[NikNik]

(06-18-2018 01:00 PM)Pancho Wrote:  

Tell that to Messi. He may be a hero in Barcelona and around the world, but when he shows up in Argentina he gets slaughtered by his countrymen for not delivering time after time for the national team.

Every little free kick he misses, every penalty he misses, every goal he almost makes is criticized to the teeth in his country when he plays for the national team because they see what he does in Barcelona. They always ask themselves, why can't he do that with the national team?

Here I'll translate this video I saw recently of a game he had during the qualifiers where the Argentinian commentator was slamming him for playing shitty.

Quote:

Here comes Messi. Messi has it, he controls it.
Come, come, come....And he lost it.

You son of a bitch, in Barcelona he takes it to the house
Why can't he fucking doing it here?


Here comes the free kick, Leonel is going to bury it, Leonel is going to bury it.
He is going to put us in the world cup right here.
Come, come, come, hit it Leonel, hit it. He hits it.....And he misses.

Quit fucking cutting my balls!
Tell me its a lie Horacio! Tell me its a fucking lie Horacio!
You know what I'm going to say Horacio? The shirt (Argentina) is too big for him.
You can't kick a free kick that shitty Horacio! Without heart, without discipline, without direction, without potency!
Without fucking balls Horacio!

All those trophies, awards and accolades, champions leagues, with Barcelona, while impressive, don't mean shit until he wins the world cup for his country. That's how he will be judged, especially among his countrymen because they have 2 world cups won in their history. If he ends his career without winning the world cup, people in his country will say "Well, Maradona got us a world cup"

If Messi was smart from the beginning he would tell those damn Argentinians to fuck off and play for Spain. Now he would have WC trophy and he wouldn't have to listen to that coke head blabbing about him. Just imagine Spain with Messi.

He basically moved to Barcelona when he was 12 years old. He had some health problems and FC Barcelona was paying the treatment. In Spain and Barcelona he became who he is, it's a place where he lived most of his life. Argentina is just a place where he lived as young boy.

[hv123]

(06-19-2018 02:48 AM)tobehero Wrote:  

(06-18-2018 09:29 PM)rudebwoy Wrote:  

(06-18-2018 09:12 AM)Labienus Wrote:  

England lol. Their team is as mediocre as it gets, with the exception of Kane.

They don't come close to 1/10th of the talent they had in their golden generation (1998-2006) and even then they won nothing.

The golden generation was a flop, this team today played better than them.

This is a young team, with a few decent players.

They were saying that about the Spanish Team until they dominated Euros and World Cup. Everyone has short memories.

But I agree England will be lucky to get pass first knockout stage.

Especially if they have to face refereeing of the standard/level of corruption of last night's game.
I kind of lost interest over the last few years, a large part down to the way FIFA has never seen fit to tackle cheating and simulation in football. It could easily be tackled by handing out huge bans to players feigning injury after the game. I can't take things very seriously the way it is now.

[Simeon_Strangelight]

The Spanish winning team had absolutely overwhelmingly dominant players and they had multiple players able to push forward the team - they just started to play up to par.

England's team is more African now - they are a collection of individualists, who kick the ball around a few times, then return to their well-paid jobs. The old so-called golden generation was still mired in the same stuff that English teams used to do when they meet up - drink a lot, take it easy, relax, play some ball, but don't overdo it, since the Premier League pays the bills and that is where they shine. There is a good reason why England won the world cup only once in history (despite having so many top-level clubs in history, a strong league and good players). Who - knows what other reasons there are - maybe the inherently strong class system in the UK prevented them always just enough to fight harder for the elite wankers at the top. They will do it for cash at their clubs, but won't do it for the Queen.

[thebassist]

(06-19-2018 04:47 AM)Simeon_Strangelight Wrote:  

England's team is more African now - they are a collection of individualists, who kick the ball around a few times, then return to their well-paid jobs.

What can you even say to a post like this. I watched all of yesterday's post-match interviews from the team: the players came off as humble, level-headed, and committed to working together for the success of the team- zero complacency or arrogance. The World Cup is the biggest stage for any sport in the world, to suggest that players don't take it seriously vs. club football is entirely wrong.

I think one of the most consistent themes I've seen so far in the matches I've watched is the difficulty of the favored teams breaking down deep-sitting, defensively minded weaker opposition.

Of the matches that I watched this is what I really saw Brazil, France and England struggling with, even Belgium against Panama. I think the tactical game and organization of the weaker teams has really gone up a notch, as their coaches take note of the strategies that lower-table, lower budget clubs use to maximize their success against the giants of the big leagues.

The level of cohesion and training-ground-practiced routines needed to break through deep-lying teams with well-organized, tenacious, passionate defences is a lot to ask for given the relatively small amount of time that national teams have to prepare for the World Cup.

More importantly, it means that having clinical finishing upfront is essential to clinching those victories. England created enough quality chances to win this game comfortably enough (Lingard had two solid goal-scoring opportunities that weren't converted, there was also the Rashford dummy play that failed) but instead had to leave to the last minute.

As an example I would give Belgium's match yesterday vs. Panama- they weren't close to scoring at all in the first half (although to be fair they did make the keeper put in some work), and it took an extremely unlikely wondergoal from Mertens to open up the score and the game. More importantly, despite seeming invisible for all other parts of the match, Lukaku managed to score both of the two chances that he was given in the game, illustrating precisely my point about the necessity of clinical finishers for these types of games.

[Simeon_Strangelight]

Tunisia was the weakest team with the weakest performance in the tournament. That's how I saw it. Especially in the air and at defense they were laughably weak. Iceland might have scored 2 goals out of 4 corners with them. Does not matter - we shall see how good they are when they meet stronger teams.

[thebassist]

(06-19-2018 05:29 AM)Simeon_Strangelight Wrote:  

Tunisia was the weakest team with the weakest performance in the tournament. That's how I saw it. Especially in the air and at defense they were laughably weak. Iceland might have scored 2 goals out of 4 corners with them. Does not matter - we shall see how good they are when they meet stronger teams.

I can't say I was all too impressed with the Tunisian performance either, but it should be noted that they played matches against Portugal and Spain ( the Spain match was just 9 days before the England matchup) in the last month in the runup to the WC which ended 2-2 and 0-1 respectively.

Given that Portugal and Spain have been touted as two of the strongest teams in the tournament I don't think that should count for nothing.

In any case England's next match is against Panama, which should be an easy enough 3 points but their final group stage match against Belgium will be a true test for the team. I'll be looking forward it.

[casa-nostra]

(06-19-2018 05:29 AM)Simeon_Strangelight Wrote:  

Tunisia was the weakest team with the weakest performance in the tournament. That's how I saw it. Especially in the air and at defense they were laughably weak. Iceland might have scored 2 goals out of 4 corners with them. Does not matter - we shall see how good they are when they meet stronger teams.

LOL I think you are also the weakest forum member on analyzing games. or probably was your first soccer game you watch all your life. (probably the hate coming from your flag too)

whatever the reason is , loosing against England last second of the game makes you the weakest ? LOL

Did you watch Portugal 2 - Tunisia 2 game ? did you watch spain 1 Tunisia 0 game ? they also won Iran , costa rica thay you pretend they are stronger than Tunisia. Did you know that in the last month Tunisia was ranked 14th in the world ?
Did you know that they miss two best offesnve players (one scored almost 80% of their goasl)

So according to Mr I know soccer , Tunisia is weaker than saudia , marroco , costa rica , panama and many many others LOL emergency doctor


That Being said , I am also disappointed of our performance yesterday , probably the worst game they played since 2 years.

Something I noticied and sure following my country , Tunisia play really well witch technical teams and very bad with athletic teams ( like England). that's why we did good with spain and portugal


For those who said England is a bad team , wait and see . England is not bad at all , next games will show that . I watched all England friendlies , they didn't loose any game , even in the qualification.

[kuqezi]

(06-18-2018 03:51 PM)TigerMandingo Wrote:  

Interesting match coming up between Serbia and Switzerland, which has a ton of Albanian players and a Bosnian coach! It's like the Balkan wars all over again

You just went there huh...
This is a touchy subject for Albanians...if those players had chosen to play for our team we'd have been better, thinking of Shaqiri, Dzemaili, Xhaka (who's younger brother chose Albania), Berhami!

I am really rooting though so that Brazil doesn't pass the group...bunch of pussies on that team!

[TigerMandingo]

(06-19-2018 04:47 AM)Simeon_Strangelight Wrote:  

England's team is more African now

Don't forget "low-IQ"

[Simeon_Strangelight]

Japan's 2:1 against Columbia is symptomatic to the output efficiency of those two countries. The Japanese make more out of a 75 mio. $ team than the Columbians do with a 250 mio. $ team.

They appeared as the better, more hard-working and disciplined team despite some flashes of excellence of course by a few Columbian players. That is why the Africa cup is often dominated by North Africans where teams worth 40 mio. $ regularly beat star-studded African teams worth 250 mio. $ - not only regularly, but most of the time.

Though to be honest - the same is true with the Irish or Scots fighting like lions while the English most of the time phoned it in.

[kuqezi]

(06-19-2018 05:29 AM)Simeon_Strangelight Wrote:  

Tunisia was the weakest team with the weakest performance in the tournament. That's how I saw it. Especially in the air and at defense they were laughably weak. Iceland might have scored 2 goals out of 4 corners with them. Does not matter - we shall see how good they are when they meet stronger teams.

Respectfully disagree...they held up well against a team superior than them. They lost their goalie due to injury (the save he made before Kane's first goal was amazing).
I don't know Tunisia very well but with what I saw they're definitely NOT the weakest team!

Curious: who do you root for? Or you think will win?

[Labienus]

Colombia played the whole game with 10 men though and Japan barely edged them out.

[hv123]

(06-19-2018 08:59 AM)casa-nostra Wrote:  

(06-19-2018 05:29 AM)Simeon_Strangelight Wrote:  

Tunisia was the weakest team with the weakest performance in the tournament. That's how I saw it. Especially in the air and at defense they were laughably weak. Iceland might have scored 2 goals out of 4 corners with them. Does not matter - we shall see how good they are when they meet stronger teams.

LOL I think you are also the weakest forum member on analyzing games. or probably was your first soccer game you watch all your life. (probably the hate coming from your flag too)

whatever the reason is , loosing against England last second of the game makes you the weakest ? LOL

Did you watch Portugal 2 - Tunisia 2 game ? did you watch spain 1 Tunisia 0 game ? they also won Iran , costa rica thay you pretend they are stronger than Tunisia. Did you know that in the last month Tunisia was ranked 14th in the world ?
Did you know that they miss two best offesnve players (one scored almost 80% of their goasl)

So according to Mr I know soccer , Tunisia is weaker than saudia , marroco , costa rica , panama and many many others LOL emergency doctor


That Being said , I am also disappointed of our performance yesterday , probably the worst game they played since 2 years.

Something I noticied and sure following my country , Tunisia play really well witch technical teams and very bad with athletic teams ( like England). that's why we did good with spain and portugal


For those who said England is a bad team , wait and see . England is not bad at all , next games will show that . I watched all England friendlies , they didn't loose any game , even in the qualification.

It might be harder for Tunisia if they don't have a 12th player in green with a whistle. Tunisia represent the inherent problem with the WC groups stage, which is that weaker teams can play not to win. This produces boring games. Very glad Tunisia lost with their anti football and time wasting antics. It's great when a team has been time wasting/rolling on the floor and they loose with no time to score an equaliser.

[The Stronger Sex]

(06-19-2018 05:29 AM)Simeon_Strangelight Wrote:  

Tunisia was the weakest team with the weakest performance in the tournament. That's how I saw it. Especially in the air and at defense they were laughably weak. Iceland might have scored 2 goals out of 4 corners with them. Does not matter - we shall see how good they are when they meet stronger teams.

I give you Saudi Fucking Arabia.

[monsquid]

Japan 1-0 victory over Colombia is probably second biggest upset after Mexico beat Germany. 3' mark handball in box from Colombia's Sanchez got the red card and sealed their fate as they had to fight with only 10 men. Loving the drama.

[Labienus]

(06-19-2018 09:14 AM)The Stronger Sex Wrote:  

(06-19-2018 05:29 AM)Simeon_Strangelight Wrote:  

Tunisia was the weakest team with the weakest performance in the tournament. That's how I saw it. Especially in the air and at defense they were laughably weak. Iceland might have scored 2 goals out of 4 corners with them. Does not matter - we shall see how good they are when they meet stronger teams.

I give you Saudi Fucking Arabia.

Unfortunately you will see even worse than them in the future.

FIFA announced that they will expand the world cup to 48 teams.

UEFA did the same thing last EURO by expanding from 16 to 24 teams. Overall quality goes down by a lot.

I hate that they are expanding these tournaments. The Euro was so great before because basically every group was tough and you had awesome groups of death (Italy, France, Netherlands, Romania at Euro 2008 and Portugal, Germany, England, Romania at Euro 2000 for example). Now all the groups are weak and you have a bunch of shitty teams playing each other.

[911]

^^^^ Right Stronger Sex, it is harder to qualify out of Africa than out of Asia. North African teams have generally had respectable tournaments lately, Algeria gave Germany a very tough challenge the last time around in Brazil, taking the world champs to extra time.

(06-19-2018 09:02 AM)Simeon_Strangelight Wrote:  

Japan's 2:1 against Columbia is symptomatic to the output efficiency of those two countries. The Japanese make more out of a 75 mio. $ team than the Columbians do with a 250 mio. $ team.

They appeared as the better, more hard-working and disciplined team despite some flashes of excellence of course by a few Columbian players. That is why the Africa cup is often dominated by North Africans where teams worth 40 mio. $ regularly beat star-studded African teams worth 250 mio. $ - not only regularly, but most of the time.

Though to be honest - the same is true with the Irish or Scots fighting like lions while the English most of the time phoned it in.

Did you even watch the game bro? Colombia picked up a red card and went a goal down at the 6th minute. You come across as an immature noob in your soccer analyses. I'm sure you've made some great contributions to this forum given your rep count, but soccer is not one of your strengths.

This being said, Japan has the best soccer culture in Asia, their national traits of teamwork, cooperation and discipline serve them well. Their team whole is always greater than the sum of the parts.

[casa-nostra]

(06-19-2018 09:09 AM)hv123 Wrote:  

(06-19-2018 08:59 AM)casa-nostra Wrote:  

(06-19-2018 05:29 AM)Simeon_Strangelight Wrote:  

Tunisia was the weakest team with the weakest performance in the tournament. That's how I saw it. Especially in the air and at defense they were laughably weak. Iceland might have scored 2 goals out of 4 corners with them. Does not matter - we shall see how good they are when they meet stronger teams.

LOL I think you are also the weakest forum member on analyzing games. or probably was your first soccer game you watch all your life. (probably the hate coming from your flag too)

whatever the reason is , loosing against England last second of the game makes you the weakest ? LOL

Did you watch Portugal 2 - Tunisia 2 game ? did you watch spain 1 Tunisia 0 game ? they also won Iran , costa rica thay you pretend they are stronger than Tunisia. Did you know that in the last month Tunisia was ranked 14th in the world ?
Did you know that they miss two best offesnve players (one scored almost 80% of their goasl)

So according to Mr I know soccer , Tunisia is weaker than saudia , marroco , costa rica , panama and many many others LOL emergency doctor


That Being said , I am also disappointed of our performance yesterday , probably the worst game they played since 2 years.

Something I noticied and sure following my country , Tunisia play really well witch technical teams and very bad with athletic teams ( like England). that's why we did good with spain and portugal


For those who said England is a bad team , wait and see . England is not bad at all , next games will show that . I watched all England friendlies , they didn't loose any game , even in the qualification.

It might be harder for Tunisia if they don't have a 12th player in green with a whistle. Tunisia represent the inherent problem with the WC groups stage, which is that weaker teams can play not to win. This produces boring games. Very glad Tunisia lost with their anti football and time wasting antics. It's great when a team has been time wasting/rolling on the floor and they loose with no time to score an equaliser.

Tunisia play with what they have , I said that before , Italian system.

When you miss your best player , the player who scores most of your goals and you play against England you have to defend and not take risk. a draw with England a win against panama you could pass.

Tunisia wouldn't play that game if they were in an easy group like group A or H...

Also Tunisia had lots of pressure , lots of hope after they did well against Portugal and spain , you can see game highlights , they played really good.

This game was the worst ever , and don't think they will play worst than that. I am sure they will do better against Belguim ( you will see that , less pressure better performance)


I know there much hate against England team here , but believe me , England is a good team, players are so athletic and tall, and loosing against England last second is not a shame. next games will prove that

[casa-nostra]

(06-19-2018 09:14 AM)The Stronger Sex Wrote:  

(06-19-2018 05:29 AM)Simeon_Strangelight Wrote:  

Tunisia was the weakest team with the weakest performance in the tournament. That's how I saw it. Especially in the air and at defense they were laughably weak. Iceland might have scored 2 goals out of 4 corners with them. Does not matter - we shall see how good they are when they meet stronger teams.

I give you Saudi Fucking Arabia.

OK bb . Some people here never saw a soccer game in their life.

[RedPillUK]

Saying the English players don't try while Welsh and Scottish players do, is just the media's narrative of things to sell newspapers that you guys are repeating. It's funny how the same people who barely believe anything the media says, repeat it exactly when it comes to football. It's extremely unlikely that professional footballers 'don't try' when it comes to their job, even if it's an international match where they're not being paid as highly.

England played well that game, they were not the same old England, that was pretty obvious to see. they should have finished more of the chances they had in the first half, and made it difficult for themselves second half, but eventually got the win in the end.

Still happy about Mexico's win, but they need to finish their chances and get the final pass right or they could mess it all up in the final two games. I was nervous watching that second half though, they stopped attacking and decided to defend, which is what cost them in the Holland game in 2014. Their golden generation is at it's peak now, and have a lot of experience playing together. Of they can get all the attacking talent they have in their squad to play well, they could go far in this world cup.

[thebassist]

(06-19-2018 09:02 AM)Simeon_Strangelight Wrote:  

Japan's 2:1 against Columbia is symptomatic to the output efficiency of those two countries. The Japanese make more out of a 75 mio. $ team than the Columbians do with a 250 mio. $ team.

They appeared as the better, more hard-working and disciplined team despite some flashes of excellence of course by a few Columbian players. That is why the Africa cup is often dominated by North Africans where teams worth 40 mio. $ regularly beat star-studded African teams worth 250 mio. $ - not only regularly, but most of the time.

If this is the analysis you have to offer for a team that played with 10 men from the 6th minute and without their still recovering best player and golden boot winner until the last 20 minutes, then I believe it may be time to pause your attempts at football punditry for a little bit.

[Rocha]

I think that any assumptions on the value of the teams based in friendly matches results is normally wrong assumptions. Those matches serve to test tactical systems and players. Most of the time the results is what matters less.

Zel, please keep posting, I am having some laughs. I hope Israel qualifies for the next Euro, to get trashed 6-0 by the English team. Actually I don't remember a single sport where Israel is good. Not sure if Hasidic dance is a sport yet.

[hv123]

(06-19-2018 09:26 AM)casa-nostra Wrote:  

(06-19-2018 09:09 AM)hv123 Wrote:  

(06-19-2018 08:59 AM)casa-nostra Wrote:  

(06-19-2018 05:29 AM)Simeon_Strangelight Wrote:  

Tunisia was the weakest team with the weakest performance in the tournament. That's how I saw it. Especially in the air and at defense they were laughably weak. Iceland might have scored 2 goals out of 4 corners with them. Does not matter - we shall see how good they are when they meet stronger teams.

LOL I think you are also the weakest forum member on analyzing games. or probably was your first soccer game you watch all your life. (probably the hate coming from your flag too)

whatever the reason is , loosing against England last second of the game makes you the weakest ? LOL

Did you watch Portugal 2 - Tunisia 2 game ? did you watch spain 1 Tunisia 0 game ? they also won Iran , costa rica thay you pretend they are stronger than Tunisia. Did you know that in the last month Tunisia was ranked 14th in the world ?
Did you know that they miss two best offesnve players (one scored almost 80% of their goasl)

So according to Mr I know soccer , Tunisia is weaker than saudia , marroco , costa rica , panama and many many others LOL emergency doctor


That Being said , I am also disappointed of our performance yesterday , probably the worst game they played since 2 years.

Something I noticied and sure following my country , Tunisia play really well witch technical teams and very bad with athletic teams ( like England). that's why we did good with spain and portugal


For those who said England is a bad team , wait and see . England is not bad at all , next games will show that . I watched all England friendlies , they didn't loose any game , even in the qualification.

It might be harder for Tunisia if they don't have a 12th player in green with a whistle. Tunisia represent the inherent problem with the WC groups stage, which is that weaker teams can play not to win. This produces boring games. Very glad Tunisia lost with their anti football and time wasting antics. It's great when a team has been time wasting/rolling on the floor and they loose with no time to score an equaliser.

Tunisia play with what they have , I said that before , Italian system.

When you miss your best player , the player who scores most of your goals and you play against England you have to defend and not take risk. a draw with England a win against panama you could pass.

Tunisia wouldn't play that game if they were in an easy group like group A or H...

Also Tunisia had lots of pressure , lots of hope after they did well against Portugal and spain , you can see game highlights , they played really good.

This game was the worst ever , and don't think they will play worst than that. I am sure they will do better against Belguim ( you will see that , less pressure better performance)


I know there much hate against England team here , but believe me , England is a good team, players are so athletic and tall, and loosing against England last second is not a shame. next games will prove that

Maybe but none of the excuses the appalling standard of refereeing on display last night. VAR was supposed to help the situation but it only seems to have made it worse. But then we are talking about fifa here so who knows how much money changes hands at any given moment.

Fifa rate last night's official as the 7th best in the world, but this guy can't see rugby tackles or make players retreat 10 yards from a free kick.

Expanding the tournament to 48 teams is only about filling fifa's coffers (both the official accounts and the bribes). There's no justification for it quality wise.

In fact the euros are a lot better than the worlds because nearly all the teams are actually good. Not that tunisia are exceptionally bad but they wouldn't get close to qualifying against euro opposition.

Like I say all that aside the biggest disappointment for me is that we are still seeing a large proportion of the game taken up by people rolling round on the floor clutching their faces or seemingly auditioning for the part of ladty macbeth in their local am dram production of Hamlet. You would think the powers that be wouldn't allow so many snipers to get in to grounds.

[mickeyd]

Senegal looking energetic, organized, and attacking. Poland looking like... a bunch of those poland-ball memes put together

[Simeon_Strangelight]

In soccer everyone is an expert - don't you guys know that? The guy who is selling you your groceries is on the same level as the soccer analyst who pores over data or the former professional player.

I am not making any claims of having an "educated opinion" on this level - sure you have market valuations of the players which I look at and the multitude of matches I watched, but that does not make me an expert. And yet - I am about as much an expert as the bloke next door. I haven't even watched any sports in recent times - I am just casually glancing at the TV set and saying how I see it - sometimes even 30% of the match, because I am not an avid "fan" who has a shirt on with the name of another man. I fucked the ex-girlfriends of pro soccer players of some countries - am I an Eskimo brother of that team now?



I found most experts to blast insane drivel. The opinions which I personally take the most serious are actually those of professional soccer gamblers who actually make a living off it. Those blokes pore over statistical data and have to be right sufficiently often or go broke - most commentators or ex-players or trainers would go broke.