Lurker > paulg235

We played well relatively to other defeats in the past, so at least England go out on a respectable performance.

With that said, fuck that referee. Game could've gone very different if those fouls early on were correctly called.

Rooting for England to win here as always, but understanding if we lose a close match.

red_sox_777 posted...

Oh yeah I guess someone should make a form of x-stats for this. Not through the pure percentages method which is extraordinarily unfair to teams who get shut out but maybe based on some combination of percentages with goal differential.

It's definitely something that sounds interesting, but I feel like this would be super complicated to do without explaining in detail the process/calculations. I would personally feel like it would be somehow easier to just look at the performances of each team and what their opponents did afterwards and then simply make assumptions.

For example, for 2018, England wouldn't even be in my top 5 despite finishing 4th and Croatia might not even be in the top 4 despite being runners-up.

https://twitter.com/OptaJoe/status/1601624636650754048?s=20&t=rea_oDpT0T3TrGoGsEPsfg

Messi > Ronaldo

YES! Best result!

Red card, injuries, the Moroccan train might be starting to wear down.

ITV commentators talking about how this could be an embarrassment for Portugal when Morocco has already beaten Belgium and Spain and is close to reach the semi. This isn't England possibly losing to Cameroon in 1990, guys.

ctesjbuvf posted...

Belgium looks way better with both Croatia and Morocco in the semis imo

Yeah, Groups E and F look better in retrospect now that we've seen how those two have done.

Hopefully, this pushes Santos to panic sub on CR7.

1-England
2-Argentina
3-Croatia
4-France
5-Morocco
6-Portugal

Penalties, man. Always tense.

Penalties. Oh boy. Both Brazil and Argentina could be out on the same day.

This could be a 5 star classic.

Goat boy does it again!

No way do Thiago Silva or Dani Alves play in the nest world cup, they'll be in their early 40s by then. I could see Casemiro and maybe Neymar but both will probably be past their best.

One good thing Brazil has is a lot of young attackers. The likes of Richarlison, Vini Jr, Raphina, Rodrygo, Antony, Jesus, and Martinelli could be much more dangerous in 4 years time so they just need to find some fresh defenders.

Oh, and I guess that Endrick kid everyone is losing their mind for will be around by that point provided he doesn't flop.

2026 will be very interesting for Brazil. It will be 24 years since their last World Cup victory in 2002, matching the gap between 1970 and 1994. If they don't win there, it will be their longest drought.

Dominik Livakovic is definitely the goalkeeper of the tournament, btw. Has to be a shoe-in for Golden Glove.

Brazil bottle it against a european team yet again!

Also, I never want to hear anything about Croatia getting past it or their players getting too old ever again. They're still major threats.

BRAZIL ARE CHOKlNG!

voltch posted...

Remind me, is Alisson the one who is bad at penalties?

I think that is more to do with Liverpool playing their backup goalkeeper in cup fixtures who is pretty good at penalties.

Yeah, this isn't good for Brazil. They really need to get ahead now or they're in some trouble.

Luis Enrique has been sacked as Spain's coach. I would've given him another tournament but whatever.

The GBA version on the Wii U.

We honestly should have gotten a day's breather after the group stage.

shane15 posted...

We have a score to settle with Portugal.

Nah, been there, done that back in 2006. Let Switzerland take them out.

No Ronaldo in the starting lineup. Likely because the plan is to bring him on late into the second half so he's not tired for a potential Extra Time.

Good grief, what on earth happened to Spain after their first game? They got steadily worse throughout this tournament.

Spain is choking!

Spain not starting off well. Advantage to Morocco!

shane15 posted...

Hot take i don't really count anything before 1962 as legit. The first 3 tournaments hardly had anyone competing and the 50-58 tournaments had some really weird rules.

Most people usually only think of the world cups from 1966 onwards, anyway. Results such as USA>England and Uruguay>Brazil have little (if any) surviving footage of the games, and I doubt most people today really care about most of the winning teams from that time (Facist Italy, 50s West Germany) anyway outside of the Pele generation (where most people outside of Brazil usually think of the 1970 edition because it was the first world cup to be broadcasted in colour).

Senegal were making things a lot more difficult at the the start of the England match (and things could've went very differently had they scored early on) whereas Brazil looked far more comfortable in the first 30 minutes (and were already 2-0 up 10-15 minutes in). I think it's fair to say Brazil looked very impressive here especially after a somewhat lacklustre group stage.

Brazil = link
Germany = Cloud
Italy = Sephiroth
Argentina = Mario
France = Samus
England = Snake
Spain = Mega Man
Uruguay or Croatia = Sonic
Netherlands = Crono
...
Portugal = Pikachu

Can we stop pretending that 2010 England deserved to beat 2010 Germany when the former clearly failed the eye test in the group stage? Blown 1-0 lead and ultimately losing the group against USA was embarrassing, a boring 0-0 draw with Algeria that angered fans, and a 1-0 win against Slovennia is not good enough for a team hoping to for a deep run.

They still some big names as mentioned above, but Rooney never managed to recapture his 2004 magic and only managed 1 goal in a world cup, and there were a lot of other players around that simply weren't at that winning team level for a major intentional tournament.

Yikes. I though Japan would do a little better there, but Croatia are much more used to this pressure. At least their run was memorable.

Penalty time! No shame for Japan if they go out now. They held off the former runner ups for 120 minutes.

Yeah, I think Japan will feel a lot more pressure in penalties given that this is the closest they have ever gotten to the Quarter Finals. But who knows? Hopefully they surprise us once more!

Yeah, I'll take that Kane goal but the whistle should have been blown before then. If I was a Senegal fan, I would be beserk after that.

No Sterling today due to family matters. Hopefully, he is not needed against Senegal.

Poland deserved to concede there for letting Mbappe have that much space. Over.

Gonna leave now and come back for the Southgate masterclass.

Happy for Giroud breaking the record, good for him.

The South Korea goal song this tournament is a banger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDklqLPRKkk

France should be ahead. On on earth, Dembele?

I'm just hoping one of the french players end up suspended for the next game. Who? I don't know.

EDIT: Okay, just checked, only Kounde is sitting on a yellow from a previous game, so not likely.

I cannot see Poland win this one with the way they performed in the group stage, but would love to see it happen (in my completely unbiased England supporting opinion).

Knock-out Stage Predictions (hopefully not as embarrassing as Qatar in the Quarters or Germany and Uruguay in the final four)
Netherlands 1-1(2-1 ET) USA
Argentina 3-1 Australia
Japan 2-2(2-2 ET, Japan win on Penalties) Croatia
Brazil 3-0 South Korea
England 2-1 Senegal
France 4-0 Poland
Morocco 1-3 Spain
Portugal 2-3 Switzerland

Netherlands 2-2(2-3 ET) Argentina
Japan 0-2 Brazil
England 2-3 France
Spain 2-1 Switzerland

Argentina 1-1(1-1 ET, Brazil win on Penalties) Brazil
France 2-2(2-3 ET) Spain

Brazil 3-2 Spain

Top Scorer: Mbappe
Best Player: Casemiro
Best Young Player: Gavi
Best Goalkeeper: Allison

If the Swiss score one more, Brazil will finish second.

Now we just need one more Switzerland and a Cameroon goal without Brazil scoring for maximum knockout stage chaos.

That Cavani peanlty not being allowed may was well been the karma for 2010.

And what a fitting way to end Luis Suarez's world cup career.

South Korea are leading! Suarez dreading an early exit!

Bentacur injury could change the the direction of this match.