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Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2018 3:21 am
by Singha
I am supporting ABG - anyone but germany.

brazil, argentina, chile, uruguay, mehico - anyone from south america

france, spain, portugal from europe. belgium is dark horse

the english team has some good young talent ... a pity that wales and scotland play separately so gareth bale cannot play for eng.

brazil mostly always have a good balanced attack(except 2014 where they overly relied on neymar), but they win WC when their defence is strong and ordered....legends like cafu, roberto carlos while attacking down the wings also ran back to help defend. pele, jairzinho, garrincha had others like djalma santos, carlos alberto pereira in the back..... the 1992 romario,bebeto team had a solid defence.... the current crew is not of that caliber of

thiago silva (a bit aeging but mentally stable unlike david luiz) - the central key to their defence.
dani alves - injured and out i think
marcelo - strong attacking play but leaves huge gaps behind, may lack in stamina given his rather hefty build
casemiro - allegedly a bit slow

I'd like to see what new wunderkind gabriel jesus plays. neymar's upper body is weak, he needs to avoid injury....he is a great player no doubt, but lacks the blinding 0-30 acceleration and intimidation of El Phenomeno - the one and only. Pele too was a muscular lad with great sprint speed.

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2018 5:58 am
by Singha
well ? anyone ?

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2018 6:36 am
by Chandragupta
Great match last night. I was expecting a very close 1-1 draw but 3-3 my gawd! Although DeGea let that second one in very easily, it could have been 2-3 to Spain.

I think Brazil, Germany (always a favourite in big games), France, Spain & Argentina have great teams on paper. England will always be chokers and overhyped. France have a fantastic balanced squad. Argentina have a ADM, Higuain, Messi, Aguero - great great attack but they will leak Goals and struggle to hold possession against teams like Germany/Spain/France who have a good midfield.

I would bet my money on either Germany or France or even Spain, despite their coach fiasco.

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2018 1:03 pm
by ricky
Am supporting Germany, their exciting and fast paced counter attacks are a treat to watch. Also, their style of pressing the ball upwards with short balls always creates a very attacking play which I highly enjoy;also the coach is an old hand, making them favourites.
Spain has the coach debacle to deal with, and I am not a fan of their constant passing game.France is a has been for a long time now, the English will falter as usual.
From the Americas,was hopeful only for Uruguay but yesterday's match has dampened my expectations, messi+10 and ronaldo+10 are not well rounded teams.

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2018 2:58 pm
by sgk19862004
Good defending by Iceland

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2018 3:14 pm
by bharotshontan
Any Indian/Desi origin players in any of the world cup teams this time? I remember last time France had an Indo-Mauritian guy on their team (backbencher).

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2018 4:58 pm
by sgk19862004
Mexico won.

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2018 6:24 pm
by Rahul M
lovely game b/w mexico & germany. mexico had less possesion but their rapid counter attacks were a treat to watch. could easily have been 3-1 or 3-2 for mexico.

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2018 11:41 pm
by Kabir
Germany fan

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2018 4:33 pm
by Singha
mehico landed a resounding slap yesterday. I was in a sports bar and everyone was with mehico. i dont think this german team has the defence to last against better teams. the two lumbering centerbacks hummels and boateng are the weak link as mexico showed. they miss the agile and busy philip lahm.

they correctly identified the weakness of the germans and sliced them apart with sprinting counter attacks. its analyzed here

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 03956.html
World Cup 2018: How Mexico stunned Germany by exposing their full-backs and harassing Toni Kroos out the game

belgium looking steady today . LUKAKU is a treat to watch....intimidation and brooding looks.

I will support belgium, france (mbappe, grizemann, pogba) and mexico. brazil will flatter to deceive and go phussss at a crucial stage. argentina already looks resigned to a early exit. Spain - yawn

ENG has done the right thing by sending their promising juniors....could spring some pleasant surprises.

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2018 4:43 pm
by Singha
the african origin players like pogba, lukaku have such naturally blessed physiques ... the northern europeans can no longer push people around

Image

the lightning quick mehican left winger who scored yesterday is 20 and already the top scorer in dutch league for ajax.

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2018 8:09 pm
by Gus
*notalgia alert*...sniff sniff...

football is never the same to me since fenomeno's peak..

no other player has made me want to watch a full match live ...just catching highlights now

https://www.theguardian.com/football/bl ... er-striker

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 1:37 am
by Rahul M
hmm, strange how nostalgia works, I remember ronaldo as overhyped player who didn't live up to that hype in WC. even in 2002 I remember selfless hardworking rivaldo who set it all up on a plate. that may be because I do not watch much club football but what gets me misty eyed is zidane, the way he singlehandedly pulled france in '98. the ball would almost stick to him like a magnet. :o

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 2:02 am
by Rahul M
to buttress what I was saying https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKMZmEeqHQA
just watch the number of folk falling on their backsides trying to stop him. watch at 2:30 onwards, he doesn't even touch the ball ! what control !

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 12:50 pm
by Gus
for the casual follower - football can be boring..with a lot of passes back and forth..with the only exciting parts being the shots taken at goal.

that's why I liked ronaldo..everytime he had the ball from mid-field..it's a 50m dash, beating the defenders with his speed and tricks like elastico etc and that's exciting.

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2018 3:22 pm
by Chandragupta
Rahul M wrote:
Tue Jun 19, 2018 1:37 am
hmm, strange how nostalgia works, I remember ronaldo as overhyped player who didn't live up to that hype in WC. even in 2002 I remember selfless hardworking rivaldo who set it all up on a plate. that may be because I do not watch much club football but what gets me misty eyed is zidane, the way he singlehandedly pulled france in '98. the ball would almost stick to him like a magnet. :o
Ronaldo overhyped!! Blasphemy!

2002 was not vintage Ronaldo - 98 was. 98 was his cup, not Zidane's and this is coming from me - an ardent Zizou devotee. If you want to watch what explosive speed + grace + magic was, watch R9 with Inter & Barca. The tackles he took from nasty defenders in Italy finally took a toll and he was never the same.

Zidane was flowing wine, just sit back and enjoy but nobody could obliterate teams like R9, still nobody can.

Infact, some 15 years back I made a few Zidane & Ronaldo video compilations when I used to be active on Footy forums. Got very famous back then, not sure if they are going around on Youtube nowadays, would anyway be outdated by now with no Fx etc. :geek:

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2018 4:03 pm
by Rahul M
ah, as an old maradona/argentina fan, nice to see the ronaldo/brazil supporters riled up :mrgreen:
please continue !

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2018 10:13 pm
by bharotshontan
Irani team against Spain looked like how India plays against Iran. You cannot play so defensive that if you win the ball back in midfield you are still kicking it out of play trying to run down the clock and hope for 0-0 draw. Very depressing show overall. Spanish goal was bound to happen.

In other news I think India might have good chance to qualify for 2026 as it will be expanded to 48 teams.
Also read this yuck worthy article from Aakar Patel today on football culture in India.
https://m.rediff.com/amp/sports/column/ ... 180620.htm
So apparently India needs Hindi belt to catch on to football for us to do well. Why? Better to invest in the infrastructure and work with existing groups that have football culture already. Not necessary that everyone has to have same sporting culture. I would prefer if cricket culture could actually stay away from Bengalis to be honest.

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 8:52 am
by manju
Just returned from Russia after 12 day trip. first one week sight seeing Moscow and St Petes

The remaining days travelled to Kazan (France AUZ) and Nizny Novogrod (Swe/Kor) match. The matches turned out so so but it was once in a life time expereince.

Russia is beautiful.. The cities we visited could be easily mistaken for any eurporan city but more clean and spacious (compared to Paris and Londonistan).

Very well organized and security was good.

Russia travel is cheap almost 1 rupee = 1ruble

We travelled in overnight trains- sleeper like out trains and AC superfast train as well (Mosc to St pet in 4 hr 750 kms). The trains are one notch better than our AC compartments- probably on par with eupropean- I have not been in european trains so cant compare

Volga river is huge and beautiful.

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 8:53 am
by manju
Now.. I am back home in desh.. anyone know where I can watch football matches online?

I dont have TV at home... (Protecting my family from psedusecular crap :evil: )

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 8:55 am
by manju
Kazan is beautiful.. The land of tatars.. I think Tatarstan is about 1/3 Muslim. No obvious signs of peacefulness on Ramzan day (we landed there on ramzan) in Kazan

Also, was a good opportunity to refresh my history of this area- it was sketch in my mind.. saw a few you tube videos of the respective cities to reinforce my understanding of the history of these places.

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 6:51 pm
by Rahul M
sonyliv gives live feed. with a 5 min delay if you opt for free.

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2018 3:33 am
by Chandragupta
Croatia destroyed Argentina just like I had predicted that they will leak goals and how! What an unbalanced squad they have, no defense, no midfield. Croatia did them a favor. If they had gone past Group stages and faced a top European team, they would be humiliated 5-0/6-0.

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2018 5:21 am
by manju
Rahul M wrote:
Thu Jun 21, 2018 6:51 pm
sonyliv gives live feed. with a 5 min delay if you opt for free.
trying to set up account.. having trouble.. any link appreciated

Re: Football world cup - 2018 - news, views, rants

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2018 5:54 am
by manju
This link https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... om.sonyliv seems to allow download only on android mobile devices. I am trying to see if I can watch the matches on my lap top- in INDIA