Football 2022/23

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, Barry Fish said:

So the stand out teams so far seem to be France, Spain and England.  All this talk of European sides struggling due to the heat seems to have been false.  Temps have been a perfect 24ish for most games.

Do you think being a stand out team in the first game matters? Look at 2 of the last 3 winners. Spain lost their first game and France laboured to a win against Australia.

[pink_triangle]

1 minute ago, Barry Fish said:

There will always be a team or two who have a terrible start and come good and the reverse.  But most the time a team starts poor because they are poor.  Germany will now do well to get out of the group and even if they do they looked very stale.  I think that matters in the grand scheme.  So yeah you can't draw ultimate conclusions but it does matter to a certain level.  Also the likes of the Germans are now going to have to go hard than they would otherwise have liked in the other games - risking injury and tiredness which can catch up for sure later in the tournament. 

So it does matter to some degree I think.

I would probably have to look at it in more depth. As you say having a poor start means no margin for error, but I at the same time I am not convinced the standout teams in the group are the eventual winners. I think some teams peak too early, while some winners gradually improve as the tournament advances 

[Punksnotdead]

3 hours ago, thetime said:

Bit negative, average goals per game is approaching 3 per game.

The majority of those goals came in 3 very one-sided games. Most of the games have been boring as fuck!

I keep hearing commentators say "it's a world cup full of shocks". Only one major shock in my eyes (Argentina) - Germany have been rubbish for a few years now.

[pink_triangle]

4 hours ago, thetime said:

Bit negative, average goals per game is approaching 3 per game.

I seem to remember WC 90 and euro 96 had low goals per games and the media narrative is they were amazing tournaments. Euro 96 in particularly really stunk!

[pink_triangle]

2 hours ago, Barry Fish said:

I don't disagree...  Football is one of the strange sports where you can be awful for 89 mins and nick a win.  Not many sports like that.  So its always hard to talk in absolutes.  But going off the opening games its not looking great for the likes of the Germans and even Argentina looked lacking in any sort of plan B when things started going south for them.

Of course they could turn it all around.

Also think pre var and Argentina could be 3-0 up at half time, maybe end up winning by 4 or 5 and people saying how good the look, very small margins.

[pink_triangle]

2 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

Than goodness for var..  I don't get the moaning about it to be honest.  Its not perfect but its better than the shit show we used to have and it will improve.

I also like the new FIFA move to add extra time for time wasting.

I personally don't agree with VAR. I am going on my unreliable memory, but I am sure one of the disallowed goals was very marginal and I don't think football is better fo disallowing these kinds of goals.

In general I agree about the time wasting. The only flaw (no way around it) is the team wasting time can benefit by having more time to get a goal back of the time wasting fails and opposition scores.

[Ryan1984]

57 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

I seem to remember WC 90 and euro 96 had low goals per games and the media narrative is they were amazing tournaments. Euro 96 in particularly really stunk!

Yeah, but England did well in both so they were automatically deemed amazing…

Chance of Serbia shocking Brazil?

[hodgey123]

On 11/22/2022 at 9:03 PM, Barry Fish said:

But who untied fans blame for being shut now ? 😜 

I do think the criticism of the glazers has been over the top.  United have always had the resources to compete but just did a poor job of it

Late on this one but this misses the real point which is that United as a club generates the money that has been reinvested. It is not Glazers making funds available - it is the club's money, which they then take from with their dividends (no other PL owner pays themselves a dividend). They initially didn't even let the club spend its own money as Fergie's brilliance papered the cracks and although we have spent money recently (very unwisely which is a different discussion entirely), they still have not invested in the training ground, facilities or stadium (Ronaldo's interview shed light on this) which highlights where their priorities were.

[steviewevie]

can see why they say Messi and Ronaldo are best players in the world, so good at taking penalties.

[steviewevie]

Yes!

[steviewevie]

oof

[steviewevie]

I should be a pundit

[steviewevie]

oooh

[Punksnotdead]

Well that game exploded into life! Flicked it on half way through the 2nd half & thought "here we go, another 0-0 snooze fest!" Didn't see that coming!

[Ryan1984]

8 hours ago, Barry Fish said:

Uruguay vs Korea  - sound out of sync on iplayer.  Wondering if its an iplayer issue or if the commentary team are remote ? 

I had the dubious pleasure of listening to that one on 5 Live/BBC Sounds (Clinton Morrison is quite something - possibly worse than Chris Sutton) and they were commentating from Salford so might be the same for TV commentators?

[Ryan1984]

Every team had played now. Who’s your early favourite?

[pink_triangle]

7 minutes ago, Ryan1984 said:

I had the dubious pleasure of listening to that one on 5 Live/BBC Sounds (Clinton Morrison is quite something - possibly worse than Chris Sutton) and they were commentating from Salford so might be the same for TV commentators?

I think it was that game they left the game for a report from the England training ground. I mean I'm Welsh, but I have zero interest in the training ground!

[pink_triangle]

8 minutes ago, Ryan1984 said:

Every team had played now. Who’s your early favourite?

I think the performances at this stage are pretty irrelevant, it's just about getting through the group and hoping for some good fortune in the knockouts. 

I still fancy France, despite missing so many players they still have a strong squad. A fresh Griezman could be an important player.

[steviewevie]

9 hours ago, Ryan1984 said:

Every team had played now. Who’s your early favourite?

only watched a few games....but going to go out on a whim and say Spain, Brazil or France.

[Neil]

19 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

Euro 96 in particularly really stunk!

was particularly good when england spanked the Netherlands.

[pink_triangle]

26 minutes ago, Neil said:

was particularly good when england spanked the Netherlands.

I think people remember England v Netherlands, England v Germany and forget the dross. I went to Holland v France (qf) Holland v Czech (semi) both 0-0 penalties!

[steviewevie]

Come on Iran

[The Nal]

Well deserved. What a shite clearence from Joe Allen. Gave the ball away for the 2nd aswell.

[pink_triangle]

17 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

I think the keeper getting sent off was the killer blow really.  They was already under too much pressure. 

Sickening way to lose, brings back memories of England in Euro 2016, although don't think this tournament will have a happy ending like that one! Looks to me one tournament too far for Bale and Ramsey, glad they at least got one world cup in.

[steviewevie]

Poor Qatar. All that money spent so the world can learn that they're a shit country and shit at football.