The All Purpose Other Teams Thread - Pt. III (R)

Man city and Barca are chasing after Caballero.

Meanwhile our NT is hanging their life on Romero. Insanity.

 

This. As good a player as Ronaldo is, he is so hard to like. His arrogance, his forced smile after the third goal knowing that although the team is winning, he hasn't had any contribution, and then his disgraceful posing ---- man, I almost want to vomit.

He is epitome of "I, me, myself", and then he talks about the "team" in his interviews. Perfectly put --- leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.

 

Hence people called him Penaldo.

 

Looking at the squad for the gallegos, they left out Negredo, and Llorente. They take Villa and Torres. Villa who is MLS bound and Torres who scored a goal last century. Diego Costa has made the team. Who knows what his health is though. I know they do not really play with a traditional 9, but leaving out the likes of Negredo and Llorente was a bold move. It might be Italy from 2010 all over again, using the same players that won you your last World Cup(and Euros). Chile is a bit weak on defense but if they can push Spain. Who knows with the Dutch. But all I know is, if Spain finish 2nd in their group and Brasil finish 1st, prepare for some fireworks, especially if Costa plays. He scores the game winner in the 92nd minute to send the brazucas home. I'd love that.

 

Villa isnt really outstanding this season but his team doing well under Cholo and I can understand why he get picked again. He has experience with him with 8 goals from previous 2 tournaments. Torres as usual will probably hit one if team reach the final. However Spain has no problem when they left Villa in 2012 Euro but in my opinion the biggest problem for them would be their weakening midfield. Xavi isnt the same player anymore, Iniesta and Busquet has been medicore for the whole season and they decided to left out Navas too so if Silva does not play well like in latest Euro, they could be in trouble. In 2010 Puyol presence at the center back helped them big time and Pique was in very good form, but this time its a whole different story, even Alba has been struggling.

 

Navas is injured though and likely won't recover in time so he had to be left out. Busquets and Iniesta haven't been as good as previous years, but mediocre is really pushing it, they were alright in the 2nd half of the season. As for Puyol they won the Euro's without him and Ramos is coming into the World Cup as the defender in form anyway. Their biggest problem is Xavi being past and being complacent in a group that won't allow for that.

 

Euro does not includes Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay though. Brazil thrashed them in Confederation and Argentina also thrashed them in latest friendly. When they lifted the WC, there were 8 Barcelona players playing the final and this time they probably needs to rely on Ramos and Alonso. Also , part of the reason they managed to win in 2010 is because Casillas performed brilliantly and making lots of crucial saves much like Buffon and Kahn did in previous 2 tournaments.

 

http://www.goal.com/en/news/3790/wo...jury-problems-claims-witchdoctor?ICID=HP_BN_3

 

I always thought it were the Brazilians that did voodoo.

 

When you win WPOTY by having 2 bonus games, karma will struck you soon or later.

 

One still has to be wary of Spain. Throw in Koke for Xavi and even use Cesc as a proper nine as against Italy , drop Iniesta more centrally with Silva and use their terrific fullbacks to more effect using the space created as a result. They blitzed Italy in the final.

That they lost last year's final was down to their tiredness in the heat and the way Brazil pressed their midfield relentlessly. They will have learnt from that. That said Pique is a disaster in the making especially if they continue to play high up the pitch, if Xavi keeps starting and lack of a striker in real form. I reckon Chile will make it out with them. Holland are very inexperienced at the back even going to a back five with one particularly decent wingback in Janmaat they lack the nowse or defensive resolve to keep Spain or Chile from scoring.

 

That Italian team was totally medicore though, its not even close to the current Brazillian team. Their only highlights in that tournament was beating Germany like they usually did everytime they met. Just look at their performance against England.

When Spain has the lead or you havent score against them, they will wear you down by passing the ball all day. However, in a tournament Spain has never comeback to win the game when opponent hit first. They lost 2-0 to USA in 2009, 1-0 to Switzerland in 2010 and 3-0 to Brazil last year. They closest was at Euro 2012 group stage when they equalized against Italy. Also, look what happened to them when Portugal and Argentina hit first last time they met, they got thrashed 4-0 and 4-1. There's an obvious pattern/weakness there.

 

That Italian side managed to get to the final was not overly mediocre. Spain looked rather average for most of the tournament but when required added an extra gear and changed tactics to blow Italy away and dominate midfield in an attacking sense.

Past matches and records are just that. They are there to be changed. They do have issues though one being their mental attitude and how they are going to go about tackling matches. del Bosque I am sure will try some different ideas this time around.

Meanwhile injuries are accumulating in other teams. Ribery is out. Though Cabella is a pretty good replacement. Oxlade-Chamberlain is probably out of the tournament as is Segundo Castillo though they will be retained to see if they can make the last group games.

Reus has been taken off with what looks like a serious ankle injury which if it is will hurt the Germans. They have lost several players to injury and some coming back from it.

Fingers crossed we do not pick up any problems tomorrow and the Slovenians have been told not to go mad on the pitch.

 

Italy struggled against team like Australia and needed a gift penalty, they also won the final by penalty. Their only outstanding performance was against Germany. The German also pretty much out of gas after fighting 120 mins against strong Argentina side that could have beat them if wasnt 2 horrible subs and goal keeper injury.

If past matches dont matter, then why worry about any team we could face in this WC? Even if we face Germany again, we could the change the outcome right? No matter how you twist it, previous losses against German must have been on our players mind.

 

So England and Spain out from the WC before we even play our second game... andI posted here because they dont belong in WC thread anymore

 

http://www1.skysports.com/FIFA-Worl...in-england-manager-greg-dyke-tells-sky-sports

“The choice is less but that’s what we’ve got to go from and I don’t think that’s the cause for what happened here.

“We’ve had narrow defeats, we haven’t been humiliated, but it’s for the football people and not me to identify why we didn’t win.”

Hodgson stressed after Thursday's 2-1 loss to Uruguay that he had no intention of stepping down as manager.


Gotta love their logic or should I say, denial?

 

Gotta love them for this reason.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/27962633

Players tried to skip England duty

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-44137979

The Argentine Football Association (AFA) has been panned for including a chapter about "how to stand a chance with a Russian girl" in a manual it handed to journalists travelling to the World Cup in Russia.

 

Immobile with a hat-trick with two PK’s and a golazo to take his tally to 34. He’s two goals away from matching Fatso’s record.

 

So, Juventus sack Sarri and appears to be appointing... Pirlo. Apparently they will owe Sarri 20ME and I’m not sure if they still owe Allegri. I’m assuming they don’t have the funds to go after a Pochettino.

 

God damn it, Atalanta. They played great in the first half and they manage to lose it in the last two minutes. Utter bullshit.

 

The funny thing about this Barcelona score is Vidal was running his mouth saying “We are not some Bundesliga side.” But anybody who has watched Barcelona over the season knew this was coming. You can not rely on Messi to do everything. But now, we may have a PSG-Bayern final, which is as disgusting as it can get.

I guess, I’ll be rooting for City.... Wouldn’t mind seeing Kun win a CL...