2022/23 Soccer Thread: Finals Week(s)

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Poor Germany. You win some, you lose some...

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Sorbicol wrote:
slazev wrote:

From what I've seen, I don't think Argentina has what it takes once they get some serious opposition.
Brazil do seem really strong. Favourites, for sure.

The French would like a word

Those are 2nd favourites.

Romelu Lukaku accumulated more xG in the second half against Croatia (1.98) than Morocco did in the entire Group Stage (1.35).

If this was a FM game.....

Prederick wrote:
Romelu Lukaku accumulated more xG in the second half against Croatia (1.98) than Morocco did in the entire Group Stage (1.35).

If this was a FM game.....

I will never understand how Lukaku missed all those chances, especially him.

slavez wrote:

I can feel the pain of the Belgium people. We had the PT golden generation in the 2000s and won exactly zero trophies.

You can pave the road with golden generations that never won a trophy. Cruyff's Holland, Figo/Deco's Portugal, every Spanish generation before 2010. Soccer is simply the most international major team sport by far, even at our peak we were just one team among the world's best. Belgium's only real chance was in 2018, as almost no players were injured and were all playing regularly for their clubs. With a bit more luck we could have beaten France and then Croatia, but Japan and Brasil could have been the end as well. You need a bit of luck, especially smaller nations who don't have equals on the bench.

There are a lot of voices in Belgium who see this generation as a "failure" for not winning a major tournament. I find that really obnoxious, pompous and plain wrong. We've been spoiled for too long I guess.

Cristiano is playing. He really wants those records... Should have given our only proper striker a chance. One more reason why this team won't go far.

Edit: Actually, we have 2 strikers. Forgot about André Silva.

Wow, the Uruguayans are appallingly bad losers. Who'd have thought it?

You love to see it, though.

slazev wrote:

Cristiano is playing. He really wants those records... Should have given our only proper striker a chance. One more reason why this team won't go far.

Well he needs match fitness

Uruguay can go away. Don't think they will be missed for any neutral watchers.

South Korea are my new heroes for making Suarez cry.

Conflicted emotions.
Happy for Korea. Angry about the abhorrent mentality of our team who could care less. Overjoyed seeing Uruguay crash out.

I wanted Uruguay to advance because I think they're the only team that would not have been intimidated when going against Brazil. But like I said earlier in this thread, we've seen so many surprises in this tournament that who knows what's gonna happen.

South Korea vs Japan in the finale please.
(edit, oh they would meet in quarterfinals. Just need to clear the brazilian roadblock first)

If Brazil does not win today, it would be the first (and I guess only) time in the 32-team WC era when no team wins all three games in the group stage. It did happen in USA '94 but there were only 24 teams and six groups back then.

So... I think I was wrong about the switch to 3-team ground s in 2026 being a good thing...

“Suarez/Uruguay in general are hilarious,” says Niall Mullen. “They’re a combination of the most dead-eyed cynicism when things are going their way and wild emotional appeals to natural justice when they’re not.”
“Towards the very end, when Ghana had lost all hope, it was as if they wanted to make damn sure that they would drag Uruguay into the grave with them,” says Kári Tulinius. “The ghost of Soccer City has been exorcised.”

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Today is the birthday of the icon himself, Antonin Panenka.

Let's celebrate.

Oh, man, one more Swiss goal and Brazil was going to the bottom half of the bracket...

*shivers*

That bracket is already looking like a horror show.

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Also, Aboubakar's red card is the funniest thing so far in the tournament.

Uruguay taking defeat well as always I see.

onewild wrote:

Uruguay taking defeat well as always I see.

I do think they were a bit hard done by with one of the penalty decisions - it really was an "umpires call". On the other hand Ghana deserved their moment of revenge and Uruguay need to learn how to lose.

I can't wait to find out how Uruguay's exit is the fault of the British press.

Prederick wrote:

Today is the birthday of the icon himself, Antonin Panenka.

Let's celebrate.

I'm a GK; I love that man!

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Game day, lets go!

All USA.

All USA.

All USA.

$#!&^($%#

"Why do they just pass it around at the back so much?"

/shows video of Dutch goal/

England have got the pass the ball around at the back bit down so well. They're just missing the speedy transition part.

f*ck