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***Official World Cup 2018 Thread***


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I don’t really watch that much football outside of us tbh apart from highlight shows but probably watched more of the WC than anything else for years and it was enjoyable enough even though the overall quality seemed lower than past tournaments.

France could quite easily win the next few international tournaments.

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On 14/05/2018 at 19:33, G.E.C. said:

France to win 

 

On 15/05/2018 at 08:18, born a blue nose said:

That is a good team actually 

Them or my original team France

 

On 02/06/2018 at 08:37, ger4life_1872 said:

Done £10 on France and griezmann tgs with that hills offer 

 

13 hours ago, BlueAvenger said:

I hate to say it and I'm not one for boasting ?

The first 3 are predicting the winner , you can't name the 4 favourites then claim you predicted it 

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50 minutes ago, psb07158 said:

Glad to see a team consisting of 16 players of African heritage and 7 proudly Muslim players lift the trophy for France ?

Aye, people say it's the fourth WC in a row won by a European team... this one actually seems to have been won by a European-African alliance.

Obviously African players married with European youth development is the way to go. 

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Thought this WC was good, but not as brilliant as most seem to. 

I think I'm just getting old. I don't enjoy the way football is played pretty much across the board now. It's too homogeneous and too one-dimensional. Lots of things that used to be part of football no longer are, and it makes for a tournament of games that are all very similar to watch.

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14 minutes ago, left winger said:

World Cups aren't as good as they used to be because we know all the players in the top countries - we see them on the tv every week. That removes most of the excitement before the competition even starts.

Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. But also that the globalised nature of football has led to teams that have very similar styles. And that physicality in football has disappeared. And that cynicism and cheating has taken over through the years, with the horrible little side effect of making the game even more one-dimensional because players just can't dribble any more, because the first thing the opposition player does is try to find a way of pulling him down or obstructing him. So it ends up pass, pass, pass. Short passing to death.

A Maradona/Baggio/Matthaus style goal that used to be the highlight of a WC is going to be very, very rare in the future. Some way needs to be found to bring dribbling and wingers back into football. 

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32 minutes ago, Inigo said:

Thought this WC was good, but not as brilliant as most seem to. 

I think I'm just getting old. I don't enjoy the way football is played pretty much across the board now. It's too homogeneous and too one-dimensional. Lots of things that used to be part of football no longer are, and it makes for a tournament of games that are all very similar to watch.

I agree.

Not many characters any more, and the internet has taken any mystery away about most teams and players. Add to the fact that good players are playing for an ever smaller pool of teams.

Every team seems to have half a dozen prototype players who share very similar attributes (ie, tidy player, great athleticism and robotical coaching into instinctively playing his part).

That said, this world cup was a pretty good tournament. I enjoyed the knock out phases.

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Even Mbappe. Obviously brilliant, but he's not the off the cuff natural genius that you used to get. Don't remember seeing one this WC. Messi is the nearest, and I suppose he is for Barca, but it doesn't happen for Argentina.

I'm desperate to see M Laudrup, Zidane, Hagi, Prosinecki, Maradona, Zico, Socrates, Falcao, Romario, Ronaldinho, Le Tissier, bergkamp, Stojkovic, Savicevic and their likes again.

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22 hours ago, Rfc52 said:

I honestly think it was poor overall. 

France won it but bar a couple of games they never really got out of 3rd gear.

I think the quality of the football was pretty shit

No, it was definitely one of the best that I can remember which is about 10-11.

Lots of goals . More than a few shock defeats.  Great crowds without being intrusive. The added entertainment of VAR.

 

And finally, NOT a boring final for a change.

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20 minutes ago, BrotherTJ said:

No, it was definitely one of the best that I can remember which is about 10-11.

Lots of goals . More than a few shock defeats.  Great crowds without being intrusive. The added entertainment of VAR.

 

And finally, NOT a boring final for a change.

Honestly for a world cup the quality in show was pretty average. 

Var was more of a farce than a success which was highlighted even more with the ridiculous penalty awarded to France yesterday 

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5 hours ago, Inigo said:

Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. But also that the globalised nature of football has led to teams that have very similar styles. And that physicality in football has disappeared. And that cynicism and cheating has taken over through the years, with the horrible little side effect of making the game even more one-dimensional because players just can't dribble any more, because the first thing the opposition player does is try to find a way of pulling him down or obstructing him. So it ends up pass, pass, pass. Short passing to death.

A Maradona/Baggio/Matthaus style goal that used to be the highlight of a WC is going to be very, very rare in the future. Some way needs to be found to bring dribbling and wingers back into football. 

What I saw even more than players being obstructed or pulled down was players taking the easy option of going to ground claiming a foul rather than trying to beat the defender in the first place. A lot of the time it was like watching Rugby League, the games were so stop-start - because of infringements, either real or manufactured.

 

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6 hours ago, harlands plater said:

What I saw even more than players being obstructed or pulled down was players taking the easy option of going to ground claiming a foul rather than trying to beat the defender in the first place. A lot of the time it was like watching Rugby League, the games were so stop-start - because of infringements, either real or manufactured.

 

Yeah, that too. Griezmann in the final being one example.

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I'm at the point with football now that I'm not bothered if I don't see a whole game or not, more and more I now find myself being satisfied just watching extended highlights, as Harland's plater mentioned it's just to much stop and start nowadays and the teams are now coached in a way that inhibits players from attempting anything out of the ordinary, one game is just the same as another, money has indeed ruined the game but in equal measure cheats have ruined it just as much if not more IMO, on the odd occasion when a player stays on his feet and attempts to go around a defender and loses the ball how often do we now hear a commentator or pundit say he should have went down there and that he's going to get pelters from his teammates for not doing so, it's so depressing listening to that shit, as soon as a player feels the slightest touch down he goes and does a Naymar.

I'm just thankful that I lived in a time when fitba' was a joy to watch and when players gave as good as they got and just got on with it, youngsters nowadays will never be able to witness how great the game used to be.

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