That is nonsense. The core objective of football is to put the ball in the net and score, a principle that a penalty shootout honours. You can’t decide games on who ALMOST scored more. In practice you would also see that teams just aimlessly hammer balls over the bar forever in extra time to increase their shot count.
The fact that even poor national sides can be very effective at bunkering makes you wonder whether football at some point needs a rule change of some sort. 90% of results at international level are nowadays pretty much coin tosses and totally random
England v Croatial 'should' make a better semi....but Russia defended well...and made some good counters. They showed enough fight to warrant a close QF knockout loss. Both aspects of talent and spirit\fight are important in football..so let's try not to paint a picture where only one side should go through. Those with both will most likely succeed.
And Belgium almost fell to Brazil's secret weapon. Brazil starts their youth out learning the basic basics of Brazilian soccer at a young age. The vid below was smuggled out of Brazil and exposes their biggest secret. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1702286803159998 On a serious note... none of the above from the teams remaining I hope. I think Croatia deserved the win and looked to be the better team. Russia fought hard but didnt have the touch that Croatia had. Croatia could beat England I think
I think Croatia will beat england. British media already getting big headed and arogant. Thing is, Croatia matches up well against England. much better midfield and they have the height to counter England's reliance on set pieces. I reckon a final of France - Croatia with the French winning the world cup for the second time.
Croatia are a much better technical team man for man, and are probably slight favourites. However, your assertion that Croatia should manage on set pieces is probably ill founded for 2 reasons. Firstly, Sweden were probably the best team (physically and organisation) to deal with set pieces and they failed. Secondly. Lovren is a well known in the premier league for being a poor defender on set pieces.
Not sure, haven’t thought this through. Other team sports often have punishments for lack of initiative. In Ice hockey the attacking team gets a face off near the goal if the defending team just aimlessly hits the puck away from goal etc. Not sure any of this would work in football. Perhaps the randomness of football is also just part of its charm even if it can be infuriating
I would make the tie breaker something you have do do during the match that is difficult to reward the better team. Shots on goal inside the 18 for example. PKs are silly
Fair points. Sweden was very poor though you must admit. Croatia will be a different animal to what England has faced to this point, which to be frank was mostly second rate sides. Although Croatia won two matches on PSO, IMO they have shown more quality than England has. England remains fortunate that Colombia did not eliminate them.
Mods, planning on addressing the trolling? Of course england are Mbappe are still in the tournament, so we can expect some of that.
Disagree on Colombia. I think Colombia changed their gameplan to a fight rather than football...and got what they deserved.. If they'd been braver and had more belief without James from the start they probably could have won...that is on them or their coach. I agree that Sweden showed little from their previous games, but that isn't England's fault. I would say that getting through Colombia and Sweden...is a harder path than Denmark and Russia...and Croatia struggled. Croatia should be favourites on talent...but that talent should have crushed Denmark and Russia.
Give some credit to Russia guys, they put up an extremely good show. After seeing how they played today, I think Spain match needs a second look. It's the possession based football that Spain played forced Russia into parking the bus. I hate that tiki taka or whatever nonsense it is. Just kills the pace.
Colombia outplayed you lot top to bottom, respectfully. Sweden really was dire... you beat Panam and Tunisia... Croatia did wallop Argentina 3-0... I see you forget to mention that. Croatia were much more impressive against Denmark and Russia than England were in their knockout games.
It's a null point. I disagree with you because as impressive as Croatia were in the grioup they regressed in the knockout...it's there for all to see. England are the poorest side left in the competition I think most would agree...but I don't think it really matters who wins that semi...because both France and belgium are FAR superior to both England and Croatia...and the winner between those 2 will win this world cup.
Is that was the case, at the beginning of the world cup it would have been 75% chance of a first-time winner. Need to account for outcome probability. Nonetheless, chances are pretty high. Not many would have bet on 2 non-world cup winners in the semi's.
Actually happens more often than one thinks Number of non-WC winners in the semi final 1994 2 1998 3 2002 2 2006 1 2010 2 (they even contested the final) 2014 1
Great game today. After feeling disgusted by how Russia played against Spain in the second round, I caught myself celebrating their tying goal and hoping they’d qualify on penalties for the sake of the local fans. Despite their obvious limitations, Russia can be proud of their performance in this Cup.
Nonsense. If you look at the various stats they're almost ALL in our favour... https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1...national-FIFA-World-Cup-2018-Colombia-England http://www.espn.com/soccer/matchstats?gameId=498147 http://www.skysports.com/football/colombia-vs-england/stats/385224 We also should have had a PK before the one we did and they should have been down to 10 men for the headbutt. They had a couple of more shots on target, mostly from 25+ yards out and straight at the keeper. The truth is they were an absolute disgrace to the game with their antics.
Colombia had the talent to win..they disgraced themselves, and the coach should be looked at for that exit. The fact that they were not down to 10 men after one of the most obvious headbuts I've seen kept them in the game.
Can we also talk about the reason why England have scored so much from set pieces. Their best 4 players from headers line-up from the D and aim to move to specific areas from the kick. Teams who try to man mark panic and bring the players down (thus the penalties). Sweden in some parts tried Zonal ..and the players had momentum. It is really hard to defend against, and I'm surprised more teams don't try the same thing..