World Cup General Discussion Thread - 2030 The Jokes On You

They may meet one in the semis.

 

That is actually his middle name. You need to check these things before posting.

 

True - but those opening 35 min were real 'brown underpants' time - if Senegal had put away any of their two (?) chances I still have my doubts (following the post Euro games I actually watched) whether 'we' could keep our discipline. Our recent matches against top tier opposition (Croatia and Italy) in meaningful competitions don't instil a great deal of confidence for a result against France.

 

Is Bellingham the modern day Duncan Edwards?

He'll go for huge money in the summer.

Real Madrid or Abu Dhabi?

 

France's forward players of Mbappe, Giroud and Dembele will not be pressing our defenders as intensely as Senegal did in the first half though (which forced us in to those errors).

 

Real Madrid are slowly revamping their midfield but with both Camavinga and Tchouaméni in their ranks I can't seem them spending what they'll need for Bellingham (they'll go for Mbappe instead imo). City is probably his most likely destination but I imagine Liverpool/Chelsea and Utd will all be heavily interested as well

 

The save was from Dia I think. Sarr set it up. Pretty sure it would have been disallowed as Sarr clearly handballed it in the buildup. Sarr firing over was the other chance.

A lot of the last 16 matches flowed similarly. The underdog in the game for 30-40 mins, not capitalising on that and then the bigger side taking the game away from them. England just did it more convincingly than Argentina and Holland (and arguably France) and against the strongest opposition.

England have now scored the most goals, and conceded just two (both after the game was comfortably won v Iran, and is the fewest of all teams to have played four times) - are we...good? I suppose we will find out on Saturday.

 

It’s weird isn’t it, if you were a neutral, or an Alien studying the competition completely objectively you’d say England were clearly the best team in it as things stand.

 

It's the lack of a challenge we've faced. We look good, but how good are we really?

Amazed really that this will be the first knockout game against France in my lifetime (I think?)

 

I think it depends on if you look at the headline figures, 3 clean sheets, +10GD etc or certain underlying metrics including xG or shot count etc where England look less dominant but largely as a function of game state (ie England have been comfortably leading for much of most of their matches so have been able to shut up shop and play safe several times). But if we were up against a side with the results England have just had we would be not at all confident.

Out of interest who (or at least who of the big dogs) has faced a big challenge and swatted it away with ease? Spain looked good against Germany but drew and only got 4 points from the group. Morocco and Japan overcome big challenges in their group stages but that’s hardly a big side stepping up and showing quality. We’ve been as impressive as anyone across these first four matches I just don’t think that means much at all.

 

It doesn't really mean much at all. Invariably if you win your group you're likely to face 4 lesser teams before you hit the quarters.

France have some very good players, but aren't without their weaknesses. It will definitely be a tight match

 

https://archive.ph/q83v3

I'm in the New York Times today tying together a teams national set-piece identity with their domestic teams set-piece identity if anyones interested!

 

Not wanting to jump the gun could someone confirm if, if, we beat France will our next game be on Weds 14th 1900!

 

Correct!

 

Score-wise possibly. However if we go ultra-defensive we will lose, we have to play expansively and that gives us a 50/50 chance of winning the game.

 

Did you get paid? I hope so. How did they go about getting in contact with you? How did they learn of your existence?

 

Anyone can edit the New York Times.

 

Nah, but it's a good advert for me (my contracts up in the summer and I have no idea whether it's getting renewed!) and was only a couple of hours work from my end.

 

Wonderful - v impressive and richly deserved. The link between league set piece style and National set piece style would make sense in many settings but in others (eg Portugal, Denmark, Netherlands) a lot of the national team players don’t even play in the domestic league so fascinating how ingrained those methodologies are (or are for the coaching staff)

 

Fully agree, it's very odd (and interesting) considering how diverse the rest of football is in their coaching these days!

 

Yes, but according to the FIFA rankings we were in the toughest group. [Of course you may not believe anything that comes out of FIFA.]

 

Awful from Japan in the shootout.

 

If you’re awkward and unsure stepping up, just blast it. Go down in flames rather than embarrassment. Shame as Japan are a lot better than they showed tonight.

 

An excellent and informative article. Rory Smith is very good and he's constructed a really interesting piece out of what you said.

@cyaninternetdog Newspapers don't (or shouldn't) pay the people they interview for a number of very valid reasons. If Reids had been asked to write something that would be a different matter.

 

I am sorry to see Japan go but they were some of the worst penalties I have ever seen.

 

Really impressive - congrats Reids!

 

A first for me tonight…..cheering on South Korea, not that I’ve got anything against South Korea of course!

 

How is that a penalty against South Korea?

 

I don’t understand a foul where the defender isn’t even looking at the attacker, who then runs into his leg.

 

Shyte. We sold him cheap didn’t we?