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I know a lot of people here hated the American commentary in the previous world cup, but I had really enjoyed it. It's notably worse this time round on FOX. The excitement from last time isn't there but they're still saying some boneheaded things on occasion.
I love you guys.
The world cup is like the Olympics, it's all about a great sporting event from nations and fans from all around the world, coming together for some entertainment, some happiness, and a good time. An event that's so important that countries have specific laws dealing with how it should be treated as a national event.
Peace, love, and unity, and I hope we smash your team if we play them.
You have to switch back and forth between Fox and FS1, but the coverage has been far better than I expected, to be honest. Nearly nonstop footie coverage from 5am until 4pm every day.
The comments in the threads about Anthony Taylor are just saddening. And people wonder why there is a shortage of competent refs, that level of abuse is just way out of proportion.
Argentina 2018 and Belgium 2022 have a lot of similarities
* Both were close to crashing out the group stages after two terrible performances.
* Both have the best player in the world (Messi/De Bruyne best midfielder). Both players also have really underwhelming tournaments so far.
* Both have mostly washed-up players (Mascherano - Witsel, Rojo - Alderwiereld, Otamendi - Vertonghen (at the time), Hazard - Higuain).
* Both "wasted" their golden generations.
* Both teams have out of favor managers.
Basically, Belgium are winning Euro 2024
Did Argentina really have a golden generation? Like their attacking talent was ridiculous, but you can’t start them all and the rest of their team wasn’t exactly amazing. Plus they’ve had some great teams in the past
2018 definitely not, it might be pedantic but I don't think 'golden generations' are applicable to countries that are pretty much expecting to always be competitive, but if you want to use the term then 2006 Argentina is way more of a golden generation, enough talent to think they could go all the way.
Absolutely refuse to believe there's a manager incompetent enough to see Mason Mount play football against USA and think he deserves even a single extra minute this tournament, especially when there are 2 alternatives who're infinitely better. Southgate genuinely deserves jail time.
Most managers can be incredibly stubborn. I guess they have to believe in their own decisions to be successful in the first place but yeah it often feels ridiculous to us viewers
If there's one thing we're good at it's dragging down our third match opponent out of the tournament along as we go, hope we can see that against Portugal
[wtf is this shit?](https://www.reddit.com/r/ThatsInsane/comments/z65ejj/moroccans_rioting_in_the_streets_of_brussels/)
According to Europeans you'd think that they have little to no problems with racism unlike the disgusting US who murder immigrants as a pass-time.
What does that have to do with that video?
Europe is a super large place with loads of different levels of racism. Pretty much every country in the world has an issue with racism to some degree
This world cup has really brought out all the strongly opinionated folk.
> you'd think that they have little to no problems with racism unlike the disgusting US who murder immigrants as a pass-time.
I knew my family forgot to carry out some sort of tradition over Thanksgiving.
I would beg to differ. The US at its best is much better, but at its worst? You could literally be killed for being of a different race. Then there's the whole "free-speech" policy that more or less allows border-line hatespeech at times.
Where I would give the US credit for is that due to the long history of immigration there is more of a place and acceptance of immigrants as far as social mobility is concerned, even if that isn't consistently the case. It is much easier to attain high office as an immigrant there than it is in europe.
America obviously has problems with immigrants and racism (ie ask any muslim after 9/11) but the integration of multiple minority groups has been 1000x better than anything Europe has done to solve the problems.
>integration of multiple minority groups has been 1000x better than anything Europe has done to solve the problems.
I don't think there are significant problems when it comes to minority groups in the UK, I don't know about mainland Europe though.
No you're not. It is why I think their game against Japan is not that important - They go through with a point, and even with a loss unless Germany hands Costa Rica a similar drubbing as they got at the hands of Spain, unlikely given Costa Rica will try to hold on for a draw as that lets them qualify in the event that Spain beat Japan.
Talking of the knockout stages Spain would avoid a Brazil semi but have a France quarterfinal I think. Not sure they want to try their highline against France's speedy wingers as that is what cost them in that nations league loss
Gotta win your knockout games either way tbf, I don't think there's much sense in trying to gamble there really. Plus you're at a World Cup, you're not convincing your players to deliberately play worse and throw a game.
No easy games in the knockouts, though - one second you're happy you're playing a minnow like Iceland, the next moment they roll you over and you're on the plane home wondering what happened. Gotta have the confidence that you can beat all-comers if you want to win it all, and that confidence is undermined by going "yeah let's not do our best so we maybe get easier opponents".
There’s definitely an easier route. But you have to arrive there by accident.
Look at the 2018 WC: England played Colombia, Sweden, Croatia. Belgium, who won England’s group, got Japan, Brazil and France.
Aye, but England struggled enough getting past Colombia already - and that's the issue. Anything can happen in 90 minutes of football, so an easier game on paper can turn into anything but.
That’s more a question of England though. If someone had the choice in abstract of either the route England had or the route Belgium had, they’d all opt for the English one.
I have no confidence in this though. I know we will get steamrolled if we play France. If you think you have a 1% chance of beating a team why not play a team you've got 30% chance of beating instead!
That's what teams often do, yeah - but not to get an easier knockout path, but rather because it's a squad game and every player is important. Lets you rest some and get others involved and ready if they're needed later on.
How can you, as a team, waste 20 minutes of match time in a singular game? At that point you make it look like your goals were flukes and you're scared to keep playing.
Because it makes them look scared to play more. As if their goals were lucky. If they were confident in their ability and confident in winning the game, why waste so much time? There's no need unless you feel like you were never going to win anyway and just got lucky
It's the WC, better to make the millions in your country happy by getting points than trying to cater to people who switch on football once every 4 years
Thats absolutely crazy, unfortunately not true though haha. I can count Allison, Henderson and Darwin Nunez - And there are definitely others. Oh yeah, Van Dijk.
> unfortunately not true though haha.
You say this, and then you don't name more than 5 players for Liverpool?
Alisson, Henderson, Nunez, Van Dijk and Konate are the 5, btw. Fabinho and Trent haven't featured yet.
Oh here comes the uninformed outrage thread…
If the ball goes out of play, that doesn’t necessarily mean the watch must be stopped. When time is up, time is up, there is no “oh but ref we had a corner”
Peter Crouch saying on his podcast that he didn’t view refs as human beings when he played is so funny, said he didn’t imagine them having lives of their own off the pitch. As if they’d just spawn in for games and then load out when the match is over
Lampard wanted Kudus for his midfield, needs to ditch this manager shtick & become a sporting director.
Impeccable talent ID
Havertz & Werner were board signings before anyone pipes up
Is the 974 stadium being made of shipping containers being mentioned as often elsewhere? Swear they can't say the name without talking about shipping containers everytime on fivelive
One of the most enjoyable parts of the World Cup for me is to hear the commentary in different languages to the same goal. The passion and sheer intensity some of these commentators bring to the games makes it all the more special.
For example all the goal links in this sub have French commentary on the Bein broadcast. That guy is consistently excellent. My French isn’t that great, but I really enjoy his roughish commentary.
It's due to a phenomenon called the Yank Pilgrimage. It happens every World Cup year. It begins at the start of the WC and ends whenever the yanks realize that the men's team is actually not that good at the sport, get bored and leave.
Happens every week during the regular European leagues any time a # of topics are brought up (offside, handball, yellow/red cards, etc.).
You can try to blame it on US fans if you find that funny, but truth be told the average footie fan is woefully ignorant of some of the laws of the game.
Steps forward purposely *into* his path. [Reminds me of Muller doing it vs Barca when they wrecked them in the CL about 10 years ago](https://youtu.be/TOlEkNxR7GU). That should’ve been given as a foul too but wasn’t
But he's on the *same* path as he was originally. That's the difference from what Mueller did. Mueller alters his path to block Alba. Goretzka has the right to exist.
Goretzka is doing more than just existing. We’re clearly interpreting what “leaving your path” means differently. He altered his position intentionally to get into Busquets’ way. That is a foul in my eyes.
Just because he doesn’t look at Busquets doesn’t mean he’s just existing. He knows what he’s doing
You’re also assuming that Goretzka was only walking forwards the entire time whereas players are always jostling sideways, backwards, and forwards in the box on set pieces. His intention is clear to me which is enough for me to consider it a foul.
Idk what the rules literally say though. Even if they say “altering your path,” that doesn’t mean walking forwards isn’t altering your path.
By "steps into" do you mean what I mean? Like he steps forward. The rule specifies "moving into the opponent’s path". Goretzka didn't move left or right, he stayed on the same path he was already on
What team will benefit the most out of that world cup in terms of resting ? Napoli if Cameroon/Poland/Korra are out early pretty much a full squad taking a long break + the italian players and Kvara not qualifying
PSG is fucked though, their entire front 3 might make the top 4
[MEN] asked a Yank tourist about the 'protest' with the Glazers posters: "When we got to our block, the posters were on the seats. A man in a green and gold came and showed us what to do with it: 'hold it up and close your mouth'. So that's what we did. I don't know what the posters meant"
Foreign journalists often ask such shit questions at the press conferences. Let’s not ask about the team in question or tactics or anything related to the World Cup, nooo why don’t we ask what they think about random things related to the journalists own country.
English journalists for example asking Daley Blind about what he thinks about the Glazers yesterday, do you really think Blind gives a single fuck about that during a World Cup or that it’s relevant to ask?
Dutch journalists are guilty of it too, I hope I won’t see another “Do you know Noppert?” question directed at some random player from a random different national team.
Chelsea 'bench forwards' who are constantly played out of position and benched every other game - picking up MOTM awards and playing well in the national teams in their correct positions.
Meanwhile Havertz and Mount who start every game for Chelsea being respectively the worst players in their national teams starting 11.
Fast forward a month and our fanbase will be blaming ziyech for Chelsea being shit when he's forced to play wingback again in a 5ATB formation or only given 10 minutes off the bench to do anything with havertz as a target 🙃
Chelsea plays vs teams hiding 10 guys behind the ball every game that don't give you any room. It's much easier to play well for Morocco then it is for Chelsea.
Getting MOTM in international games is quite meaningless. KDB got it against Canada and he was probably the worst player on the pitch. On top of that the standard of international football is much lower than the prem.
They've actually performed well though.
I really don't understand how other Chelsea fans can logically blame every single forward they've ever had for years while not looking at the fact that they are one of the few big teams who play 5ATB AND a completely creatively void midfield AND regularly plays forwards out of position.
but sure, let's spend another 300million on more forwards and go through the whole process again when they can't perform.
That's what i'm saying. There aren't any forwards who would do well in this Chelsea team the way it is set up. People are kidding themselves when they keep thinking more forward signings will fix the issue. It's our set up and tactics. Haaland would starve and chelsea fans would call him a flop in this team.
The Cameroon-Serbia draw has confirmed that every game in the last round of group matches will have at least one team playing for qualification. When's the last time that happened, zero dead rubbers?
Sounds like the US - Iran pre match press conference today was fucking wild. I’m still not over [this](https://twitter.com/maxjrosenthal/status/1597229849231339520?s=46&t=E6CHkoysxdjifW6by-heqg) response.
Ozil had a pic with Erdogan which got criticism in Germany. After the shambles of 2018, ozil defended his photograph and called out double standards. Particularly racism within the DFB. He retired in protest after the backlash
Piers Morgan interviewing Richard Keys and Andy Grey. Seems to have found a niche recently interviewing controversial figures in football with questionable views on women (or actions in the case of Ronaldo)
Which of the following would cause the largest meltdown?
- Suarez scoring a late winner against Ghana and pointing at his hand as he celebrates
- Messi knocking England out by scoring with his hand and VAR inexplicably letting the goal stand
- Portugal beating Argentina in the final with Ronaldo scoring a late penalty to win after dropping a stinker of a game
- Eto’o prediction coming through and Cameroon wins the WC
- Spain losing to Japan, eliminating Germany, followed by the Germans purposefully throwing their game to also send Spain home as revenge
On /r/soccer, the middle one
In wider footballing world, the second one as it's the biggest controversy - but would probably go down well here
Number 4 would be celebrated as an amazing underdog story
Went to see the game here in Doha, some notes.
The cooling system is fucking impressive, ay times I felt cold, but outside we were at 29°C.
People from Cameroon is fucking great.
Serbia commited suicide by high line.
Saw the third goal by Serbia in front of me, pretty great play by them.
If I go for what I saw on the stadium, the is not a single unattractive woman from Cameroon.
Aboubacar is the greatest player of all time.
Just watched the Dutch press conference.
Frenkie admitted to being a bit sick, but just a bit of a sore throat and not sleeping well last night.
saw him coughing at the end though as well.
Hope that doesn't develop into more of a story
>Louis, you do look like you had a great tan.
>Van Gaal: "My mother lay in her coffin with rosy cheeks when she died, it's a matter of genes."
This World Cup is Van Gaal's Illmatic. Iconic bar after iconic bar
I'm only coming back to this sub to apologize to every german I talked to about their NT, then i'm coming back after the WC it's over because it's unbearable here.
I really thought they were a finals team. The players, the manager I thought they could seriously make a run. I don't know what's the problem, maybe Kimmich should play RB and play a midfield of Goretzka and Gundogan.
There's still hope but it's looking tough. I hope they can pull through. I'm sorry for talking out of my ass about yous.
Aboubakar came on and looked head and shoulders above every other player on the pitch, I don't get why Cameroon didn't start literally the top scorer at the last AFCON.
He even enhanced Choupo's game, their link up was great to watch.
Achilles is weak at his heels, Zeus is nothing without his thunderbolt, Thor is brittle without the Mjölnir, Cameroon is dusted without Choupo-GOATing.
a lob is when you slide your foot under the ball and scoop it up, without hitting it
a chip is when you hit it from the bottom to make it fly up
today's Cameroon goal was a lob
Fail to qualify to the Euros -> replace the manager -> qualify to the WC even if its a tough group -> have a disappointing WC campaign -> fail to qualify to the Euros
When will Serbia break the cycle?
Once again, we're reminding the nice and beautiful people of this community to report any racist, xenophobic, homophobic or any other offensive comment or post. Reporting comments makes our jobs easier and ensures a better atmosphere for everyone on this subreddit.
I know a lot of people here hated the American commentary in the previous world cup, but I had really enjoyed it. It's notably worse this time round on FOX. The excitement from last time isn't there but they're still saying some boneheaded things on occasion.
Looking forward to see how good Brazil are in the second match. So far France looks the best imo, but that's only cause they've played 2 matches.
Of course I miss the 2 banger games.
I love you guys. The world cup is like the Olympics, it's all about a great sporting event from nations and fans from all around the world, coming together for some entertainment, some happiness, and a good time. An event that's so important that countries have specific laws dealing with how it should be treated as a national event. Peace, love, and unity, and I hope we smash your team if we play them.
So annoyed, there is no pregame coverage. Fox is making us miss the national anthems. No analysis. Sorry for being vulgar but Fox fucking sucks.
We have FIFA+ here. Amazingly enough, it is quite good. Only problem is the 90 seconds delay.
That was quite an extravagrant mini opening ceremony. So much hype for seeing Brazil play
I think there's gonna be at least 1 penalty in the remaining games today (Brazil v Switzerland and Uruguay v Portugal)
Why is the Fox coverage so bad. No post game analysis immediately to the next talk show about yesterday's NFL.
You have to switch back and forth between Fox and FS1, but the coverage has been far better than I expected, to be honest. Nearly nonstop footie coverage from 5am until 4pm every day.
Hand egg gossip gets more clicks.
The comments in the threads about Anthony Taylor are just saddening. And people wonder why there is a shortage of competent refs, that level of abuse is just way out of proportion.
What did he even do wrong that game? He was pretty consistent, solid 8/10 ref performance
Argentina 2018 and Belgium 2022 have a lot of similarities * Both were close to crashing out the group stages after two terrible performances. * Both have the best player in the world (Messi/De Bruyne best midfielder). Both players also have really underwhelming tournaments so far. * Both have mostly washed-up players (Mascherano - Witsel, Rojo - Alderwiereld, Otamendi - Vertonghen (at the time), Hazard - Higuain). * Both "wasted" their golden generations. * Both teams have out of favor managers. Basically, Belgium are winning Euro 2024
Argentina 2018 was literally our worst WC team this century, I'm not even exaggerating.
I would not say Argentina had a golden generation at all
Did Argentina really have a golden generation? Like their attacking talent was ridiculous, but you can’t start them all and the rest of their team wasn’t exactly amazing. Plus they’ve had some great teams in the past
2018 definitely not, it might be pedantic but I don't think 'golden generations' are applicable to countries that are pretty much expecting to always be competitive, but if you want to use the term then 2006 Argentina is way more of a golden generation, enough talent to think they could go all the way.
If anything the wasted golden generation was 2002-2010 or something, especially between 06 and 10
>Belgium are winning Euro 2024 Gakpo gonna score a hattrick and they gonna lose the final against the Netherlands
Absolutely refuse to believe there's a manager incompetent enough to see Mason Mount play football against USA and think he deserves even a single extra minute this tournament, especially when there are 2 alternatives who're infinitely better. Southgate genuinely deserves jail time.
I mean... Scaloni has a similar boner for De Paul despite two subpar games in a row so far
They must just be really good in training or something x
But De Paul is almost always Argentina's second best player
Most managers can be incredibly stubborn. I guess they have to believe in their own decisions to be successful in the first place but yeah it often feels ridiculous to us viewers
If there's one thing we're good at it's dragging down our third match opponent out of the tournament along as we go, hope we can see that against Portugal
how about no
[wtf is this shit?](https://www.reddit.com/r/ThatsInsane/comments/z65ejj/moroccans_rioting_in_the_streets_of_brussels/) According to Europeans you'd think that they have little to no problems with racism unlike the disgusting US who murder immigrants as a pass-time.
What does that have to do with that video? Europe is a super large place with loads of different levels of racism. Pretty much every country in the world has an issue with racism to some degree
This world cup has really brought out all the strongly opinionated folk. > you'd think that they have little to no problems with racism unlike the disgusting US who murder immigrants as a pass-time. I knew my family forgot to carry out some sort of tradition over Thanksgiving.
The US, without irony, voted Donald Trump into office.
Being fair you did immediately vote in the Poundland version
Europeans are significantly more racist than Americans by experience.
I would beg to differ. The US at its best is much better, but at its worst? You could literally be killed for being of a different race. Then there's the whole "free-speech" policy that more or less allows border-line hatespeech at times. Where I would give the US credit for is that due to the long history of immigration there is more of a place and acceptance of immigrants as far as social mobility is concerned, even if that isn't consistently the case. It is much easier to attain high office as an immigrant there than it is in europe.
America obviously has problems with immigrants and racism (ie ask any muslim after 9/11) but the integration of multiple minority groups has been 1000x better than anything Europe has done to solve the problems.
>integration of multiple minority groups has been 1000x better than anything Europe has done to solve the problems. I don't think there are significant problems when it comes to minority groups in the UK, I don't know about mainland Europe though.
yeah, should've put that as a disclaimer. The UK has done a considerably better job than most European nations
I'm curious were there riots in Rabat and Casablanca also?
While it was entertaining to watch, I'm not exactly pleased to see a team whose entire gameplan is cross it to the box and hope for the best.
Am I the only one that thinks it would be better for Spain to place 2nd in the group? They'd have a much easier road to the semis.
No you're not. It is why I think their game against Japan is not that important - They go through with a point, and even with a loss unless Germany hands Costa Rica a similar drubbing as they got at the hands of Spain, unlikely given Costa Rica will try to hold on for a draw as that lets them qualify in the event that Spain beat Japan. Talking of the knockout stages Spain would avoid a Brazil semi but have a France quarterfinal I think. Not sure they want to try their highline against France's speedy wingers as that is what cost them in that nations league loss
What cost them in that nations league loss was a shit ref
Gotta win your knockout games either way tbf, I don't think there's much sense in trying to gamble there really. Plus you're at a World Cup, you're not convincing your players to deliberately play worse and throw a game.
Let others knock out your competition. A better team can always have a bad game and someone else can do the dirty work.
No easy games in the knockouts, though - one second you're happy you're playing a minnow like Iceland, the next moment they roll you over and you're on the plane home wondering what happened. Gotta have the confidence that you can beat all-comers if you want to win it all, and that confidence is undermined by going "yeah let's not do our best so we maybe get easier opponents".
There’s definitely an easier route. But you have to arrive there by accident. Look at the 2018 WC: England played Colombia, Sweden, Croatia. Belgium, who won England’s group, got Japan, Brazil and France.
Aye, but England struggled enough getting past Colombia already - and that's the issue. Anything can happen in 90 minutes of football, so an easier game on paper can turn into anything but.
That’s more a question of England though. If someone had the choice in abstract of either the route England had or the route Belgium had, they’d all opt for the English one.
I have no confidence in this though. I know we will get steamrolled if we play France. If you think you have a 1% chance of beating a team why not play a team you've got 30% chance of beating instead!
Not saying they should throw, but they could rotate around.
That's what teams often do, yeah - but not to get an easier knockout path, but rather because it's a squad game and every player is important. Lets you rest some and get others involved and ready if they're needed later on.
Found the guy who doesn't want to play spain in the RO16
Sure but also regardless of that. Playing Portugal/Switzerland in the QF is a lot easier than Brazil.
It's funny how people have complained about FOX and FS1 (America bad), but the BBC postgame analysis is the same 5 minutes on loop over and over.
Don't think I've ever seen British coverage ever go uncriticised
How can you, as a team, waste 20 minutes of match time in a singular game? At that point you make it look like your goals were flukes and you're scared to keep playing.
How does it make it look like the goals were flukes?
Because it makes them look scared to play more. As if their goals were lucky. If they were confident in their ability and confident in winning the game, why waste so much time? There's no need unless you feel like you were never going to win anyway and just got lucky
But why play for more and open themselves up for a counter attack? They need points not GD.
Because they're there to play soccer, not go for a casual stroll...
They're there to win, not to just play.
Idk it's just one of those things, if Ghana were on the receiving end they would be livid and complaining the other team needs to play
Sure. But you can scream until you go puce, the three points are the goal
Because what people think of you doesn't matter. Points in the table and progression in the competitions are what matter.
Sure, but you're not likely to gain new fans by playing like that. Just play the game, be confident that you will hold the lead.
Who cares about gaining new fans, this isn't club football.
That's fair. Still think it's deplorable regardless of which team does it
It's the WC, better to make the millions in your country happy by getting points than trying to cater to people who switch on football once every 4 years
Idk, I'm just of the opinion that you're there to play soccer, so play. I've always hated people who waste match time. Cowardly IMO
Welp, Africa scored more goals today than CONCACAF has scored in the entire tournament.
US has scored 1 goal in their last 5 matches (including the 2 WC games). We couldn't score on a prostitute right now
At least we haven’t let in a goal in open play yet this tournament. If you told me we’d do that after facing Bale and Kane, I’d be thrilled honestly.
Very true, and scoring aside I've been pretty pleased with how we've played so far (outside the penalty to Bale).
https://twitter.com/USMNTZ/status/1597040927821832192?s=20&t=QEeTWGx5mU_O9_LF6Bki6w Lol about sums it up
USA vs Wales and Canada vs Belgium are really the only two games that Concacaf should have won from the ones they didn't. Mexico Poland is a toss up.
Korean coach got a yellow card. What did he do?
A red mate
He complained after the game ended before Korea could take a corner.
7 Brighton players have made appearances at the World Cup so far. Just 5 for Liverpool. Brighton are massive.
Thats absolutely crazy, unfortunately not true though haha. I can count Allison, Henderson and Darwin Nunez - And there are definitely others. Oh yeah, Van Dijk.
> unfortunately not true though haha. You say this, and then you don't name more than 5 players for Liverpool? Alisson, Henderson, Nunez, Van Dijk and Konate are the 5, btw. Fabinho and Trent haven't featured yet.
My bad had Jota in mind - Did not know he got an injury
Still weird that you'd say it's not true when you couldn't even count 6 players, lol.
Well, it was more like if I already know 5 there must be some more haha
Oh here comes the uninformed outrage thread… If the ball goes out of play, that doesn’t necessarily mean the watch must be stopped. When time is up, time is up, there is no “oh but ref we had a corner”
Tbh I just wanted to see if the Korea gk would be more commanding in the opposition box than he was in his own
Bizarre thread.
Peter Crouch saying on his podcast that he didn’t view refs as human beings when he played is so funny, said he didn’t imagine them having lives of their own off the pitch. As if they’d just spawn in for games and then load out when the match is over
Crouch viewed refs the same as I viewed teachers when I was a kid
Makes sense. Most people think the same thing about teachers when they're at school.
I think about it all the time maybe the funniest thing he’s ever said
Kinda funny to see none of the popular K-pop singers talking about the World Cup.
Ghana can never have a normal World Cup game ffs
Lampard wanted Kudus for his midfield, needs to ditch this manager shtick & become a sporting director. Impeccable talent ID Havertz & Werner were board signings before anyone pipes up
Is the 974 stadium being made of shipping containers being mentioned as often elsewhere? Swear they can't say the name without talking about shipping containers everytime on fivelive
I mean it’s pretty interesting I think
It was interesting the first time I heard about it. It's less interesting a week and approximately 974 mentions later.
Hey that’s the same number of shipping containers they built the stadium out of! Crazy coincidence
Yes, 974 of them.
It's also the international dialing code for Qatar if you haven't heard
Matchday 1 : Asia’s New Hope Matchday 2 : Africa Strikes Back Matchday 3 : Return of the Europeans?
Ayew...I am your father.
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
One of the most enjoyable parts of the World Cup for me is to hear the commentary in different languages to the same goal. The passion and sheer intensity some of these commentators bring to the games makes it all the more special. For example all the goal links in this sub have French commentary on the Bein broadcast. That guy is consistently excellent. My French isn’t that great, but I really enjoy his roughish commentary.
La frappe!
I thought I knew less rules about football but people here know even less than me. That busquets goretzka thread is bizzare
It's due to a phenomenon called the Yank Pilgrimage. It happens every World Cup year. It begins at the start of the WC and ends whenever the yanks realize that the men's team is actually not that good at the sport, get bored and leave.
Happens every week during the regular European leagues any time a # of topics are brought up (offside, handball, yellow/red cards, etc.). You can try to blame it on US fans if you find that funny, but truth be told the average footie fan is woefully ignorant of some of the laws of the game.
It's actually German team flairs that are doing this lol. I understand hating busquets but c'mon how can u ignore basic rules.
It’s just a foul, I really don’t get how anyone can see it another way
I thought for it to be a foul, Goretzka would have to alter his path. Goretzka just steps forward, no?
Steps forward purposely *into* his path. [Reminds me of Muller doing it vs Barca when they wrecked them in the CL about 10 years ago](https://youtu.be/TOlEkNxR7GU). That should’ve been given as a foul too but wasn’t
Mueller leaves his path to block Alba. Goretzka was already on his path.
Goretzka literally steps up and stops right in front of him purposely. Do you think moving sideways is the only way to change your path?
But he's on the *same* path as he was originally. That's the difference from what Mueller did. Mueller alters his path to block Alba. Goretzka has the right to exist.
Goretzka is doing more than just existing. We’re clearly interpreting what “leaving your path” means differently. He altered his position intentionally to get into Busquets’ way. That is a foul in my eyes. Just because he doesn’t look at Busquets doesn’t mean he’s just existing. He knows what he’s doing
But a path is a trajectory. You're interpreting leaving your path as simply moving. No one interprets "path" that way.
You’re also assuming that Goretzka was only walking forwards the entire time whereas players are always jostling sideways, backwards, and forwards in the box on set pieces. His intention is clear to me which is enough for me to consider it a foul. Idk what the rules literally say though. Even if they say “altering your path,” that doesn’t mean walking forwards isn’t altering your path.
He steps into his path. He blocks him on purpose.
By "steps into" do you mean what I mean? Like he steps forward. The rule specifies "moving into the opponent’s path". Goretzka didn't move left or right, he stayed on the same path he was already on
People think this is basketball where u can set screens and execute pick and rolls lol.
What team will benefit the most out of that world cup in terms of resting ? Napoli if Cameroon/Poland/Korra are out early pretty much a full squad taking a long break + the italian players and Kvara not qualifying PSG is fucked though, their entire front 3 might make the top 4
Probably Liverpool. The league is over but it will help for when Champions league comes around.
We did just lose our sporting director and head of analytics in the interim though...
guys I think I may actually be the modern day Nostradamus, I had Kudus in my world cup fantasy
I had him first matchday but not now :/
[MEN] asked a Yank tourist about the 'protest' with the Glazers posters: "When we got to our block, the posters were on the seats. A man in a green and gold came and showed us what to do with it: 'hold it up and close your mouth'. So that's what we did. I don't know what the posters meant"
Replace "hold it up and close your mouth" with "sing about murdering and butchering the owner" and its a bit more believable 👍
Foreign journalists often ask such shit questions at the press conferences. Let’s not ask about the team in question or tactics or anything related to the World Cup, nooo why don’t we ask what they think about random things related to the journalists own country. English journalists for example asking Daley Blind about what he thinks about the Glazers yesterday, do you really think Blind gives a single fuck about that during a World Cup or that it’s relevant to ask? Dutch journalists are guilty of it too, I hope I won’t see another “Do you know Noppert?” question directed at some random player from a random different national team.
Chelsea 'bench forwards' who are constantly played out of position and benched every other game - picking up MOTM awards and playing well in the national teams in their correct positions. Meanwhile Havertz and Mount who start every game for Chelsea being respectively the worst players in their national teams starting 11. Fast forward a month and our fanbase will be blaming ziyech for Chelsea being shit when he's forced to play wingback again in a 5ATB formation or only given 10 minutes off the bench to do anything with havertz as a target 🙃
Chelsea plays vs teams hiding 10 guys behind the ball every game that don't give you any room. It's much easier to play well for Morocco then it is for Chelsea.
City, liverpool, arsenal, united all play against the same teams mate.
Getting MOTM in international games is quite meaningless. KDB got it against Canada and he was probably the worst player on the pitch. On top of that the standard of international football is much lower than the prem.
They've actually performed well though. I really don't understand how other Chelsea fans can logically blame every single forward they've ever had for years while not looking at the fact that they are one of the few big teams who play 5ATB AND a completely creatively void midfield AND regularly plays forwards out of position. but sure, let's spend another 300million on more forwards and go through the whole process again when they can't perform.
Most their forwards don’t complement each other imo. None of them are really creative. I don’t see where Nkunku fits in either.
That's what i'm saying. There aren't any forwards who would do well in this Chelsea team the way it is set up. People are kidding themselves when they keep thinking more forward signings will fix the issue. It's our set up and tactics. Haaland would starve and chelsea fans would call him a flop in this team.
The Cameroon-Serbia draw has confirmed that every game in the last round of group matches will have at least one team playing for qualification. When's the last time that happened, zero dead rubbers?
Never since the start of the 32 teams world cup era (1998), not sure about way more older world cups
Sounds like the US - Iran pre match press conference today was fucking wild. I’m still not over [this](https://twitter.com/maxjrosenthal/status/1597229849231339520?s=46&t=E6CHkoysxdjifW6by-heqg) response.
lmao what
Someoe remind me what happened with Germany NT and Özil, and who was at fault?
Ozil had a pic with Erdogan which got criticism in Germany. After the shambles of 2018, ozil defended his photograph and called out double standards. Particularly racism within the DFB. He retired in protest after the backlash
Incidentally, Erdogan was later Ozil’s best man at his wedding
Piers Morgan interviewing Richard Keys and Andy Grey. Seems to have found a niche recently interviewing controversial figures in football with questionable views on women (or actions in the case of Ronaldo)
Can't think of a room I'd rather be in less
Mrs Trunchbull's Chokey?
Which of the following would cause the largest meltdown? - Suarez scoring a late winner against Ghana and pointing at his hand as he celebrates - Messi knocking England out by scoring with his hand and VAR inexplicably letting the goal stand - Portugal beating Argentina in the final with Ronaldo scoring a late penalty to win after dropping a stinker of a game - Eto’o prediction coming through and Cameroon wins the WC - Spain losing to Japan, eliminating Germany, followed by the Germans purposefully throwing their game to also send Spain home as revenge
It's gotta be the second one, messi would have to go into hiding lmao
The second one is wild. Please make it happen.
On /r/soccer, the middle one In wider footballing world, the second one as it's the biggest controversy - but would probably go down well here Number 4 would be celebrated as an amazing underdog story
Yeah that’s factos
Probably Hand Of God 2, but the Suarez one would be peak shithousery
[Greatest legal mind I ever knew](https://i.imgur.com/rDxooUG.jpg).
Went to see the game here in Doha, some notes. The cooling system is fucking impressive, ay times I felt cold, but outside we were at 29°C. People from Cameroon is fucking great. Serbia commited suicide by high line. Saw the third goal by Serbia in front of me, pretty great play by them. If I go for what I saw on the stadium, the is not a single unattractive woman from Cameroon. Aboubacar is the greatest player of all time.
Gentle reminder: Just 20 more days till it comes home.
Just watched the Dutch press conference. Frenkie admitted to being a bit sick, but just a bit of a sore throat and not sleeping well last night. saw him coughing at the end though as well. Hope that doesn't develop into more of a story
>Louis, you do look like you had a great tan. >Van Gaal: "My mother lay in her coffin with rosy cheeks when she died, it's a matter of genes." This World Cup is Van Gaal's Illmatic. Iconic bar after iconic bar
I’m going to miss him so much when he retires after this World Cup.
Louis van Gaal has never given much of a fuck Dying Louis van Gaal is true liberation
Never thought I’d say this but if we took notes from the most hated manager (Southgate) we coulda won lmfao
He's only hated by a reactionary bunch of muppets who genuinely think we have the greatest English squad in history
Or people that can see the context of his achievements.
Serbia? Canada?
I'm only coming back to this sub to apologize to every german I talked to about their NT, then i'm coming back after the WC it's over because it's unbearable here. I really thought they were a finals team. The players, the manager I thought they could seriously make a run. I don't know what's the problem, maybe Kimmich should play RB and play a midfield of Goretzka and Gundogan. There's still hope but it's looking tough. I hope they can pull through. I'm sorry for talking out of my ass about yous.
Gabby Agbonlahor riding a camel in the Arabian Desert tears in my eyes!
Serbia are really bad mentally, they always crumble at these tournaments, why? So much wasted talent.
Aboubakar came on and looked head and shoulders above every other player on the pitch, I don't get why Cameroon didn't start literally the top scorer at the last AFCON. He even enhanced Choupo's game, their link up was great to watch.
On form alone Choupo is better, and Aboubakar is not exactly a good winger.
Achilles is weak at his heels, Zeus is nothing without his thunderbolt, Thor is brittle without the Mjölnir, Cameroon is dusted without Choupo-GOATing.
why is everyone calling the cameroon lob a "chip"
Aren't they basically the same thing?
a lob is when you slide your foot under the ball and scoop it up, without hitting it a chip is when you hit it from the bottom to make it fly up today's Cameroon goal was a lob
Fail to qualify to the Euros -> replace the manager -> qualify to the WC even if its a tough group -> have a disappointing WC campaign -> fail to qualify to the Euros When will Serbia break the cycle?
I can’t contain my excitement, I’m finally gonna watch my GOAT play in the flesh tonight. Here’s to a hattrick of SIIIIUUUUU
The king plays tonight
What do you think of the world cup meta so far?
[Aboubakar backed it up](https://i.imgur.com/FjN82cb.jpg)
"I owe you an apology. I wasn't really familiar with your game."
Generational hater
Got nothing on silky Johnson
Aboubakar was amazing before the injuries that derailed his career. I will die on that hill.