Group K's General Discussion Thread

Such an interesting finale, I've got Colombia and DR Congo winning today.

 

Very poor from DRC. Uzbekistan looking like the ones who have something to play for.

 

They've woken up a bit, but a vastly inferior game to their first two, left their shooting boots at home, the passing in the attacking third is improved, but the final ball and ball striking has been ----.

 

There it is, 2-1 in the 78th minute.

 

Exactly as I predicted: Uzbekistan to lose after going up to attack. They can either attack or defend, they cannot do both. Uzbekistan are perennial chokers.

 

Uzbekistan started well, were the better team in the first half, but DRC took over in the 2nd.

 

It is bizarre than Cristiano Ronaldo played again. If Portugal are semi-sane, they will bench him against Croatia. Portugal are literally contenders for the cup, but they could not beat Congo or Colombia due to Cristiano Ronaldo/playing with 10 men. Cristiano Ronaldo does not fit into this Portugal team. Even if he was a bit better/younger, he just does not fit into this team. This team is like Spain 2010, they need 11 fluid players, not a target man up front. Like Spain and David Villa 2010.

 

If the Colombian player clipped his toe nail before the mtach that would not have been offside.

 

What do you mean? It is a very simple assumption. Most penalties are goals. And Cristiano Ronaldo's free kick record is poor in the world cup: he only scored 1 free kick. And his penalty record is not that impressive either in the world cup. Most players would be able to at least match that. This is not a random/hypothetical assumption, it is rooted in reality and is a very valid assumption.

Right, that is why they matched Cristiano Ronaldo's goalscoring for club for 1-3 seasons, but they don't have teams built around them for a decade, and they also do not hustle/care to score the 4-0 or 5-0 against the weaker opponents in already won games. Cristiano Ronaldo is free to do that, nothing wrong with it, but that is stat padding and doesn't make him a better scorer. Most people just look at his game/goal ratio and based on that say he is the best goal scorer. But this is wrong and it warrants a closer look, which is why I brought it up.

This is a straw man. You are making it seem like I am the one saying he is not good. That is not what is happening. I am saying he is overrated because people just look at the surface, his trophies and goals. But I am digging deeper and saying he is not as good as people think/he is not among the very best of all time like people think, because the goal:game ratio is inflated/not any more useful to the team as I already mentioned above. I am not saying he is not good. Overall he is obviously world class, but many people put him in top 5, I don't think he is at that level. I think he is barely top 20 of all time. I would take peak Robben over peak Cristiano Ronaldo any day for example. Longevity/trophies/motivation/hard work, etc.. are good, but they don't magically make your ability better. It is like Kobe Bryant vs Lebron James/Jordan/Durant in basketball. Kobe was great and a hard worker but in terms of ability he wasn't as good.

This is true but only to an extent. At some point it begins to be circular reasoning. It has been many years Cristiano Ronaldo does not deserve this role, but still enjoyed it. This was based on his past performance, not his contemporary performance. You might argue that it is still his own past performance, but it is an incorrect/illogical decision/bad for the team. Even at his peak, he never deserved to have Portugal play for him rather than vice versa: even with this luxury, he underperformed for Portugal. Many top players already exceeded his performance for their country even without the luxury of such a role, but were not given this role because they did not get overrated due to inflated goal/game ratio/being good at marketing/talking big about self to give the illusion that you are as good as you are not, or they played for teams with other good players. Cristiano Ronaldo had the best of both worlds: he always had a strong Portugal squad to feed him, but at the same time enjoyed the team playing for him. Even messi played as playmaker for a long time for Argentina, an even later on Messi had to share spotlight with other Argentine greats and the team was never playing for him. As you can see today Messi is benched, but Portugal played Cristiano Ronaldo and did not beat Colombia as a result. The other player who was overrated in this sense/had this luxury when they should not have was Zlatan. Again, common denominator: both talked big about themselves. Most people mistake excessive confidence for skill and just look at the surface like goal ratio or nice looking goals and do not dig deeper to see what is going on, that is how these types of players get away with it.

 

Glad we won the Group. We deserve it.
Portugal is a darn good team but we are better.

 

I’m lost for words about this Portugal team. No chemistry in attack and relying completely on Ronaldo. Ronaldo needs to be benched. I understand he’s a legend and has history, but players don’t stay in their primes forever. Time to move on, and it’s not like Portugal lacks talent. They’ve got Goncalo Ramos and many others.

On another note, I’m skeptical that Portugal is using their best options on the wings too. I feel like Leao and Conceicao should be the starting wingers with Goncalo Ramos as striker with maybe Felix as a super sub for whoever is tired. Thoughts?

 

Ronaldo has been holding back the Portugal team for a few tournaments now, his inclusion must be related to money and marketing or to allow him to set records. He also should've been suspended these last few games for violent conduct. I feel sorry for Portugal his situation reminds me of Rooney who was also shoehorned into a position he's not good at and made undroppable, well past his sell by date for unfathomable reasons.

 

James Rodríguez still the beating heart of this Colombian team Twelve years on from the 2014 World Cup his breakout tournament

 

Father Time is catching up to him. He is not playing as well as Copa America ‘24. But I give him credit for playing as many minutes as he has this Group stage. Considering the altitude in the first matches and the heat and humidity in the third match it is impressive.

 

I think Portugal intentionally played the game today for a draw so that they finnish second in their group and avoid facing another lowblock team like Ghana under Carlos Queiroz as well as facing Argentina in the quarter finals. Instead they went to the bracket where they will face only european team which they are familiar with.

 

Lol

 

Welp, as always, Portugal struggle to get out of group stage. Now its do or die. So they better figure shit out or its over. Colombia deserve to win the group and Portugal doesn't deserve 2nd place. At least it looks like they will face familiar teams on this side of the bracket starting with Croatia.