Ok, so we are like 2 weeks away from World Cup. So i think better to create a thread there for some bored people here. GROUP STAGE SCHEDULE Group stage - all kick-off times in UK Sunday November 20 Group A: Qatar vs Ecuador (Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 7pm) Monday November 21 Group B: England vs Iran (Khalifa International Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 1pm) Group A: Senegal vs Netherlands (Al Thumama Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 4pm) Group B: USA vs Wales (Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 7pm) Tuesday November 22 Group C: Argentina vs Saudi Arabia (Lusail Iconic Stadium, Lusail; kick-off 10am) Group D: Denmark vs Tunisia (Education City Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 1pm) Group C: Mexico vs Poland (Stadium 974, Doha; kick-off 4pm) Group D: France vs Australia (Al Janoub Stadium, Al Wakrah; kick-off 7pm) Wednesday November 23 Group F: Morocco vs Croatia (Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 10am) Group E: Germany vs Japan (Khalifa International Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 1pm) Group E: Spain vs Costa Rica (Al Thumama Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 4pm) Group F: Belgium vs Canada (Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 7pm) Thursday November 24 Group G: Switzerland vs Cameroon (Al Janoub Stadium, Al Wakrah; kick-off 10am) Group H: Uruguay vs South Korea (Education City Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 1pm) Group H: Portugal vs Ghana (Stadium 974, Doha; kick-off 4pm) Group G: Brazil vs Serbia (Lusail Iconic Stadium, Lusail; kick-off 7pm) Friday November 25 Group B: Wales vs Iran (Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 10am) Group A: Qatar vs Senegal (Al Thumama Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 1pm) Group A: Netherlands vs Ecuador (Khalifa International Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 4pm) Group B: England vs USA (Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 7pm) Saturday November 26 Group D: Tunisia vs Australia (Al Janoub Stadium, Al Wakrah; kick-off 10am) Group C: Poland vs Saudi Arabia (Education City Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 1pm) Group D: France vs Denmark (Stadium 974, Doha; kick-off 4pm) Group C: Argentina vs Mexico (Lusail Iconic Stadium, Lusail; kick-off 7pm) Sunday November 27 Group E: Japan vs Costa Rica (Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 10am) Group F: Belgium vs Morocco (Al Thumama Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 1pm) Group F: Croatia vs Canada (Khalifa International Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 4pm) Group E: Spain vs Germany (Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 7pm) Monday November 28 Group G: Cameroon vs Serbia (Al Janoub Stadium, Al Wakrah; kick-off 10am) Group G: South Korea vs Ghana (Education City Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 1pm) Group H: Brazil vs Switzerland (Stadium 974, Doha; kick-off 4pm) Group H: Portugal vs Uruguay (Lusail Iconic Stadium, Lusail; kick-off 7pm) Tuesday November 29 Group A: Netherlands vs Qatar (Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 3pm) Group A: Ecuador vs Senegal (Khalifa International Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 3pm) Group B: Wales vs England (Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 7pm) Group B: Iran vs USA (Al Thumama Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 7pm) Wednesday November 30 Group D: Australia vs Denmark (Al Janoub Stadium, Al Wakrah; kick-off 3pm) Group D: Tunisia vs France (Education City Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 3pm) Group C: Poland vs Argentina (Stadium 974, Doha; kick-off 7pm) Group C: Saudi Arabia vs Mexico (Lusail Iconic Stadium, Lusail; kick-off 7pm) Thursday December 1 Group F: Croatia vs Belgium (Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 3pm) Group F: Canada vs Morocco (Al Thumama Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 3pm) Group E: Costa Rica vs Germany (Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 7pm) Group E: Japan vs Spain (Khalifa International Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 7pm) Friday, December 2 Group G: South Korea vs Portugal (Education City Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 3pm) Group G: Ghana vs Uruguay (Al Janoub Stadium, Al Wakrah; kick-off 3pm) Group H: Serbia vs Switzerland (Stadium 974, Doha; kick-off 7pm) Group H: Cameroon vs Brazil (Lusail Iconic Stadium, Lusail; kick-off 7pm) Round of 16 Saturday December 3 49 - Winners of Group A vs Runners-up of Group B (Khalifa International Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 3pm) 50 - Winners of Group C vs Runners-up of Group D (Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 7pm) Sunday December 4 52 - Winners of Group D vs Runners-up of Group C (Al Thumama Stadium, Doha; kick-off 3pm) 51 - Winners of Group B vs Runners-up of Group A (Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 7pm) Monday December 5 53 - Winners of Group E vs Runners-up of Group F (Al Janoub Stadium, Al Wakrah; kick-off 3pm) 54 - Winners of Group G vs Runners-up of Group H (Stadium 974, Doha; kick-off 7pm) Tuesday December 6 55 - Winners of Group F vs Runners-up of Group E (Education City Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 3pm) 56 - Winners of Group H vs Runners-up of Group G (Lusail Iconic Stadium, Lusail; kick-off 7pm) Quarter-finals Friday December 9 58 - Winners of 53 vs Winners of 54 (Education City Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 3pm) 57 - Winners of 49 vs Winners of 50 (Lusail Iconic Stadium, Lusail; 7pm) Saturday December 10 60 - Winners of 55 vs Winners of 56 (Al Thumama Stadium, Doha; kick-off 3pm) 59 - Winners of 51 vs Winners of 52 (Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 7pm) Semi-finals Tuesday December 13 61 - Winners of 57 vs Winners of 58 (Lusail Iconic Stadium, Lusail; kick-off 7pm) Wednesday December 14 62 - Winners of 59 vs Winners of 60 (Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor; kick-off 7pm) Saturday December 17 63 - Third place play-off (Khalifa International Stadium, Al Rayyan; kick-off 3pm) Final Sunday December 18 64 - The World Cup final (Lusail Iconic Stadium, Lusail; kick-off 3pm)
Argentina doesn't have a World-Cup-winning level squad, let's be real. Plus they will probably be in the tough half of the bracket.
Indeed. If things go as planed, Arg will face Brazil in semi final, face Netherland in quarter final... Hard but if they win, it means they are truly the world best.
Japan's squad. Only 6 players in J League. 8 in Germany. They have chance to win their first game vsGermany. First team to reveal their squad.
and Germany, arguably. They haven't been so impressive lately as to deserve to be ranked among the favorites.
Brazil squad for World Cup. A very strong squad but like a wise man said: Whenever Brazil are expected to win, they will lose.
I was in the middle of posting the same image and then I forgot I needed to win $1.9b ... This is so true ... 94 and 02 we had a complete mess of WCQ and there wasn't much optimism back in Brazil. 02 I knew we had a chance when I saw the final few preparation games just before the WC. I really liked what I saw ... but having R9 do what he did in that WC was a complete gamble. Credit to him because he had to work really hard to come back from those injuries (there is a R9 documentary that came out recently that shows a little of his recovery process). Oh yeah ... and his abductor was messed up from the England game on. 98, 06 we came in as heavy favorites. But 06 I knew we had little chance before the WC started. That was supposed to be R10s network but the team had some old pieces and was unbalanced. I think we had solid enough teams to win it in 2010 and 2018. 2010 would have been tough because of Spain, but we were built to beat them in that WC. 2014 was a mess ... and I was there. Good think I left after the QF.
02 Brazil weren't favourite to win, mostly because they didn't play well in qualifiers. And in 2002, Brazil didn't really face many tough opponents. The group stage was quite easy and KO round only England could rival Brazil. 06 team were heavily favourite and at that time Nike really pushed that Joga Bonito ads to global. 2010,2014 and 2018 Brazil were all favourite. If Brazil faced Spain in 2010, i think Brazil would win. The same feeling if Brazil and Spain face each other this world cup, it will end up like Olympic final last year.
Yeah, I would normally have considered that as a distinct possibility. But they drew Australia and Tunisia. It almost feels like the WC already got diluted to 48 teams when I look at that group. Also, France lost twice recently to Denmark so I feel its too much expecting Denmark to beat France a third time this year. But in any case, France can afford to lose that game given the other two opponents (though it may put them in that tough half of the bracket).
Brazil is definitely very strong. Then again this WC is unpredictable. There are about 7-8 nations that could win and I wouldn't be shocked one bit.
Most are picking us to win. We have a good squad that has come together well in the past year with the emergence of the new wingers (Raphinha, Vin Jr, Antony). Our weakest spot is the FB position (both sides). I think this is the first time since 78 we have weak FBs on both sides. But we also have a suspect CB IMO since it looks like we will play a very old Thiago Silva. Marquinhos and Militao are good, but not as good as we've had in the past IMO. And although we have a lot of options up front, we really don't have a prolific goal scorer as a striker. Scoring will have to be distributed between the attackers.
What I noticed with the Brazil squad is it includes 9 attackers and 7 defenders (incl Dani Alves who is probably just there to bring experience to the training ground). That seems a bit backwards because typically you have more defenders on the pitch than attackers. Plus, defenders are more likely to be unavailable due to suspensions (2 bookings).
Yes. Tite spent all the extra spots up front. We have 3 options for every attacking position (assuming front 3). The reason is because we have some depth of talent in that sector where there isn't really a big drop in quality as in other sectors of the squad. Also, there are some players who can interchange positions in the back. Fabinho could play CB if needed. Militão could play RB. Personally I would have taken another CB and dropped a forward. But I think that is the rationale.
France's squad. Their midfield are weaker than 4 years ago. And i wonder if they still have any desire.
I think they will be hungry. Mbappe is young and would love a 2nd WC to stick it to Neymar and Messi. Benzema also wasn't in the WC winning team as he was still being black balled. This is his last chance and he has been resting games to be 100%. Tchouameni and Camavinga are also young and will be hungry. Not sure if both start though. Griezmann also a shadow of his former self but he could step up his game for the NT.
The reason that France were so eager to win in 2018 is that final Euro loss at home. That, combined with great squat with solid midfield and defense.