In 2014 we saw a great World Cup ... despite a disappointing Messi ... and it was a World Cup without Bale, Lewandowski, Alaba, Cech, Hamsik, Oblak, Eriksen, Yarmolenko, Aubameyang, Arda Turan, Ibrahimovic et al. ... Zlatan and Cristiano Ronaldo were both great in play-offs but 1 of them had to lose ... and then the players who missed out due to injuries like Reus, Falcao, Ribery, Benteke, Strootman, Thiago Alcantara, Gundogan, Suarez (wasn't fully fit) and so on, and so on. Clearly it isn't unusual that household names have to stay at home ... mainly in UEFA (while e.g. a Mexico can't fail to qualify regardless of how horrible their Qs results were) ... if the argies qualify instead of Chile, Vidal and Alexis Sanchez will be missed ... still if the argies end up as one of the bottom half teams, they can only blame themselves ... what do you want? ... FIFA to help the argies cheat? ... eventhough you would think that FIFA don't need lessons in corruption, the argies can still teach them a thing or two ... if we're lucky, we'll get to see this again: Messi crying uncontrollably and ragequitting.
Chile given a 3-nil win over Bolivia due to an ineligible player for Bolivia. Gives Chile some breathing space obviously but I think the big losers of that is Ecuador, who are suddenly just 1 points above 6th place in CONMEBOL qualifying despite a bright start.
Yes. And Ecuador still has to face Chile in Santiago head-to-head late in qualifying which could be crucial for their survival. Colombia and Argentina face Chile at home which is still crucial, but not as daunting.
Chile has a stretch of 4 games in-a-row as follows: VEN, PAR, @BOL, ECU (3 at home). If they can just hang within a point or 2 of 5th place until then I think they'll be alright.
Using your scoreboard logic, Belgium were better than a Maradona-led Argentina in 1982 ... watch the game and you'll see that the result flattered a feckless Argentina as Belgium were very wasteful while running over the argies ... also this: About the WC2014 tie ... a deflection leads to a very early, lucky goal ... then we get almost 90' of argies diving and rolling around on the pitch to waste time: SMH ... better stick to your scoreboard logic because that doesn't look good at all ... a shameful display.
At best 1 CONMEBOL advances to the SFs ... another SFs with 4 UEFA teams wouldn't be a big surprise ... 1 CONMEBOL among the favorites is fine ... Brazil looks like the frontrunner for now.
This great generation of Belgian football were gifted the easiest path to an Euro final I've ever seen. And of course they blew it. Stop dreaming, Belgium has no business anywhere near a WC title.
I don't think anyone could argue that they blew it. They did not live up to expectations starting with the Italy match but to be fair though they had a makeshift back line that really did not play together before (against Wales), and cohesion is important in the back. Kompany was really missed not only for his play but more so his leadership. So I don't think it is fair to criticize their Euro performance.
Who's dreaming? I didn't claim Belgium are among the favorites ... I'm saying the argies are shite and there's a fair chance the argies don't even make it to Russia ... Belgium are performing several levels above the argies for a while now ... Germany, France, Spain and Brazil ... that's it for the favorites ATM.
Not you, but many people has been mentioning them. Belgium-Argentina in 2014 was an easy match for Argentina despite what you want to believe. Argentinians themselves always say they played nobody during that World Cup until the semis when they faced Netherlands. And no matter how bad they're playing at the moment (in the context of the toughest qualifier in the world), they're still way better than Belgium and would easily beat them in a WC, again.
Really? And yet Argentina needed a big referee helping hand to beat Iran and it took them 118 minutes to score vs Switzerland. For their so-called smooth sailing they failed to beat any team by more than one goal and never looked dominant against any team, including Iran, Nigeria, Bosnia, Switzerland or Belgium. Argentina basically scraped through every game, but you make it seem like they actually made the final with some swagger...
Obviously that's BS ... even in this thread, people are mostly critical of Belgium ... it's far more likely that Belgium are undervalued at the moment. That's more BS ... argies deserve a manager that can deliver football of a much higher standard ... not a shameful, boring display of time-wasting gamesmanship ... a record low of 3 shots on target, one of which a lucky goal, is very revealing (FYI that's both teams combined) ... also, according to Argentine media and players like Mascherano you're full of it. Argies constantly being the favorites in the matches they played back then while having an unparalleled wealth of attacking players at their disposal ... yet the argies keep producing nothing but poor performances. That's a useless statement ... fine, I'll pretend to be a 6yo girl as well ... "No! Belgium are way better and would easily beat Argentina in a WC, again!" ... SMH Also, Brazil have never failed ... in a confed with only a handful of teams, a huge chunk of it did not stumble once in almost 100 years. Besides if argies end up as one of the bottom half teams, they need to take a long, hard look in the mirror ... that would be an abysmal result by any standard and the world would have a good laugh at the argies expense.
Yes, Belgium deserved the win in WC82 (despite a post by Maradona that would have changed the match). Argentina got its revenge four years later, with two superb goals by Diego, one for the all time anthologies. As for WC14, a feckless, underachieving Argentina still beat Belgium with hardly a sweat. It could well have been 3-0 before it was 1-1, with Higuain and Messi missing chances alone with Curtois. You lost, suck it up. True, Argentina may not make it to WC18. But if they do and happen to play Belgium, they will beat them...AGAIN!!
Against Belgium in WC14 it was an easy win for Argentina. It was not an impressive display by any stretch but it was a comfortable match, in large part because Belgium never threatened. Germany/West Germany has never failed to qualify from UEFA either. Their couple of WC absences were voluntary or banishment.
In the 1986 match there were several bad calls that prevented the Belgians from punching above their weight again ... e.g. blatantly flagging 2 offsides wrong as those Belgian players were clearly on side (a vid of both these horrible calls) ... Belgium were wrongfully taken away 2 golden opportunities to open the score and the reaction of that linesman is just farcical (he earned his bribe though) ... the way Belgium were robbed is a joke. Besides do you even believe that there were any players on that 1986 Argentina squad that weren't doing doping? Maradona is a repeat doping offender and the most famous ball fondling crackhead in the history of the game ... the 80s were a time when using doping was considered too risky ... better to play it safe, as doping might not be enough, and add match-fixing into the mix. Argies cheated in 1978 and 1986 ... doping, bribing, intimidating, match-fixing and any other violation they could get away with to cheat their way to 2 ill-gotten WC wins ... in 1990 argies were too painful to watch (= crimes against humanity) ... causing rules to be changed to put an end to their boring, negative football is Argentina's only truly deserved achievement ... in 1994 the midget that was weaned on steroids as a frail little kid once again provided proof that he was a walking pharmacy after testing positive for 5 illegal substances. For every Conmebol side there are 5.5 UEFA sides ... not only do the Germans have less apps, there isn't another side that always qualifies in UEFA ... whenever household names don't qualify, they usually play in UEFA ... also, do you seriously want to claim that there's an excuse for the argies ending up among the bottom half teams ... it's laughable to claim that you're a favorite in Russia while you're mediocre in Conmebol (as I said before, argies have no reason to act all bertie big bollocks) ... 1 favorite from Conmebol suffices and it shouldn't be a middling team ... Brazil is the frontrunner now and a favorite in Russia.
BUTTHURT ALERT!!! You lost to your betters, suck it up. Sure, Messi lost that day...just not to Belgium Argentina will still beat Belgium should they meet in Russia. BETTER than you are!!!!!!
Still such a poor troll while you've been on these boards forever and also this, old man, butthurt dates back from when you started posting ... you're showing your age ... a 46yo that acts like a 6yo girl.
I agree that it was arguably Argentina's easiest game, but claiming that other games were easy... well... the facts show that Argentina struggled.
Well, he was talking about the match against Belgium. Even though that was a 1-goal game it never really felt like Belgium was going to win. The Swiss match was by far the scarier of the 2 games for Argentina en-route to the semis. Compared to the Swiss, Belgium felt like getting a bye.
Yes but that's the whole point. Argentina had an easy draw and an easy path to the semifinal. The fact that they struggled so much versus lesser teams and had to be saved by Messi during the group stage is a very common criticism made to that team in Argentina. They played nobody before the semifinal and they have acknowledged that when criticizing that team.