Who's the favorite to win this group ?

Croatia 2 - 1 Senegal.
Switzerland 2 - 0 Japan.
Poland 2 - 2 Chile.

 

Senegal actually played quite similar to Poland today... They were good on the offense, quite solid in the middle, but (amazingly!) terrible in the back. Even second Croatia goal reminded of second Chile goal (passivity of both Senegal and Poland's defense was on similar level in both of these situations).

Japan looks like they are a toast right now (even though Swiss pen was a laughable call).

 

Poland tried three formations today, two with 4 in the back. One of the 4 in the back formations is likely what we will see against Senegal, and it's also the one that gave us a 2-0 lead. Friendlies are for experimentation, and the game should be seen in the segments Nawalka tried. The idea of killing off a game in a friendly is ridiculous.

That being said Pazdan was awful today, and the team lost all cohesiveness when they went to a 3 man backline. This was the first time these guys played this formation together in a game, but that doesn't mean they'll get better at it. I'm crossing my fingers that Glik gets healthy quick.

 

I think Nawalka is searching for "square balls". The way we started (with Rybus instead Bereszynski on the RB), clearly suggests, that in theory, we are able to switch from 4-4-1-1 to 3-4-3, or something like that. The problem is, this requires Piszczek to play one of three CBs, and Blaszczykowski looses support - Piszczek-Blaszczykowski wing is one of our deadliest, and most fine tuned weapons, and this formation experiments disorganize it (in addition to disorganizing the whole defensive line). My opinion is, that we should just leave 4-4-1-1 (or 4-5-1 which is almost the same here) for Senegal, as we cannot have these crosses flying in from the wings. I hope Glik is back as well...

 

Senegal were terrible in the back? What game were you watching. Yes they had a poor 20 minutes after going ahead but that defence snuffed almost all dangers away and won a vast majority of challenges. Koulibaly and Sane were really efficient. The weak spot defensivemy was Sabaly but he's a must going forward.

The central duo of Koulibaly and Sane were light years ahead of what Poland's defence presented yesterday.

 

Not to mention one of Croatians goals came from a freekick deflection. The foul that lead to that freekick was a dive by the way.

So the defence can only be blamed for one goal against a top notch Croatia side in the road, while Poland was breached twice at home by a Chile C team.

Calling the two defences the same is totally a mistake.

 

Poland's defense was suspect today, but Senegal got completely owned by Croatia. Croatia controlled the game and created the majority of dangerous chances. The Senegalese defense was constantly under assault. Senegal had 35% possession, 2 shots on goal, committing 17 fouls and a ludicrous amount of offsides. To me the issue was how easily Croatia got into the final third, watching the game has really raised my optimism for Poland's chances.

 

This is pretty funny. Is the idea here that Croatia is better than Poland? Who is to be blamed for giving away 65% of possession for Senegal? Chile played it's A team, sorry to disappoint. Senegal got dominated. End of the day these are friendlies and the scores are meaningless, Pazdan made some laughable mistakes for Poland today that could have been goals. If Pazdan plays like that against Mane then Poland will likely lose. If Senegal gives up 65% possession to Poland I don't see how they can win with the finishing prowess Poland possesses. The quality of the teams will be verified on June 19th, I can't wait.

 

??? you have got to be joking.
In the first half Croatia had 73% possession, but created no threat on the Senegal goal. Senegal's defence was not breached even once. Not once! Not even a half chance. It was like a Barcelona - Chelsea game of old - Barcelona with all the possession, Senegal with all the goalscoring opportunities (at least 4 good opportunities to score).

The second half was different. Opoortunities started to appear after Senegal scored and they seemed to lose composure in defence. Senegal still had the better chances. Senegal messed up several 2 on 1 situations (including a couple of times Senegalese attackers slipped which suggest a problem with footwear) and there was even a situation where Mane was wrongly called offside which would have resulted in a 2 vs the GK situation. Senegal looked like they were cruising to win this game before a deflected goal. Just before that Senegal had two 2 vs 1 situations where they really should have scored.

If you had actually watched the game you would have seen Senegal should have been comfortably ahead. You say Senegal had 2 shots on goal? Well, Croatia had 3, one of those free ended in a rebound shot.

Croatia only found penetration after Senegal scored its goal, but Senegal was hardly overawed. Even then Senegal made a few minor mistakes in positioning or defence. They did not pass the ball in the penalty area to an opponent like Poland did.

Actually even people like Meanmachine and Kamtedrejt who weren't too high on Senegal before yesterday's game agree on Senegal putting up a good defensive performance, especially in the first half.

 

And I would honestly be more worried about your defence, because the ease with which Chile C created goalscoring opportunities was pretty shocking.

Overall its way more likely that Senegal's defence will cope with Poland's frontline than Poland's will cope with Senegal's, if yesterday's games are anything to go by.

 

What a lousy display by Japan against the Swiss! They looked absolutely toothless going forward. This team doesn't have good finishers but more than that it's quite worrisome that they struggle to create even half-decent scoring opportunities. They look like all AFC teams overmatched by their group opponents.

 

Poland and Senegal are two very even teams. I am trying to think of little things that can give teams edges. The one that might help Poland the most outside of their obvious talent and tactics is that I expect their match against Senegal to feel like a home game for them. There's going to be a lot of people wearing red and white in the stands and that twelfth man could be the difference,
We shall see though because Senegal has such dangerous weapons and Poland is doing some soul searching in the back.

 

As I have been saying for weeks now, as a fan of Colombia there is no other team I would rather face in the first match than Japan. Their situation is just not good right not, they have low team morale, they have a new manager (and are still acclimating to his tactics), and Asian teams never do well against South American teams in the World Cup.

(That being said I do expect them to come out with some Samurai pride and try and keep it close but talent and tactics should win out.)

 

HomieTheClown: It's unfortunately that time of the pre-World Cup. Players dropping like flies.

Apparently Frank Fabra is out injured. I know he's your starting left back. Does that mean Johan Mojica is the starter or you think someone from the old guard will be invited? From the few times I've seen Mojica he seems like an asset going forward, but a liability defensively.

 

Sad for Fabra and I was looking forward to see if he could translate the Boca Juniors form to the National team.

The funny thing about what you post is that when he first started he was a defensive liability (one of the reasons Chile defeated us in the Copa America Centenario in my opinion).
The last couple of years though he has improved his defense and his positioning.

Mojica is the main option on the roster but this may open things up for Farid Diaz who is solid defensively. It is truly tough for me to judge Mojica's defense with the National team since he has not played much this cycle but offensively he does proved better aerial crosses than Fabra for the most part so that can be a positive.

 

Their actual home advantage did not stop losses against

Mexico, Nigeria,

or draws against severly understrength Uruguay and Chile sides.

It did not stop a piss poor Korea team scoring 2 last minute goals on their defence.

I don't see how it will get better in Russia, when home advantage in ACTUAL POLAND didn't help much. I don't see any clear advantage in regards to this.

 

I do not really take into account what happens in friendlies because the dynamics of the games are different and tactical experiments occur.

This is a World Cup match between two teams with many players who have never played on this stage before. I am looking for non-tangible advantages that can give teams edges and the fans in the stands can help out big time.

I am not saying 100% Poland will win though because their defensive deficiencies could come back to bite them.
As a Colombian fan I am hoping for a draw.

 

Looks like Glik will go to Russia. Great news.

 

Final decision to come Monday, after he is seen by some famous shoulder injury specialist in France. But evidently Glik's feeling better, and posted a Twitter photo of him driving a car.

 

This. Friendlies just prior to the World Cup are useless as an indication of a team's strength. They have other important purposes, of course, but gauging tournament potential is not one of them. Take 1974: Poland, one of the best teams at that World Cup, if not the best, loses 0:1 to the USA eight months prior to the Cup. USA in 1974....one of the worst teams on the planet at that time.

 

Still annoyed with Pekerman not getting one more friendly for us. But hey, I pray that he knows what he's doing.

 

I read that it was due to some mess up within the Colombian FA.

 

We were suppose to face Greece but they canceled their friendlies.

Also, Pekerman is infamous with friendlies; he tries to avoid them and when he has to take a friendly or two, it's always last minute although that is on the FA.

 

I'm not sure what game you were watching, in the 2nd minute Croatia had a free header if the cross didn't get overcooked. In the 7th minute Mandzukic was just wide with a header.

 

The 7th minute header was way wide and that wasn't even half a chance.

In the second half Croatia had opportunities to score, including the one you mentioned, but Senegal had way more very good goalscoring opportunities, including the three 2 on 1s they messed up. Not to mention Mane hit the post.