Reminder to Luis Enrique. You don’t prepare for penalties by forcing Barca DNA players to practice a thousand times. You get players with balls of steel and just let them on the pitch. A GIF for the history books. The start of something special. 1000 days as European dominance kick-started right here at this very moment. UCL Final. Penalty shoot-outs. 1st penalty. Steps up Lucas Vazquez spinning the ball on his fingers. Places the ball & SCORES setting an eg pic.twitter.com/esKbd0zRi5— Yash (@Odriozolite) May 28, 2019
It is interesting to know what made Ronaldo play the last group game vs S. Korea. Ideally, at his age, he should have rested. At the same time, he did need some game rhythm as he hadn't been playing much. If it was about him chasing the Eusebio goal tally, it's would be a big shot to the foot for him as it looks like he was benched because of that game performance / altercation. He could still sub in and be a hero. Morocco will play a defense that is probably suitable for his headers. But how could Santos start him now for the rest of the WC ?
How could he bench a man that just scored a brilliant hattrick? I see CR being used as an impact sub going forward. Gotta hand it to Santos for making the tough call and benching a legend of the game for the good of the team (whether they would have thumped the Swiss anyway can be argued). Maybe Tite (or Mano Menezes) can replicate this and finally release the Selecão from the 10-year psychological dependency on Neymar. The Brazilian NT is spoilt for superb talent that help them progress into a Neymar-less era.
Marcos Llorente: "Then, the pitch was a bit uneven and it was difficult for us to quickly get the ball from one side to the other. If you add to that that the other team was very compact, with strong people in the middle. In the end we were unable to hurt them.'' pic.twitter.com/AaL0Sc5nXB— Football24/7 (@foet247europa) December 7, 2022 Barca DNA. Making Xavi proud. Morocco was playing on a different pitch, apparently.
هذا المعتوه دائماً يبدأ المشاكل و بعدها يهرب. https://t.co/7HweqlyWvm— ليث (@LaithRMFC) December 6, 2022
Lol literally punking them on the pitch. Dwarfs playing pass-pass is cool and all but knockout tournaments are about results so toughness and physicality will always be important factors.
Nope. Spain were perennial underachievers like Belgium, Portugal, Netherlands, etc. Spain continually beat every team in friendlies but when it came to tournaments they kept failing. But thanks to Aragones and Del Bosque - along with the coming of the Golden Generation [Xavi, Iniesta, David Villa, Casillas, Xabi Alonso, Ramos, etc.] - they finally began to click. 2008-2012 was my favorite time as a football fan. That is what is missing with this team, there will never be another Iniesta or David Villa to get the team going when they're stuck.
I usually root for Spain as my second team and had no problem rooting hard for Spain even when some of the team’s best players were cule legends because at the end of the day you couldn’t argue with Puyol, Xavi, and Iniesta being absolutely world class, and we had our own legends to support along with them. This team was just filled with utter mediocrity and shit characters, the goal as far as anyone could tell being not necessarily to win but to prove some sort of point. Sorry, but every non-Spanish Madridista is going be glad they won literally one out of four games and got dumped on their asses. Deservedly so, imagine possessing the ball for basically 90 full minutes out of the 120 and putting one (1) shot on goal.
Even that golden generation relied on the heroics of a Madridista to push them over the line. But were never recognised for it.
Luis Enrique: omG guys isn’t it so cool im starting an AM as a false no 9 (is there any tactic in football more overrated than the false 9?), a midfielder as a RB, and a midfielder as a CB!? I’m so smart right!? (You can’t start players in their actual positions because of my shitty team selection/“reasons”.) Bounou: sorry I drink ur milkshake Hakimi: sir have a paneka
Yes; Iniesta and David Villa were playing for Real Madrid. It's a team game. Compare the 08-12 team to this team. Man for man the 08-12 was superior in every department.
Also I would love to see a statistical analysis re penalty takers brought on in mins 115-120 because anecdotally it does not seem to go well!
there seems to be a section of twitter where "they should let messi win" is like a genuinely held opinion.
That's great and all, but it is the past. This world cup campaign felt like an unfinished product. A coach that preferred to use the world cup to give national team debuts instead of taking the best players. Now mind you, I subscribe to the "create the best team, not the best collection of individuals" but Spain didn't display any of thst either. It was simply a fun kickabout by talented players. A Spain team with Villa, Torres, Silva, Ramos, Xabi, just miles and miles in class away from what Spain produced for generations now, and from my view, the talent pool is becoming more shallow. Too much of the same player type. I don't subscribe to a national team owing anybody anything, people here hated the team that won the Euro as well for the pass pass pass style of play, but Spain returned back to their starting point of being all talent, no bite, it was fitting that a player from that generation was also on the bench as the coach for it.
I'll tell you what. Mentally, I like guys to either take trouble well, or immediately get in the mix. In this case you either walk through that charge and mind your business unphased, or you take the risk and push the guy back. This tentative, wait, let me thing, people will expect me to react to this, then go back and push is over thinking things. I liked how Spain displayed their culture, their football talents and things they do brilliantly, but I think Luis Enrique basically said he likes bread, and served just sliced bread for dinner. Very single dimensional, both in style of player and in characters. You need both the superkids, the brains, but also the muscle. Spain can bounce back but Luis Enrique HAS to go.
So Asensio is more than welcome to join Barca Seems made for their sterile possession with his constant back passing.
Would be an upgrade over Ferran, who is an Asensio with a skinnier neck and a shot allergic to the goal.