Peru sounds interesting. I only recognize Farfan and Gurrero in the lineup though. Is there others worth watching for on Peru?
Peru on something like a 18 game non-losing streak. Hottest team entering the WC for sure. El Tigre Gareca living up to his hype.
Advincula who plays rb , he's second or third fastest player in world football. Played in Brazil , flopped at a small club in Brazil that I watch a lot but was never given a chance. Cuerva, plays like a number ten , kind of sucks in Brazil for são paolo but is pretty damn good for Peru. A lot of Peruvians I know hype up carillo, was waiting for aps opinion but pretty sure it's similiar to my he's alright opinion. Tapia in dm could be the key.
Depends on the opposition. I'm definitely not doing it in the R16 when you either will play Spain or Portugal.
Dat young midfield corp.. They're going to be good for a while with that. Always thought a 3 CB backline would suit them well but ig not since none of them are fast and none of them are really comfortable on the ball like that. Betancur coming out party
And I had big money on Russia today, I legit got nervous when that omajac mothafuker said they would win. guy is bad luck.
Lol sounds like a back handed compliment. most on bigsoccer from my reading thought egypt would get out of it. now saudi arabia will be a convenient country to blame for evil russia advancing. No doubt they'd struggle in most groups but they still got talent.
Eh. Russia is pretty underwhelming IMO. They wouldn't have qualified without being the host nation. Egypt may have a chance with Salah coming back. I'm not interested in it from a moral perspective either. Although I'd rather see Egypt advance so we can continue to see Salah in this tournament. Uruguay should walk this group easy though.
If Northern Ireland wasn't ********ed by a ref they would have qualified instead of Switzerland. Talent isn't everything especially in Europe and South America where it is actually a gauntlet. We can't really tell how Russia would have done in qualifying. Them sucking ass in friendlies is alarming. But I like some of their players.
A lot of people thought they'd struggle today and they came out and played with a great tempo , using their speed. Did what they needed to do and then some. Egypt trying to build attack on them will open up their counter and then you will see the young boys start running for Russia. Mario Fernandez who was phenomenal today isn't done either. Really good player
I was always upset that Mario Fernandes settled for CSKA. Smh dude was a major oddball tho. Ran away like buku times lol wtf.
Uruguay scraped out the win. But man, the fullback play is a PROBLEM for them. Caught the last thirty or so minutes, and Sanchez looked terrible, like he didn't belong on this level.
Sanchez was equal to Nandez the guy he replaced. And it was scrappy but Uruguay created 3 awesome chances for Suarez and he was 0-3. Im pretty happy with it overall but I saw mengao calling for nandez to be substituted after checking the old posts which was correct and Tabarez quickly did it after. That right side was an issue.
I finally got to watch the Portugal-Spain game. Couple takeaways; 1. I feel somewhat vindicated in my take that Hummels+Boateng are better than Pepe+Fonte after that first goal. The one time they were isolated in a bit of space without cover they both got annihilated by Costa. Pepe went down too easy trying to game the ref and Fonte pretty much died on an island trying to go move-countermove with Costa. 2. Isco and Costa provide directness and bite to Spain they didn't otherwise have. Both of them were easily Spain's best players. 3. Ronaldo continues to elevate his game though. It felt like every time he touched the ball he scored. He's insanely good and has decisively won the debate against Messi at this point. 4. I still believe that Iniesta is not Spain's best option; he wasn't terrible, but he wasn't really moving the needle for Spain. An option with more athleticism and fresher legs like Thiago or Saul would be much better. Bring Iniesta on to calm a game down off the bench if needed.
Even if I were to concede the point, neither Pepe nor Fonte covered themselves in glory when they needed to make tackles or win aerial duels sitting in a low block. They pretty decisively lost to Costa's physicality when they came up against him in ways that I frankly can't see Hummels or Boateng losing. Say what you want about Mats' overratedness or Boateng's injury, but they're strong in the air and they are physical. They're also worlds better on the ball too.