True and as of right now they are no farther along to winning the next cup as we are. If they keep the same manager and he keeps the same players they may be behind other teams.
I half agree. I think it motivated him to play a clamped down, defensive game. I don't think it was used to not take anyway lightly because.... Matchday 1: France was tied with Australia (AUSTRALIA!!!) with 10 minutes left in regulation in a tough group, especially if they didn't pull 3 points out of that game. I'd call that taking them lightly. Matchday 2: I thought Peru was the better side in the match, but couldn't finish (it wasn't until Matchday 3 that Peru finally found their scoring cleats, after leaving them in Peru when they flew to Russia). The stats tell a slightly different story (France outshot Peru 12-10, put 4 on target versus Peru's 2 on target) and had more corners, while Peru hit the post (or crossbar, I can't remember), so maybe I'm overrating Peru a touch, but in watching that game, especially before France scored, Peru looked the better side to me, the more dangerous side, much like today. Matchday 3: Fraud Game. Round of 16: The one game where France let loose the dogs of war, so to speak. We saw France in full throated roar in this one, scoring four goals against Argentina in a tour de force performance. Quarterfinal: Facing an Uruguay w/o Cavani was a gimme, and yet without a fantastic save from Lloris, and a hideous howler w/a half hour left or so, the game would have been 1-1. That's pathetic. Semifinal: Outplayed by Belgium, they road a goal off a set piece to a victory in a game where Belgium were clearly the better side. Final: Croatia, to my mind, were the better side in the majority of the game, but they were let down by three things: 1.) Horrendous opener for France that came via a dive. 2.) Idiotic handball in the box leads to France's 2nd goal. 3.) A horrible 5 minute stretch or so where they let in two goals. Other than basically two goals that shouldn't have happened, I thought the game was basically relatively even and when you consider that France had an extra days rest AND that Croatia had played an extra game (3 consecutive knockout games went into extra time: 90 extra minutes that France didn't have to play in any knockout games), well, that makes Croatia's performance in defeat all the more remarkable. Croatia registered more than twice as many shots, and I believe 3x as many corners (but France was much more accurate in their shots, so theres that) in terms of counting stats. To my mind France underestimated Australia, Peru, and Uruguay, or to say it another way, played like crap against all 3. I thought we saw the true France periodically in the tournament, but I hope they can hire a replacement. One can't argue with a World Cup Trophy, especially running that potential gauntlet, but I never felt I was seeing France at full throttle in this tournament except against Argentina and for a small part of the Final when they scored 2 goals in less than 10 minutes.
For me in a nutshell, Croatia played a better game but succumbed to a younger, better athletic opponent.
France is so far ahead of the USMNT going into the next WC it's crazy to say otherwise. They were pups and they proved they could bunker and counter or go full out press. Dembele sat. But we're 'even' going in? Not sure I follow.
Do they? Because FOX said more than one team has the 2nd youngest team in the WC. England was the other, IIRC. Just another reason FOX is crap.
lol no you basically have swung and missed on the entire thing. france wanted to absorb and hit on the counter. The one thing that france is missing is the kind of controlling mid like modric so they don't want to possess the ball for long stretches. They want to sit back and and then when their very good defense wins the ball they want to attack quickly. this is why they struggled against the us the us couldn't hold the ball long enough to get stretched out and vulnerable to be attacked. Its not as wild as you make it look they didn't play like crap. they were brilliantly managed and proved it by winning the world cup...which was the goal.
they were very clear on the show tonight that france has the second youngest team....with a listed average age of 26...england's listed average age is wait for it....26. so relax on the hate.
France humbled themselves, took their 35% possession and their 3 points, and moved on. Worked a treat against Argentina, Belgium, and Croatia. Wish JK had done likewise against Belgium.
I like to look at squad age with and without goalkeepers as they are often significantly older than field players. Not so much with France and England. England average age all players - 25.7 England average age field players - 25.8 France average age all players - 25.6 France average age field players - 25.0 Pretty close.
lol no...saying they have the second youngest team is totally accurate. Only one team has a younger team then they did. I get it everyone wants to hate the fox coverage but come on people are really reaching.
You can afford low possession numbers once you're ahead, and France has been behind only for 9' the entire tournament.
You are being far too critical. They played seven matches and won six, all in 90 minutes. It is very difficult to win six games at a World Cup. Plus, they were the best side at Euro 2016. The 1998 team won once in 120 minutes and once on penalties. So to me, this team deserves a huge amount of credit even if they didn’t beat everyone 4-0.
France is also much better than us and they did that by strategy. They played that style on purpose. They could’ve played more of a possession style. They played with two workers in CM, a target forward and two CB’s at fullback. That wasn’t an untalented team that had those possession numbers because they were incapable of playing a possession game. That was a strategy.
What I meant was the to compare them to the last 4-5 world cup champions. Did anyone see Germany washing out in the group round this time four years ago after they ran roughshod through the cup? It seems that the hunger that feeds teams to become champions wains after they win it and four years of hearing how great you are while playing tons of games for your club team takes away what made you great. If France changes over a lot of their team so that the new players are hungry they may change what's been happening to past champions but if they retain the same coach and he picks mostly the same bunch probably the same fate will await them.
I would agree with you if the WC was played every year. In this case is every 4 years. I think Germany didn't integrate enough new blood in this team to keep them hungry, they thought they could turn it on at any given time.
it is puzzling to me about Germany since they are, well,m Germany and they were also 10-0 in qualifying. One could day that it happens. in 2002 France scored 0 goals in Korea.
The idea was to wait for teams to bring the ball thru the middle so France could counter. Here's a lesson for us. Croatia didn't have the depth to use Modric around the wings and relied on their wingers to get crosses in. At the same time, they did not want Modric to advance too far forward because they needed him to read and stop the counter. I felt their crosses were not AAA quality, frankly. I think if we train up Adams so he can switch into that role in a game, he will do pretty well. Finlay was good at it in the last cycle but there's all this 'best player' attitude that gets in the way of fielding a battle ready outfit. I think Weah will be this cycle's Dempsey in terms of the best guy to get his foot on a cross and put it on frame.
I wonder if Pulisic would make France's 23 or game day 18. I don't wonder if any of our other players would have any chance at all. They wouldn't.
I wonder more about Puli making the Croatia's 23. They got Rebić (Frankfurt), Perišić (Inter), Mandžukić (Juve) and Pjaca (Juve) who made it to Russia, plus Vlašić (Everton), who didn't.
Was this the same France team that had to come from behind to tie our kids just before the WC started? I dont think theyre that far above us .... at least the young USA team