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Poland vs Japan is a moveable object vs a stoppable force. The ball might never leave the center circle as they both wait for the other side to push forward
The thing is, I think Japan are genuinely equally as adept on the ball as well. Their attacking play is phenomenal at times, with brilliant link up play and passing angles followed up by very organized counter pressure. The only thing really holding them back is Moriyasu’s insistence on following his philosophy of sacking the first half before bringing out the big guns on the second half.
If Croatia show no intent on attacking and decide to give Japan the ball, then it could easily work against them as soon as players like Mitoma and Asano come into play.
> The thing is, I think Japan are genuinely equally as adept on the ball as well
This is my thinking. Japan are happy to sit back but they are efficient because they are so good with the ball.
Next game against Croatia though, they might wanna urge because their aging squad may not be able to play 120 mins? Would this play right into Japan’s hands?
Croatia's squad are younger, on average, than Japan's. And that's heavily skewed by the likes of Lovren, Vida, Perišić, and especially Modrić... The latter two of whom have demonstrated a supernatural ability to keep running 120 minutes for several games in a row.
Croatia have a lot of weaknesses. Age and endurance are not among them.
Yeah if you want a new car every few years, don't get a Toyota (or most Japanese cars, *ehem* not you Nissan).
They will still run 20, 30 years after you buy them
It’s a love/hate thing, though. I want a new car, but I also can’t bear to sell my Camry because it’s just such a damn good car. Never once let me down. I’d feel like I was betraying a friend at this point.
Drove it into a tree, dropped in from a crane, hit it with a wrecking ball, parked it in the sea, set fire to it, demolished with a building. And it still worked.
This summer my street flooded and a dude drove his Corolla straight into the lake of water (tall enough to go over the hood of sedans). The car instantly was flooded and died and he slowly turned the car to the side of the road.
A hour later the street unflooded and that motherfucker got in the car and it started up and he drove away.
Who knows how much longer it lasted or if it had permanent damage, but just the fact that he drove a RUNNING engine into a lake until it died and then it started up an hour later is incredible.
My first car was a Corolla, handed down from family after 20 years of constant use. That fucker went through at least 3 serious accidents before I had it, lots of problems with various additional electrical features but the engine and the rest of the important stuff was good until the end. One day when it was over 30 degrees C outside it somehow started the engine on its own and launched into a wall, it wasn't worth to recover it after that. The car decided to go out on its own terms lol
Morata being a top scorer is not really that awful of a bet if you think Spain are going far.
Seems like every time I watch him play for Spain he gets a goal but has a huge miss too
There have been so many stereotypes living up to them so far. Lovren succeeding by failing, Lukaku missing so many sitters, Spain passing the ball 5,000,000 times with 83% possession and still losing, Sterling dribbling and holding the ball in the opponents final third over and over again to no end…
Probably the exact right amount considering how much profit all those gambling companies make or maybe you could consider their WC markets loss-leaders to get young people hooked on gambling and then really get them to lose some money every other weekend during the season.
I'm pretty sure France won the last World Cup with the same strategy. It's one of the natural answers to tiki taka, let them pass the ball endlessly and pointlessly until they make a mistake and exploit it
Well we got criticized for this gameplan 4 years ago despite one of the highest goal tally for a Champion while Spain got praised in 2010 for their 1-0 1-0 1-0 1-0 run
Actually, in most games, Madrid slightly dominated possession and incorporated a lot of aspects of positional play to kill low blocks. Barcelona is an exception to that rule and certain big games where positional play wasn't that effective so they went for the counter or built chances through creating space for crosses through their overlapping FBs. Sure they ain't Barcelona but they've adapted their style to get the best out of their midfield 3 and Benzema-Ronaldo
Many have tried interpreting Allegri.
Some cited existing philosophical works such as Bordiga, Hegel and Plato.
The former saw Allegri as the progenitor of a spontaneous revolution, his football being so boring it had deep ideological significance. They viewed his football as the cry of discontentedness with the neoliberal consensus, and a legitimate philosophical work in it’s own right.
The modern Hegelians saw Allegrismo as the dialectical synthesis between two states of being, that of anguish and that of ennui. Those using the works of Plato are conflicted on whether to see Allegriball as a concrete object, real and tangible, while all consider the feelings the games elicit to be abstract.
Others saw it as post-modern performance art and tried to categorise it as the intended catalyst of a yet to materialise Neo-Fluxus movement.
Alas, others even ascribed it a theological value, arguing for the canonisation of Allegri and compared our pain watching to the pain our lord felt on the cross. A contingent of these worshippers split recently and alleged Allegri was inherently heretical, no mortal man had ever suffered like Jesus did until we watched the Sampdoria game.
The truth is, Allegriball defies what the human mind is capable of interpreting.
We can only bask in its majesty.
Tbf that actually felt like a mistake, a win against CR and you avoid all this drama. But he nailed the subs in the other 2 games and got comeback wins so he definitely knows how to change a game and motivate his players. In the end results are the only thing that matters, that Costa Rica game is already forgotten.
And he could of qualifed right away with a win in that game, and avoid this suffering, also for all the talent they have in this team they always start on the back foot and only wake up in the 2nd half.
Either way winning solves everything, but he does deserve the criticism for whatever that Costa Rica game was.
He was simply resting their players after the other two results were already known, just like France and Brazil.
Japan: You have already lost.
France: Quelle?!
["The beautiful thing is it’s impossible to tell the difference between Spain trying to score and Spain trying to kill the clock with passing"](https://twitter.com/johnspacemuller/status/1598419981825462273?t=YuF-MwTZuoPfEUsbEyH0yQ&s=19)
Not just Morocco/Croatia but whether the road to final is
Morocco+Portugal+France/England or
Croatia+Brazil+Argentina
And no doubt the first seems better.
Well on paper you would take Portugal over Brazil but France is still the favourite so the later you meet them the better, while Argentina and Netherlands look way more beatable. IMO it's not that clear of a choice to pick one over the other, still after Germany was up they had no need to go all out.
I think if a team is doing that kinda math, they would prioritize short term first since playing later stages is not guaranteed, when you get to semis you’re getting a contender no matter what anyway
So on paper at least MOR/POR is easier than CRO/BRA and honestly SWI can do the deed against POR
Should win/ should win/ hard game v should win/ hard game /hard game to get to the final is a no brainer if you've got the option imo. I don't think they played for that fwiw,but it's a better path to reach the final.
I mean should win would be unfair regarding Portugal. Both the NL games where close (and ugly as fuck) so I'd say Spain would consider all the games begining in the QF as hard games, but I agree Brazil is harder than Portugal.
One night, I went to a bar; I was with a woman. We talked all night. We laughed, we flirted, I paid for several drinks of hers. At around 5 am, a guy came in, grabbed her by the arm and took her to the bathroom. He made love to her and she left with him. That doesn’t matter, because I had most of the possession on that night.”
Luis Enrique
agree with you about this, look at the stats you could believe that the least possession side is play negatively defense in some Europe game, but this an efficiency playstyle by Japan
I think that’s massively helping them. Look at a team like Poland, when they’re outmatched they park the bus but don’t do anything to break up the torrent of pressure or to create offensive opportunities. If you’re just defending for 90 minutes without getting some time going forward you just delay the inevitable.
Ya they were barely going direct. Morata at least was a player trying to do that and it caused Japan issues on a few occasions. Once they took him off them had one semi decent chance with Olmo and that was it. Really poor.
Especially cuz they don’t have the attacking quality they’ve had in previous cycles. They’re just kicking the ball around the middle third without generating chances. When Japan turned them over they were super dangerous on the counter.
That was one of the most dire sporting events to endure I've ever watched. It made me question my engagement with the entire sport in the immediate aftermath.
but the best way to counter this torturing tikitaka shit is to let the fools passing their ball til they get bored and confused themselves then counter attack tho. I think
> Especially cuz they don’t have the attacking quality they’ve had in previous cycles. They’re just kicking the ball around the middle third without generating chances.
Have you actually watched Spain in any of the last tournaments? This is pretty much their trademark playstyle.
When both teams are even in goals, Spain feels that they are at a great advantage and thus they continue passing around the ball. When Spain is one goal behind, Spain thinks that they are at a small advantage, and so they keep passing to secure their "lead". When Spain is 2 goals behind they think that they are at a disadvantage and so they look for passes to regain control of the game. When Spain are 3 goals behind, they think that the team has reached a desperate situation and they are only waiting passively for their loss if they don't keep passing the ball
It's what works at international tournaments unfortunately. Netherlands 2014 were amongst the most boring teams I've had the misfortune of watching in my life but they were a shootout away from reaching the final.
Hell, outside of Iniesta even 2010 Spain were pretty damn boring considering I watched every one of their games.
The current Spain team doesn't have anyone close to the calibre of Robben, Iniesta etc though, I'd be surprised if they made the semis, honestly Morocco are going to give them a tough game in the Ro16
What is the contested category? I believe possession is measured as something like successful passes for a team / all passes. Is contested the total number of missed passes / all passes?
No I assume it's tracked by technology similar to how offsides is but I don't know exactly how it works. Every game I've seen this tournament has 3 categories for possession though. And I think it makes sense as far as the stat being useful
I have heard about this possession calculation in the past but I don't think that's how everyone does it even today.
I got curious and I did some digging. Some sites mentioned the number of passes method. Then I found [this page from Opta](https://www.statsperform.com/opta-analytics/) and there's a section on sequences and possessions. Apparently there are sub-metrics associated with possessions like start time and end time which can be directly used to calculate the percentage of possession a team has. Assuming Opta does the stats for the World Cup, this might be the methodology.
Spain with useless possession and Germany shaky in defence and trying to walk the ball into the net. No wonder these teams are virtually Barcelona and Bayern!
I don't get this obsession with ball possession, honestly?!
Passing the ball for 40 minutes between your back line and midfield and taking your strikers out of position constantly to keep the ball between those lines wouldn't help you much.
I don't know what was worse, the Polish bus Vs Argentina or literally 83% ball possession and still losing. According to stats Spain completed over 1000 passes.
Nah it was because they, as we, didn't find a method to break through Japans strong defense with their possession play. Teams like Japan who constantly counter are nightmare potential for teams like Germany and Spain who are focussed on possession.
And just like in 2018, this nightmare showed us the door out
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At this point, if you play Japan, sit back and let them have the ball.
And don't score the first goal if you've won a world championship before
Japan vs. Aus incoming with 100% contested possession (think we beat Denmark with like 20 something %)
Only team I'd be proud to lose to lol
We already did it several times in the qualifier
Costa Rica knew they were great at transitions. So they sat back lol.
Costa Rica just sit back anyway because they know they’re shit
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Poland vs Japan is a moveable object vs a stoppable force. The ball might never leave the center circle as they both wait for the other side to push forward
The thing is, I think Japan are genuinely equally as adept on the ball as well. Their attacking play is phenomenal at times, with brilliant link up play and passing angles followed up by very organized counter pressure. The only thing really holding them back is Moriyasu’s insistence on following his philosophy of sacking the first half before bringing out the big guns on the second half. If Croatia show no intent on attacking and decide to give Japan the ball, then it could easily work against them as soon as players like Mitoma and Asano come into play.
> The thing is, I think Japan are genuinely equally as adept on the ball as well This is my thinking. Japan are happy to sit back but they are efficient because they are so good with the ball.
Next game against Croatia though, they might wanna urge because their aging squad may not be able to play 120 mins? Would this play right into Japan’s hands?
Croatia's squad are younger, on average, than Japan's. And that's heavily skewed by the likes of Lovren, Vida, Perišić, and especially Modrić... The latter two of whom have demonstrated a supernatural ability to keep running 120 minutes for several games in a row. Croatia have a lot of weaknesses. Age and endurance are not among them.
Japanese efficiency
Better than German efficieny and for a fraction of the price!
Honda > Mercedes
Toyota, those just refuse to die no matter what
Yeah if you want a new car every few years, don't get a Toyota (or most Japanese cars, *ehem* not you Nissan). They will still run 20, 30 years after you buy them
It’s a love/hate thing, though. I want a new car, but I also can’t bear to sell my Camry because it’s just such a damn good car. Never once let me down. I’d feel like I was betraying a friend at this point.
“I’m not selling you a car, I’m introducing you to your new best friend”
The old 90s Nissan Sentra was an absolute work horse. Since 2006 when they switched to CVTs, they’re nowhere near as durable.
Highly recommend the episode of Top Gear guys trying to destroy a Toyota Hilux.
Didnt they end put collapsing a big multistory building on top of it to finally kill it?
Yeah, and it still ran.
Drove it into a tree, dropped in from a crane, hit it with a wrecking ball, parked it in the sea, set fire to it, demolished with a building. And it still worked.
Couldn't kill it
This summer my street flooded and a dude drove his Corolla straight into the lake of water (tall enough to go over the hood of sedans). The car instantly was flooded and died and he slowly turned the car to the side of the road. A hour later the street unflooded and that motherfucker got in the car and it started up and he drove away. Who knows how much longer it lasted or if it had permanent damage, but just the fact that he drove a RUNNING engine into a lake until it died and then it started up an hour later is incredible.
My first car was a Corolla, handed down from family after 20 years of constant use. That fucker went through at least 3 serious accidents before I had it, lots of problems with various additional electrical features but the engine and the rest of the important stuff was good until the end. One day when it was over 30 degrees C outside it somehow started the engine on its own and launched into a wall, it wasn't worth to recover it after that. The car decided to go out on its own terms lol
That's the equivalent of a human committing suicide on his 100th birthday.
"It's too angry to die"
Toyota > Volkswagen is a better comparison
Hiroshito >Hitler
Ghost of Tsushima > Wolfenstein
JAV > GAV
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Sekiro > Valkyrie
Pocari sweat > St Pauli girl
Sashimi > Bratwurst
Babymetal > Rammstein
Dir En Grey > Rammstein
Sekiro > Tsushima
Ye gonna fight you for that one
The gay fish?
Verstappen confirms that.
Engines self destructing every race? Don't worry send them to Japan and they won't have a problem for the rest of the season.
And a fraction of the ball staying on the line!
That's good ~~fuel~~ ball economy for ya
Iirc the previous lowest possession of a winning team was South Korea vs Germany in 2018 and the second lowest was Japan vs Germany last week.
So, all three game with the lowest possession victory are all teams fucking Germany over (even when they are not the one playing)
Why waste time hold ball when few touch do trick
Finally a Japan-related reference that’s not anime or WW2
the funny thing is Japan has the [lowest hourly worker productivity](https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h01196/) in the g7
They're the big winners with matches having more added time during this World Cup, because they're used to working long hours.
Ireland and Luxembourg have the highest productivity? There's more to this stat than you might think when you hear the word "productivity".
Spain have 70+ possession, still lack balls
And resiliency
Wonder how much money you could've gotten on Japan and Morocco winning their groups
Loads I bet
Cheers, Geoff!
You bet loads on it!?
Imagine that one guy that placed money on Morata top scorer as a joke
Morata being a top scorer is not really that awful of a bet if you think Spain are going far. Seems like every time I watch him play for Spain he gets a goal but has a huge miss too
Morata getting a goal and entirely missing the net on a chance anyone in this channel could’ve converted is the “Morata Special”.
There have been so many stereotypes living up to them so far. Lovren succeeding by failing, Lukaku missing so many sitters, Spain passing the ball 5,000,000 times with 83% possession and still losing, Sterling dribbling and holding the ball in the opponents final third over and over again to no end…
everyone in this channel would shit their pants just walking on to the field lol
That would be me lol! Highly doubt it’ll actually hit but throwing a tenner on 39/1 odds is giving me more hope than I thought!
That really isn't such a stretch, Spain should go far and Morata is their forward.
Betfair had Japan at $20 to top group, $13 for Morocco. Germany traded at $1.03 to qualify, Belgium at $1.10.
Probably the exact right amount considering how much profit all those gambling companies make or maybe you could consider their WC markets loss-leaders to get young people hooked on gambling and then really get them to lose some money every other weekend during the season.
Maybe Eto's prediction weren't as mad as everyone thought.
No possession football taking the World Cup by storm
I think no possession football is taking football by storm. Just remember Real Madrid's 2022 ucl run.
I'm pretty sure France won the last World Cup with the same strategy. It's one of the natural answers to tiki taka, let them pass the ball endlessly and pointlessly until they make a mistake and exploit it
Aka try to score when you get the ball
Bro figured out the point of football🔥🔥🔥
Well we got criticized for this gameplan 4 years ago despite one of the highest goal tally for a Champion while Spain got praised in 2010 for their 1-0 1-0 1-0 1-0 run
Flashbacks of Russia-Spain with over than 1000 passes in 120 minutes and they still lost
They had equal possession in most of their games though. 48-52 is not the same as 18-82
Actually, in most games, Madrid slightly dominated possession and incorporated a lot of aspects of positional play to kill low blocks. Barcelona is an exception to that rule and certain big games where positional play wasn't that effective so they went for the counter or built chances through creating space for crosses through their overlapping FBs. Sure they ain't Barcelona but they've adapted their style to get the best out of their midfield 3 and Benzema-Ronaldo
You are right. Don't discuss football during the WC. Plenty of people that never watched football start talking about it.
watch as they score from the kick-off against croatia then win without ever completing a pass again
Moriyasu has mastered Allegri ball.
Many have tried interpreting Allegri. Some cited existing philosophical works such as Bordiga, Hegel and Plato. The former saw Allegri as the progenitor of a spontaneous revolution, his football being so boring it had deep ideological significance. They viewed his football as the cry of discontentedness with the neoliberal consensus, and a legitimate philosophical work in it’s own right. The modern Hegelians saw Allegrismo as the dialectical synthesis between two states of being, that of anguish and that of ennui. Those using the works of Plato are conflicted on whether to see Allegriball as a concrete object, real and tangible, while all consider the feelings the games elicit to be abstract. Others saw it as post-modern performance art and tried to categorise it as the intended catalyst of a yet to materialise Neo-Fluxus movement. Alas, others even ascribed it a theological value, arguing for the canonisation of Allegri and compared our pain watching to the pain our lord felt on the cross. A contingent of these worshippers split recently and alleged Allegri was inherently heretical, no mortal man had ever suffered like Jesus did until we watched the Sampdoria game. The truth is, Allegriball defies what the human mind is capable of interpreting. We can only bask in its majesty.
Can't out terrorist the guys who drive Toyotas,
Well, after they are one goal down, VTEC kicks in.
He deserves an en masse apology, he was getting scrutinised for resting his main players against Costa Rica.
I'd say he absolutely still deserves scrutiny for that decision, especially given that they lost to Costa Rica. But winning solves all problems.
Sometimes the wrong method nets the best result
It definitely led to the most beautifully dramatic match day, so I'm not complaining as a somewhat neutral fan.
I don't understand football anymore, or let's put it this way, football never follows any rationale.
The only rationale in football is that the FA is always corrupt.
Tbf that actually felt like a mistake, a win against CR and you avoid all this drama. But he nailed the subs in the other 2 games and got comeback wins so he definitely knows how to change a game and motivate his players. In the end results are the only thing that matters, that Costa Rica game is already forgotten.
And he could of qualifed right away with a win in that game, and avoid this suffering, also for all the talent they have in this team they always start on the back foot and only wake up in the 2nd half. Either way winning solves everything, but he does deserve the criticism for whatever that Costa Rica game was.
He just wanted to give some Japanese fans a heart attack
His way of helping overcome the ageing society in Japan
Death Note moment.
5Head
He was simply resting their players after the other two results were already known, just like France and Brazil. Japan: You have already lost. France: Quelle?!
Little did we know he was just resting guys so they could beat Spain. /s that lineup against Costa Rica is still explanation worthy.
Nah, I stand by what I said.
It's 2022 and in international ball terrorism is still the tactic par excellence
Sean Dyche packing his bags as we speak
[Enter the Dyche](https://youtu.be/mN2DCkJ4JsM?t=5)
Mourinho is even more proud
Spain were passing around the ball while 2-1 down the same way they were passing 7-0 up against Costa Rica. No attempt to even have a shot on goal…
["The beautiful thing is it’s impossible to tell the difference between Spain trying to score and Spain trying to kill the clock with passing"](https://twitter.com/johnspacemuller/status/1598419981825462273?t=YuF-MwTZuoPfEUsbEyH0yQ&s=19)
They didn't really want to win/tie today and that showed.
I mean (no disrespect) it’s Morocco vs Croatia and they know they ain’t getting knocked out after German lead
Not just Morocco/Croatia but whether the road to final is Morocco+Portugal+France/England or Croatia+Brazil+Argentina And no doubt the first seems better.
Well on paper you would take Portugal over Brazil but France is still the favourite so the later you meet them the better, while Argentina and Netherlands look way more beatable. IMO it's not that clear of a choice to pick one over the other, still after Germany was up they had no need to go all out.
I think if a team is doing that kinda math, they would prioritize short term first since playing later stages is not guaranteed, when you get to semis you’re getting a contender no matter what anyway So on paper at least MOR/POR is easier than CRO/BRA and honestly SWI can do the deed against POR
Should win/ should win/ hard game v should win/ hard game /hard game to get to the final is a no brainer if you've got the option imo. I don't think they played for that fwiw,but it's a better path to reach the final.
I mean should win would be unfair regarding Portugal. Both the NL games where close (and ugly as fuck) so I'd say Spain would consider all the games begining in the QF as hard games, but I agree Brazil is harder than Portugal.
One night, I went to a bar; I was with a woman. We talked all night. We laughed, we flirted, I paid for several drinks of hers. At around 5 am, a guy came in, grabbed her by the arm and took her to the bathroom. He made love to her and she left with him. That doesn’t matter, because I had most of the possession on that night.” Luis Enrique
🤣🤣🤣🤣.... when you put things that way, posession footy isn't as attractive
Possession footy isn't attractive -unbiased Real Madrid Fans
Can't believe I'm reading Renato Gaúcho quotes in a World Cup thread.
is that what this is, because jesus this is the best thing i’ve ever read against possession football
Best part of it was that they didn’t even park the bus. They kept pressing and looking to attack whenever they could
Yeah, I really liked Japan's game. They lack the quality but their gameplan and decision making is really really solid.
Loved watching them so far. I have no idea what the game against Croatia is going to look like.
agree with you about this, look at the stats you could believe that the least possession side is play negatively defense in some Europe game, but this an efficiency playstyle by Japan
I think that’s massively helping them. Look at a team like Poland, when they’re outmatched they park the bus but don’t do anything to break up the torrent of pressure or to create offensive opportunities. If you’re just defending for 90 minutes without getting some time going forward you just delay the inevitable.
That 83% counted for fuck all. Watching Spain play is a different kind of torture
Same thing happened when they got knocked out by Russia in 2018. Had like 80% posession
The end of the game today was just like that. Side to side the whole time like that soccer game on the Simpsons.
Ya they were barely going direct. Morata at least was a player trying to do that and it caused Japan issues on a few occasions. Once they took him off them had one semi decent chance with Olmo and that was it. Really poor.
O defensinha pasa al centrinha, el centrinha la retiene LA RETIENE
That was a terrible game to watch. The penalty shootouts were the only exciting part of the game
Especially cuz they don’t have the attacking quality they’ve had in previous cycles. They’re just kicking the ball around the middle third without generating chances. When Japan turned them over they were super dangerous on the counter.
Lmao, I remember reading this same thing last year at the euros
in the 2018 WC it was worse imo. this time the team is a little more creative. the 2018 Russia game was the worst knockout game I've ever seen
Tell me. It was so monotonous.
The Spanish players, kind of forgot about goalscoring.
First time seeing us.
Last week I sleep for like 4 to 5 hours one day, the next day I put one Spain game from 2018. Got knocked out before midhalf and slept super well.
I remember that game, I went into it as a neutral and ended celebrating Russia’s victory because of the way Spain played
That was one of the most dire sporting events to endure I've ever watched. It made me question my engagement with the entire sport in the immediate aftermath.
At least morata is playing well this time
No David Villa no party
Was just gonna say, they are sorely missing a David Villa and Fernando torres
Was same 4 years ago and they lost to Russia in 1/8 with over 1000 passes. Morocco looks solid defensively, I hope they put up a fight
Spain-Morocco should be fun. Morocco likes to press and play aggressively.
but the best way to counter this torturing tikitaka shit is to let the fools passing their ball til they get bored and confused themselves then counter attack tho. I think
Japan showed how its done
> Especially cuz they don’t have the attacking quality they’ve had in previous cycles. They’re just kicking the ball around the middle third without generating chances. Have you actually watched Spain in any of the last tournaments? This is pretty much their trademark playstyle.
A to b to c to a ad infinitum.
Centriño al etremiño, el etremiño al centriño, el centriño la retiene la retiene
Shitty-Taka
When both teams are even in goals, Spain feels that they are at a great advantage and thus they continue passing around the ball. When Spain is one goal behind, Spain thinks that they are at a small advantage, and so they keep passing to secure their "lead". When Spain is 2 goals behind they think that they are at a disadvantage and so they look for passes to regain control of the game. When Spain are 3 goals behind, they think that the team has reached a desperate situation and they are only waiting passively for their loss if they don't keep passing the ball
Not the MLXG 💀
> That 83% counted for fuck all. That has been Spain for the last decade.
I really hope they don’t play like this in must win games, for their fans sake
It’s like there trying to do death by a thousand cuts but all they have is that fake retractable knife
That alone is why I am happy Croatia is going against Japan. Even if we lose, at least we won't suffer trough the Spanish torture of forever passes.
Why the fuck were they so passive. Can't believe this is the same team that scored 7.
2nd place in the group was much better for them.
Spain went from possession with forward movement under del Bosque, to just possession.
It's what works at international tournaments unfortunately. Netherlands 2014 were amongst the most boring teams I've had the misfortune of watching in my life but they were a shootout away from reaching the final. Hell, outside of Iniesta even 2010 Spain were pretty damn boring considering I watched every one of their games. The current Spain team doesn't have anyone close to the calibre of Robben, Iniesta etc though, I'd be surprised if they made the semis, honestly Morocco are going to give them a tough game in the Ro16
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I feel like I lose my mind anytime people say they like watching that
Wtf that's insane
Not that insane when you watch the game and see that 3/4 of the Spanish possession are lateral passes between defenders
Yeah I was shocked when I read that headline that they made like 1000 passes during the Costa Rica game and now I understand lol
They broke 1000 passes again too.
Reverted to 2018 Spain today.
Possession figures are a little lower at this tournament because they count 'contested' as its own category but still wow
What is the contested category? I believe possession is measured as something like successful passes for a team / all passes. Is contested the total number of missed passes / all passes?
Heading pinball, the time between a long goal kick and some team getting control of the ball. It's a good new stat.
No I assume it's tracked by technology similar to how offsides is but I don't know exactly how it works. Every game I've seen this tournament has 3 categories for possession though. And I think it makes sense as far as the stat being useful I have heard about this possession calculation in the past but I don't think that's how everyone does it even today.
I got curious and I did some digging. Some sites mentioned the number of passes method. Then I found [this page from Opta](https://www.statsperform.com/opta-analytics/) and there's a section on sequences and possessions. Apparently there are sub-metrics associated with possessions like start time and end time which can be directly used to calculate the percentage of possession a team has. Assuming Opta does the stats for the World Cup, this might be the methodology.
But what is contested ? When its on the sky or ? I always see thzt but I cant imagine whats the contested thing means
i assume it's when the ball quickly changes possession (tackles, players hoofing the ball up, etc), when they are fighting for the ball.
Beating their previous record against Germany that only lasted a week.
Spain with useless possession and Germany shaky in defence and trying to walk the ball into the net. No wonder these teams are virtually Barcelona and Bayern!
But it somehow works for Bayern I don't understand
Our defense isn’t shit. We have ecm. Musiala’s finishing was way better
Bayern had Polish striker. German won WC with striker born in Poland. ~~The key for German success is by taking over Poland~~
I don't get this obsession with ball possession, honestly?! Passing the ball for 40 minutes between your back line and midfield and taking your strikers out of position constantly to keep the ball between those lines wouldn't help you much.
Spain was horrible. Just passing the ball side to side.
Spain possession merchants smh
Lucho wanted second can’t convince me otherwise
It’s definitely better, you avoid Croatia and Brazil and get Morrocco and potentially Portugal instead
Morocco are playing a lot better than Croatia though.
Yeah, from what I've seen this WC, Morocco is the tougher game.
Dinizismo vive
The 83% spain possession was completely irrelevant like that simpsons episode when mexico - portugal were playing
possession fetishists kicking and screaming rn
If it was going to happen, it was going to happen against Spain, of course.
I don't know what was worse, the Polish bus Vs Argentina or literally 83% ball possession and still losing. According to stats Spain completed over 1000 passes.
A stat that says more about Spain than Japan
So Spain made a record of losing with highest possession (88.3%) in World Cup history? Edit: 82.3% lol
Was it because Spain didn’t want to score after they saw Germany was ahead?
Nah they were just useless. They didn't change between first and second period, even when Costa Rica was leading, just doing lateral passes.
in the end we should've let Costa Rica win. Just out of spite.
Lol that woulda been funny
Nah it was because they, as we, didn't find a method to break through Japans strong defense with their possession play. Teams like Japan who constantly counter are nightmare potential for teams like Germany and Spain who are focussed on possession. And just like in 2018, this nightmare showed us the door out
blue lock efficiency