robsblubot

England did wake up after the initial slumber. Good game now!

Kane such a good player… almost!

England needs to wake the fuck up for the sake of the match… that Giroud header earlier could’ve easily gone in.

Oh hell no, I don’t like this Portuguese team as I wrote before. They definitely need to find bigger athletes as well, as Ronaldo once was. A loss or win does not change favoritism tho. The odds are what they are. Perhaps they’d play 10 times and portugal wins 6 … who knows? Single elim games are a very unique thing esp in the World Cup with all the emotions and physicality.

Why do you think I lost? 😕 I was hoping folks here knew the difference between a wish and an opinion. Besides, I’ve calling Portugal overrated for a while here haven’t I? Slightly disappointing with the level of the semis esp if Morocco loses a couple of players — they have zero depth. I barely support my home country, Brazil. I like football in whichever form it is presented.

Yes, Morocco is a good team, but the semis got easier all the same. Like I said before, I think this Portuguese team is overrated (same for Brazil btw). They play with Pepe for example. portugal has a lot of good players, some too young and some too old. There are lots of good players at this level, but you need those special players to pull you through. I think Portugal is also a bit weak physically for these types of games—another thing in common with Brazil. Portugal has too many short players which can be a prob in these VERY physical games.

Do you really think it's easy to dance like that for the goal celebrations? It takes a lot of effort! hours and hours of rehearsing those moves. Tracking back is evidently unfun! Much better to try to score a second goal in the final minutes of extra time... 🙂

It's bad, yes, but that's not arrogance. It's how they compete. There was an altercation during the match. Brazil does not do that for example, and some think that's one of the things Brazil lack when it gets to the finals.

Argentina lost a few players w/ second yellow, but they are better than Brazil and will pose more of a challenge mentally to Croatia. This Brazil side wasn't very competitive in the end -- they can put on a show on their day, but that's not how you win WC. This Argentina grit + Messi genius will be hard to contain, IMO. Likely final is now Argentina vs France, but single-elim football, so 🤷‍♂️

Same here -- different matches offer different things Argentina will find themselves hard done if they don't go through -- outplayed the dutch for most of the game.

I don't know I was really impressed with that Kovacic fella. 😉

Croatia's midfield is simply a lot better than Brazil's. Don't think Brazil deserved the win... produced very little aside from Neymar's moment. PKs were very predictable. Their goalie is quick, agile, and is in great form. Alisson is a bit slow for PKs. Brazil pulled an England with 20yo Rodrygo taking the first PK. lol

I can agree with that. On the other hand, he was already struggling before the injury. and I’m going to make a speculative comment, fully aware of it, but his physique, or lack thereof, makes him more injury prone. I think the same of Neymar for ex. The way he plays and his physique make him injury prone as well: holds to the ball, is small and frail, and not pacey enough to avoid contact.

Actually, tbh I've never really considered Eden to be a player who could "carry" a team, like control the game and pull strings. That's what KDB does and few players in the world can do (not counting Lionel, Modric being another). I've always seen Eden as a more individualist performer; he was once good enough that a team could (and did) play to his strengths as we heard from many players that Eden was given a free role (esp regarding to defensive tasks). He was a fantastic dribbler and one who perhaps held to the ball a bit too long at times. Who never really delivered strong performances in CL for example. The current Belgium team isn't a contender and it's not entirely down to Eden or KDB, but both disarray and the number of absolute passengers in the team these days. Even Lukaku is already clearly less of the player he used to be (esp physically...he was pacy once). I have to say that Eden's current form does not surprise me once bit (wrote so that he'd have trouble in Madrid) as I never thought he was that good. His dedication was severely lacking esp in the final seasons at Chelsea (showing up fat from vacation is not cool). He was just missing certain things that make the very top footballers what they are. IMO, Eden lacked ambition, the killer instinct, dedication (on and off the pitch), and aggression, which limited both his impact (in CL for ex) and his longevity.

I disagree… Morocco won’t be able to handle portugal playing like they did today. yes, Morocco may be able to make it difficult for portugal, but I know where my money is going.

Gotta give Morocco a chance! 😉

No surprise there, but Portugal look better without CR7. 🙂 Pressing high with more movement, and fewer spaces between lines. Pretty one-sided thus far.

That's right both Jesus and Telles hurt their knees and are out. Still Jesus never had any effect for Brazil: had several games in the WC and not a single goal to show for it.

S. Korea has no business at this level... they don't know how to defend at all: they swarm the ball and leave folks open behind them. Another wonder goal by Richarlyson -- what a beauty! While Jesus vanishes when playing for Brazil Richarlyson is at his best.

Pretty obvious dive... VAR is shit. Still fairly easy match for Brazil so far. S. Korea look completely lost.

Lol fair point. So here the issue though: only 2 cbs play and Thiago and Marquinhos are just so similar and both aren’t that strong in the air (don’t have the height for it either), which does make Brazil vulnerable in set pieces esp. Marquinhos having to cover LB may fix that eh, but he’s vulnerable to pace. yeah the fb situation was baffling and o a lot of ppl. Alves is really a joke one of those manager things. The CAM is really paqueta and that’s it. Hardly a world beater. No KDB type in the selection. Neymar can roam there but Rodrygo is more of an attacker and also too young.

oh wow! He's not even the second best English player for me (Kane and Foden are well ahead of him). He's definitely promising, but he's still young and that's risky at this level. Wouldn't surprise me if he had another no show (like against USA) against stronger opposition and because he's now known. Speaking of which, England faced pretty shitty opposition thus far (Iran, USA, wales, and senegal that's the bottom of the barrel right there), so it's hard to compare performances esp in midfield when teams face completely different levels of opposition. Aside from Maguire, I think that despite Bellingham, the midfield is also a weakness. While I've been holding a very unpopular opinion around here that Henderson was underrated, I also think he is not at the level of what france and other contenders have at their disposal. Rice, for me, is the midfielder version of maguire: slow and pendantic on the ball (he will get slower as he ages -- CB might suit him better long term). Regarding France, they are better everywhere. It's more even in attack, but Mbappe is the best player in the world atm, and he's extremely hard to contain. Still, England has teeth, so it's certainly doable. They've been putting themselves in this position (to contend), and that's to be commended. The rest is up to the players, their will, strategy, prep, and lady luck. Just to be perfectly clear, I think France is the best team in this world cup and the one to beat. While strong, Brazil is more hype than actual quality on the pitch. While they have a lot of quality sitting on the bench, they also have glaring weaknesses in their starting XI (FB for sure but also AM, and CBs).

Yeah the cbs are really bad and get an European manager already! Team is already young and naive does not need a guy learning on the job eh. frankly I do not see evolution in the US team. Nothing like what we see from Japan for ex. Granted Japan began investing in the sport much earlier, but we should be seeing some improvement already. Yeah they will need to play better against the Netherlands to go through. They are missing lo Celso but nothing can be done about it. Lautaro looks completely out of shape what was that sitter he missed?! Lol I’d not read too much into it this match tho. Australia is the typical team who can make you look bad with athleticism plenty. They won’t have the quality to beat you, but they will make it look hard won. I think this is the last round where physique will compensate for lack of quality -- at least to the degree that it's been happening until now.

Good result for Brazil to silence some folks. There is a reason the starters start the matches. People keep asking for fucking Pedro who plays for Flamengo against jokers of defenders.... hehe Liked Martinelli and that's about it today. Antony had ups and downs, but Raphinha was a huge improvement when he came on. Daniel Alves must be a joke -- guy is not even playing professional football anymore. Disappointment were Jesus (quiet) as well as both Fred (as usual) and Bruno Guimaraes (surprising) when he replaced Fred. Both wasteful in possession and in front of the goal (esp Bruno). Pool's Fabinho was a huge downgrade from Casemiro eh.

kinda pissed that Arsenal found Martinelli 😕 only 21!