Attention: Please take a moment to consider our terms and conditions before posting.

2018 FIFA World Cup Thread

1149150152154155203

Comments

  • LawrieAbrahams
    LawrieAbrahams Posts: 3,779
    I knew this would be a drab, bore draw.
  • skywalker
    skywalker Posts: 476
    edited July 2018

    What we can say is the route to the final is opening up for England in a once in a lifetime way. Whether they take advantage of it is another matter, but it is quite possible they will be favourites in all of the games they play until the final depending on the Croatia v Denmark result! That is reasonable for Germany and Brazil but unthinkable for England!

    I wonder if Belgium are still celebrating their victory over us :)

    Celebrating ? I still have to get my kimono ironed ... ;)
  • Chef_addick
    Chef_addick Posts: 2,196
    Watching League One football is going to be thoroughly depressing after this tournament.
  • BR3red
    BR3red Posts: 1,715
    BR3red said:

    What IS going on with this world cup!!!

    Used to be bore draws, fantastic World Cup

    Not lost on me that they are drawing! :-(
  • iainment
    iainment Posts: 8,039

    Not sure about the casual racism on this thread.

    Well played Russia, kept nerve in the pens and didn't fuck about doing shimmies on run up

    What casual racism?

    ibborg is my leader on this.
  • soapboxsam
    soapboxsam Posts: 23,229

    Croatia strong favourites to reach a World cup final from the weak side of the draw.
    But can they take the pressure.

    England have achived nothing yet, they have got out of one of the weakest groups.
    Can we break a habit and win a KO game.
    Tuesday will answer that question

    All the optimism of fans mean very little.

    Both England and Croatia are 5/2 not exactly strong favourties
    Well as we live in England that's no surprise.
    I meant in a football sense, not people having a bet on their own country.
  • iainment
    iainment Posts: 8,039

    Watching League One football is going to be thoroughly depressing after this tournament.

    League 1 football has always been and always will be depressing compared to a World Cup.
    What's new?
  • 1StevieG
    1StevieG Posts: 10,964
    Croatia with plenty of possession so going for a Danish win.
  • Modric is such a great player to watch. All this chat about Messi and Ronaldo - I reckon Modric is better than both of them.
  • Sponsored links:



  • Dazzler21
    Dazzler21 Posts: 51,344

    Both goals were poor defending/goalkeeping tho

    Neither goal was poor goalkeeping. The Denmark Goal the defender left the keeper completely unsighted.

    The return goal was a fortunate deflection.
  • One thing is for sure it’s the Leicester city moment of international football

    But are we spurs or Leicester

    Can you imagine the situation if Brazil and France go out before the final and we are still in

    The NHS would collapse under the amount of 40 plus year old men having heart issues
  • paulie8290
    paulie8290 Posts: 23,344
    Dazzler21 said:

    Both goals were poor defending/goalkeeping tho

    Neither goal was poor goalkeeping. The Denmark Goal the defender left the keeper completely unsighted.

    The return goal was a fortunate deflection.
    Keeper could have done better for Denmark goal IMO
  • cafctom
    cafctom Posts: 11,365
    Don’t understand the mentality of “I’m not going to get excited until XYZ happens”.

    Sorry, but we spend all week having to be level headed and reasonable with work and other responsibilities. If England have a realistic route to the final (which they absolutely do) then I’m going to have a lot of fun dreaming it can happen.

    If we get our hearts broken then so be it, but getting carried away is what loving football is all about.

    Come on England!
  • Chris_from_Sidcup
    Chris_from_Sidcup Posts: 36,009
    edited July 2018

    I don't understand how they can have the levels of fitness they seemed to have over 120 minutes today - one of their defenders is nearly 39 FFS. 146KM covered over 120 minutes. These are not world class players playing for the top teams in the world either.


    If their fitness training doesn't involve chemicals and is purely above board then premiership/champions league teams should be snapping up these Russian fitness coaches after the tournament, they are clearly doing something special that could change the sport.

    Was their fitness that great today?

    They weren't exactly going for it in extra time. They barely got out of their own half and at times the game was played at a walking pace in front of them. Spain showed no real urgency at all. It's not as if their players were making lung bursting 70 yard runs forward all the time. They were camped between the edge of their area and 30-35 yards out.

    They were good against a poor Saudi side, played well in a 20 minute burst v Egypt, were poor v Uruguay and basically played for penalties tonight. I don't think they're a great side, they've just got a bit lucky by Spain being so poor.
  • 1StevieG
    1StevieG Posts: 10,964
    The ref has got some guns on him.
  • Dazzler21
    Dazzler21 Posts: 51,344
    1StevieG said:

    The ref has got some guns on him.

    Thought it was just me noticing :lol:
  • killerandflash
    killerandflash Posts: 69,842

    I don't understand how they can have the levels of fitness they seemed to have over 120 minutes today - one of their defenders is nearly 39 FFS. 146KM covered over 120 minutes. These are not world class players playing for the top teams in the world either.


    If their fitness training doesn't involve chemicals and is purely above board then premiership/champions league teams should be snapping up these Russian fitness coaches after the tournament, they are clearly doing something special that could change the sport.

    But then he spent most of the match defending his penalty box. Hard work mentally, but he wouldn't have done much running
  • 1StevieG
    1StevieG Posts: 10,964
    The ref in the previous game was also a bit pumped. Makes you wonder if they are roided up....
  • cafctom said:

    Don’t understand the mentality of “I’m not going to get excited until XYZ happens”.

    Sorry, but we spend all week having to be level headed and reasonable with work and other responsibilities. If England have a realistic route to the final (which they absolutely do) then I’m going to have a lot of fun dreaming it can happen.

    If we get our hearts broken then so be it, but getting carried away is what loving football is all about.

    Come on England!

    It’s a defence mechanism Plus we have only scrapped a win against Tunisa and beaten panama

    If we beat Columbia then yes I think virtually every single person who is not convinced that this is not just another year where the England football team trick and decieve you into believing that they can actually do it

  • Sponsored links:



  • Laddick01
    Laddick01 Posts: 6,364
    If we were playing any of these team on our side of the draw in qualifying/ frendiles etc I’d make us favourite in all of them bar Croatia, which is still a very tight one to call.

    The World Cup and an English history of failure obviously adds pressure, but I’m confident
  • JohnBoyUK
    JohnBoyUK Posts: 9,017

    One thing is for sure it’s the Leicester city moment of international football

    But are we spurs or Leicester

    Can you imagine the situation if Brazil and France go out before the final and we are still in

    The NHS would collapse under the amount of 40 plus year old men having heart issues

    Oh for the love of god, not again :(
  • Leroy Ambrose
    Leroy Ambrose Posts: 14,436
    Sam Matterface is such a shit commentator. 'always going ovet' - he says as Eriksen's shot comes back off the bar
  • 1StevieG
    1StevieG Posts: 10,964

    Sam Matterface is such a shit commentator. 'always going ovet' - he says as Eriksen's shot comes back off the bar

    He added that “it came down quite quickly.” That’ll be the gravity.
  • MuttleyCAFC
    MuttleyCAFC Posts: 47,728
    1StevieG said:

    The ref in the previous game was also a bit pumped. Makes you wonder if they are roided up....

    He was a complete skinny wimp before the game but took a swig out of a Russian water bottle!
  • soapboxsam
    soapboxsam Posts: 23,229
    10 minutes gone in second half and nothing has happened.
  • Tutt-Tutt
    Tutt-Tutt Posts: 3,272
    Sounds like the ground is full of Argentinians. "Ole Ola" ringing out.
  • BR3red
    BR3red Posts: 1,715

    10 minutes gone in second half and nothing has happened.

    Bearing in mind the hype regarding Croatia, we really do have nobody to fear in this half of the draw.. We will be this bad also!
  • Manicmania
    Manicmania Posts: 1,594

    I don't understand how they can have the levels of fitness they seemed to have over 120 minutes today - one of their defenders is nearly 39 FFS. 146KM covered over 120 minutes. These are not world class players playing for the top teams in the world either.


    If their fitness training doesn't involve chemicals and is purely above board then premiership/champions league teams should be snapping up these Russian fitness coaches after the tournament, they are clearly doing something special that could change the sport.

    Was their fitness that great today?

    They weren't exactly going for it in extra time. They barely got out of their own half and at times the game was played at a walking pace in front of them. Spain showed no real urgency at all. It's not as if their players were making lung bursting 70 yard runs forward all the time. They were camped between the edge of their area and 30-35 yards out.

    They were good against a poor Saudi side, played well in a 20 minute burst v Egypt, were poor v Uruguay and basically played for penalties tonight. I don't think they're a great side, they've just got a bit lucky by Spain being so poor.
    They collectively ran 36 KM in 32 minutes - AFTER 90 minutes of football, and yes, in their own half for most of it, don't see how what half of the field they were running around in effects how fit they are??

    146 KM in total. They have an almost 39 year old that stayed on the entire game. Yes their fitness level was nuts - most teams of their footballing standard/facilities the players have would be on the floor. They barely had the ball so had to work harder than Spain as well who yes did play at walking pace at times, but the Russian players couldn't play at the same pace could they? They were defending without the ball - that's how they covered so much more distance to Spain in this game, Spain were strolling around knocking it between each other and the defenders were chasing it. Didn't see a single Russian defender walking when they were defending.

    You are welcome to believe what you like, I think there is a case to be answered, and FIFA are doing everything they can to block any investigation into checks and tests that have been made on Russian players. Russia have form for this it's not like the accusation is coming from out of the blue.
  • Well i guess obviously because it's Russia there will be finger pointing but i don't think we're seeing anything amazing. Not once have i watched a Russia game (and i've seen all 4) and thought 'wow those guys are running around like lunatics'.

    It's worth pointing out that the Russian league season is only 30 games and they have a winter break from mid-December until March, so their (largely domestic based) squad is probably the freshest in the entire tournament.