News: Other Teams - WC 2022 / International Edition (R)

May France win the WC now
I think they deserve it

 

Belgium saved us from a Brazil WC at least.

 

too bad the options are all terrible.

don't want to see either France or England win anything. I think I would rather see Croatia take the whole thing, although seems unlikely they have what it takes to beat both England and France.

choice between France or England. Can't even choose, don't really wanna see England be WC champs for 4 years nor do I want to see French football in our faces for 4 years.

 

France probably deserve it but that was the same pussyball we saw at Euro 2016. 6 men in the back when the opponent has the ball is probably what other (top) teams have to adopt as well to prevent as much danger as possible. That was the case before the goal as well.
I hope Croatia wins the other semi and then the team that plays the better football in the final shall win.

 

to think with all of our "success", France ends up better than us in the last 20 years if they win the WC.

say France wins the WC.
1998 WC-2018 WC

France reaches 3 finals in that period, winning 2 and if it wasn't for Zidane's headbutt would likely have won 3 WCs in that period. Same period France wins EC00 and CC01 and CC03.

that's 2 WCs, 1 EC and 2 CCs.

Germany in that same period.
1 WC and 1 CC that's it

makes me think I would rather see England win.

 

Why do you take 20 years as a 'generation'? I think 20 is a very arbitrary number. A generation with the NT should be closer to 10 years.

You can say that Germany 2010-2018 is the Loew generation. Similar philosophy and many common core players.

France from 2010- 2018 have had different generations. 2010 had a host of oldies bowing out. This is a totally different team altogether.

I agree with you on the fact that if they win this WC, they've upstaged Germany in this window.

 

This France is a really strong side. Attested by the fact that they have Giroud as a forward and have yet reached the final. Even in 1998, they had Stephen Guivarch, who well, did nothing of note and won a WC.

And Griezmann is a great player, but he has his flaws. He's the exact anti-thesis of Neymar. Neymar dribbles too much, holds the ball far too long and doesn't shoot or bass. That renders many counters useless, as the opposing defenders rush back. Griezmann just shoots too quickly. Makes him predictable and reduces chances combination play. At least that was the case today.

 

why not 20 years period? it's still recent times and Croatia for example last made the SF in 1998.

Another reason for 20 years is that 1998 WC kick started France as a real threat and was also when we started to go down, being eliminated by Croatia in the QF. We both had ups and downs and different generations as well in that 20 years.

 

If France wins, we are basically the 3rd best aide since the klinsi/löw era began.

1. Spain (1WC, 2EC)
2. France (1WC plus 2nd place finish).
3. Germany (1WC)

To make matters worse we are at the end of our cycle where as France has reloaded and are set to be a contender for many years.

 

pretty much why I don't want France to win, better see scrappy England win then them. When 1BL clubs are obsessed with French players over Germans, yeah nice to see us develop their players (sarcasm). And France doing better than Germany, really does show that we are potentially going down and might take time to go back up. And Low really doesn't seem to be the answer for a rebuild, as of now.

 

It is certainly dark days.

It reminds me of the last french golden generation in the late 90s and early 2000s. Every EPL team was scrambling to buy french players. Even untested ones.

 

yeah pretty much what's been happening. Few years ago, barely any French players in Germany, then in last 2ish years we are now fast approaching 30 French players. And it doesn't end there, tons and tons of reported interest to buy more of them and like you said huge amount of them have barely any experience. 1BL clubs are even buying French players who've never played beyond Ligue 2......

French in Italy 20 playes, in Spain 19, in EPL 30, in Germany as of now almost 25. None of that includes in the lower levels of the top 4 leagues. Pretty much getting to a point where there will be 100+ French players in the top 4 leagues in Europe.....

 

The one reason I don't want France to win is Corentin Tolisso, Bayern f uckboy.

 

France have all basis covered for both England or Croatia, England don't have an outlet apart from set pieces, France certainly got their measure, as for Croatia theres modric, but as lakaku and debryune found out tonight France a lot of steel as well as flair

 

Like you said, the EC2016 final was theirs to lose as well and they ended up losing it, so I won't be hanging any medals on the French just yet!

That said, I did bet on Germany or France winning before the tournament started so there's still a chance for me to make my money back and I'll definitely be rooting for them against Croatia!

 

Anyone but the English for me, I'm afraid. I've nothing against the players but the "it's coming home" bullshit is absolutely insufferable on social media already and they haven't even made the final. If they win, we'll never hear the end of it!

 

I saw it said that if Belgium's goalkeeper was anyone other than Courtois, it would've been 3:0.

It also would've been 3:0 if France's centre forward was anyone but Giroud!

 

my issue with England is let's be honest they have played like crap in every game. If they win WC this is like EC with Portugal all over again. Hate seeing terrible teams win tournament unless we are talking about Greece EC04, not a big footballing history and it was once in a lifetime.

besides like almost all of the promising English youth players, guys who won the U17 WC, U19 EC, and U20 WC haven't even begun to be integrated to the seniors and they made a WC SF as of now....


but if England win will this be their 2nd WC or 1st, does 66 even count?

 

Well, you know what they say about Portugal - if you can't beat Greece, you should become Greece!

I absolutely agree that England has been underwhelming, though, and If Harry Kane wins top scorer based on only scoring penalties then the Golden Boot rules should be changed (I think Own Goal should win it this year).

EDIT: '66 doesn't count, that was bullshit.

 

Otto Rehhagel is to be blamed

 

yeah, lol, the biggest shock in football history was manufactured by a German.

lol, at Portugal losing the 1st game and last game at EC04 vs Greece at home.

Harry Kane winning the Golden boot is the biggest farce in ages and it makes all the hard work of previous top scorers seem irrelevant. Even Ronaldo and Messi struggled to score at the WC yet we have Kane barely making an effort.

 

Come to think about it, England winning this World Cup would be the ultimate f uck you to Blatter, after all these years dissing the English plus the fact that the English still feel robbed about their 2018 hosting bid.