Coming into this World Cup, Argentina's midfield ran like a well-oiled machine with Lo Celso, Paredes, and De Paul all aiding Messi in playmaking and ball recovery. But in a matter of weeks, Lo Celso got injured and Paredes and De Paul forgot how to play soccer. The appearance of Fernandez will help them out a lot and hopefully they can find their way again.
What about Spain? They looked very good as well. This is how I would rank the top 10 teams after what I've seen so far: 1. Brazil 2. Spain 3. France 4. Netherlands 5. England 6. Serbia 7. Portugal 8. Croatia 9. Argentina 10. Belgium
It is pretty bad that Spain and Brazil are on the same side of the brackets and would face in the Quarters. That should be a Final. The only good potential Final would be Brazil - France. Every other hypothetical one is looking pretty mediocre in my opinion.
Unless Argentina somehow gets second and gets hot in the knockouts. Brazil - Argentina would be fun too.
How is Serbia ranked 6th in this list? We’re talking about a team who had an xG of 0.18 and ZERO shots on target in their only game played so far. Yeah I know they were up against Brazil, but still this feels like a biased pick. I’d say Japan showed more interesting stuff than some of the teams you mentioned.
I have watched most of the games, including all of the games from group A. At this point in time based only on play at this WC, I would have Ecuador ahead of some of those teams, certainly the Netherlands, Argentina, and Belgium. I would have Canada ahead of Belgium also.
However the goals came by individual magic. Team play is poor in Argentina. This team is going nowhere. France would eat Argentina alive in a potential Round of 16 match up.
An on all cyclinders firing France would be too much for Brazil. France brings more pace and higher intensity as highlighted in their win over Denmark. Brazil will have to work hard for it in the latter stages. They will probably walk their way through to the quarterfinals. But they will get seriously challenged from there on.
I watched the '86 tournament and I don't believe the '86 team was poor. They were quite good but they had the shadow of the brilliant '82 team lurking over them and everyone was comparing them to '82. I think even if they had won in '86 people would have still said the '82 team played better. '82 was the first World Cup I watched and that Brazil team was magic. Damn to Paolo Rossi.
Why should it be any weird? The historical powerhouses have many fans distributed over all the globe. The Netherlands have always been a likeable team. I'm not surprised by that.
Well, only one and half matchdays in it seems three historical powerhouses in Germany, Italy and Argentina are on their way down. Nations like France, England, Spain and Portugal who haven't been that successful in old times are trending upwards. There is a shift in the balance of power. Brazil looks out of CONMEBOL the only safe bet to maintain their status as a global power in the forseeable future. Argentina is not producing much of youth talent compared to the 90s and the 00s. They will probably continue to fade. The last convincing group stage Argentina had at the World Cup was in 2010. After that it was always too close for comfort with 2018 and this year not being far off from disaster.
After watching Qatar-Ecuador last Sunday I decided to watch the Austria v Italy friendly played later that day, wishing Italy had qualified while lamenting having watched Qatar's pathetic performance.in the inaugural. Result: Austria 2-0 Italy Italy were disappointing. .
I think that this is ending. Besides Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, other European teams are mostly boring to watch. USA dominated against England. The usual outcome when USA targets one sport. They want to improve and be among the best ones. Basketball, tennis, baseball, American football...alpine skiing, Olympic disciplines... USA, Canada are preparing themselves for 2026 and their highest strength.
Lay off the crack bro, none of those American players make the England squad let alone first XI. Played well but the global order of football ain’t changing because you think so.
It's not my opinion, it's the reality. Many European teams vanished from the football map. Also, the best European teams have many players who have origins from Africa, South America (Suriname), Caribbean...similar is with USA, Canada... African element of power is visible in Ecuador, Uruguay, Brazil. Best European attackers are Lewandowski, Kane, Morata, not so visible. Compared with attackers from Africa, like: Mbappe, Leao, Batshuayi, Gnabry, Musiala, Weah, Alphonso Davies, McKennie...who are much more visible and present. Only because of them, we watch this World Cup.
Brazil, Spain and France seem as more convincing. Netherlands is very careful, they aim only for result. Good tactics. But, is it enough. I would place Belgium slightly higher.
Imagine if tyreek hill was a left winger, lebron james was a center back, and kevin durant was a goal keeper lol
I don’t really fancy that origins argument, those players are european, if not they wouldn’t play for european teams lol. If we want to go down this way, why not say even Lewandowski, Kane and Morata are also african? Our Human race comes from Africa anyway. Africa all the way, they won 21 World Cups!!