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I was rooting for England so I'm not thrilled with the outcome, though I don't really have a vested interest. I have been a very casual England fan for a while and always have found their self-hatred and responses to losses to be fascinating. Can anyone recommend a particularly good site to monitor for the best English responses to the game? I generally find English sportswriting to read too much like The Charge of the Light Brigade and very hard to digest.
Disappointed in the result, but not heartbroken by any means. Their problem seems to be they have trouble scoring outside of set pieces. While I was rooting for them, it does make their style quite boring when I think about it. Maybe it was just this tournament, I don't pay attention otherwise.
After going four-for-four on my rooting interests in the quarters, I goose-egged the semi’s. Sigh.
Not me, no sirreeeee. Been getting a bit tired of the english and their carrying on lately. Not that it matters but I called it for the Croats today, I did.
You're next france. Are the Croats the UMBC of the WC?
I think conditioning clearly won the match. On the deciding goal, the exhausted England defense just stands there and relaxes... the moment you relax, your fate is sealed. Stones seems utterly disinterested in moving to the ball.
I have a hard time seeing Croatia besting the staunch French defense and incredible goaltending by Hugo Lloris. I think France wins 2-nil.
While I agree, I note this also was my view the last two games for Croatia. They just find a way, and a reservoir of energy, that defies expectations.Quote:
Originally Posted by JasonEvans
The third place game should be really fun too.
England was far more skilled, controlled the ball, and had far more chances...The fact is, however, that soccer (and hockey) are sports that are extremely prone to upsets, or maybe more elegantly put, they are prone to have the dominant teams lose games. It's the nature of low scoring sports - where a fortuitous bounce or a hot goalie - can overcome a team being dominated for most of the game and still win.Quote:
Originally Posted by OldPhiKap
Couldn't disagree more. England's weakness has long been lack of a creative midfield, and it was borne out in this match against Croatia's worldclass attacking midfield of Modric (Real Madrid) and Rakitic (Barca). They had 1 shot on target to Croatia's 7 and struggled to create anything in open play. 11 shots overall to Croatia's 22 with less possession.Quote:
Originally Posted by HereBeforeCoachK
England really missed the creative presence of Lallana and maybe Oxlade-Chamberlain (out from injury) and benefitted from an easy draw to the semis. Still, they beat everyone in front of them until today and got rid of the PK bogeyman.
Woah, woah. England had one shot on goal and 11 total. Croatia had 22 shots with 7 of them on frame. Croatia was always the more dangerous side and definitely the more skilled of the two teams. Modric and Rakitic ran circles around the England midfield. Kane was outplayed by old man Mandzukic.Quote:
Originally Posted by HereBeforeCoachK
England is certainly young and has talent. They also didn't really beat anyone of consequence at this WC.
Beat Tunisia 2-1 on a last gasp header
Spanked Panama
Lost to Belgium
Beat Colombia in PKs while Colombia was without their best player
Beat Sweden
Lost to Croatia.
England did a fantastic job in set pieces this WC, but outside of that, they were pretty average. You beat the teams in front of you, so credit where credit is due, but I'm not sure they took a massive step forward.
Piling on now, but game stats here:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/44706648
Croatia had 55% of the possession - and once the match got to the second half England's weak midfield was horribly exposed. Croatia had 8 corners to England's 4. All the stats (and the result) point to what a lot of people expected of this match: England was out classed and out played. England's main hope going in was that exhaustion and accumulated injuries would hamper Croatia. Nope - instead it was England who finished with 10 men and, as Jason noted, was giving up on balls.
Left without comment:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/fif...cid=spartandhp
I was shocked this AM to see the comments on England being more skilled, etc., what a way to wake up! As others have stated: Croatia's midfield is vastly more skilled and talented than England's, and they dominated the game from the second half on. The score easily could have been more lopsided. England throughout the tournament was poor at scoring within the flow of the game and only got as far as it did thanks to set pieces.
I myself can see Croatia's midfield causing France problems, especially if Modric can play to his fuller capacities the entire game. The way they can beautifully and precisely pass can present problems for any defense, including France. Their conditioning and energy is showing itself to be superlative, and they know this is the last game and will leave it all out on the field. My prediction is Croatia 3 France 2.
As far as FIFA and their guidelines on broadcasting, I personally am growing exhausted with the "PC" crowd in various areas of life, always trying to micro-manage the Universe. I am single and interesting female sports fans are part of the spice of life for me, and I will continue to enjoy the Beauties of Creation! As I also told a single friend in Hamburg who could have easily travelled to Russia but did not go the games and was watching on TV, he was missing out on one of of the attractions of actually going to the games: Meeting in person lovely, intelligent, well-educated ladies from around the world - like this Polish Physicist.Attachment 8494
Re-tying a shoe is despicable. Take pitches until two strikes is not, that's playing within the rules. At that point you are just betting that your batter doesn't make a mistake.Quote:
Originally Posted by kmspeaks
Let's not do this.Quote:
Originally Posted by NM Duke Fan
France's midfield is pretty strong too. I don't think Pogba will be particularly bothered by the physical play of the Croatians. But yeah, Modric and Rakitic will be a handful. The latter had 102 fever yesterday -- hopefully he's back to full strength Sunday.Quote:
Originally Posted by NM Duke Fan
I think France is going to win this one, and it won't be a terribly exciting final. Croatia will concede early again, and France's defense and pace will make it hard for Croatia to build and score, regardless of their exceptional midfield. France wins 1-0.
On Saturday, Belgium puts on a show and wins 3-1 or 4-2.
I think England wins on Saturday. Or at least it is a very close one. Perhaps I am overreacting to how Belgium looked against France, but I do not think that Belgium will get the types of chances against England that Croatia did.Quote:
Originally Posted by gus
I'm not sure you can really predict performance in the 3rd place game based on past performance. No way to know if all starters will play, nothing really on the line. In a game where all the starters are in and everybody is playing all out as though there is something on the line, I take Belgium. Given the stakes, who knows?
Good point. You always want to win, but it is a good chance to give some caps to some young or deserving folks too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Acymetric
I would have very much liked to see Belgium and England play a meaningful game. It is too bad that they will have played twice, with neither game being a must win.Quote:
Originally Posted by Acymetric
Well, unless England can get more than one shot on goal, it likely doesn't matter what sort of chances Belgium gets.Quote:
Originally Posted by cato
They look like a far superior team to me. Best I could tell, that match yesterday was always going to be for second place. France and Belgium have looked like the class of this tournament to me.
Having said that, I'll be rooting for Croatia.
definitely no pudding for you!Quote:
Originally Posted by weezie