At the time of that semi-final, I think only Varane had won a CL of the French players, so by your logic they wouldn't have had the pedigree to win a world cup either.
TBF Belgium and Germany don't play each other all that often (26 games in total; most of them eons ago; only 5 in the last 3 decades). To compare Belgium have played 129 derbies of the Low Countries and 75 games against France (that rivalry is called "le match sympa", usually to be a bit ironic). The H2H against France even favours Belgium. Have to hand it to the Germans, they kept at it for 95 minutes; really good intensity; couldn't tell that it was in fact a friendly. Maybe if Belgium had scored some of those big chances early on the game would have calmed down but after Can was introduced the Germans showed more aggression. The first half hour the Germans got completely and utterly played off the mat by a very young Belgium side; basically Belgium's U21 team saw out the game. In one window Tedesco brought a lot of the excitement back that had been waning since that mouth-watering display in the World Cup in Russia (which should have been held in the Netherlands and Belgium, as the only bid not to stoop to corruption/bribery according to the Garcia report).
If Benfica is buying all the Eredivisie players papers in Portugal are linking them to, they're gonna spend close to 200 million. I doubt they can do that.
Ten Hag busy with preparations of next season. https://www.fcupdate.nl/voetbalnieu...selectie-united-acht-spelers-mogen-vertrekken Ten Hag haalt bezem door selectie United: 'Acht spelers mogen vertrekken' Frank Hoekman Gisteren, 08:34 I hope he stays clear of the Eredivisie clubs.
Flick is gone Rudi Völler, Hannes Wolf and Sandro Wagner will take charge of the national team for Tuesday's friendly against France. The aim is to find a replacement for Hansi Flick as quickly as possible [dfb] pic.twitter.com/TfACInQLWS— Bayern & Germany (@iMiaSanMia) September 10, 2023
Some ex-players want vGaal https://www.ad.nl/buitenlands-voetb...ouis-van-gaal-hij-zou-de-beste-zijn~aa4de027/
Nagelsmann is the favorite choice. I don't see Louis or Zidane there as there are other German coaches as well.
Netherlands is in the cycle where more decent defenders are coming up, but not other positions, especially striker. With Messi is not hungry any more, no superstar in Brazil, Germany and Italy, 2 normal elite are struggling, it is too bad that Netherlands are not strong enough to challenge and win another title. https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/38392980/germany-italy-woes-cant-explained-cheap-rhetoric
He's the most likely foreign option but I just can't see this happen. Think about a former Bondscoach leading Germany to silverware in Germany? That's too crazy for a lot of folks.
I get it that you're still sore about your prediction that Belgium would win the 2020 Euro. Maybe better luck next time??
You have a history of trolling our forum. So let me ask you lightheartedly, what happened to your prediction of Belgium winning Euro2020??
Why would anyone believe we had a chance at that tournament? Hazard was already badly in decline. KDB just came back from a CL final injury. Our defense was old as ******** and way over the hill already. Ironically Italy was our only decent game at that tournament (and we lost). Largely because Martinez finally benched Hazard for Doku.
These extra spots are dumb by Fifa, but now there's a higher chance a European team get knocked out by a worse ranked team from CONMEBOL. There's always that possibility in the future now.
CONCACAF for this coming world cup will be even worse. All top 6 teams will qualify: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(CONCACAF)
This is correct. For years, it felt like CONMEBOL was underrepresented but this is not an overcorrection. The added teams did not come from other continents, all organizations (CONMEBOL, UEFA, CAF, Africa and Oceana) got more teams. At least, that's what I think happened. So, even if this is an overcorrection, its not really, because a bunch of sh#t teams are going to qualify since the tournament went from 32 teams to 48 - those 14 extra teams have to come from somewhere. Even in UEFA you're going to see teams like traditionally borderline teams like Norway, Finland, Italy make the tournament all the time. Still, most of these teams will get thru the group stage. (Italy)