FIFA World Cup 2026 Results & Discussion Thread [R]

All this [deserved] praise on de la Fuente is interesting

I thought having a 'system' was bad
Benching a great player that doesn't fit in the system? Evil
Pressing and defending like a unit? Bad

 

I remember my first trip to Spain in 2000 and being in madrid when the Puerta del
Sol was evacuated due to an ETA bomb. Hard to think that wasn’t long ago.

 

Lol

 

I don't see the need for too complex analyses. It's really simple. You lose the midfield, you lose the game. How many times have we seen this happening to our team?

I'm hoping Mou will go full nuclear and make us a strong unit before anything else. I could see the team working fine with a midfield of Carreras, Tchou, Fede, and Valverde, with Jude, Mbappe and Vini rotating in this 2-forward formation.

Highly unlikely, but one can dream. If we play two light midfielders like Arda and Bernardo + the attacking trio, we will lose many games.

Spain controls the midfield, and in a positive snowball effect, they have conceded one single goal while beating almost all their opponents.

No rocket science, nothing groundbreaking, just good old midfield control.

 

Modric and Kroos provided key moments in those wins still. Vini goal in 2022 final came from a brilliant sequence started by Modric beating Liverpool press.

Only Jude has that kind of press resistance in current midfield and he's an AM.

 

Maybe you didn't understand the context.

I'm not even fighting you guys on rooting for Spain.. Because let's be real, if the rest of us end up throwing on a red shirt on Sunday, it has absolutely nothing to do with this Kumbaya "trickle down economics for la liga" fantasy.

It’s going to be purely about merit and grade A spite. They played beautiful ruthless football and did it without needing a VIP escort or a referee on standby.

 

Yeah, we still had great midfielders in those 2 CLs. They didn't have the legs to control the match but it is a mix of quality in midfield, good defensive structure and killer attack (2024). We were not that good defensively in 2022 but we were very lucky in certain games and extremely clinical in attack.
Spain had control of the game and was great in the defensive duties.

 

pic.twitter.com/Rkv5MZ8rTm

— Craig 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🖤🤍🖤🤍 (@hetherington31) July 15, 2026

 

yeah, exactly. Never understood those fans that couldn't separate club football from national team football. It maybe would make a bit of sense if players stayed at one club for most of their career or if we were living in the 1960s when so many players played club football in their home country.

 

Not really, we had Kroos and Modric who are prrcisely midfield maestros. Maybe numerically.

 

These games are decided by small 'margin of error'. Spain didn't do anything special yesterday.

France committed 2 fatal errors and that is the end of it.

 

Wow

not with VARgentina https://t.co/Yuh2Cf4ZMb

— Ryanair (@Ryanair) July 15, 2026

 

MLS referee for tonight's game. Shocker.

 

Which is quite surprising given his public support for Gaza. Thought he'd be public enemy n2 but I guess playing for Barca gives blanket immunity.

 

Yet People want us to flog players who have never played a bad semi final and always turn up in knockout games bar a few games and buy this guy for 200 ME. Maybe show a tiny bit of loyalty to our own players.

 

Yamal didnt lift a leg to help out in defence apart from fouling and fouling and fouling. It is the same with Barca. He does minimal defensive work. Nobody will remember this though as he is part of a winning team where the rest press in unison

 

Sell him!