2022/23 Soccer Thread: Finals Week(s)

Sorbicol wrote:

It is very noticeable now just how empty the stadiums are. Most of the games are being played in half full arenas.

Was wondering about that.

From a brand management standpoint, you'd hope this doesn't happen again. I know Qatar won because of bribes and the anachronism of monarchy (lol) but surely we'll go back to having games in soccer-mad places that can actually put on a show?

Prederick wrote:

No idea how to feel about either team after that game.

Meanwhile, as with so many team sales in sports, the Glazers are going to be richly rewarded for over a decade of terrible, parasitic ownership.

The question, of course, is who can afford ManU. The list of suitors I can imagine is... somewhat disappointing.

Saw it during the Canada match so it might have been BS, but saw something about some Dubai-based group.

Other than that, I don't know.. maybe the Chinese Communist Party could get in on the sportswashing bananza.

They're already The Reds, so it works perfectly!

I presume the next available world cup will be in Saudi Arabia.

As for Qatari stadiums, one of them is built from shipping containers and will be dismantled as soon as the tournament is over.

John Oliver mentioned something about Saudi Arabia being in the bid for one of the next world cups. Not sure how true that is...

And wow, Canada play good football. What's your secret?

slazev wrote:

And wow, Canada play good football. What's your secret?

I don't know?

John Herdman is a magician, but with the women's team he was very much high direct play and high crosses into the box. There's a dynamism to this team that I never expected.

Granted Davies, Buchanan, and Eustáquio are class, but still.

Belgium either looked totally uninterested to press or defend with their attacking players and central mids, or just old? Canada played well and will be interesting to see how the managed the rest of the group stage.

slazev wrote:

John Oliver mentioned something about Saudi Arabia being in the bid for one of the next world cups. Not sure how true that is...

I had heard someone else say Saudia Arabia is going to bid for 2030, although they (who I cannot remember) was basing that on a rumor they'd heard. So, this could be absolutely nothing.

But Infantino's going to win re-election essentially unchallenged, so I'm penciling in Saudi Araba 2030 now.

It has been reported that Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Greece have a joint bid to host 2030.

Greece has money to do that?

No. But the Saudis have more than enough to help them out.

I expected Canada to play with a deep defensive line and go for the counter, leaning on the pace of the attackers. Belgium with its low tempo high passing style has had difficulties breaking down defenses, and our ageing defense is vulnerable to pacey counterattacks.

But kudos to Herdman, because even at this generation's peak we always struggled the most with high pressing aggressive opponents (see: Japan in 2018, or Italy last year). As I understood from pre-match analysis, Canada's weakest point is its defense, and this strategy kept our attackers away from them AND led to a huge number of great chances for Canada.

Apart from Courtois and a surprisingly decent Hazard, we were piss poor yesterday. Sure, our defense is showing its age, but Witsel and Thielemans should have provided more options for linkup to the midfield. Onana brought some much-needed aggression in the 2nd half (though he will get a red card eventually unless he stops yapping to the ref), but Canada deserved the 3 points overall.

We got away.

Pink Stripes wrote:

It has been reported that Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Greece have a joint bid to host 2030.

I have a feeling that the logistics of the Canada / USA / Mexico World Cup are going to make these multi-country bids start to look a little daft. There’s going to coke a point during that competition where someone is going to have to do a lot of travelling, probably across time zones, when their opponents don’t. I don’t think that’s going to be fair. Even in a 48 team tournament, which itself is a bad idea.

2 games in today and I think I slept through both of them. Switzerland c Cameroon was defence against defence surprisingly, I was expecting more from Cameroon. Uruguay v South Korea was a lot of huff and puff but not a lot of ems product quality. Uruguay looked like rhymes have a few too many players too long in the tooth. S. Korea like they were overly reliant on an injuried Son Heung-Min.

I would very much like to see Ghana stuff Portugal next but I doubt it. Maybe settle of Ronaldo doing his ligaments early on and being banished for the rest of the competition.

That already happened in USA '94 and it wasn't a big deal (flying multiple hours and changing time zones to play a team that didn't have to do that). Brazil got to stay in LA after the semi-final while Italy had to fly all the way from NY to play them in the finals. A Mex/US/Can WC will only make this marginally worse. And Greece / Egypt / Saudi Arabia fit within two time zones. Athens to Riyadh is a much shorter trip than NY to LA.

The format of the 48-team tournament is set so the finalists still have to play seven matches so I'm guessing they'll be able to keep the minimum of three days between matches.

I don't know about the logistics of people flying to see games across three countries but I imagine they can keep pairs of groups within the same country such that people following their team would only need to travel across borders only starting in the round of 16, possibly later.

And one reason I imagine Greece fits into this bid is not having money for the bribes but having stadiums. They can use the Athens stadium built for the 2004 Olympics and they have a couple of cities with stadiums that may only need an expansion rather than an entire new venue. Qatar only had to kill immigrants to build 8 stadiums but the 2026 Cup will have 16.

Sorbicol wrote:

I would very much like to see Ghana stuff Portugal next but I doubt it. Maybe settle of Ronaldo doing his ligaments early on and being banished for the rest of the competition.

We've entered the wishing injuries on players phase of the tournament already. Also it wasn't directed at Luis Suarez or Pepe.

You clearly don't believe in karma. Ronaldo might just put 3 past England later in the tournament.

Heard someone describe Ronaldo as, "A walking bottle of Drakkar Noir."

A Marta shoutout.

Ghana answers!

Ghanaaa!
That was pretty nice.

That was short lived.

Very short lived.

I was gone for like 5 minutes. What happened

Those Ghana tweets didn’t age well.

Shadout wrote:

I was gone for like 5 minutes. What happened

Seriously. I went to put some dishes in the dishwasher and missed 2 goals. Then saw another. Wow.

Prederick wrote:

Very short lived.

I went to pick up the missus after work and it was 0-0. Came back and it was 3-2! And I saw that chance for Ghana right at the end. Shame he slipped.

Odds of Richarlison vs Mitrovic shenanigans?

There hasn't been a red card yet.

Roke wrote:
slazev wrote:

And wow, Canada play good football. What's your secret?

I don't know?

John Herdman is a magician, but with the women's team he was very much high direct play and high crosses into the box. There's a dynamism to this team that I never expected.

Granted Davies, Buchanan, and Eustáquio are class, but still.

Just be careful with Eustáquio. He compromised Porto a few times this season with his reckless fouls. But he's good!

Ooff, Portugal, what can I say?... I kind of want them to lose to get rid of the coach but not really, it's my country after all. Oh well, I can already tell that defense is going to provide some good laughs. Playing for a draw won't work this time, Nandinho!

Holy sh*t. Won't likely see a better goal this tournament.

Fox Twitter video

That was quite tasty indeed.