Uruguay paid for playing too conservative in the 1st 2 games. Japan and Korea through ? What is this ? 2002 ?
Suarez can't go 90 anymore. Subbed off in two, subbed on against Portugal. Celito mentioned de Arrascaeta is carrying an injury. Didn't play against Korea, subbed on v Portugal.
Arrascaeta had a long season . In Brazil season goes from end of Jan to Dec . Flamengo won Libertadores and Copa do Brasil . And at least until last quarter , were competing to catch us in the league . So I am not surprised he couldn’t play 90 . For flamengo end of the season he was looking spent in games at around 70th min
So you're saying if this World Cup had been played in June/July (as Qatar promised everyone it would), Arrascaeta would have been... a revelation?
Uruguay are my favorite from South America. Really disappointed. What was wrong with Portugal?! Why did they leave themselves wide open at the back on that corner?! Their defenders were waltzing their way back on that counter! It's as if they wanted to let Korea score! They cost Uruguay advancement! FIFA should throw them out of the World Cup for that crap! Or some sh!t like that.
He'd be in better shape for sure .. barring injury. He is actually 28 already. Was never sure why he doesn't play in Europe. He has been in Brazil for 8 seasons now. Good enough player. Probably not for top clubs. Would probably fit a La Liga team well.
So question. Qatar will have no use for the most stadiums they made So that reminded me: what are the state of the Brazilian ones from 2014?
Out of the 12 stadiums, 5 are not utilized much. - Manaus (Amazon) - there is no real team there. - Cuiaba (Pantanal) - stadium wasn't even ready in 2014 and has issues. - Brasillia (Garrincha) - most $ stadium to build in the capital. No real team there. Used for offices and bus parking. Sometimes it hosts NT matches and league games from Flamengo as host. - Natal (Dunas) - no real team that can use the stadium. - Pernambuco - this one could be used. The city has 3 teams with large followings .. but they seldom want to use the stadium because of the cost to use it and because they stadium is isolated. So they use their old stadiums instead. FIFA wanted/required 8 host cities, so the fault of building these white elephants is on Brazil and not FIFA. Only 1 stadium in Qatar will stay at it is. The others will be reduced and used as multi purpose or dismantled. So it looks like they planned well.
Both France and Portugal rested starters and lost their games. Now it's time for us. Everybody says we have a great bench, but I expect a struggle because you have to factor in chemistry. Some of them have played as starters in the past, but all of these haven't really played together at the same time ... only in practice. I'd hate to run the risk of losing 1st place given how the draw is now, but we 2 days of rest between today and our R16 match.
Oh! Ok, I misread things. I thought he was 20 but now I see it's Pellistri, who's not too bad either. Facundop Torres, Darwin, Araujo, Valverde, Bentancur... the team won't be too shabby when the veterans leave, which is probably right now since their World Cup is over..
I'll be watching Serbia-Switzerland, rooting mightily for Serbia.since they appear to give Portugal fits.when they play. And I had Serbia (with Denmark ) as my dark horses.
Serbia and Switzerland was a good game in 2018 if I remember correctly. And they have some bad blood due to politics.
So the 16 teams in the knockout stages consist of : 8 UEFA ( Netherlands , England , Poland , France , Spain , Croatia , Portugal , Switzerland/Serbia ) 2 CONMEBOL ( Brazil , Argentina ) 2 CAF ( Senegal , Morocco ) 2 AFC ( Japan , Korea ) 1 CONCACAF ( United States ) 1 OFC ( Australia )
We couldn't escape the B team curse. Played well enough to win but were poor in the final third. Almost turned into disaster had the Swiss scored 1 more goal.
I can't help but feel a bit annoyed by the top teams resting their core players on matchday 3. Not in a conspiracy sort of way but doesn't seem fair. I mean shi... even if we beat the Swiss we still would have lost out on 2nd place to Cameroon because Brazil just didn't care to play a lot of their best players. That doesn't seem fair. Just because another team plays Brazil last they get such a massive advantage. Also feel bad for Uruguay too. If Portugal didn't rest most of their core sans Ronaldo, I don't think Korea wins and Uruguay goes through.
I think in our case, you have to give us some leeway. FIFA has us resting only 2 days between today's game and the R16 match. And then 3 days between matches until the final when we get 4 days. England somehow rests 4 days now and then 5 full days between R16 and QF. France also has 3 and then 5 days. Argentina has 2 days now, but then gets 5 days break.
Not saying it's not the best decision for Brazil to rest players and if I was the Brazil coach I'd probably do it but I do feel it just isn't fair to other teams.
I mean ... sometimes you get to play a team in the last group stage that's already disqualified that may not be giving a shit anymore. There is really no perfect solution.
What you described has got to be way less frequent than a team that clinched a spot and doesn't give a shit. Plus if for example if Qatar or Canada weren't trying in their last match, they already gave all 3 points to their first two opponents so it doesn't affect the group. But a frontrunner like France or Brazil playing with their B team gives someone in the group a great chance at 3 points where they normally get 0 points. That's a big deal. How to fix it.. I don't know. Maybe reward teams that win all 3 games for instance remove accumulated yellow cards to prevent suspensions or something like that. Basically give teams incentive to go for 9 points. Or give them extra subs or something.