It's such a game changer having an international superstar, one where you stop what you're doing to marvel at their excellence. Yordan and Altuve at the plate. Messi with his precision ball control, Daishen Nix with the hesitation dribble. (Bill Walton voice)
Yeah France gonna have no problems containing Messi imo. They are too talented top to bottom. If Argentina win it will be through fluke ways
That was the Argentina I've been waiting for. I think the pk was questionable as he got the shot off cleanly. The contact didn't affect that, he just didn't get anything on it. Otherwise, it was a dominating performance. Messi solidified and ended any conversation as to who is better. That was a masterful performance. I don't think I've seen him play with that drive and determination in years. I think France ends the other fairytale tomorrow and we have an all-time classic final.
That’s gotta be one of the easiest walk to finals. Not a single good team so far. Brazil was the only good team in that bracket and it shat the bed even before the matchup.
Netherlands were good all tourney and Croatia beat several favourites this time and last WC (final appearance), especially vs Croatia it's tough to perform well and advance, as the last cups have proven.
Not really. Overall quality of teams is pretty average this tournament. It was an easy group. As for knockouts, Australia was a free game. The Netherlands team was pretty low quality. Low on talent, just managed well. Same with Croatia. They don’t have an attack and played a negative game the entire tournament. Plenty of draws and went through on PKs. Its too bad they went through against Brazil. Brazil vs Argentina would have been more entertaining. The one true challenge so far shat the bed. Don’t get me wrong, the tournament has been fun. But just because it was fun doesn’t mean the teams are of high quality. PS. As much as I hate Italy, I wouldn’t have been against them beating up on some of these teams. I hate those ****ers but they always make it fun.
Then why has Croatia made the Final last WC and knocked out Brazil this time, who you say would've been a real test? You can talk down their "negative game", but that is exactly what often works in these tournaments and their results back it up. Beating a team like Croatia in a tournament setting is a good feat and a team like Brazil or England isn't automatically tougher competition just because of bigger names.
Grant Wahl passed from an aortic aneurysm, per his wife. Such a terrible way to go but at least it happened while he was doing what he loved. I legitimately hate that his wife had to say out loud that it was nothing nefarious and it had nothing to do with his vaccination status. I saw so many posts mentioning that. So many stupid people in this world.
Somewhat true. We have found a way to maximise our results under current coach Dalic by being very solid at the back, then building the play with our top midfield players and hoping one of our million crosses from the wing would find its target. We are missing potent attackers after Mandzukic retired and Perisic started showing his age, so there's really no other way for us to win but by being persistently annoying. Kramaric has mostly been disappointing for us compared to his amazing output for Hoffenheim, Pasalic and Majer are not wingers but attacking midfielders, Vlasic is not in his best form, Livaja and Petkovic are not cut out for the highest footballing stage. Rebic would have helped, but he got into a verbal fight with Dalic so we won't be seeing him back. Orsic should have played more, but he overlaps with Perisic. Our next crop of attacking talent won't be ready for the next couple of years (Baturina as an attacking midfielder, Biuk as a winger, Beljo/Simic/Ljubicic as strikers), so expect to see us playing the same way until the next World Cup at least. On the other hand, our defense is looking incredible for the future (two deep at every position, with Gvardiol as a certified superstar) and our midfield is ready to take over from Modric (the combination of Sucic/Majer/Pasalic with Brozovic/Kovacic will be very good).
