The All Purpose Other Teams Thread - Pt. III (R)

🇮🇹 Italy XI: Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Acerbi, Toloi, Spinazzola; Barella, Jorginho, Verratti; Berardi, Retegui, Pellegrini.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England XI: Pickford; Walker, Maguire, Stones, Shaw; Rice, Bellingham, Phillips; Saka, Kane, Grealish.

— 𝐀𝐅𝐂 𝐀𝐉𝐀𝐗 💎 (@TheEuropeanLad) March 23, 2023

Hopefully it’s a good match.

 

Your boy just scored @SupaMario

I’m happy for Retegui and understand our logjam, but am a little bummed he wasn’t in Scaloni’s plans.

 

Wait till I get my hands on Scaloni.

 

To be honest, we are not that deep in that position. Julian, Lautaro and Gio… With Lautaro and Julian you’re good but then it’s Gio and a big drop off. I know Scaloni emphasizes on playing in Europe but is somebody riding the bench Ike Simeone who is nearly 28 than somebody who is almost 24 in Argentina and scoring frequently? Mateo was not that far off from a move to Europe. Maybe he fits better with the Tanos who play more directly but having depth is always a plus. We just have to hope that neither Julian or Lautaro do not get injured prior to a tournament.


Also, if he was playing for Boca or River*, there would be a firestorm of why Scaloni did not call him up or probably would’ve called him up if he was with one of those clubs.

 

I think Scaloni eventually would have called him, my guess is that Retegui didn't want to wait or didn't care, his desire was to go to Europe and playing for Italy is a good way to try to sell himself to Europe.

 

Italy lost to England. Retegui must be thrilled.

... And England can celebrate their friendlies thropy, the only thing they could actually win.

 

I watched England play yesterday, they were so boring. Argentina would have easily beat them.
Argentina has more trouble when teams go all bunker.

 

Yea, I mentioned eariler that today's game looks similar againts Poland (but with brute tackles flavour). Its good to see the team remains calm even after 70 mins of no goal.

This team has went through the hell & back during the WC and it shows on their attitude.

 

Retegui must be delighted as that Azzurri side is not winning anything for a while. There are some talents such as Tonali when he came on but they're thin on the ground. Where are the awesome centrebacks and fullbacks for instance ? The poacher upfront ?

England could have won that far more easily. But it's great to see Southgate in charge because when the pressure really mounts he falls flat on his backside.

 

France already up 2-0 on Netherlands in like 10 mins, lol. Just proves how great this team is to knock them out in a final.

 

Kolo muani is so overrated. He just runs, passes his defenders and bottles all his shots or chances.

 

EPL teams wet dream.

 

Australia, South Korea and Japan creating more challenges for South America. The region is getting better or some areas on South America are losing their touch.

 

Asian team still doesnt have the mentallity when it comes to KO stage. They could beat teams like Spain, Portugal and Germany at group stage matches, only to lose at round 16. Mexico also has history of beating Germany at WC.

The same with teams like Senegal, Cameroon and Saudi. Almost everytime we only see those type of teams causing an upset at group stage but they'd folded at round 16 or QF at max. Saudi didnt even make it out of group stage.

Remember when Spain beat us 6-1 before WC 2018? and they couldnt beat Morroco and Russia when it matter.

 

I watched the extended highlights of the Dutch v Netherlands game, and the Dutch defense was half asleep throughout that match. Granted, it wasn’t exactly their strongest team but that was amateur hour.

 

Japan and South Korea certainly the latter in recent years are no slouches. Japan were excellent at the World Cup. And Australia is improving. The A-League has helped but more that youngsters are moving to European academies as with those American kids.

Rather surprised though to see Ecuador ship three. Pretty much a full strength line up.
Socceroos celebrate homecoming with 3-1 victory over Ecuador in Sydney - ABC News

 

Australia was Italy toughest opponent on their route to win the 2006 WC. They only won it after the ref awarded a soft penalty.

Australia reminds me of those European mid class team such as Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland etc. They're not team full of talented individuals but they could actually frustrate you.

 

I watched the whole game and highlights just to convince my assumptions. This was a B team France faced and Holland made "B" team mistakes on all four goals.

First goal was confusion, something the WC Holland wouldn't allow. Two minute goal on WC holland would be minimal. Second goal was a poor mistake by inbox marking and a terrible goalie mistake. Holland defense just looked at the ball.Third goal was a terrible marking man on mbpappe and allowed the ball to pass through 3 flanks of players. Just terrible B team decisions. WC Holland would have not allowed that to happen. After that there were two give aways to Mbappe by poor defender passing, one of which Mbappe put away.

I wouldn't be so happy about that win if I were France.

 

I’ve said this before, but I wish we put our foots on their necks in the final(Also v the Dutch). It would’ve been poetic and then their media would’ve crucified the Ninja Turtle. He already got stick for his Euro 2020/1 choke job. But now he is their golden boy. This French side is insufferable, besides Griezmann.

 

This is why I'm critical of our wins. I hope Scaloni analyzes the WC issues, improves on it and starts watching the best teams in Europe how they evolve so next time they meet, they bounce them even harder. I love when my sport team crushes the opponent, so you can trash the fans even harder. It's as you say, we should have done more to them. Put lassie out of her misery.

 

Bono almost gifted them 3-4 goals and they were comedic.

 

The 2014 Group D stage. Remember this!

 

No doubt those AFC teams are improving, but Uruguay, Colombia, and Ecuador all won today against those three teams.