Football (Soccer) Thread

[mongers]

And to think that if we had just managed to win this tournament, we would rule the soccer world and could impose  the proper date convention of month then day. 

Why not go the whole way and demand the "... in this month .of ....., this n th day,  in the year of our lord ...."  or whatever the US version of the old way is.

[Valmy]

This will be the greatest owning of England by France since the Battle of Castillon.

Please don't mention France again over their next two matches. They have very important work to do.

I posted about them non-stop in 2018. They seem immune.

[HisMajestyBOB]

Croatia-Morocco world cup 

[Duque de Bragança]

This will be the greatest owning of England by France since the Battle of Castillon.

Please don't mention France again over their next two matches. They have very important work to do.

I posted about them non-stop in 2018. They seem immune.

Did not work in 2016. 

[Valmy]

Did not work in 2016. 

Did against Germany

[HVC]

I think he's happy his team won

[Duque de Bragança]

Did not work in 2016. 

Did against Germany

A stronger Germany lost, I am sure they would have said Danke sehr to you. 
To be fair, the Selecção would have probably lost versus that Nationalelf. So, muito obrigado! 

[Duque de Bragança]

I think he's happy his team won

Yeah, if Gianni, or rather the whole FIFA clique, really wanted to award to a muslim and arabic-speaking country, they should have chosen Morocco. Plus, it has hotels, not wahhabi and close to Europe. 

[Valmy]

Did not work in 2016. 

Did against Germany

A stronger Germany lost, I am sure they would have said Danke sehr to you. 
To be fair, the Selecção would have probably lost versus that Nationalelf. So, muito obrigado! 

I am just so proud of my inexplicable super power

[Syt]

Speaking of Germany, seems German TV viewership - compared to 2018 - was 40% lower for group matches, and down more than 50% for first knock out round.

[Gups]

Speaking of Germany, seems German TV viewership - compared to 2018 - was 40% lower for group matches, and down more than 50% for first knock out round.

Patriots were too busy plotting the 4th reich

[The Larch]

As was expected after the elimination against Morocco, Luís Enrique will not continue as Spain's coach, and he'll be replaced by the U-21 coach. To me that seems a kind of caretaker arrangement until the summer, when bigger names might be available.

[Gups]

What's the post-mortem in Spain on tiki taka? IMO should be consigned to the history books.

[The Larch]

What's the post-mortem in Spain on tiki taka? IMO should be consigned to the history books.

There's plenty of criticism on the way Luís Enrique shaped the team and how, at the end of the day, his "revolution" was just a change of names and not of style. He was considered to be a coach that put a spin on the whole tiki-taka style, bringing more directness and incisiveness to the table, but then you had a national team that played most games of this WC without a clear striker, that shied away from creating clear chances, not willing to risk ball posession even in the final third of the pitch and with players that couldn't match the technical skill of the ones that brought success with that style.

It all has to be tempered with the fact that it was known that we didn't have a truly brilliant squad this time around, with much being made of not having a single player in the top 50 running for the Ballon d'Or this year. There are plenty of talented youngsters, so the team might have a bright future, but what to expect from this particular iteriation was a bit of a wild card. Before the WC it was said that it'd be equally realistic for the team to fail to qualify from the group stages or reach the semi finals. So, in a way, reaching the 1/8s is about right for this team.

As part of the post-mortem on the national team WC performance (if you're interested on this, Sid Lowe, the Guardian's Spanish football correspondant, is pretty brilliant, and I quite liked his take on it), it has indeed been wondered if Spain's "obsession" with tiki-taka deserves to continue. It is after all the style that is prevalent in the national team at all levels, and our youth squads are built up based on it, so there's continuity when those players reach the national team. On top of that, it is obviously also the prevailing philosophy at the Barcelona academy, which continues to be the main supplier of players to the national team after all these years, and is also copied in other team's academies. This particular squad felt pretty samey in that way, with too many players out of the same mold of technical, tidy, attacking players to the point that it felt like a glut at certain positions. This was compounded by Luís Enrique's choices, by bringing only one clear striker to the team, and being incredibly unwilling to change game plans once things went against our way. It is being mentioned that the atmosphere inside the national team, following Luís Enrique's lead, might have been too self-congratulatory (he was criticized after the Morocco game for saying in the press conference that he was happy for the team because they followed his instructions to the letter, for instance) and that had the team blinded to their shortcomings.

Now it will all depend on who the next coach will be. I have the feeling that the one just named will be msotly a caretaker, and whoever is selected after him will be the one that will have to reshape the team for the 2024 Euros.

[Barrister]

So I do have to say that with both Croatia and Morocco going on to the group of 8 does put a whole different light on Canada's performance this World Cup (and with the remaining team having been ranked #2 in the world). 

Group of Death indeed.

So here's hoping Canada can move up in the rankings in the next four years (despite winning CONCACAF, Canada (41) was ranked well below Mexico (13), USA (16) and even Costa Rica (31)) and get a more favourable draw in 2026.