No Irish, No Yanks, No Clogs - FIFA World Cup 2018

it did for muller in 2010

It’ll be interesting to see who gets the Golden Ball. I’m not sure anyone has been head and shoulders above competition this time around. Mbappe is the favourite at the moment but a lot of that is probably down to one truly exceptional performance.

I genuinely think Trippier must be close to Golden Ball thinking.

Luka's still got 2 games to make a claim for it too tbf

I'm afraid Kieran Tripper is not a Golden Ball winner. It's simply not how things are done

Is the Golden Ball a new thing? Not heard of that before

i don't think i've ever been arsed to sit thru a 3rd place match and actually pay attention to it, it's perhaps the most pointless event in all of professional sport and i'm including cycling in there

It'll probably be Kante, result depending

Kante would be a good call but the first defensive midfielder to ever get it, I think.

they'll just give it to a big star that makes the final, probably mbappe tbf

^ not an endorsement obvs

Luka's still got 2 games to make a claim for it too tbf

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/11/luka-modric-croatia-world-cup-england-miracle-worker

huh, the last time it was actually awarded to a tournament winner was Romario in 1994

It does always go an attacking player (Oliver Kahn being the only exception) but there really doesn't seem to be an outstanding candidate this year

good piece. i've been getting mildly radge at British pundits endlessly parroting "they've got to move the ball quicker/get it forward quicker" as if it's the only way to attack. then i caught myself shouting the same thing at England, and it dawned on me - for some systems it's paramount, and it's really down to the talents and mentalities you've got available to you. an England has to move the ball quickly to succeed because they don't have a Modric.

watching Mexico v Brazil was just a delight of thoughtful unhurried movement for example - always probing and testing each other but nothing like a cavalry charge.

obv xp

lads would ye stop its mbappe and its not close

he's not really bossed any game except maybe Argentina tho? he was fun last night when he started enjoying himself and playing flicks and tricks, otherwise i dunno he's just this coiled spring waiting to discharge in that particular set up a lot of the time

hes been disciplined, creative and intelligent throughout

without really dominating the show

i mean you could say similar about Pogba tho he's far less fun i'll grant you

mbappe was good last night, great in the argentina game, and largely anonymous besides. the bias towards attacking players for these things is especially odd as they are often the most peripheral. kante has dominated every game, sets things up beautifully for pogba, makes the defence look good, and is the key, decisive player in how deschamps has france playing. he would walk into any team and is emblematic of the where football is rn tactically.

cosine

and its not close

Varane has had a better tournament also

is it close

pogba also deserves mention

but imo you're underselling mbappe's level of performance besides, in a role that calls for anonymity until a flash of opportunity presents itself, and his hitrate there has been excellent

and then there *is* the argentina game, which rightly or wrongly will colour all the rest.

(rightly, btw. to destroy an entire defence with pace and creativity more than once in a game, in a big game, you're in a small subset)

its not klose

it's definitely not an England player. We can agree on that at least

was just about to say "watch Sterling take this tournament by the scruff of its neck tonight"

if twere itd be harry and thatd be nonsense

otherwise, has pickford, trippier, uh....anyone else? stood out?

wouldnt say so.

trippiers been the best full back of the tournament, it's pretty difficult to measure differing positions

my prev comment was just about fifa tending to give the gb to attacking players that make the final

pavard and hazard both deserve mention but they sound alike so votesplitting maybe a factor

if modric does it tonighy hes a strong contender

The team that's best at set pieces is best at football, the rest is just players knocking the ball around to keep people viewing the pitchside adverts

solid post

in off the post

harry maguire should rent out his forehead for advertising imo, that lad's agent needs to up his game

do we think/dare hope that englands performances so far are flat by design or inbuilt limitation to positive effect and can lift withon thst system to appropriately meet whatever challenge, or do we think there's individually a lot more can be asked of certain players and this might burst forth tonight/sunday, or do we think that its all a sham and theyve just played nobody yet

can goalpkeepers win the GB? seems unkind if not unless they have like a separate golden stanchion or something

as someone said above kahns won it

theres also a separate gk award https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup_awards#Golden_Glove

golden gloves also a thing right

Yes

Gb and a knighthood for Kane if Eng go out tonight

all speed boys require space to flourish and this can be denied, but kante cannot be denied, he is the ultimate denier, suffocating all build up play, always screening and disrupting and turning negatives into positives. argentina's three goals all came from single killer incisive balls from range. if cavani had been fit mb uruguay could have managed something similar, but otherwise, he's the trouble everyone keeps running into

To answer Darragh: England kind of mono dimensional by design and it's a better design than they've had for a long time. Individuals could've/can play better, even within the limits of their role. That's gonna partly be because of who they've had to play. Would like to seem them really catch fire against proper competition, don't think they will. Don't think they'll have to, even to win the tournament.

Apologies for preferring performances to results in general, that's just me. Don't hate this lot, gently admire them, but they just don't thrill me yet.

Teezus

kinda with you but comfortable in transferring decent amount of credit to southgate for implementing a system that smooths out the distortion between performance range of these players. english players are, tbf, a shockingly flaky bunch til now and as a starting platform its been enough to get this far without totally shitting it

pushing for individual consistent excellence prob a job for after, once the taint is off ENT

Yeah I'm not really apportioning blame, Southgate might well have broken the misshapen Jabani once and for all given time and continued backing. But I rarely really *enjoy* watching Germany in full flow either, and that feels like the model.

Jabulani, hate typing on the phone