WC 2018, Group A: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Uruguay

Saudi Arabia is the weakest team in this tournament along with Panama. Just look at their recent performances against Belgium and Ukraine. They randomly fired the coach that qualified them to the WC and now they are starting from scratch. On top of that, they made a strange arrangement with some Spanish teams and "loaned" them players pretty much for free to "prepare them" for the World Cup but none of those guys have played a single game, which I think is worse for them than being in the Saudi league. The odds are just too stacked against them and they will probably lose all three games if not get trashed in all three.

 

Not always. In 1994, Russia was in the group of death, with Brazil and Sweden (the champion and 3rd place team that year), as well as Cameroon, a quarter-finalist four years earlier.

 

Croatia, and Spain were better than Belgium, but not so sure about Italy or Portugal though. Italy was not a very good team in 2014, and Portugal was maybe comparable with Belgium. Probably Italy as well. Yeah you are right Russia's group was easy and they underperformed, although they did play well in the first half vs Algeria.

 

Euro 2016 performance was even worse than their 2014 world cup again they had the easiest group with wales Slovakia if they topped that group they would have an easy path to semi final.Instead they finished last with barely 1 point in a 24 team euro because of a last minute equaliser to England.Portugal beat belguim in euro 2016 friendly and Italy beat belguim in euro 2016.I would like to see Belguim or Russia in Spain's 2014 world cup group.This is why I support a 48 team wc because you have to play all the best teams from the round of 32.With a 32 team wc some groups are easier than others and some good teams miss out like Italy holland Chile they could easily make the knockout stages.

 

While I can't deny Uruguay are favorites in this group, if it was up to me, the two teams that would advance from Group A would be Russia and Egypt. And I would be thrilled if Saudi Arabia was spanked badly in all 3 games. Don't like anything they represent on or off the field. Thankfully they are rubbish enough, and have been doing all sorts of foolish things to boot recently, that there is a serious chance they will end up being embarrassed. But their lack of quality is still way down the list of reasons I like to see them do poorly.

 

I can't agree more. Personally, I don't care that much if it's Uruguay or Russia that advance with Egypt although it might be better for the World Cup if the host has a decent run. But yea Saudi Arabia is the only team in this WC that I would enjoy seeing get trashed, and it sure looks like they might.

Were they decent at all under Bert van Marwijk? I mean they still qualified.. You might be one of the very few people in this forum who know them very well.

 

Yes I agree, Russia was horrific in 2016.

 

It was bad enough that Saudi Arabia + Australia + Japan fired their coaches less than 12 months ago.

Let us hope other AFC sides do not catch that fever before Russia 2018.

I do hope both Egypt and Uruguay make into the next round. Question will be which one advances as top team.

 

Saudi Arabia had some game where they were alright, but their campaign started not a very convincing fashion even if they ended up winning their first 2 games against Thailand and Iraq. In their first 2 games, they beat Thailand 1:0 courtesy of a late penalty and beat Iraq 2:1 courtesy of 2 penalties. In the game against Iraq, they were being badly outplayed, with Iraq being very wasteful and missing a lot of chances. The penalties called in their favor, while not totally bogus, were often soft and its doubtful the same calls would be made against them in Asia.



The problem with Saudi Arabia isn't the quality of their play in Asia. If the Saudis are allowed to play their game, they have had good coaches and their players are able to execute their rehearsed plays and do well with them on occasion. The biggest problem the Saudis face are a weak defense and, additionally, the fact that they are inexperienced outside of Asia and don't seem to have a side that can ride out adversity. They have usually played in pampered settings and when things aren't going their way, and if an opponent is stronger than they are (as all the teams in the World Cup are), they can often play much worse than they are capable of playing.

 

All I know is that the longer the Russia -Saudi Arabia match is at 0-0 the more pressure and tension will be on the hosts and not on the road team.

If I were their coach I would say keep your calm, play organized defense and try to get out of here with at least a point.
All the pressure is on Russia to win cause if they don't they pretty much know they are in deep trouble.
No one expects anything from Saudi Arabia so I would use that as a motivational advantage.

 

Apparently Arsenals El Neny is out of the worldcup. Shame.

 

My bad apparently only out for 3 weeks.

 

Oh boy let me tell you about some of Saudi's tactics to preserve a result...

 

Russia v Egypt looks like a push now. Tough call here.

Pharoahs may be losing Elneny to ankle injury.

 

Salah once again with a stellar performance in the CL semi-final. This guy can single-handely rip the defenses of Saudi Arabia and Russia to shreds with multiple goals. All Egypt has to do is to defend well and give Salah some support upfront and the job is done. There must be several dubios calls by the refs to rescue Russia from early elimination if things are going this way.

 

Yes indeed.
He can score with long shots, short shots, in transition and even put good crosses in for his teammates. He was involved in 4 out of 5 of their goals.
He is playing out of his mind this season.

 

I watched All Saudi game in the qualifiers and while they're not the worst team ( Panama is), they're prime candidate for embarrasment.

They have decent speed and have some tacticlly sound midfielders and forwards but their biggest issue is their defense. About 70% of the goals they concede is because their CBs doesnt look lile they have touched a ball in their life.

No one should really take friendlies pre may seriously, the saudis played mostly with C and B teams.

The maddening part aboutbSaudi Arabia is that if they somehow manage to get out of this group All credit goes to the president of the federation who in actuallity has placed this challenged side in a really difficult situation by changing coaches, doing retarded deals with La Liga. Etc.

They're two starters in Al Muwalad and Dawsari looked nice before the La Liga deal and in the last friendly they looked lile they were 50 years old. Saudis are really bootlickers of their own monarchs. The president is basically an extnesion of the monarchs and none can ever critique him in public.

The La Liga deal was made so that Turki Sheik can say..look during my tenure saudis became proffesionals. I cant believe saudis are so incompetent and stupid. Its mindblowing. So many resources very little brains.

Having said all that...Russia is trash, uru is not germancy etc, and Egypt is Salah and no one else. So its def possible

Imo.

Russia 0 Saudi 0
Egypt 1 Uru 1
Uru 3 Saudi 0
Egypt 2 Russia 1
Eypt 3 Saudi 0
Russia 1 Uru 3

Uru 7 Pts + 5 7 Goals
Egypt 7 pts + 4 6 Goals
Russia 1pt - 3 2 Goals
Saudi 1ptb -6 0 Goals

 

Although I can appreciate a xenophobic rant once in a blue moon, I deduce that your brain capacity might be questionable as well.

If you read Spanish press, it is obvious that it is a scheme to siphon Saudi funds. It would not be a surprise that La Liga is sending kickbacks to that Al-Turki fella.

It is not incompetency, it is corruption. Anyone with standard brain capacity would see it for what it really is.

Please feel free to elaborate more discriminatory statements about specific human groups, my good sir.

 

Lol you clearly havent been following turki Al-sheik. The Spaniards took advantage and rightfully so but a large part of Turkis incomptency is not due to his national team managment but rather how he managed the Saudi league.

I dont doubt corruption, but incompetency is also up there.

 

He’ll deserve it with a major performance at the WC. Egypt must avoid Spain to reach the quarterfinals.

 

There are reports today saying he may be ready by the last Premiere league match. So he may be cleared to play in June based on that.
(But how healthy and effective he can be is another story.)

 

Sure brah.

Corrupt officials can operate much easily when the general public thinks actions from officials are inspired by supine idiocy.

They can rob more funds, while the public insist on seeing them as idiots and not as thieves.

This is nothing new. It happens quite often in South American federations.

 

No, it doesn't. There have been a huge number of attempts to take those officials out over decades, and the same number of FIFA's counter measures by threatening with disaffiliation.

 

Yeah, it is called normalization of corruption.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191308503250012

Press and general public rather attack the character of their officials, while their corrupt acts remain taken for granted.