Group H's General Discussion Thread

Uruguay top of the table due to fair play.

(Never thought I would ever say that in my life. )

 

They dropped points but I am not worried about Uruguay. Really dominating performance, and showed good energy to the last second.

Not sure why Saudi only used 2 subs until the last minutes to waste time. Is their bench that bad?

 

Yup, without a real #9, the low block on Spain is the right strategy. Spain should still finish first, but with 3 wins in the World Cup since 2010, anything is possible.

 

First half was dreadful, I really enjoyed the way we attacked in the second half even if we didn’t win.

The only thing that pisses me off as I mentioned in the other thread is that we fumbled the chance to top the group after Spain’s surprise draw

 

Ehhhhh, not exactly, more just brilliantly executed game plan that came off fairly well from an upwardly mobile Cape Verde side that was never as bad as the prognosticators were suggesting the past 9 months since they qualified. You can't do what they did in CAF over the past 15 years and be no different than Ethiopia or Namibia or Liberia. They've made multiple knockouts of AFCON's, including a nice run to the quarters, and they have wins against 3 or 4 WCQ's who have won at the WC this decade. They are capable. They ran up against a team in my USA, that did the same thing to Spain in 2009, shutting them out, while allowing a billion shots (most that didn't trouble the keeper or were blocked). A well organized, low block can be hard to break down, especially if the keeper is on that day. Not a fluke, but against the odds and percentages, sure. This was about a 2 or 3 or at most 5% result for name, the casinos gave this about a 1 in 15 chance. A fluke is at least to me, more 1 in 50 or 1 in 100.

 

If the match were not in Miami I would favor Cape Verde against Uruguay.
As it is they still could find a way to win.
They are dangerous and believe they can compete with anyone after yesterday’s result.

 

They were great defensively, but where was the offense? They're going to need to get a few shots on net to win a game.

 

The battle of the 40-year-old goalkeepers.

Cabo Verde did a great job at limiting Spain to half chances, or more like 'quarter chances', but I didn't see any of this dangerous counterattack I've heard about.

 

The tournament's been going on for all of 5 days, and only 4 involving Conmebol. Let's settle down. The one side of that take I'd agree with is that it's been unusual for Conmebol this cycle in that....

1. Brazil has sucked for their standard.
2. Argentina was dominant in qualifying but they're old.
3. Ecuador was a defensive juggernaut in qualifying, but because of attacking limitations, they were bunched right in there w/the rest of 29/28 point earning lump (Uruguay, Colombia etc).
3. Uruguay was great in the first chunk of qualifying and meh to bad in the 2nd.
4. Colombia was inconsistent in qualifying but was very good at times (and hasn't played yet)
5. Paraguay was outright horrible the first half of qualifying, and very very good defensively the last 2/3s of it.
6. Venezuela should have been the playoff squad, but Venezuela had to go on the road to do battle w/some stronger sides, while Bolivia wrapped qualification in their 13,500 foot cloud covered fortress, so a worse Conmebol side competed with Iraq for one of the final two tickets.

The big issue Conmebol has to me this cycle is that they're top level just isn't there, Brazil is the weakest I've ever seen, and they've taken a step down for nearly 25 years, while Argentina is older, not better, and Uruguay, and Colombia are probably a touch worse now than they were at Copa America two years ago (and older too), while Ecuador is strong, so is Ivory Coast, as I predicted. So for me, without a true power other than a weakened Argentina, and with a pile of top 20ish sides in Ecuador, Colombia, Uruguay and this weaker Brazil....it's gonna look less impressive when they are playing strong sides like Morocco, and Ivory Coast, Uruguay, well, no excuses for them (and boy did I get the Saudi's wrong, for one game anyway).

 

Man, get the heck outta here with that nonsense!

VEN forced ARG to play in a waterlogged pitch, just to secure a draw. A month later, VEN turned on the sprinklers vs BRA, right after going down to 10 men, thus securing another draw.

But payback is a bitch: BRA took a dive in El Alto, letting BOL advance to intercontinental playoffs.

That's how C'BOL qualifiers be: fake it until you make it!

 

Small sample size bias. Let's actually see some games. Each game is its own story. Does Spain blow chunks now? No. But yesterday they simply couldn't figure out how to break Cape Verde, my guess is they absolutely crush it in at least one of the remaining two games by multiple goals, Cape Verde may have another good game in them.

Ecuador was excellent against Ivory Coast and extremely unlucky to lose (and I say this as someone who bet on Ivory Coast), Paraguay was always a suspicious side, they were god awful at Copa America '24, and horrible in the opening 1/3 of qualifying before turning it around the rest of the way and qualifying, though rarely looking special beyond defensive solidity. Uruguay has been in a tail spin for the better part of two years with supposedly players trying to get Bielsa fired, so we have no idea how they'll do. Colombia has been uneven, awesome at Copa America two years ago, before falling off winter of '24-'26, (loss to Uruguay away, lost to Ecuador at home, Brazil away, they gave up a 2-0 lead on Paraguay to tie at home, and tied Peru at home in a hangover game in June of '25) but after that they wrapped up qualifying with 3 consecutive strong performances (drawing Argentina away, crushing Bolivia at home, and crushing Venezuela in a must win game for Venezuela to have any hope of qualifying for the playoff (6-3 away win)).

Just look at the region and follow it and you know what's happening;
Uruguay has gotten older, hasn't incorporated enough good young players and they hate their coach, Ecuador has a world class defense but no striker, Colombia is getting older, but can still blow your doors off, Paraguay grinded away and slowly crawled out of the cellar to snag the last direct ticket, and this is probably the worst Brazil's anyone's ever seen......the standings tell the story with a giant glut of teams at 29 or 28 points, good, but not great sides, strong, but flawed.

It's worth noting Algeria is playing Argentina in Kansas City, which is notoriously miserable in the summer, sounds like it should be high 70s, to low 80s in the evening, much better than where I'm at where it hit 101 today out west.

 

I'm talking about which team is actually I don't know, competent. Bolivia has earned how many points away from their 13,500 foot fortress the last couple of qualification cycles? Like 4 in the past 3 or whatever? Venezuela started strong, and faded, but they showed they were reasonably competent through how they did early, the fact that they actually made the knockouts of the Copa America etc.

I'm not arguing they're good, they aren't, but they're a competent side that can provide difficulties for their opponents, Bolivia can't do anything at all ever unless they're playing at 13,500 feet, full stop. There's a difference. Venezuela beat Ecuador, Mexico and Jamaica at the Copa America before falling to Canada on penalties. On the road in qualifying they tied Brazil away, tied Peru as well. Bolivia beat Chile for their only road points, but were otherwise outscored 27-2 in their other 8 qualifiers on the road. Venezuela sucked on the road too, but were at least competitive in general to some extent (only blown out at altitude, by Bolivia lol, while Bolivia were blown out on the road by Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay and Colombia and Brazil (losing bye 3+ goals)).

Again, if Venezuela's engaging in shady antics, that's gross, but common place in Conmebol right? And Bolivia, I'm fairly certain, we are all aware is total and complete --- the second they aren't playing at their Volcano Redoubt lol. Hell they needed two late goals to beat back a Suriname side that were ahead 1-0 in that WC Playoff back in March until the final 20 minutes when Bolivia tied it and then finally grabbed a lead. Kinda tells you all you need to know.

 

I was forced to watch the match, which explains why we played poorly

Our attack was too predictable, to the point that only the ball carrier would jog. The other players walked slowly waiting for a pass, so they always had a Saudi player close to them. To break into a parked bus, players must zig zag.

I agree that with 48 teams the group phase lacks hype. But I was confident that many newcomers would play up to par. This group is an excellent example.

Uruguay won the fair play award at the 2011 Copa América, and Diego Lugano was given the trophy. Sebastián Abreu quipped it was like giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Bin Laden

So not too far from Infantino and Trump...

 

It's all good bro! You keep thinking VEN is a competent team, and CA results are true indicators of WC worth.

They shall qualify when C'BOL gets 9 WC slots, anytime now.

 

More times than not Uruguay is underwhelming in the first matches of tournaments. Also Saudi Arabia’s keeper played very well that evening.

 

Don’t get me started, man. I’m already pissed and we have five more hours to go…

 

Why is Yamal still on at this point??

He didn't look 100% in the first half, but they leave him out there in a match that's done and dusted.

 

Although, it helps Uruguay that Saudi are losing this bad. You're basically through with a win today - in 2nd place at least.

 

Yes Uruguay often starts world cups slow historically.

 

And some Copa Americas.