2018 FIFA World Cup
- Thread starter DalilaD
- Start date
I think all of England would disagree with you. But, we may see a more competitive game with Croatia in the final.
Croatia is actually a slightly more populous country than Uruguay: 4.1 million Croatians, to 3.4 million Uruguayans. By contrast, the State of Connecticut has a population of 3.5 million and is similarly populous.
From a business point of view yes a france / england final would have been a dream. But soccer is played on the pitch and Croatia was the best team today.
I believe we are likely to see a small nation win the WC within the next 12 years. The game has become a lot more global than 10-20 years ago and the major professional leagues, e.g. EPL, La Liga, Ligue 1, Bundesliga offer great competition for talented players from tiny nations and the opportunity to shine for their countries come WC time. The scouting especially from big clubs has also become very sophisticated so talent from remote corners of the world will likely be discovered and developed. The fact that we have two small countries make this year's WC semis with world class teams
is encouraging. I would also like to see a small country win the WC. Don't think it's going to happen this Sunday because France has got too many things going for it.
"Choke"? No, that's too harsh.
England had one of the youngest, most inexperienced squads at the WC. Mandzukic, alone, has more trophies than the entire England squad, I heard someone say today.
A more creative midfield would have helped, all those long balls at the end were quite sad, maybe a guy like Shelvey from Newcastle (I know, a headcase, but Rafa stood by him and he was superb last year).
For Saturday's 3rd place match - go to Bier Markt on Rene Levesque in the downtown area. Great selection of Belgian and German beers. There'll be plenty of fans rooting for Belgium.
For Sunday's final - go to Bruno Sports Bar in the Plateau (Rue Baubien E.) in the St. Denis St area. French fans HQ.
Yeah, I believe it. I remember watching highlights of him almost every weekend on German TV when he was with Bayern Munich. He was a scoring machine then. Mandzukic was a member of the last Bayern team that won the treble, Champions League, Bundesliga, and German Cup trophies all in the same year. Became redundant when Guardiola became the coach and acquired Lewandowski at the striker position. Mandzukic is in the same mold as Diego Costa, physical, brutish type of player with a scorer mentality and a nasty streak too. Still very effective as we saw today against England.
I think Croatia should play like Russia against Spain: don’t try to do too much, counterattack very selectively, stay compact on defense to neutralize French speed, and foul aggressively (at least the 23 fouls they had against England), and play for penalty kicks. Croatia’s goalie is PK battle-tested. If Croatia can essentially out-Russia Russia- a team whose style they experienced- they have a chance to win. If they play their usual game they will go down.
Not so, France's defense has been the basis of their success so far, especially with Kante chasing/breaking things down in front of Varane and Umtiti. I can see Kante, Pogba (committed to defensive responsibilities so far, exactly the kind of two-way player Mourinho has been trying to get him to be at ManU) and Matuidi neutralizing the Croatian midfield, who will have a lot of possession, and hitting the front three on the break. That's what happened in the Belgian game.
No, not Russia, exactly, I was mostly kidding in my comparison. France is faster mostly (but not hold up man, Giroud, he is slow) and more talented, with little need to foul or risk fouling so much, but they were clearly happy to sit back and give-up possession to Belgium, who could do little with it with so many French players behind the ball ... most French chances, I think, came on counters-- thanks to a fast and very quick-to-react French midfield .
Croatian objective should be to neutralize the French speed with a compacted defense that invites meaningless passes and no penetration a la Russia v. Spain. If Croatia plays as you propose Sam21, they will lose the game on French counterattacks. Croatia needs to play for PKs, and forget about trying to relive the glories they had against England. I don’t think they can or will win a regular time game played straight up in their usual style. If they can take a 0-0 to extra time and PKs they have a 50/50 shot to win. Modric also needs to play with more energy. He has looked worn down the last 2 games.
Croatia aren't built for that and don't have the players, most likely, for such a "Russian" strategy that requires tireless energy and concentration. They are a possession team, with maybe the best guy in the world at that, Modric.
I just think Croatia is destined to lose the game unless they change something up, and do something to dramatically surprise and frustrate France strategically. I generally believe in high level playoff or championship games, the less talented team loses if they don’t change something up to try to equalize the talent differential. I would like to see a competitive game, but I don’t have much confidence in Croatia getting the job done Sunday unless they can take it to PKs.
Even in tight results we often react afterwards as if they were a foregone conclusion, a victory or defeat destined to happen, when in truth there are so many intangibles involved--not the least of which is luck--that things might easily have gone the other way ...
from The Collected Wisdom of Meta
from The Collected Wisdom of Meta
Sour grapes ... but with a point:
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.the...d-eden-hazard-hit-out-at-anti-football-france
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.the...d-eden-hazard-hit-out-at-anti-football-france
Hey, FIFA has decreed that Argentina are in the final after all ....
.... Nestor Pitana to be referee, lol!
.... Nestor Pitana to be referee, lol!
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