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

Lol yeah I had over 2.5 goals

Can Kroos do it in big games y/n

nice to see the Serbian FA responding to defeat with calm equanimity

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/24/world-cup-low-goals-count-financial-inequality-lack-of-time

Bunkering!

i dispute the opening sentence of his article so i'm not slogging thru the rest of it

i assume he wrote it before yesterday's games tho

wtf this has been a good world cup

kroos goal keeper error

(xp) otm

i really like Inverting the Pyramid so i assume this is just clickbait Graun mode strictly for the bucks

god help me i'm going to the pub to watch this one, i feel it needs the reportage

lol @ That Guardian article

Of more progressive football there has been little at this tournament, with the one side that promised something new, Argentina, never quite embracing the 2-3-3-2 blueprint of Jorge Sampaoli and collapsing into anarchy as they tried to operate a back three against Croatia.

more like 1-10 (Messi > give the ball to Messi players)

He does make a valid point about the European dominance, which gets more annyoing every World Cup.

no it doesn't

England still going for three at the back with Walker.

Alli is out.

What's annoying about it? (xps)

That piece is hilarious, there is almost a colonial mindset to that stuff. First week can be slow because they are first games and sides don't want to lose but the last few days have been great. VAR has played a part on the penalties front - but maybe the rules and players will catch up with it in time so I expect the numbers to go down. VAR's implementation was rushed.

The dearth of goals is the obvious complaint. As of Friday night, there had been 2.33 per game. By comparison, there were 3.21 per game in the Champions League last season and 2.67 in the Premier League. The lowest average for a World Cup is the 2.21 of 1990.

What thrash is this? Its a one-month tournament played over four years. Its going to be a very different mindset.

And the world cup has never had more than 5-10 teams, all from Europe and South America, that could win the thing. The odd run from an African or Asian team doesn't change that.

And the problems from Argentina (and Germany) stem from them being at the end of their cycle. The former nearly didn't make it.

And the world cup has never had more than 5-10 teams, all from Europe and South America, that could win the thing.

One of the most annoying aspects (and less than 10 imo). Not sure why anyone would deny that. Article is bad tho sure.

Not really sure why a tactics nerd is worried about the goal count. I say this as a tactics nerd.

Yeah its less than 10.

There isn't really an European dominance of the WC - or no more so than usual. Usually one of Brazil/Argentina/Uruguay get to the latter stages. One of Colombia or Chile threaten to do something. The former were hacked around four years ago.

Croatia (I forgot the odd contribution from Central and Eastern Europe) and Senegal have played some good stuff this time around and hopefully they can get to the latter stages (really hoping Senegal put Eng out). That's par for the course.

xp = maybe more sides should go for it like Tunisia did yesterday and get mauled.

European sides doing better at this one than the two previous: at both of those two, only 6 uefa teams got to second round, it'll be at least 9 or 10 this time you'd think

he's mostly talking about world cup football in general so it's not griping but an attempt to explain the general, long term lower goal count compared to say the champions league which has a v similar format. it's imo not immediately obvious why there wld be such a consistent disparity

I do think the point abt world football getting more rather than less unequal is interesting. it's not so much abt complaining abt the poor spectacle as using the WC as a measure of the health of world football which is largely out of FIFA's control

One of the most annoying aspects (and less than 10 imo). Not sure why anyone would deny that. Article is bad tho sure.

This doesn't annoy me tbh.

I hope Loftus-Cheek isn't playing too high up the pitch on this occasion, might be interesting to see him dropping a bit deeper, picking the ball from Henderson and running with it. England struggled against Tunisia because they didn't have any midfielders who were really capable of moving the ball quickly under pressure (Alli can but he was clearly injured) and playing RLC in a kind of quasi-Dembele role might help mitigate that. If nothing else he's very difficult to knock off the ball.

LOL @ Joy Division playing over the build-up.

This doesn't annoy me tbh.

Celtic fan... :)

LOL. Of course the Champions League, that's a different matter.

he's mostly talking about world cup football in general so it's not griping but an attempt to explain the general, long term lower goal count compared to say the champions league which has a v similar format.

Not sure, CL has a similar format but its played every year so it allows many of the same players and teams to come back. Four years is a very long time for the development of national teams.

Also the top teams in the CL are much further ahead and much further advantaged than the top teams in the WC, the Barcelonas and PSGs routinely demolish club sides (mentioning no names) 6-0 and 7-0, sides that aren't really that bad.

So maybe if Germany were beating Mexico and Sweden 6-0 or 7-0 he'd be happy? Goals goals goals!

re ogmor's post, is this 2015 piece by branko milanovich known on ilx?

(tl/dr = the clampdown on fifa corruption will exacerbate football's inequality, but read it for his nuance)

What, Tab Ramos is one of the refs? Did I see that right?

very clear red and pen there

coward cunt cheat ref is the conclusion

Oh no, Telemundo commentator, sorry

Oh ffs, bottle crashed.

stones walker lol lol

Welcum 2 concacaf

England set piece experts. Big Sam's cockles duly warmed.

lol?

Stones lol.

Comical defending.

loftus, kane, maguire, cahill

some cheek throeing an england brand on this team qf

stones has a collection of characteristics that would have you distraught as a FM head. he has no position but is clearly goof at plenty of things. jack of no trade.

well i mean good but also

There really is no such thing as a simple pass for England

lingard clearly identified as the man to kill here for some reason

I have a fiver on a red card and am feeling bullish about it atm.

fed up with these antics already, can’t wait to see the back of this lot

which

Sv good bet
Panama a bit brighter going fwd than expected sofar