No, of course Brazil is a powerhouse and deserves 3 in a row. If Chile gets 3 in a row it will not represent their true strength. This is obvious when you look at their performance during the same time in WC, WCQ and the fact that one of the tournaments came the next year. 3 in a row, implies dominating South American football for 10 years or so. But whatever, I like Chile's team so wouldn't begrudge them it.
Yep, Uruguay is great. What's your point? Of course numbers matter, though it's not a linear correlation. Demographics doesn't only mean numbers btw. Nah, Argentina's football production has decreased and it's due to demographics and economics IMO. I think this will be the last top 5 world football generation in awhile for us. But we'll see.
If economics mattered, Chile and Peru should be the top contenders in S. America along with Brazil. Look up the USD sovereign curve for government bonds for those countries. Brazil deserves 3 in a row? Thank you; let it be 2022, 2026, and 2030! Brazil Octo!
If your prediction is right, your team will not be too likely to win anything in a long time. For your sake, you should hope that doesn't happen.
Economics is just one factor. Well, I don't think the current Brazilian team deserves 3 in a row but if Brazil had won 3 in a row during the 90s or something, it would make sense. Chile, 3 in a row? People would think they had amazing team during the decade. Their team is nice but not amazing.
Being amazing is subjective and unnecessary. Getting to the final and winning does not require "being amazing." You're way too subjective. Tune in on Sunday. Hopefully my team will deny Chile 3 in a row.
They didn't even qualify for the WC. Their top ranking has been 4. Mostly they've hovered around 10. Not that subjective.
In part because of a 0-1 defeat vs. you which was controversial and a tactical error on their part (Bolivia-related complaint). Even North Korea has qualified for the World Cup. But unlike North Korea, the Chileans have won continental cups in very recent time. Also, since you mention economics: Chile has for a long time had a far better economy than Argentina, but they've won fewer titles than your team. Economics doesn't mean much. In any case - tune in on Sunday.
Argentina played there best game against us in years and still lost. The defense was immense. Silva, Marquinhos were superb defensively. Alisson commanded his box very well. Didn’t like Tite tactically or his subs in this game. In fact, he has been quite poor by his standards throughout the tournament. Making the final has just hidden the cracks IMO.
Agree. Arthur a few times didn't release the ball quick enough and got dispossessed. Casemiro once or twice tried to run through the middle dribbling players ... I guess he was talking Luxa's advice
I find it a bit ironic that the Argentine media believes that they only had bad calls made against them. In my opinion, I felt Aguero went down too easily on the non-PK call. Had that been Neymar, no one would be complaining. There was a better case to be made on Arthur knocking down Otamendi on the corner kick. This also raises another question about the utilization of VAR. When no foul is called on the field, can VAR be utilized to determine if it was a PK foul? If so, does anyone have an example of when a foul was not called on the field but reviewed and reversed into a PK? I can only recall seeing reviews where a foul was called on the pitch and the ref reviewed it to see if it was a PK or not. On the ref, he was letting a lot of things go all night. There were cases to be made for Acuna and Lautaro being sent off. Aguero definitely got away with his foul late in the game. Otamendi also had a foul on Coutinho from behind that was not reprimanded. I can see why Argentines are frustrated because they finally had a good performance, and it was against their biggest rivals and the result didn't go their way -- and I will admit I think they were hard done by the result. A draw would have been more fair. However, the ref was poor for both sides last night.
Agreed. Also Messi's 1st near the box FK came from him falling on the slightest contact. The 2nd FK I couldn't even tell what happened. Anyways, after what they did in 90, I will never feel any sorry for them getting a raw deal. In our 2nd goal, one of their players completely stopped thinking a foul had been called. Another in the midfield basically jogs and gives up on the play. Had he kept running he would have been able to cover Firmino. They played with heart most of the game, but yet again you have moments where they turn it off. Perhaps they were already tired.
Not sure if I had an issue with the FKs, but I did have an issue with the foul called on Messi after Casemiro won the ball. That FK led to their first post shot by Aguero. Argentina did a good job pressuring us in our own half and getting back and staying compact. This is exactly what I was hoping we would continue to do after the first goal. We sat way too far back inviting them in. With the personnel that we had on the field, we aren't built to counter deep from our half and felt like we took unnecessary pressure. I think we had a better chance with keeping up with our tactics from the first 20 and pressuring them higher up the pitch and forcing an error for a counter. I expected better adjustments from Tite in the second half after seeing how the midfield couldn't put together an effective counter attack sitting deep. I will give a little break to Tite in the fact that he basically had 2 of his subs forced on him by injury.
On the flip side, I am not surprised to see our media with these headlines. Sure, we won, let's tease the hermanos a bit. Messi going missing is overboard. Sure, it wasn't a super amazing performance from him, but it was still a good one. He created chances. I am not a Messi fan by any means, but to say he went missing or was poor is extremely harsh.
Messi had his best performance of the tournament but it was still not enough. The headline is unfair but the "escrita" is true: Messi almost never does anything worthy when playing against Brazil. I learned to not even fear Messi any longer when we play against them. Like I said many times, I believe that Messi is a psychologically weak individual who has some demons that hinder his performance against the national team's biggest rivals. When playing against Brazil he always looks like a sulking child, complains a lot, but does little. Compare with Maradona: that one, I genuinely feared. He was fierce, had energy, and a strong presence. Messi? Pfftt... Like I said many times, Messi is a great, outstanding, spectacular CLUB player, but that's about it. He is supposed to be the captain, but his incapacity to truly lead his national team to greatness after 14 years trying and no title to show for his (pitiful) efforts, says a lot about what happens when the system is not designed to serve him like it is with Barcelona. Messi apologists will say that what I'm saying is nonsense, but I frankly don't think so. If someone who didn't know who Messi was, gauged his national team performances in a truly unbiased way, he'd earn a "mediocre" rating. His greatness is only with club. His national team performances are good at times, but overall erratic with a lot of disappearing acts. I'm not saying that he can't play well for Argentina, as he has, but the consistency and the clutch aspect, which he shows for club, are clearly absent when he is with country, especially when it counts most (his national team has reached finals and semifinals with him, but earned no title - Argentina has 14 South American championships and 2 World Cups without Messi and none with him). This is in my opinion the main reason why Messi is NOT one of the top ten greatest players of all time. He is clearly among the best CLUB players ever, maybe even the number 1 in that regard, but the true greats (Pelé, Maradona, Beckenbauer, Ronaldo Fenômeno, Zidane, etc., etc. - I listed more in another post in this very thread, which of couse Messi apologists deemed insane), play well and lead well for both club and country, unlike Messi, showing that their greatness doesn't depend on the system being built for them and around them. Interestingly enough, a 36-year-old Barcelona player, who also played as the captain for his national team, taught Messi yesterday what it means to truly lead his team. Thank you, Daniel Alves!
I've seen some give credit to Argentina and Messi for playing their best game. But they are also saying we played well. Next non-result game and they will go back to the same talking points. I don't agree with everything Bruno Formiga says, but he is typically more objective in these situations. Haven't seen what he said about this game.
Yeah. Depends on how you interpret if Alves is crossing him though. Could have hit him on the thigh with the knee ... but seems to me like he fell because he stepped on his foot.
Daniel Alves fez de tudo ontem: foi defensor, volante, driblou todo mundo e deu passes decisivos em várias jogadas. Uma atuação memorável que mostra que o futebol nada mais é do que um jogo de decisões onde se joga com a cabeça. Análise👇https://t.co/PT1DLXE0CI— Leonardo Miranda (@leoffmiranda) July 3, 2019 A far cry from when two qualifying cycles ago, he spent 2.5-3 years leaving acres of space behind him, constantly would cut inside and lose the ball or pass it away, or when he did stay wide, would whip a cross not in the same zip code as his target. We definitely missed him at the WC, and that's not to say that Fagner was necessarily poor. That's a testament to how much of an impact Alves really makes.