Frankly I've grown a bit tired of the tactic of holding possession for long periods of time and waiting to find the perfect gap to attack.
So have I. But that's not Guardiola. That's the bastardization that occurred with Spain NT. Man City attacks with purpose, creates chances and shoots at goal. Because they are so open they give other teams a chance...as they did with Liverpool. I enjoy watching them play...from Ederson on up.
I am ready for the Memes of Mbappé winning a WC at 19 while Messi, Ronaldo, and now Neymar have been trying for years ... I thought he played a very smart game today. Didn't force things for the most part. Gave some very nice passes. I am always impressed by players that have this much talent at this age that already have good decision making skills.
Courtois. "I won't say the team we were facing was better than us. They just defended well 35 metres in front of their goal. They did that for the whole tournament, so yeah... A goal on FK against Uruguay, another on a corner against us, it's a shame but that's football. Teams play on their strong points. In our case we play football, in the case of France, it's defending while counter attacking using MBappe that is very fast. It's a shame..."
Dude, if you think about it and if you've had a decent education (Georgetown Law in my case) you would know that the entire history of humanity "describes a massive, unprecedented population transfer" from Africa. Humans arose in Africa several million years ago, as you may know, and then started "moving north" and spread to the rest of the Earth. In other words, we are all Africans or descended from Africans. Also, recent investigations have discovered that the first Europeans were, in fact, very dark skinned. If skin color is your concern, that is. My conclusion: Don't worry about immigration from Africa to Europe because it will all work out and probably make Europe a much better place.
OK. So we can have a midfield of Casemiro, Fernandinho or R Augusto and Coutinho. A Brazil midfield that can still handle the France midfield. I still think that a midfield that has Casemiro is better than any other midfield on earth simply because Casemiro is that great. You said that Kante is underrated and I agree. However, in the universe where Kante is underrated Casemiro is super-mega- underrated. Before the Quarterfinal, a tv commentator on Bein sposts said: The replacement for Casemiro at R Madrid and Brazil is good but he's not as good as Casemiro because there is only one Casemiro. That's it for me.
We'll disagree here. We saw this type of midfield (the one with Coutinho) in the group games where Brazil went stretches of games being outworked. France's midfield is considerably better both technically and physically than any faced up until Belgium's in the Qtrs....and you saw what they did to Belgium. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe that you necessarily need to win the midfield battle to win the game, especially when you have potential match winners up front. I just don't think that any midfield the Selecao could have put up with the players available, other than the healthy Casemiro-Paulinho(Fernandinho)-R.Augusto would be France's equal. Regarding Casemiro, no doubt best in the world for past 2-3 years. I don't know that he is underrated. During CL games he's commonly referred to as the pillar of Madrid.
if you are serious about debating this topic, and aren't just another triggered liberal having a kneejerk reaction, then move this discussion the the politics thread and we'll talk. All I'm gonna say here is you're wrong about everything you said, from the "out of Africa" theory to the type of Brazilian that immigrates to the US and EU.
What a loser! He doesn’t even have the grace to recognize he lost to a better team. Between this an what he said about us, he’s proving to be such a major asshole.
At least we outshot them by a large margin. In fact a margin larger than that Belgium x USA game in 2014. In today's game Belgium was vastly outshot.
uh, France is hands down the best and most balanced team in this World Cup. lol @ discrediting their goal against Uruguay for being a FK. Their fluke headers against Japan and us were what then. Courtois sounds very delusional.
Watching France today, I couldn't help but appreciate Deschamp's( and trust me there isn't much I like about him) willingness to use young players and players who were recently included in the NT.
If that were a Brazilian player, they’d be labeled a whiner and poor loser. They’d blame it on Neymar’s attitude rubbing off on the team and it would be a topic of discussion for several days for all of the media. You probably won’t hear this Courtois quote after today.
Courtois also said “I would have preferred to have lost in the quarter-finals to Brazil, at least that was a team that wanted to play football. [France] are just an anti-football team.” Belgium played better and certainly more aesthetically but, just like Brazil, paid the price for missing chances (especially in the first half). However, Brazil peppered them with 26 shots. They only had 9 against France. I think Brazil with its full team would have defeated this France. England has such a good opportunity to win this WC!
Somebody tell Courtois he has also played for atletico and plays for Chelsea. Kompany is singing the same tune .
What is funny is I've seen someone say Real Madrid should sign Mbappe instead of Neymar for the sole reason of Neymar's threatrics..... 1016776321475719168 is not a valid tweet id 1016897211249168384 is not a valid tweet id
Agree. In fairness, the Belgian players are disappointed and perhaps aren't choosing their words most appropriately at the moment. I think Kevin De Bryune expressed himself better, while making the same point, "Have I been annoyed by France? No, I play at City. I play against teams that play so defensively 90% of the time. ‘That is football. What they do, they do well. Both teams have had opportunities. That one goal makes the difference." https://metro.co.uk/2018/07/10/chel...ce-tactics-belgium-knocked-world-cup-7701498/
I can understand their frustration, but they have to remain classy. KdB mentions that he plays at City, but Hazard and Courtois contradict themselves when they complain as @celito mentioned and they come off as sore losers. France was under no obligation to completely dominate Belgium. That doesn't normally happen at this stage of the Cup. And if they think they did that to Brazil, they are under a delusion.
That remark didn't even come from a Madrista. It came from someone who is anti South America even though they are a South American themselves
Don't disagree with you at all. I will say that I only found Courtois' comments as outright gauche (I haven't seen Kompany's). Hazard's comments were more expansive than just what has been posted. He also took some responsibility for the loss: "“We did not find their weak point. That little moment of magic needed to score was not there. I think we did not play bad. We had control of the play without being dangerous. We could have done better, but that did not happen. You cannot forget the good of this World Cup. We have seen a fantastic Belgian team and have been eliminated by a team that was more solid than us. Everyone has given a hundred percent. Nobody has held back himself.” https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation...was-magic-unlike-belgiums-play-against-france