I wished Portugal would have played football all of sudden, no matter the final result if it's them or Spain who win the game but ... no, aha (spoiler : Spain won aha... 1-0 of course... Mikel Merino of course, at the 90th+ of course... +1... thank you). I'd give all the players a 4 to be honest... Portuguese, Spanish... all of them. What a borefest ! As a whole, will Italia '90 be dethroned ?
Highly doubt that Italia 90 will ever be surpassed, that tournament was Dogshit!!! Although I think 2010 came pretty close
PORTUGAL vs SPAIN 0-1* Costa 8, Cancelo 6, MENDES 8*, Dias 7, Veiga 7, Neves 7, Vitinha 6, Neto 6, Felix 7, Fernandes 6, Ronaldo 5 Subs: Semedo 7, Dalot 6, Leao 6, Conceicao, Silva Simon 7, Porro 7, Cucurella 7, Cubarsi 7, Laporte 6, RODRI 8*, Pedri 6, Olmo 6, Yamal 6, Baena 6, Oyarzabal 6 Subs: Torres 8, Ruiz, Merino, Borja MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: NUNO MENDES USA vs BELGIUM 1-4 *** Freese 5, Dest 5, Robinson 6, Freeman 6, Richards 4, Ream 4, Adams 6, McKennie 6, TILLMAN 7*, Balogun 6, Pulisic 5 Subs: Reyna 6, Berhalter 6, Pepi, Wright, Arfsten Courtois 6, Castagne 7, de Cuyper 7, Mechele 7, Ngoy 7, Onana 6, Raskin 8, Lukebakio 8, Trossard 8, Tielemans 7, DE KETELAERE 8* Subs: Vanaken 7, Doku 6, Lukaku 7, Saelemaekers, Witsel MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: CHARLES DE KETELAERE
I don't know about you, but it clearly seems to me that Argentina benefits from a favorable standard of refereeing compared to other teams. If the slightest contact happens in the opponent's penalty box, it's an automatic penalty (and the average number of penalties awarded in the last two World Cups seems to be proof). On the other hand, if it happens in Argentina's box, it feels like they always try to turn a blind eye. This situation isn't very pleasant
Considering the way Iran has been treated, and the mafioso relationship between the Orange Clown and despicable Infantino, I tend to think the swiss chocolatier had issued an order to referees to penalize muslim countries.
So what would objectively be your call for the Argentina's penalty and the Salah fall in 92nd minute (presumely this is what you refer to or something else as well?)? What is your opinion?
I am talking about a difference in treatment between Argentina and its opponents. If I’m not mistaken, between 2022 and this World Cup, Argentina boasts as many as 8 penalties in 12 matches—a very high statistic that I believe no other national team can claim. One could argue that no scandalous penalties were awarded, because there was always at least minimum contact, and we know that in modern football, penalties are given much more easily. But look, I would like this same standard of judgment to be applied against Argentina as well; yesterday, with reversed roles, both penalties would have been awarded (Salah and the other held attacker whose name I can't remember) and I don't know if that [goal] would have been disallowed. In 2022, a sacrosanct red card was avoided against the Netherlands, and in the first matchday against Algeria, they turned a blind eye once again to avoid punishing Messi (the grounds were there). Therefore, I think there is a different treatment between Argentina and its opponents—not errors so shameful as to cause a public scandal, but they still steer the matches in favor of one team
I believe that, in this World Cup, all the penalties awarded to Argentina were correct decisions. There wasn't a single controversial penalty. As for Qatar 2022, trying to favor a team by awarding two penalties against them during the final doesn't seem to make much sense.
I didn't say we're talking about a 2002 Korea-style case, but rather that referees tend to be more whistle-happy when it comes to awarding fouls to Argentina. In my opinion—though I believe the facts back it up—the two penalties claimed by Egypt would have been given if the roles were reversed, because many of the penalties awarded to the Albiceleste were for very slight contact, where people always tried to find the excuse of 'well, there is contact.' However, when it's the other way around, that logic doesn't seem to apply. This doesn't mean that if they clear out players in the box or blatantly handle the ball—like what happened in the 2022 final—a penalty won't be called against them. They operate on details that seem like minor things, just enough to avoid a public outcry, but that ultimately steer the matches. This doesn't mean Argentina is unbeatable, but the refereeing attitude towards them reduces their opponents' chances
@Happie11. As always, I am very grateful for your notes; they are so useful to me that I rely on them for my projects just as much as—if not more than—the material published in the press or on websites. However—and I hope you don't mind—I’m going to raise a small point of disagreement. It’s not something I usually do, but in this instance, I think it’s a constructive observation. I’ll start by asking if the rating of 8 given to Ferrán Torres might be a typo—in other words, did you hit the wrong key? That happens to me a lot. Despite being a Barcelona fan, I am convinced that Ferrán is quite overrated. You can't take even a shred of credit away from him for that superb pass to Merino, but his performance up to that point—not just in this match, but throughout the entire tournament—has fallen short of what could be considered a decent showing. In fact, his overall performance strikes me as mediocre or even downright poor. The rest of the season hasn't been any better. Granted, he has scored plenty of goals, but—without even needing to check the stats—I could confidently say that the number of clear-cut chances he has squandered vastly outweighs the goals he actually scored. That, combined with the poor decisions he makes due to a lack of vision (at least in my humble opinion), means Torres does nothing to elevate the average standard of Spanish strikers, which remains decidedly mediocre. I have nothing against the lad, but I had to say it—even though all of us Spaniards are delighted and grateful that, when it really mattered most, he rose above his usual mediocrity to deliver a fantastic pass to Merino. (Now, *he* is an excellent player—someone who manages to be one of the most complete midfielders around without ever ceasing to be a normal, polite, and humble person.) I could say exactly the same about Rodri, who, in my opinion, was the best player on the pitch. Even with Pedri playing well below his usual standard, Rodri single-handedly won the midfield battle against Vitinha and Neves. Nuno Mendes was outstanding, too. Although I’m not sure what’s going on with Yamal—who was far from his usual level—Mendes’s defensive work was sensational; I don't want to take any credit away from him just because the Spaniard didn't put him under too much pressure. Portugal didn't deserve to see him suffer that injury, even if it didn't ultimately affect the final result. Then Semedo came on (and he’s hardly a paragon of virtue himself), yet he held his own in the duel with Yamal. A Yamal at 70% capacity would still be better than a Semedo at 120%. What is absolutely clear to me is that the key to the match—and therefore the best player of the lot—was Rodri: an excellent player, intelligent both on and off the pitch, and a true role model of sportsmanship. @Happie11. Como siempre, te agradezco muchísimo tus notas, las cuales además, son tan útiles para mí, que cuento con ellas en mis proyectos con la misma valía o, incluso mayor, que las que se publican en algunos medios de prensa o páginas web. Sin embargo... y espero que no te moleste, voy a exponerte alguna pequeña disconformidad por mi parte, cosa que no acostumbro a hacer, pero en esta ocasión creo que es muy constructiva. Empiezo por preguntarte si el 8 a Ferrán Torres podría ser un fallo tipográfico, en fin, que si le diste a la tecla que no querías, como me suele pasar mucho a mí. A pesar de ser aficionado al Barcelona, estoy convencido de que Ferrán está bastante sobrevalorado. No se le puede quitar ni una micra de mérito en el soberbio pase que le dio a Merino, pero lo que había venido haciendo hasta ese momento, no solo en este partido, sino también en todo el campeonato, no está acorde a lo que pudiera considerarse una actuación correcta. Más bien, su actuación general me está pareciendo mediocre o, directamente mala. El resto de la temporada no ha sido mejor. De acuerdo en que ha metido muchos goles, pero, sin necesidad de ver ninguna web de datos estadísticos, podría asegurar que los goles clarísimos que ha dejado de meter ha superado con una claridad muy manifiesta a los que ha metido. Eso, unido a las malas decisiones que toma, consecuencia a una insuficiente visión de juego (siempre desde mi humilde punto de vista), hace que Torres no ayuda para nada a que el nivel medio del delantero español no deje de ser muy normalito. No tengo nada en contra de este chico, pero tenía que decirlo, aunque todos los españoles estemos muy contentos y agradecidos de que en el día "D" y la gora "H" saliera de su mediocridad y le diera un pase fantástico a Merino (éste sí que es un jugador excelente, y sin ninguna necesidad de dejar de ser una persona normal, educada y humilde para ser uno de los más completos centrocampistas del momento). Exactamente lo mismo que de Merino podría decir de Rodri, quién, en mi opinión, fue el mejor jugador del partido. Incluso con Pedri claramente por debajo de su nivel medio, Rodri se bastó él solito para encargarse de ganarles la batalla a Vitinha y a Neves. Formidable Nuno Mendes. Aunque no sé qué le pasa a Yamal, muy lejos de su nivel habitual, su marcaje fue sensacional y no le quito ningún mérito por el hecho de que el español no le pusiera en demasiados aprietos. Portugal no mereció que sufiera esa lesión, aunque tampoco tuviera que ver en el resultado final. Luego salió Semedo (quien tampoco es un dechado de virtudes) y no salió malparado del duelo con Yamal. Un Yamal al 70 % sería superior a un Semedo al 120 %. Lo que sí que tengo clarísimo es que la clave del partido y, por tanto, el mejor juador de todos, fue Rodri, excelente jugador, inteligente dentro y fuera del campo y todo un ejemplo de deportista.
where does Messi now rank in the World cup all time?, i put Mbappe, pele and gerd Müller above him but overall he should be atleast top 5 now he surpassed r9 and maradona in WC and i feel pretty justified saying this
Not that my opinion matters much, but I'm going to share it anyway. Argentina winning that match is a disgrace. Great comeback, sure, but it was a complete farce and a scandal of massive proportions. Mac Allister committed a foul that should have resulted in a penalty. The referee didn't give it, and VAR absolutely should have intervened. It's a disgrace that Egypt didn't get to keep their original 2-0 lead. Even though I'm a Manchester United fan, I think Lisandro Martínez made far too much of the incident, and there wasn't even close to being a free kick. If there was any contact at all, it was far too soft to be given. Yes, Salah should have had a penalty before the 3-2 goal. There was at least as much contact there as there was in the incident that led to the free kick for Lisandro. An absolute scandal—an even bigger one than the Balogun affair. I understand why people are saying FIFA wants to keep Messi in the tournament.
Thank you for your kind words. The feeling is mutual. 1: I 100% agree with your general opinion of Ferran Torres. When Manchester City sold him, my first thought was, "That's an incredibly good piece of business." As you can see from my/our ratings, I've given him low scores in every match before the Portugal game. I just feel that the 15 minutes he got against Portugal isn't much time to make an impact, yet he still managed to do exactly that. Not many players can make a difference in just 15 minutes. That's why I gave him an 8 for that match. Normally, I don't rate players who have played fewer than 20 minutes, so maybe I shouldn't have rated him at all. But I still felt he made a noticeable impact in those 15 minutes. 2: Rodri absolutely bossed the midfield—I completely agree with you there. As you can see, I gave him an 8 as Spain's best player. Vitinha looked like a junior in that battle, and maybe I should have given him a 5. It was a toss-up between him and Mendes for Player of the Match. Mendes was phenomenal, and if he had maintained that level for the entire game, I would have given him a 9. That's probably why I ended up choosing Mendes as Player of the Match by the narrowest of margins ahead of Rodri. But when Rodri plays like that, he's Ballon d'Or Rodri again, and it's great to see. Now I'm just hoping for a France vs. Spain semifinal. That could be the match of the century.
ARGENTINA vs EGYPT 3-2 ***** Martinez 6, Molina 6, Tagliafico 7, Romero 8, Lisandro 5, Paredes 5, ENZO 8*, de Paul 5, Mac Allister 6, Messi 7, Alvarez 6 Subs: Lautaro 7, Gonzalez 6, Montiel. Otamendi, Medina SHOUBEIR 9*, Hany 6, Hafez 6, Rabia 7, Ibrahim 8, Lasheen 6, Attia 6, Hassan 8, Ashour 7, Salah 6, Ziko 7 Subs: Fathy 6, Trezegeut, Marmoush, Zizo MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: MOSTAFA SHOBEIR SWITZERLAND vs COLOMBIA* 0-0 (4-3 Pens) KOBEL 8*, Zakaria 7, Rodriguez 6, Akanji 7, Elvedi 8, Xhaka 6, Freuler 6, Rieder 5, Ndoye 6, Jashari 5, Embolo 5 Subs: Sow 6, Muheim 6, Widmer 6, Itten 6, Vargas 7, Amdouni Vargas 7, Munoz 7, Mojica 7, Lucumi 7, Sanchez 7, Lerma 6, Arias 7, Puerta 6, James 5, Diaz 6, Suarez 5 Subs: Campaz 6, QUINTERO 8*, Hernandez 5, Rios 6, Mina MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: GREGOR KOBEL
Well, maybe not the match of the century, but quite possibly the match of the year. Objectively, I believe that, generally speaking, these are the two best teams in the tournament. I am absolutely certain that Spain is capable of playing significantly better and with greater consistency. The upside (for the Spaniards, of course) is that—even while playing well (though not quite at the level we’ve come to expect) and with players like Pedri and Lamine Yamal performing below their usual standards—the team has managed to win matches. There have been varying degrees of difficulty, but the bottom line is that Spain is advancing in the tournament. Having watched and analyzed the warm-up games as well, it is clear that the Spanish squad is finding its rhythm as the tournament progresses. Football is a sport where the emotional aspect plays a crucial role—often more so than technical or physical ability—so anything is possible. However, taking this into account and noting some previously unseen weaknesses in the French side, a potential semifinal clash could well feel like a final played early. It will be Spain’s rock-solid defense—now bolstered by the excellent support of Rodri and Olmo—up against the most talented attack in the world. Well, we shall see...
I could not read it or see it anywhere but... one remark I had just now (!) : there are 4 "francophone" ( French speaking) countries in the quarter-finals. It must be a first.
Argentina-Egypt had a French referee and France-Morocco will have an Argentine referee. Let's see if the Argentine referee will be better or worse than his French counterpart
Only Solbakken knows, but probably the team that started against Brazil will play again. England will not play like underdogs against Norway. Sørloth was substituted because of Brazil's counterattacking football, Bobb came on to control the ball more. So against England Sørloth will probably be back as a wide target man option – an old Drillo trick from the 90s – although I'm not convinced the gains outweigh the losses. Sørloth is badly misplaced playing out wide. But Sørloth also offers superior aerial power on dead balls, so he is probably pretty safe to start after all. Nusa has not played too well this World Cup, except his great goal against Ivory Coast. Schjelderup has three assists now, but I think Nusa is considered more solid than Schjelderup defensively and will be preferred. I saw a poll today about who people preferred to start – 55% preferred Nusa, while 45% preferred Schjelderup. What Solbakken said about the Brazil game: "It kind of became a game where they [Brazil] relied on counter-attacks and transitions whenever we lost the ball. If we were going to get through this match, we needed long attacks, plenty of possession, and to wear Brazil down that way. Meaning, just keep passing and playing until they got tired, and then twist the knife." "If we were to win this game, we had to do it by keeping possession, building long attacks, and waiting for the right opening. Oscar [Bobb] and Andreas [Schjelderup] are two of the players who have the best feel for when to make something happen, and when to just keep hold of the ball."
Yes, maybe he will keep his strategy, with two wide subs potentially introduced, but we'll see. It may be possible to consider England similar in terms of being a transition team, and that keeping possession is again the best option. Yes, I remember Jostein Flo being placed as right winger purely for his height in effect, and 'Drillo' (Egil Olsen)'s infamous long ball tactics (with especially in the 1994 World Cup a tendency to be a bit anti-football as it were - they had shown more potential in the qualifiers perhaps, particularly vs England in Oslo - in the World Cup maybe he considered the climate but they seemed to be cautious and non-expansive anyway mostly which can be partly why, but not only why Bohinen seemed so average, even mediocre, compared to what I saw of him in 1993/94 then also 1994/95....perhaps another reason being a continous period of playing due to transfer situation which had made him tired/in struggling physical condition towards the end of 93/94....but anyway other players didn't really shine in the 1994 World Cup as much as they could in theory I think also - I'd put the 1994 team performances below the 2026 ones this far even if in potential the squads were not so distinctly unequal in that direction...but obviously there was no Erling Haaland, and not yet even a Tore Andre Flo, up front anyway). I think Bobb doesn't only help controlling the ball, but also in initiating openings sometimes, and O'Reilly does have a lot of height, so I guess it's possible he goes with Bobb over Sorloth, but maybe he won't and with Schelderup maybe he will prefer to try the super sub route again, though if he knew he would carry on where he left off for sure he could be tempted to start him, as England's right back area is a bit vulnerable perhaps for various reasons right now (though it could be said in a way if Alexander-Arnold was there it still could be,,,,and it'd be on the attacking side it's be better, as the most incisive moment from an England 'right back'' perhaps came from Rice with the pre-goal cross, even if James when fit had played a part in the build-up to Rashford's goal from deeper also). I probably am kind of on the verge of switching my chosen system to something like 4-3-1-2 or 4-2-2-1-1 @Happie11 but I'll see how it goes (probably it would represent the general approach of teams less well, because many use wingers, but at this rate more midfielders and supporting forwards would be in contention than outright wide players, even if many left side wingers have entered my mind/been contenders - at the moment I'm not sure I'd be ousting Gakpo/Just from the squad though, but yeah those Norwegian wingers are still in and with chance to add more contributions, and re: Ferran Torres if he now became a kind of regular roaming LW and himself found his best form and started contributing more regular excellence and more key moments maybe he's not yet out of it given up to 3 big games left to play [but yeah I see Titanlux has a point in that somehow his qualities only seem to be displayed sporadically rather than reliably, even if he has good mobility, decent coordination, is quite sharp and with decent touch etc so it can seem like he has potential, and yeah it's difficult to really tell for most players but he himself seems perhaps quite likeable/of good character to me for what it's worth probably so I concur with "nothing against the lad" too); Trossard, after catching up with the full game yesterday, I felt vs USA was again excellent in a key moment but didn't generally play so excellently, so I don't necessarily feel inclined to switch him straight into the #11 shirt of my squad quite yet at least anyway, even if he's had several good moments around the opposition box overall in the tournament. Maybe for now my changes after R16 games are to bring Nuno Mendes back in the squad, possibly be in line for a change at back-up left CB with a Portuguese in for a Swiss...but Akanji does remain in the tournament so I'll see....put Rodri in for Giumares, Haaland in as second CF of the squad with probably Kane kept in the squad moving a Spaniard out for now, I guess Bellingham jumping over Pedri into the XI but with potential to reverse that back ot have both if the formation is adjusted still, and maybe even Rice just about edging in over Nmecha as squad member, but certainly Berg with potential to be a midfield option, though maybe less suitable as reserve #24 as less of a supplementary defender - maybe I'm always positive with midfielder who keep the ball well using skill and cleverness so if anything I'd be leaning above a 6 rather than below at least for the last games of him certainly, maybe Sow albeit as sub, as he did get more of the ball and was involved positively quite a bit I felt, and even Pedri still even if yeah it wasn't his best game - I still doubted subbing him was the right call, but then Merino was one of those who came on when he departed of course so maybe it was a good call!). For sure Shobeir had started to enter my mind though indeed (maybe the one slight black mark, albeit Messi getting the shot off so quickly made it harder, was on Messi's goal in the end, as he nearly kept out the Romero one and he'd have needed a wonder save and fantastic positioning/anticipation to keep out the Enzo Fernandez goal), and if Egypt had stayed in maybe Hassan had potential to challenge for the #7 it was seeming like all of a sudden! I had been a bit miffed/disappointed not to see Almada given a game on Argentina's left wing in that game, but it's impossible to know if he would have helped Argentina be in the lead earlier, and in the end the 'out of position winger' scored the winning header.