The Official Football (Soccer) Thread (v. It's starting again!)

[Zydar]

World Cup draw in a few minutes.

[rumborak]

Germany group is pretty good considering the options. Can't complain. England have their work cut out against Belgium, and lol, Portugal and Spain in one group.

[MirrorMask]

Portugal, Spain and Morocco, the war of the west Mediterranean 

After the utter and laughable fail of Italy against Sweden I'm left without my nation, I'll root for Germany, Iceland and Denmark. Germany and Denmark for touristic reasons (especially Germany, love the country, the architecture, the many metal bands, I have friends there, I have been there many times etc), Iceland because they're the viking underdogs who surprised everyone at the Euro Cup 

[Nekov]

I totally agree, if we hadn't made it I would have rooted for Iceland and I probably will unless they have to face us

Welp, guess I won't be rooting for Iceland much 

I think this has to be the first world cup I remember where there isn't a clear death group, all of them seem to have only 2 strong sides at most. The Poland group is a bit of a joke, same with the Russia one but all the others should be pretty interesting. I don't think we'll have it easy as Croatia has some very good players, Iceland is full of surprises and while we usually beat Nigeria in world cups (this is the 5th time we've faced them in the first round) they handed it to us a month ago in a friendly match.

[Tomislav95]

I totally agree, if we hadn't made it I would have rooted for Iceland and I probably will unless they have to face us

Welp, guess I won't be rooting for Iceland much 

I think this has to be the first world cup I remember where there isn't a clear death group, all of them seem to have only 2 strong sides at most. The Poland group is a bit of a joke, same with the Russia one but all the others should be pretty interesting. I don't think we'll have it easy as Croatia has some very good players, Iceland is full of surprises and while we usually beat Nigeria in world cups (this is the 5th time we've faced them in the first round) they handed it to us a month ago in a friendly match.

Doesn't matter how good Croatian players are, they always blow it on final competitions. Last time they did well was WC 1998

[Nekov]

They haven't had a decent team since then. Rakitic, Modric, Kovacic, Brozovic, Perisic, Mandzukic, Kalinic. Those are all scary name. Their defense isn't that solid which is what gives me some hope that we won't suffer much.

[ToT-147]

I think this has to be the first world cup I remember where there isn't a clear death group, all of them seem to have only 2 strong sides at most. The Poland group is a bit of a joke, same with the Russia one but all the others should be pretty interesting. I don't think we'll have it easy as Croatia has some very good players, Iceland is full of surprises and while we usually beat Nigeria in world cups (this is the 5th time we've faced them in the first round) they handed it to us a month ago in a friendly match.

Yeah, not death group this time.. At least not in the papers..

I think the problem some of us have is that understimate the apparently weakest nations and then end up struggling with them in the match itself.. It happened to us with Iran and Bosnia in the last WC, well, also with Nigeria... so yeah, OTOH, I agree that we should be careful with all three teams..

But then again, about the Poland group, who knows, maybe that's where come out the best matches, at least of the group phase, where usually the strongest teams don't face each other and the matches are a bit predictable over all.. The Poland group, for instance, is very balanced and might be one of the most competitive in that aspect..

But, then again, who knows..

[MirrorMask]

The World Cup in the end it's 7 matches at best in a month, with half of the teams being the equivalent of third category teams from the most important european national championships.

Being in the right condition therefore is essential to make a good World Cup, Italy had a history of nobodies activating the "God mode" and being the unexpected hero of the tournament (Schillaci in 1990, Grosso in 2006, I didn't even know who the guy was and he essentially won the Cup half by himself).

Also, the mission to bring football everywhere in the world finally starts to pay off, so there are teams with zero tradition that are actually good at playing, look Costa Rica last time around for example. The divide is slowly starting to bridge.

[Nekov]

Also, the mission to bring football everywhere in the world finally starts to pay off, so there are teams with zero tradition that are actually good at playing, look Costa Rica last time around for example. The divide is slowly starting to bridge.

While I would love to believe this is true, there are tons of teams that have gotten a good generation of players that did good things for a couple of years but because there is no strong plan for the future end up going back to being regular/bad teams. I think it's too early to judge either Iceland or Costa Rica because of this. In the end, either Brasil, Argentina or one of the European powerhouses will win this as usual.

[rumborak]

World Cups are won by the depth of the roster. People *will* get injured, and if your second row isn't top quality, you're out. That's why the big guns end up winning, because they can bring 23 excellent players, not just 11.

[soupytwist]

The World Cup hasn't really had a shock winner.  Italy in 2006 weren't among the very favorites, but it was still Italy. 
The European Championships has had some real shock winners - Denmark 92', Greece 04' and even Portugal in 2016 weren't among the fancied teams.   Even the Copa America has been won by Chile (twice) and Columbia in recent times.

It would be really nice to have a shock or new World Cup winner for once. 

[MirrorMask]

We had a new winner in 2010, but that was Spain... it was dominating everything in those years

[ToT-147]

It would be really nice to have a shock or new World Cup winner for once.

I disagree.. It'd be way better if Argentina wins it for once instead.. 

[MirrorMask]

So, in two days, the World Cup begins!

Without Italy, I'll usually go for my usual bunch of substitute teams to root for, a mix of Germany (I love the country, been there many times, I have friends there, I listen to a lot of german bands etc) and casual undergods - this time I'll root for Iceland, after they surprised everyone at the Euro Cup, and Denmark, having visited Copenhagen last year.

I also look forward to some lulz - if you can't rejoyce for your own team, you can at least find solace in the suffering of others  some other favorite team losing 7-1 like it happened last time would be fun.

May the best team win, and may known violent players or simulators get sidetracked by intestinal problems!

[Zydar]

I will be watching this very much, it's always the highlight of the year for me. I honestly don't have much faith in Sweden this time, but I hope they prove me wrong

[Kwyjibo]

Yeah, I'm up for it. I'm hoping that Germany will play a good tournament, and I wouldn't mind them winning again  . But I'm not sure what to think of the team. They definitely have a good team, but the results in the last games makes you wonder.

It will sure be interesting to see who else, besides the ovious teams, will perform well and who will maybe go down surprisingly early.

And how far will Russia go? Their group isn't the hardest, so advancing to the next stage should be a given, but after that it will be hard.

[MirrorMask]

I will be watching this very much, it's always the highlight of the year for me. I honestly don't have much faith in Sweden this time, but I hope they prove me wrong

So you're swedish? I should "hate" your team, as probably most of my connationals will do, but frankly I think that if Italy didn't manage to score a single goal in 180 minutes against Sweden, the fault is Italy's and Italy's alone, so I bear no ill against Sweden. (Altough I'll reserve that for France and Spain)

And how far will Russia go? Their group isn't the hardest, so advancing to the next stage should be a given, but after that it will be hard.

Russia's group is paired with Group B - Winner meets runner-up and the other way around. So assuming Russia either wins their group or come second, they'll either face, most likely, Portugal or Spain.

So... bye bye Russia. And it's not even winter (usually that kinda helped in previous "world cups" against Germany and France)

[Nekov]

I have very little faith in Argentina for this one. Our road to the world cup has been very chaotic and there have been way too many distractions. I just hope Messi can be at his godlike level when it really matters.

I wanted to have Iceland as a second option for this world cup but they've fallen in the same group as we have, so not rooting for them unless they advance to the second phase.

My candidates are Spain, Germany and Brasil. They have the strongest teams and are the ones who play best. France has a good squad but I haven't seen them play a good team game.

[Kwyjibo]

When Messi's on, Argentina has a terrific and terrifying (for the opponent) offence. But I think the defense isn't as strong, but we'll see.

When France plays as a team, they can go very far, but there have already been some disturbances in the preparations for the world-cup, not sure if they are able to overcome their animosities.

[Zydar]

I will be watching this very much, it's always the highlight of the year for me. I honestly don't have much faith in Sweden this time, but I hope they prove me wrong

So you're swedish? I should "hate" your team, as probably most of my connationals will do, but frankly I think that if Italy didn't manage to score a single goal in 180 minutes against Sweden, the fault is Italy's and Italy's alone, so I bear no ill against Sweden. (Altough I'll reserve that for France and Spain)

Yeah I'm Swedish, nice to hear that you're not angry over the playoff thing 

[Nekov]

I will be watching this very much, it's always the highlight of the year for me. I honestly don't have much faith in Sweden this time, but I hope they prove me wrong

So you're swedish? I should "hate" your team, as probably most of my connationals will do, but frankly I think that if Italy didn't manage to score a single goal in 180 minutes against Sweden, the fault is Italy's and Italy's alone, so I bear no ill against Sweden. (Altough I'll reserve that for France and Spain)

Yeah I'm Swedish, nice to hear that you're not angry over the playoff thing 

I have to agree with him. That one was mostly Ventura's fault and his shitty tactics and player choices. How do you leave your best player out of the 2 most important games?

[RoeDent]

Interesting curveball today, namely that Spain's current manager Julen Lopetegui has been announced as the new boss of Real Madrid. He'll take over after the World Cup. It'll be fascinating to see how the timing of the announcement will affect the Spanish team in the tournament.

[Nekov]

Just read about that. The timing seems to be awful to make the announcement but well, Real Madrid is more important than the national team...

[Train of Naught]

I think Sweden is a decent team now, better than the last few years for sure. I wouldn't write them off for a runner-up spot in their group ahead of Mexico just yet (and South Korea but I kinda expect them to go out with 0 points)

As for Russia, I would've said #3, only topping Saudi Arabia. Buuut Salah got injured in the CL final against Real Madrid, so I'm expecting Egypt to do worse than in the previous games. Russia could definitely advance to the round of 16 and (probably) face Spain so yeah

As a half-Dutch/half-Spanish person, I only have 1 team to root for this time around. They have gotten better recently but I still wouldn't consider Spain to be the team they were 8 years ago, they might get semi-finals but I'm not expecting more (and maybe less) than that.

One team I think would be fun to give a closer look this time is Denmark. I think with Christian Eriksen currently at the top of his game and beating teams like Poland and Mexico with some ease the last year, I think they could cause an upset, maybe advance to round of 16 and possibly quarters.

[ariich]

casual undergods

I always like how the whole world roots for underdogs.

I also find it funny how England is pretty consistently rubbish, but never bad enough to be an underdog.

[MirrorMask]

They invented football and they won a World Cup. They're royalty and so is Italy, even though they failed to qualify. But yeah, they should be considered for what they are now, not for what their history said (which probably is also kinda the problem, people always expect certain teams to be favorites, while in reality they're at a low point in their history).

About Spain losing his coach after the World Cup.... I would assume that while this could hinder a season, the World Cup is a once in a life time event (ok, once in a 4 years old event, but for some it might be the last due to age, and who knows in 4 years if you'll still have a good enough carrer to be capped, or if a May injury takes you out) that the players would try to give their best no matter what.

You can screw up a season because of the coach, but no one is that masochistic to screw up a world cup just because the coach is going or is at odds with the team.

[Kwyjibo]

You can screw up a season because of the coach, but no one is that masochistic to screw up a world cup just because the coach is going or is at odds with the team.

But then, almost all football players are pussies and are distracted by the slightest incident. 

[Train of Naught]

They invented football and they won a World Cup. They're royalty and so is Italy, even though they failed to qualify. But yeah, they should be considered for what they are now, not for what their history said (which probably is also kinda the problem, people always expect certain teams to be favorites, while in reality they're at a low point in their history).

It has very little to nothing to do with the history of England in football, just the fact that they have very good (world class I'd say) players. It's just like Croatia, on the field it's always gonna be a gamble regardless of the shared quality of individual players.

Synergy is so important, like, Sweden seems to be a better team without Ibrahimovic. Obviously he was the best individual of their team, but the whole strategy was built around him and that wasn't a healthy way to perform as a team on a high level like European and global tournaments.

[MirrorMask]

Well, I daresay that whenever Ibra was playing, the whole team tactic was "Kick the ball forward, cross your fingers and hope Ibra does something", I've seen italian teams win championships that way 

[Kwyjibo]

Does England have a complete team of world class players? They have some very good players but I think they lack the depth, same like Croatia, some high class players and then some only solid ones.

Synergy and team spirit are very important. The german team from 2014 was surely a good one but I think without the tremendous team spirit they could not have won the cup, and surely luck also played a part.

[Zydar]

Well, I daresay that whenever Ibra was playing, the whole team tactic was "Kick the ball forward, cross your fingers and hope Ibra does something", I've seen italian teams win championships that way 

Yeah they feel more like a team now without him. There was some doubts what would happen when he retired from the National Team, but they showed in the qualification rounds that there's life without him.

Right now though I am a little worried about our offense - we have played two 0-0 games in a row here against Denmark and Peru. I hope they can start scoring some goals right away in the World Cup.

[MirrorMask]

Lopetegui has been sacked. There, problem solved 

(But seriously - was it necessary? people announce they leave the national team after a World Cup all the time, maybe there was some behind-the-scenes stuff that displeased the federation and they booted him)

[Kwyjibo]

Yeah, I just heard it and thought wtf?

Sacking the coach two days before your first match and having no real replacement at hand is definitely worse for the team than a coach that will coach another club after the championship.

But when the other teams weaken themselves I will not complain. 

[Zydar]

Who will coach Spain now? The assistant coach?

[ChuckSteak]

Ill root for Uruguay and Portugal. I want to see Germany and Brazil lose. But I don't care who wins anyway.