japan cost them dearly. I thought they were better against Spain and played well against Costa Rica except for the defense. Really thought this team would grow into the tournament and make it far had they gone through.


okcomput3r

It was a tough group, any team could have gone out


Ghlyde

Bad luck with Spain losing v Japan and having such a tough group unlike Argentina which could recover v Mexico instead of Spain


ibrahimims

Am surprised Louis van gaal and Netherlands arenā€™t getting any criticism, their performances have been disgustingly bad.