In the past, I've watched/heard Donovan break down matches at halftime or afterwards when I thought it was quite insightful. But his commentary in-match during this WC swings between dull and poor.
The Dutch in Dallas, the Ecuadorians in Philly and the Argentines in KC. For all the talk about how Americans are used to paying sky high prices for sporting events, it feels like a lot of tickets have been bought up by the passionate partisan fans more than neutral Americans.
Not that I've heard. I think FIFA calls it hydration break, so in general that's what commentators call it.
Odegaard had an active role in the middle today and they took him off at 80', while up 3-1. Good to see that they recognize his minutes need to be managed as much as possible.
The passionate partisan fans are also largely Americans. Ecuador in particular, there are tons of them on the East Coast.
Yeah, I caught up to live on that match and noticed that graphic. A little strange that they switched mid-tournament, whether that was decided by FOX or FIFA. Maybe because there's been a lot of criticism about "hydration breaks" especially when the weather is a cool 75F. Or maybe they're just being honest for what it really is... an ad break. Slippery slope to have these breaks be mandatory I say.
You'd have been lucky to be in Kansas City for this fun, historic performance. Depending on how things go for ARG in this tournament, he may have just cemented his GOAT status tonight. And that's perhaps the first time I've ever thought or said that. p.s. For me I sat at home and caught 3 matches on DVR that showcased 3 of the best goal scorers in the game today.
He's definitely ahead of Ronaldo for me and has been for some time. I don't think Argentina win the WC this year but if they do he will be a big part of it and I don't think I'd say the same about Ronnie and Portugal. That said Algeria were poor besides the first 10 or so minutes. This early in the comp it's hard to gauge the competition.
I've never really considered CR7 as GOAT. For me it was Pele or Messi, so that's what I was alluding to before... I think with this tournament Messi might just kick out Pele as GOAT for me. Others, especially younger folks, would probably not have clung on to Pele as long as I have.
To be honest the games I didn't expect much of have probably been the most entertaining. I didn't really expect much from Iran\NZ or Austria\Jordan or Belgium\Egypt and yet they have been attacking matches. I guess the thing I love about World Cups is the same thing I love about the UCL, teams who don't play each other often get matched up and it sometimes throws up odd results and teams just go balls to the wall.
I prefer Ronaldo as a player as he has proved it everywhere except the wc messi had the best midfield and one of the best managers and overalls teams ever I also think Ronaldo fits into more teams as a lw goal scorer but it’s all opinion I also think Portugal have a better chance than Argentina with their midfield
Argentina are mostly running back the same group from 2022 and have one of the oldest squads in the tournament. It looked great last night but that approach usually doesn't end well. Portugal's best chance is with Ronaldo in a limited role but that will be put to the test by his ego.
Both Ronaldo & Messi are phenomenal players. I have a hard time with the "Messi is GOAT" argument because he has gotten preferable treatment from the refs his entire career. Last WC Argentina received a relatively easy path to the final and more PKs awarded than any team in history. Last night against Algeria he should have been sent off but refs are afraid to be the guy who punishes Messi. There is a huge rabbit hole you can go down that tarnishes the majority of his career stats. I still think Messi is great but I have a hard time referring to him as the GOAT after seeing some of the bias throughout his career.
My boss got tickets, I'll have to ask her how it went. $800-1000 was too much for me. Yeah, it's hard to say how many of the Ecuadorian fans traveled from within the US versus from Ecuador. I thought we might get dull, neutral "super bowl" like crowds where its only rich fans that don't really care who wins. Instead FIFA has taken advantage of the most passionate fans and gotten them to pay up.