****OFFICIAL SOCCER THREAD****

[TEW]

3 hours ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Look how happy he is holding a baby version of himself.

Well, he is child sized, with a child sized trophy cabinet to match.

[we_gotta_believe]

4 minutes ago, TEW said:

Well, he is child sized, with a child sized trophy cabinet to match.

Bigger than Ronaldo's

[Seventy_Yard_FG]

Does he even speak English.  Does goat translate in Spanish

[JohnB]

2 hours ago, Seventy_Yard_FG said:

Does he even speak English.  Does goat translate in Spanish

the most common term for goat in Spanish is chiva. Like  C.D.Guadalajara is referred to as las Chivas. 

[DaEagles4Life]

Yuck for GOAT argument 

 

 

[we_gotta_believe]

45 minutes ago, DaEagles4Life said:

Yuck for GOAT argument 

 

 

Officially a washed up has-been who creates drama everywhere he goes and tries to steal credit for a goal his teammate scored. Although I do kinda feel bad for him in a sense, if he was born a decade earlier, he would compare more favorably to guys like Ronaldinho or even Fenomeno. But instead he'll forever be stuck in the goat's shadow and with his personality, thats probably super frustrating which could explain why he's prone to being such a malcontent. 

[Cochis_Calhoun]

41 minutes ago, DaEagles4Life said:

Yuck for GOAT argument 

 

 

It's pretty much the only option he has left if he wants to make money, he made such a song and dance about leaving United and then the World Cup has demonstrated it wasn't United holding him back, his legs have gone, so he's constantly going too early and getting caught offside and even when he isn't offside he's missing absolute sitters. You can't beat time.

He's no longer good enough for a big European club, for legal reasons he won't go near America, China doesn't do big contracts any more so it's the Arab league or retirement.

[we_gotta_believe]

3 saves on PKs. They weren't the best by Japan, but still. Geez

[mikemack8]

57 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

3 saves on PKs. They weren't the best by Japan, but still. Geez

Yeah they weren't struck well and he guessed perfectly on each one - crazy

[we_gotta_believe]

Only 30 min in and Brazil already look like the eventual winners of the whole thing. Aside from a decent shot by SK, Brazil is absolutely smashing them into the turf right now.

[UK_EaglesFan89]

Shame that Brazil eased off... They were incredible first half and then just cruised through the second which wasn't much fun to watch. 

[Cochis_Calhoun]

14 hours ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Only 30 min in and Brazil already look like the eventual winners of the whole thing. Aside from a decent shot by SK, Brazil is absolutely smashing them into the turf right now.

South Korea set up perfectly for Brazil, didn't pressure the ball at all and got the thumping they deserved, Brazil looked a lot more workmanlike in the group games and Croatia are experienced and wily enough to give them real problems.

I think group H will turn out to have been the weakest in the tournament by some distance and Korea only got out of it because Portugal decided to slack off the last ten minutes of the final game,  Portugal were the only quality team in it, Uruguay were a farewell tour and Ghana have no international class forwards.

[we_gotta_believe]

3 hours ago, Cochis_Calhoun said:

South Korea set up perfectly for Brazil, didn't pressure the ball at all and got the thumping they deserved, Brazil looked a lot more workmanlike in the group games and Croatia are experienced and wily enough to give them real problems.

I think group H will turn out to have been the weakest in the tournament by some distance and Korea only got out of it because Portugal decided to slack off the last ten minutes of the final game,  Portugal were the only quality team in it, Uruguay were a farewell tour and Ghana have no international class forwards.

My prediction is 2-0 Brazil over Croatia. Just too much talent on that team.

[Cochis_Calhoun]

1 hour ago, we_gotta_believe said:

My prediction is 2-0 Brazil over Croatia. Just too much talent on that team.

Brazil could only beat the Swiss 1-0 and Croatia are a level above them, and Brazil have been knocked out by the first decent European team they've faced every World Cup since 2002. I don't think this is a great Brazil team, it's nowhere near the talent level of their 2002 World Cup winning squad which is the modern Brazil benchmark for example.

Croatia to sneak it 2-1.

[we_gotta_believe]

7 minutes ago, Cochis_Calhoun said:

Brazil could only beat the Swiss 1-0 and Croatia are a level above them, and Brazil have been knocked out by the first decent European team they've faced every World Cup since 2002. I don't think this is a great Brazil team, it's nowhere near the talent level of their 2002 World Cup winning squad which is the modern Brazil benchmark for example.

Croatia to sneak it 2-1.

The Swiss can be sneaky and put on a good show seemingly out of nowhere. Embolo is underrated and Shaqiri can still pound one in if you give him a bit of space. Wouldn't surprise me at all to see them take down Portugal today. Croatia are better than them but not by miles. It would be a huge upset if they knockout Brazil, though this has been a tournament of upsets thus far, so I guess anything is possible. The only way I see them squeaking by is if it goes to PKs.

[we_gotta_believe]

Hakimi was cold as ice with the panenka. Saw it coming a mile away but Simon didn't apparently. Back to back years that Spain have crashed out on PKs. Awful way to lose a game but they had plenty of chances, just couldn't capitalize on them.

[DaEagles4Life]

Ronaldo sits and Portugal scores 5

[we_gotta_believe]

So apparently the Swiss were way worse than I thought. Yikes.

[DaEagles4Life]

9 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

So apparently the Swiss were way worse than I thought. Yikes.

Portugal actually has a really good team and has lots of talent. Laeo can be special and Bruno is a world class player 

[we_gotta_believe]

24 minutes ago, DaEagles4Life said:

Portugal actually has a really good team and has lots of talent. Laeo can be special and Bruno is a world class player 

Didn't get a chance to watch the game but sounds like they played really well as a team once the washed up petulant turd was out of the lineup. 

[JohnB]

On 12/5/2022 at 11:32 AM, we_gotta_believe said:

Only 30 min in and Brazil already look like the eventual winners of the whole thing. Aside from a decent shot by SK, Brazil is absolutely smashing them into the turf right now.

I think France could give them fits

[UK_EaglesFan89]

9 hours ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Didn't get a chance to watch the game but sounds like they played really well as a team once the washed up petulant turd was out of the lineup. 

That guy is not going to finish his career with the grace and positivity he would have deserved. He's behaving like a petulant child and his on field efforts don't warrant him to be a main feature of any team. 

I've always been a huge Ronaldo fan. I've always argued he's the greatest player of all time. But the way he's conducting himself he's doing himself and his legacy no favours. 

[TEW]

4 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

That guy is not going to finish his career with the grace and positivity he would have deserved. He's behaving like a petulant child and his on field efforts don't warrant him to be a main feature of any team. 

I've always been a huge Ronaldo fan. I've always argued he's the greatest player of all time. But the way he's conducting himself he's doing himself and his legacy no favours. 

Tactically, Ronaldo at this point is a poacher without a holdup game. He’s never been a "back to the net” kind of guy, and asking him to be that guy just isn’t going to work despite his size and strength. 

He needs a role where he’s a shadow striker who runs onto assists and sits in the box. His best qualities at this point are anticipation, heading, off ball movement, and power. If a coach plays to those attributes he’ll still be better than most in the world.

My opinion, he needs to be in a 4-4-2 type of setup with a target man next to him. Actually, Benzema from last season would be perfect. He needs to be on a position where ball carrying isn’t something asked of him and he can just clean up trash and fire shots on goal that are knocked into his runs, because in that role I still don’t think there are many CBs that can handle him.

The ego is a problem though. It’s one of the reasons I thought Zidane was so underrated. You need a coach with the gravitas to convince him that if he wants to continue to play at the top level he needs to continue to adapt to his physical decline.

He was perhaps the greatest in the history of sports at adapting his game, going from a 17 year old flamboyant but wasteful winger, to a Ballon d’Or winner with United, to the best player in the world as a LW early in his Madrid career, to a sort of wide target man late at Madrid, to a pure poacher with Juve. He’s capable of adapting his game, but he needs a coach to orchestrate it. You can’t just fit him into a team at this point like you could when he was winning the UCL every year. He’s nearly 40. Time comes for us all, and if a coach wants to use him, they need to bend some things around him.

That all said, I’m not betting against him in a final. Messi? Absolutely slam the lay in a clutch moment. But not Ronaldo.

[TEW]

7 hours ago, JohnB said:

I think France could give them fits

It’s clearly Brazil vs France. France has the best player (maybe two best players if Benzema comes back) and a deeper overall squad, but Brazil has depth in attack.

[TEW]

14 hours ago, DaEagles4Life said:

Portugal actually has a really good team and has lots of talent. Laeo can be special and Bruno is a world class player 

The biggest problem Portugal has is depth. They’ve always churned out world class players, but with only 10 million citizens they’re a lot like Uruguay in that their quality on a relative basis is the best in the world but they just don’t have the numbers to put up a squad with the depth of Brazil or France.