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Russia World Cup 18


Bjornebye
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No.

Agree with you.

 

I hate international football.

 

Luckily we have done OK with this World Cup having not too many players go deep in it/play loads of games - but for me it has a negative impact on the stuff that really matters and there is a lot of key PL players who are gonna be fucked early in season and also be playing catch up for rest of it.

 

Having players stuck out in Russia when they should be getting ready for their jobs is for me shite...not to mention rosk of injury etc.

 

I would much rather see all our players have a nice long summer rest and come back and have a full pre season.

 

Take if we sign Fekir for example....he will literally have one week at the club before season starts - no time at all for him to build understanding with rest of team/learn our methods etc/get up to proper fitness and once season starts with games coming thick and fast there isn't all that much work done on that stuff...it is recovery, little bit of tactics etc and then play.

 

The international shite impacts far too much on the important stuff IMO.

 

Of course that could all be helped if the schedules were changed but that isn't happening is it.

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It's made me laugh all the talk of how it's been trouble free despite all the 'scaremongering' beforehand.

 

Er, that's because the violence was state sponsored and so is the peace. They were no run of the mill hooligans two years ago, it was a veritable festival of bum bags and MMA. With the eyes of the world on Putin's Russia this past month, if a biker so much as farted without permission he'd have had his balls nailed to the Kremlin's doors.

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That was probably the weirdest World Cup final ever. Not only did it have an own goal, a highly contentious penalty award and Loris doing a Lloris, but, other than France's approach in the early stages, it lacked the cageyness so typical of major tournament finals. At times it was hard to tell that this was actually the World Cup final.

 

Croatia started with the greater intent but there were few few real openings as France kept things tight. Then Griezmann conned a free kick out of the ref, from which Mandzukic nodded past his own goalkeeper to give France the lead.

 

Croatia equalised not long afterwards when Perisic controlled and fired past Lloris from the edge of the area. Perisic is an odd player for me. At times he looks like a Poundland Robben and a real threat, and at others he is as peripheral as it gets. Like all the Croatia players, he works his bollocks off for the national cause. He was then involved in the most contentious moment of the game when adjusted after a VAR review to have deliberately handled the ball. Yes the ball hit his hand but he was shaping himself to head away a second ball that dropped much lower than he'd expected. I don't think he meant to do that, and it took several minutes of discussion followed by a review before the ref eventually awarded it. Griezmann buried the penalty with the minimum of fuss.

 

The game suggested that there might be at least 1 further goal in the second half but we were rewarded with 3. France had to batten down the hatches at the start of the second half as Croatia came at them with renewed vigour, but didn't manage to breach their back line.

 

Then Pogba played a great ball out to Mbappe, followed up the play and eventually tucked the ball home from the edge of the area at the second attempt. He actually played very well today, and showed that if he can be disciplined and cut out the posturing, he's got all the tools in his game to be a genuine box-to-box dynamo.

 

Mbappe had shown glimpses of his pace but hadn't been a factor much in the game, but when he found space 30 yards out, he first an excellent low shot into the net to basically seal the game. There was still a little under half an hour to go at this point.

 

Then Lloris did a Loris, but didn't have the handy excuse of being concussed to explain away his brainfart. The way he dealt with that situation suggested he didn't even notice Mandzukic right in front of him. Mandzukic is tall and likes a physical battle so he's not exactly inconspicuous. Lloris' touch cannoned off Mandzukic and into the open net much like Benzema's goal in the CL final. It meant Mandzukic was the first player to score at both ends in a World Cup final.

 

Croatia just didn't have enough to break the French defence down, and France were capable of running riot on the counter if they so wished. They didn't need to over-extend themselves though and it finished 4-2.

 

That ref looks like a clumsy oaf doesn't he? The commentators said he once played a prison guard in a movie back home in Argentina. He could also have played Lennie in a stage production of Steinbeck's classic Of Mice And Men for all I know.

 

When that poll thread was posted for who you thought would win the World Cup, I'd picked France before the tournament, and that was on the strength in depth they have in their squad. Most of them are first choices at club level, and the national side had gone close to winning the European Championship only 2 years ago, and reached the quarter finals in their previous 2 international tournaments. The personnel may have change a bit over those 6 years but they've been developing an enviable strength in depth and are seeing it pay off.

 

Giroud might have fulfilled the Stephane Guivarch role of looking out of place in this side, but his unselfish work meant Griezmann could be more influential in attack, and freeing him up freed up Mbappe to explode. Mbappe had a few excellent moments rather than completely overshading all before him, but if he continues to develop, he could soon be considered to be amongst the genuine greats. Needs to cut out the Neymar-like acting though.

 

EDIT: Has any other World Cup had a presentation ceremony in the pouring rain? Even I wanted a hug off the Croatian president. That girl is built to hug!

Ive not read a word of that but how far up your own arse must you be if you think poeple will unless you are Allan Benet or Dave.

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Kane is one dimensional and suits the PL down to a tee. He also plays in a team built solely around him. He is a talented goalscorer,no doubt but in leagues where he had to drop deep and be part of the build up play he'd be fucked. If Spurs want to improve then they need to stop playing around Kane all the time and if Kane really wants to improve personally then he needs to leave Spurs. Neither of these will happen as English football is awash with cash and self improvement is not really on many player's 'to do' lists.

Anyway,fuck England. They got to about par for their side of the draw but came up well short again.

Until Kane starts hitting Messi and Ronaldo numbers any team he plays for will be unsuccessful in the end because he’s so greedy and selfish, if he was hitting 50/60 a season then Tottenham would obviously win trophies but whilst he’s not reaching them numbers the teams he plays for rely on his goals too much and he doesn’t score enough to warrant the team to sorely rely on him.

 

Take this tournament for example the last two games he’s looks fucked and physically couldn’t run anymore, that comes from him wanting the Golden Boot over the team winning the tournament because he could have went off earlier against Panama but he was chasing the Golden Boot, granted he did get rested against Belgium but again could have come off against Sweden when it became clear after Alli scored that Sweden were never scoring especially after playing 120 mins against Colombia. It was literally like England played with 10 men against Croatia he was that bad.

 

As for the VAR thing, it’s been brilliant in this tournament, even today. How the fuck can anyone blame VAR for giving that penalty. The ref gave it! VAR informed him that it was a contentious decision so he went and looked at it in about 5 different angles and in slo-mo and decided to give a penalty, why are people so thick they don’t understand what happened today.

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I think the main issue re VAR is how the 'clear and obvious' remit has been interpreted somewhat arbitrarily at times, particularly on handballs.

 

You could argue, by definition, if you've changed your mind after looking at an incident from five different angles in slow motion, it wasn't a clear and obvious error in the first place.

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I think the main issue re VAR is how the 'clear and obvious' remit has been interpreted somewhat arbitrarily at times, particularly on handballs.

 

You could argue, by definition, if you've changed your mind after looking at an incident from five different angles in slow motion, it wasn't a clear and obvious error in the first place.

In that case they should just have one quick glance at the screen because if it’s that obvious they’d see the mistake in an instance.

 

It was a debatable penalty which I’ve seen some say it was and some say it wasn’t, the referee is paid to make those decisions and he decided after a long look at it that it was a penalty. I personally didn’t think it was a penalty but I’m fine with the decision because it was a 50/50 and the man in charge had multiple looks and lent more towards the side of it being a penalty and gave it.

 

They need to take that “clear and obvious” shite completely out of it because it’s confusing people, if VAR think the ref should look at something whether it’s clear and obvious or not and he decides he made an initial mistake then he should be allowed to change his mind. Which by the way I think they have been doing in this World Cup.

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Isn't the ' clear and obvious ' element decided by the VAR geeks, they tell him to have a look and then they leave the decision with the ref. 

 

Agree that there is an element of pressure on the ref as he must assume that the VAR guys think it's a pen , but you could argue the narrative today was - Ref is unsighted - VAR guys say have a look - he takes plenty of time & different angles to ensure he is happy with his decision - penalty is awarded.

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Ive not read a word of that 

 

Pity.  He explained the meaning of life in paragraph 3, gave a sure-fire tip on wealth accumulation in paragraph 6, and covered street fighting for beginners towards the end.

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For the last few days i’ve wanted the final to hurry up so that we can get back to the proper stuff but having said that I think it’s been a boss World Cup overall.

 

I’ve really enjoyed the football and I also think that VAR worked out pretty well apart from a small number of incidents (which will always be the case), so that’s a positive.

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It's made me laugh all the talk of how it's been trouble free despite all the 'scaremongering' beforehand.

 

Er, that's because the violence was state sponsored and so is the peace. They were no run of the mill hooligans two years ago, it was a veritable festival of bum bags and MMA. With the eyes of the world on Putin's Russia this past month, if a biker so much as farted without permission he'd have had his balls nailed to the Kremlin's doors.

 

This.

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Kane is boss, and of. He is what he is, a world class penalty box predator. He's not a Messi or a Ronaldo, but who cares?

 

Players like him are a dying breed. Fowler, Shearer type strikers and come along once or twice in a generation at best.

 

Genuinely don't think he'd be suited to the way Klopp plays, but he's absolutely world class.

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Kane is boss, and of. He is what he is, a world class penalty box predator. He's not a Messi or a Ronaldo, but who cares?

 

Players like him are a dying breed. Fowler, Shearer type strikers and come along once or twice in a generation at best.

 

Genuinely don't think he'd be suited to the way Klopp plays, but he's absolutely world class.

Let him kip on your couch then
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Hmmmm. A reasonable game of football spoiled by a wank commentary. Surely in this 21st high tech world, Sky can offer a commentary free game? Or the ability to switch off the commentary?

 

Fans don’t shell out big money to go to games to listen to wank commentaries.

 

Disgusted in my lack of consumer choice.

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Kane is boss, and of. He is what he is, a world class penalty box predator. He's not a Messi or a Ronaldo, but who cares?

 

Players like him are a dying breed. Fowler, Shearer type strikers and come along once or twice in a generation at best.

 

Genuinely don't think he'd be suited to the way Klopp plays, but he's absolutely world class.

Kane and world class do not mix at all for me. Kane cannot dribble past defenders and score for his life; someone has to put the ball to his head by the goal mouth where he is almost permanently fixed. A dying breed? Perhaps just to the extent that English football is evolving into a more technical and passing game. But Kane was pretty much playing the role of your typical English number nine in this tournament.

 

As for the comparison with Shearer and Fowler, I would say those two were better all-rounded forwards as they could head the ball as well as they could shoot with their feet.

 

Kane was nowhere in the last two games when Egland needed most. He looked out of his depth.

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Kane and world class do not mix at all for me. Kane cannot dribble past defenders and score for his life; someone has to put the ball to his head by the goal mouth where he is almost permanently fixed. A dying breed? Perhaps just to the extent that English football is evolving into a more technical and passing game. But Kane was pretty much playing the role of your typical English number nine in this tournament.

 

As for the comparison with Shearer and Fowler, I would say those two were better all-rounded forwards as they could head the ball as well as they could shoot with their feet.

 

Kane was nowhere in the last two games when Egland needed most. He looked out of his depth.

I don't think you can judge Kane on the world cup, as plenty of decent players have looked crap at world cups, bar acknowledging Kane's undoubted talent at being a bit of lucky bastard when it comes to scoring goals. For me he is a fair bit like Shearer at Newcastle once his pace had gone, doesn't have the threat Shearer at Blackburn had, or the touch of genius of Fowler.

There's plenty of other classic centre forward types knocking about at the world cup, Diego Costa, Lewandowski, Giroud, Higuain, Mandzukic, etc. so wouldn't say they are a dying breed. You could even have Ronaldo as one of those these days.

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Well I’ve really enjoyed this World Cup. Helped that I was signed off sick for 2 weeks after an op so got into a routine of sitting in my garden in the mornings and watching the games afternoons and evenings. Been some great results and surprises.

I can’t wait for the league to start again but we’ve still got 4 weeks!

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Hmmmm. A reasonable game of football spoiled by a wank commentary. Surely in this 21st high tech world, Sky can offer a commentary free game? Or the ability to switch off the commentary?

 

Fans don’t shell out big money to go to games to listen to wank commentaries.

 

Disgusted in my lack of consumer choice.

I'm pretty sure they did have commentary free options on the red button at one point, must have binned it off because not enough people used it.

 

Anyone remember the fanzone thing? Had one fan from either side doing the commentary, some decent banter between them when there was a previous rivalry.

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