2022 WC Qatar: Worldwide Opponents Watch [all R's]

Discussion in 'USA Men: News & Analysis' started by Sebsasour, Jun 5, 2019.

  1. Guinho

    Guinho Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes, bless their hearts
    Estonia
    May 27, 2001
    San Francisco, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    They required at least four super heroic saves from the constant Brazilian presence in their box. Their "attack" consisted of milling about the midfield then throwing in hopeful crosses.
     
  2. schrutebuck

    schrutebuck Member+

    Jul 26, 2007
    Brazil at the end was Klinsmann v Portugal levels of ineptitude in terms of pushing players forward.
     
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  3. ChrisSSBB

    ChrisSSBB Member+

    Jun 22, 2005
    DE
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I can't imagine a coach in the world putting themselves at risk so late in the match.
     
  4. thedukeofsoccer

    thedukeofsoccer Member+

    Jul 11, 2004
    Wussconsin
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    In a typical 3 pt contest, you also take 25 shots as opposed to 1. So it's less of a small sample.

    This is deciding a match off a tiny sample of a specialty skill. You could probably pull a 50-year old Cuauhtemoc out of the stands to beat the keeper more times than prime Messi. But an actual game, a team of prime Messis vs. 50-yr old Cuauhtemoc's would win by 30. So it's not a reflection of much when it comes to which team is better.
     
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  5. Guinho

    Guinho Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes, bless their hearts
    Estonia
    May 27, 2001
    San Francisco, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    the bleeding edge of tactics is to play anti-football and pray for PKs? Mmmkay.
     
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  6. papermache16

    papermache16 Member+

    Jan 30, 2009
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I agree for the most part, just saying how a 3pt contest vs shootout isn't really apples to oranges comparison.

    I've been in many shootouts like many on here. It definitely feels unjust, even if you feel you're the better team.
     
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  7. NGV

    NGV Member+

    Sep 14, 1999
    There are unlimited possible options - we could add an additional ball on the field every five minutes after 120', or replace each team's keeper with a field player, or something.
    The question is whether they'd be better than the current system, and that requires experimentation.

    So, they should experiment - there's no shortage of tournaments to try new things in.
     
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  8. Guinho

    Guinho Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes, bless their hearts
    Estonia
    May 27, 2001
    San Francisco, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    The main approach would be more extra time with more subs. Given them 10 subs, and let their respective benches sort it out. That wouldn't mean anyone necessarily playing the whole game.

    But that doesn't work for TV. It is what it is.
     
  9. papermache16

    papermache16 Member+

    Jan 30, 2009
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I really like the idea of removing a player every five minutes.

    Of course it's revolutionary and seen as such a major change in things, but so were foreign concepts like substitutes.
     
  10. IndividualEleven

    Mar 16, 2006
    The Croatia keeper made 11 saves.
     
  11. grandinquisitor28

    Feb 11, 2002
    Nevada
    Its exceptionally depressing. The entertainment value of the WC Final just dropped by a good 75%. Your Final (in terms of entertainment) is now likely this weekend in England vs France.

    It absolutely sucks. Eventually you do need the great teams to advance or the entertainment of value of the cup suffers for it (oddly didnt happen last time, that was a fun final). Really depressed. This totally sucks.

    Now one side of the bracket is a middling Dutch side, an underwhelming Argentina, and a crap Croatia who now have only beaten Canada in regulation. Seriously. Croatia's now advanced to the semifinals of the WC and the only team they've actually beaten is Canada.
     
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  12. OWN(yewu)ED

    OWN(yewu)ED Member+

    Club: Venezia F.C.
    May 26, 2006
    chico, CA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    We gotta get Slavan Bilic in as our next coach to teach us the ways
     
  13. Clint Eastwood

    Clint Eastwood Member+

    Dec 23, 2003
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Shrug.

    Yugoslavia and then Croatia have a long history of advancing deep in the World Cup. They know what to do from a practical point of view. None of this should really surprise anybody. Some generations they have great attacking players, and this one they don't. They do what's necessary.

    I think the World already knows that Luka Modric might be the 3rd best player of this generation. That guy's accomplishments are insane.
     
  14. IndividualEleven

    Mar 16, 2006
    Brasil were grossly over-rated. And it appeared they had believed their own hype.
     
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  15. Guinho

    Guinho Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes, bless their hearts
    Estonia
    May 27, 2001
    San Francisco, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    just watch: we're going to get Morocco v Croatia final, the first world cup final in history with 0 shots in 120 minutes.
     
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  16. PassionOfTheFoot

    Feb 12, 2002
    Incheon, South Korea
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Brazil let Croatia attack with a one man advantage in the box with 4 minutes left in the game. Why?
     
  17. grandinquisitor28

    Feb 11, 2002
    Nevada
    Yep, the SF is going to be absolute horse ----. Only interest is in one side of the bracket. Man Brazil, good lord, how the hell did they lose this?
     
  18. Guinho

    Guinho Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes, bless their hearts
    Estonia
    May 27, 2001
    San Francisco, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    They pummeled Croatia for 120 minutes and got stymied by an extremely lucky goal keeper saving shots he had no idea where they were.
     
  19. Guinho

    Guinho Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes, bless their hearts
    Estonia
    May 27, 2001
    San Francisco, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    Mean, unless we get to watch Messi just pick Croatia apart. That would be fun
     
  20. Fighting Illini

    Fighting Illini Member+

    Feb 6, 2014
    Chicago
    The player removal thing has a lot of potential, I think.

    The old MLS shootouts were also underrated.

    I also don't hate the idea of doing a shootout or mini-shootout BEFORE extra time, and awarding a half-goal to the winner, making the extra time one team desperately searching for a goal that's a winner if they get it. It's a little chintzy but would be dramatic and end the game with real soccer.
     
  21. ChrisSSBB

    ChrisSSBB Member+

    Jun 22, 2005
    DE
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    There isn't an opponent in front of you with the intent of denying your shot in a 3 PT contest. You don't have to change up your stroke in a 3 PT contest like you may well want to consider in a PK.. Good luck with your PK if you don't add some disguise in your run up, hips, etc. Add in that thd GK can just get lucky with their guess, it isn't anything like a 3 PT contest.
     
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  22. zlatan_but_a_car

    Botswana Meat Commission FC
    United States
    Oct 16, 2017
    The way that major rule changes normally take place is that IFAB normally "recommends" them in youth competitions / grassroots leagues (like the semi-pro or amateur leagues in the FA pyramid) before reporting on the results to FIFA who then tries them out in bigger youth / Women's competitions. Obviously other leagues / federations can mandate those changes without FIFA's permissions (example: the spray that refs use to mark deadballs / where the wall can go during FKs was first used in MLS and then CONMEBOL leagues before FIFA adopted it).

    I wonder if FIFA has data that makes them think that audiences like watching penalty shoot-outs... it is kinda of a signature of international soccer competitions. Personally, I hate them. I think penalties are a good form of punishment for infractions committed by defenders in the box during the run of play, but they're a terrible way to decide who continues in a tournament when the score is even after 120'.
     
  23. IndividualEleven

    Mar 16, 2006
    Happens when you can't transition. There's a higher chance your punches will simply land on shoulders and arms. Croatia also had a gilt-edge chance in regular time.
     
  24. gogorath

    gogorath Member+

    None
    United States
    May 12, 2019
    Croatia and Belgium had talent. The question is did either team get old. The latter seemed to; the former looks fine.
     
  25. grandinquisitor28

    Feb 11, 2002
    Nevada
    #6175 grandinquisitor28, Dec 9, 2022
    Last edited: Dec 9, 2022
    Have you caught Argentina's games? They were far, far, far better in the Copa in '21. They've been garbage in this tournament. They were in a cake group with 3 sides that sucked, and then got the worst team to make the knockouts in the round of 16 and that was actually a game. Seriously, 2-1, and Australia wasn't really scared. Saudi's beat them, THE SAUDI'S, granted it was against the run of play, and xG says that game is more likely like 3.5-0 for Argentina but still, a great Argenting, heck an above average one, bad luck or not, still escorts the Saudi's back to their locker room w/a 2 or 3 goal loss. They gave up 2, TWO, to them. Crazy.

    That Copa America Argentina won 5, drew 2, lost zero, and outscored their opponents 12-3.

    These guys struggled with Mexico, Poland and Australia, and lost to the Saudi's.

    The most depressing part of all of this? We haven't had a side of the bracket this friendly to our chances since 2002 and 2010. Good Lord man, all we had to do to make a final was advance past Netherlands, beat an underperforming Argentina, and then beat a crap Croatia side that other than against Canada, hasn't been able to score in regulation against anybody. We literally had it all in our hands, and fumbled it away by driving our Central Midfield into the ground and running what was it, 38 more miles collectively in the group stage than the Netherlands did. We could have legit made a run at this cup. This side of the bracket is WIDE open, but like 2010 where we had to chase the game from behind in every single game (even Algeria since we had to win) by the time we made the wide open bracket, we were too tired to put Ghana away. Same thing happened here.
     
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