Thanks! BTW for my fellow BS Gooners here, I have gotten a shift change as of back in October and now work around 3, 4, or 5 mornings (they vary weekly) a week in the dairy case from 6:00 am-10:00 am so I have been unable to watch The Red & White in action but I have been keeping up on the Arsenal app and been getting updates on her almost every day, and certainly every match. I am aware that we lost a Carabao Cup match to Brighton, and that our new away kits are selling like hotcakes, and I DO intend to snag one up in XL come January when Soccer.com has them back in stock (Arsenal Direct are all sold out), I just sure hope they didn't mod them with that tacky new Adidas scriptless (in other words the "A" only) logo they most recently introduced as of the World Cup. 12-1-1 (37 points through 14 matches) is quite an impressive record and this is THE BEST club we have had since I became a Gooner 10 seasons ago after exile from Wolfsburg when my desktop got that virus trying to stream a match off of Sky Deutschland for what would've been my 4th straight season doing so with them. The Invincibles brought me to this great club, and now we are in a position to win the whole thing since they did 19 years ago!!!
Honestly don't know who I hate more in this WC final. Is there any way they can both lose a penalty shootout and the WC be awarded to the winner of Croatia and Morocco? Argentina and their fans in all my interactions have been arrogant as ********, like they are owed a WC win because Messi is retiring. And the fact the refs have bent over backwards for them at times this tourney and they had the audacity to call them out after the Dutch game where Messi should have been sent off is hilarious. Meanwhile the French are the French, and I can't stand Mbappe.
He deserves it. Matured, takes charge, memtors youth. He's not doing the ratchet stuff that kept him in the tabloids and.his club form had everyone rooting for him to win the national glory. He deserves to come on and hear his name chanted.
I ain’t reading squat since I last posted but we all rooting for Messi right? Besides the Portugese, Madrid fans, and bigman
Super happy for Giroud My dude is living his best life He had his failings, but i do wonder to what extend his failings at Arsenal were mostly dino failing to put together a functional midfield. The one time we had a functional midfield in 2013 the team were the best in the EPL. Giroud never suited the hyper modern approach that is common now, but his holdup play and menance in front of goal, especially fed by Ozil, was elite. Probably the team needed an elite, fast forward (Alexis was partly that) but especially a balanced midfield that could defend properly. In 2013 with players like Arteta, Rosicky, Ozil and pre injury Wilshere, we had that.
Yet Giroud had 15 or more goals in all competitions during four of his six seasons at Arsenal, but hasn’t duplicated that feat since. If you only consider league goals, Giroud scored 10 or league goals in five of his six seasons at Arsenal, but has only duplicated that feat once since, last season at AC Milan.
Giroud's lack of pace was a liability in England. That's less of an issue in Italy and at the International level.
I fully expect France to win. But either storyline is a compelling one. Should they prevail, what I don't expect to see is Leonel Messi walking down the tunnel like a bitch the way Ronaldo did when they lost. And that will forever be the difference between Messi and Ronaldo, and how they are judged. Unless Messi puts the entire country on his back and they win 3-2? Who knows, but it should be entertaining!
I think Argentina have the advantage. They have what it takes to exploit that shaky back line and the creative talisman that England are lacking.
ARG's form and trendline has been improving nicely. I'm not sure I've ever supported them before, but on Sunday I plan to. FRA, while they still have a formidable squad, even without some very key absences, just seemed to do the bare minimum against MAR, could've lost control of that game, and could've easily lost to ENG. Maybe in the last match they were just saving themselves for the final (would be a crazy approach no?)... I have to assume they have another gear to go to... but if so, will they use it on Sunday?? FWIW, the bookies seem to have this match even. More than anything else I'm rooting for good football. Not some cagey, defensive too-much-is-on-the line final shit. An early goal should help.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63998821 Plenty of discussion now of a FIFA re-think to the 2026 World Cup group stage (3 vs. 4 team groups, 3 vs. 2 games each). What jumped out at me, in one of the articles I read (not the one above), was that even if FIFA were to go to 64 teams (which they aren't), it still would not have been enough for Norway to qualify for this current world cup. Certainly they don't want to waste the talent of Odegaard and Haaland by not being able to qualify for the 2026 world cup. Hell, even a washed up Bale and Ramsey managed to make this year's field of 32. Norway should be able to squeak into a field of 48 in four years time, no?
I haven't really read much but when I heard they were planning on 3-team groups I was bummed. 4-team groups, with careful seeding, is a staple that has proven to produce pretty fair qualification results and sometimes (like this month) some pretty amazing final day permutations and swings. I haven't thought about the math of 4-team groups and 48 teams but I guess it would involve some sort of playoff/playin to the R16, which I guess could wreak a little havoc with the schedule? 64 teams seems ridiculously high... double what we have now?!!! My gut says no to that. Edit: Oh, I forgot about the idea of 24 top-two qualifiers plus the 8 "best" 3rd-placed team, which would make up the R32. That could work, and perhaps has precedence... in WC's where there were 24 teams IIRC?? But do we really wanna have the 16 more games req'd for R32... how could there be time for that???
The 3 team, 2 game format would lead to a 32 team knockout round. The trade off is that 2 of the 3 teams will play their 2nd pool game knowing exactly what they need out of it to advance, while the other team can do nothing but hope. Unless they've already taken care of business. Seeding could factor into who plays when, but after all the group stage upsets this year, FIFA took note. The 4 team pools would lead to one of 2 scenarios: The cakewalk scenario: The top 2 teams in each group, plus the 8 best 3rd place teams round out a 32 team knockout round. This won't happen because it basically guarantees every top team can cakewalk thru the group stage and qualify, making the knockout round almost unimportant to unwatchable, not to mention how many days it would add to the entire tournament. The cutthroat scenario: The top team in each group plus the 4 best 2nd place teams would round out a 16 team knockout round. This would completely flip the script on the World Cup as we know it, and is likely the scenario under consideration. Similar to the 3 team, 2 game pool play, this would make each pool game matter greatly, and gives all participants 3 guaranteed games. The difference to me is that the cutthroat format gives less opportunity for the teams going home to blame the format for their fate, and should make for a much stronger field of 16. It's not ideal to finish 2nd and pack your bags after 3 games, but consider this 3 team pool scenario in contrast: Morocco is grouped with Netherlands and Honduras in a 3 team pool. The Dutch beat Morocco 3-2 in a cracker of a game, then Morocco leaks a shit own goal to Honduras (or a suspect VAR decision, really anything controversial) and manages to scrap to a 1-1 draw. Now the entire world (and Morocco) is treated to a boring 0-0 draw between Netherlands and Honduras because neither team needs a result and Morocco goes home. But alas, Honduras celebrates their luck in facing the Dutch last, makes the round of 32 where they'll face a team like Brazil. Is that compelling TV?? Of course Morocco could still finish 2nd in a 4 team pool and still go home, but it almost certainly wouldn't be at the expense of Honduras advancing. (And if it were, that would ABSOLUTELY be compelling.)
The world of sport doesn't know anything about "just leave it as is," unfortunately. Somebody has to get paid.
Just heard that the illness in the French Camp has spread a bit. Konate, Verane & Coman have caught the bug. While Rabiot & Upemacano are just back to training, doubtfult they’ll be 100% or F90 fit. If Argentina has maintained their health, the door might just have opened a little wider.
I was too young to remember, but I wonder what the general sentiment was when the tournament expanded to 32 back in 1998.
I'm too old to remember back then so well But I do have a vague recollection of it being controversial. But in retrospect I think 32 makes a ton of sense, top 2 teams advance, period. Any multiple of 16 is cleanest. Compared with 24 that it used to be, and 48 as they're proposing. I hope somehow they keep it at 32... but I suppose the chances of that are slim to none, since it involves FIFA and money.
I kinda caught the 3rd place match out of the corner of my eye while I was doing other stuff. Observations: 1. Opening goal by CRO was off a truly superb FK play, by 3 players, clearly drawn up, and beautifully executed. 2. The Qatari HR and the Chilean VAR didn't cover themselves with any glory, from what I could tell 3. Seems like a lot of players came off limping with (upper) leg issues... I bet their club teams aren't so thrilled with them having to play this relatively useless match (the 8th in 3-4 weeks?) 4. Too bad MAR couldn't pull this off... much of the world thinks they deserved to be #3 in this cup