2022 FIFA World Cup Finals

  • Thread starter Famine
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Ah, so it seems American Football and World Football have something in common...they're against fun. Seriously, giving a yellow card for "excessive celebration" is some bush league stuff. Let the players celebrate, especially scoring a goal in the top tournament in the world.
 
Joey D
Ah, so it seems American Football and World Football have something in common...they're against fun. Seriously, giving a yellow card for "excessive celebration" is some bush league stuff. Let the players celebrate, especially scoring a goal in the top tournament in the world.
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A yellow card for taking your shirt off has been a rule for like 10-15 years now. They all know it and still do it, fully knowing the risk. The Referee and Player both knew what was happening when the yellow and red came up and took it in good heart.


So with both Portugal and Brazil losing today, no team has left the group stages on 9 points! The best results were Netherlands, England and Morocco, who both go through with 2 wins and a draw apiece.

The Knockout stages draw looks like this now.
1670015623143.png


A select few statistics from the Group Stages.
Most Goals: England and Spain with 9
Highest Goal Difference: England on +7
Most Goal conceded: Costa Rica with 11 (and -8 GD)
5 teams scored only one goal (Belgium, Denmark, Qatar, Tunisia, Wales)
6 teams conceded only one goal (Brazil, Croatia, Morocco, Netherlands, Tunisia, United States)
Kylian Mbappe and Alvaro Morata are currently joint leaders for the Golden Boot on 3G, 1A.
 
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Last 16 schedule.

Saturday.
Netherlands v USA (3pm)
Argentina v Australia (7pm)

Sunday.
France v Poland (3pm)
England v Senegal (7pm)

Monday.
Japan v Croatia (3pm)
Brazil v South Korea (7pm)

Tuesday.
Morocco v Spain (3pm)
Portugal v Switzerland (7pm)

Kick off times are GMT.

That was probably the most exciting and entertaining World Cup group stage there has ever been.
 
The US needed some trailing runners early in the game on some of their crosses. Opportunities and spaces were available, but no one was there for a pass.
 
That was a completely unexpected result from the US. Berhalter needs to be gone since the team more than had enough talent to get a win here. The Dutch were always going to be tough, but they weren't unbeatable by any means.
Jimlaad43
A yellow card for taking your shirt off has been a rule for like 10-15 years now. They all know it and still do it, fully knowing the risk. The Referee and Player both knew what was happening when the yellow and red came up and took it in good heart.
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The NFL took the fun out of the game in 2006 too, however slightly relaxed it in 2019. It's still a stupid rule in any sport, let the players celebrate, especially excessively, on the world stage. Most of these guys will never have another opportunity to play a game of this calibre again.
 
Netherlands 3-1 USA
Argentina 2-1 Australia

Great performance from Denzel Dumfries of Netherlands with two assists and the eventual winning goal, Depay and Daley Blind with the other Dutch goals and a weird looping strike from Haji Wright for the USA, who did have more chances than the Netherlands but the Dutch were more clinical.

It was the Messi show once again with a lovely strike from him for the first goal and some nice runs, touches and passes throughout the game. Alvarez got Argentina's second after a mistake from Mat Ryan in the Aussie goal, a deflected goal which went down as an own goal by Enzo Fernandez gave Australia some hope towards the end and they held their own pretty much all game but ultimately Argentina had too much for them.

Netherlands and Argentina will meet in the first quarter final.
 
Biggles
I'm not sure what you mean? The Netherlands were expected to win, and they did. The US played well, but just lacked the finishing ability.
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I'll second that.

It does seem like a very American-centric view.

Would also like to hear from @Joey D (and while absolutely not having a dig at him) if the perceived result in the US was for a US win?
There's a big difference between expecting to win and throwing the dice in a knockout tournament and getting some luck on your side.
This morning's Australia v Argentina game is the great example, down here we hoped it would go our way but didn't expect it.
I'd put the US v Netherlands game in the same category.
 
Shaun
Would also like to hear from @Joey D (and while absolutely not having a dig at him) if the perceived result in the US was for a US win?
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For me and all the stuff I followed, the expected result was supposed to be more in line with the England game. Not necessarily a win, but not that lackluster of a performance. So many chances were squandered by the US and they should've won that game or at least played it closer than they did. I figured it would go into extra time tied at 1-1, with the Netherlands finally scoring when the US ran out of gas.

I still put a bunch of the blame on Berhalter since I don't think he's that good of a coach. He's good at recruiting and building a squad, but not good at actually managing a game. Thankfully, many of these guys will be able to continue on with the next World Cup since the team is so young. With the added experience and a "home-field advantage" next time around, I'm hoping for better results. I don't think the program is at the point where the USMNT can win the whole thing, but I can certainly see them advancing a bit and being on par with the 2002 tournament.
 
Unlike a number of the shocking results in this World Cup, the result against the Netherlands is more or less exactly what was expected. The USA was ranked around 16th going into the WC and performed up to that level by reaching the last 16.

The most dismal performances were undoubtedly from Belgium and Germany. KDB, in particular, one of the most dominant players in the Premier League, had a really lacklustre WC - really disappointing. Messi had a good game against Australia ... not a "genius" game, but still clearly a player in a category of his own - the only player at the WC who can be surrounded by 3 or 4 players and still be expected to create a scoring chance.

I wonder if I'm the only GTPer who actually watched England win the WC (on TV) in 1966? This has led to decades of unrealistic expectations in subsequent WCs. 😕 I'm a bit conflicted about the match with Senegal - they are an colourful team (with very colourful supporters!) even without Sadio Mané - but got to go with England. I hope exciting England show up today rather than boring England.
 
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Those Senegalese drummers are making me tired just listening to them... incredible energy!!

Hearing that incredible noise while watching England play some of the most boring football I've ever seen is strangely incongruous.

And FFS, get Maguire off the field!!

-

40 minutes in to the game and England finally turn up, great goal and England seem to have figured out that they need to attack. Senegal have been impressive but massively helped by England's incredibly negative approach to the majority of the first half. But if England attack, Senegal look shaky at the back.

Ooft, that Bellingham is quite good. Two very good goals for England - panic? what panic?? 😅

-

Loving the fact that the Senegalese musicians didn't miss a beat even when England scored their 3rd goal... awesome.

England have been brilliant as soon as they decided to start playing :lol:

Foden, Bellingham and Henderson have been very impressive tonight. And Southgate too..
 
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France 3-1 Poland
England 3-0 Senegal

Two dominant performances today, starting with France and Mbappe who was incredible two great goals and top scorer in the competition now with five, Olivier Giroud scored the opener to become France's record goal scorer but surely he won't be there for long if Mbappe keeps this up! Lewandowski with a very late penalty for the Poles who were out classed.

A nervy first half hour for England in which Senegal had two great chances, Henderson scored their first in their first attack of the game and Kane scored his first of the tournament right on half time, Saka scored England's third and his third of the tournament just before the hour mark and it was a cruise for England after that, England deservedly through and play France in the quarter final on Saturday, Bellingham was superb tonight.

Raheem Sterling has flown home from the England camp after armed intruders broke into his home whilst his children were inside, there is a chance he could be back in time for the France game but understandably family comes first in this situation.

Has anyone noticed that the extortionist amounts of stoppage has stopped, I think they realised that it was a bit stupid having like 10 minutes of added on time at the end of games.
 
MUSC4EVER
Has anyone noticed that the extortionist amounts of stoppage has stopped, I think they realised that it was a bit stupid having like 10 minutes of added on time at the end of games.
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Yes.
It would be interesting to see how much is total time added until round of 16...
There were +9/10 added times and played even longer.

Today is time for Croatia and Brazil facing Japan and South Korea.
 
The amount of player faffing has reduced. They seem to have learned quite quickly that dead ball time-wasting has no benefit, and the game has benefitted since.
 
Caught most of the Japan - Croatia match as I was working from home this afternoon.

Great first half and a good start to the second half, but then it really petered out. Extra time was an almost total waste of time, although Croatia had a chance at the death.

Croatia win on penalties, mainly thanks to some terrible penalties from Japan... sad to see them go, but yet another QF for Croatia. Not time for Modric to bow out just yet!
 
Just got in from work in time for the Brazil-South Korea game, first penalty shoot-out of the tournament, seemed like a close game and I'm gutted for Japan.

Neymar back and starting for Brazil.

Brazil already 2-0 up inside 15 mins, could be a log night for the Koreans...
 
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Attractive and fully open match between Brazil and Korea.
Korea wasn't defending as Japan was in match before, they tried to "play" with so strong Brazil.
Some great saves from Allison, as from Korean goalkeeper too.

All in all, enjoyed watching it.

Tomorrow may be day of bad football.
 
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Japan 1-1 Croatia (after extra time, Croatia win 1-3 on penalties)
Brazil 4-1 South Korea.

Very even game between Japan and Croatia, goals either side of half time from Maeda and Perisic, Livakovic was the hero during the shootout saving three penalties, Japan bow out but can be proud of what they achieved.

Brazil were excellent in the first half and 4-0 up, Vinicius Jr, a Neymar penalty, one of the best team goals you'll ever see finished off by Richarlison and Lucas Paqueta with the fourth, Korea had chances of their own and forced Allison into some fantastic saves, Paik Seung-Ho with the consolation goal, Brazil face Croatia in the third quarter final.
 
The first 35 minutes made Brazil's attack look unstoppable ... but to put it in perspective: Brazil only scored 4 goals in total in the group stage ... and they lost to Cameroon. France have looked really strong ... but they lost to Tunisia. Argentina haven't looked very convincing .. and they lost to Saudi Arabia. Overall, the Netherlands haven't looked that great. And England have somehow managed to scored the most goals in the tournament so far. Going forward, anything is possible. 🤔
 
France's first XI have looked incredible. That loss to Tunisia was after they played all the "reserves" so to speak. France don't really have the depth on the Bench, as that night showed, so that is all their opponents have to hope for.

This is basically England's only hope against the French. England do have pretty much like-for-like talents up in the Midfield and Strikers to keep the pressure up for all 90 minutes. With 5 subs this tournament, being able to keep running and pressing in the last 10 minutes has been crucial, and that's the point where England should hope to be piling the most pressure on France.


Netherlands Argentina will be enthralling as I think they both stepped up in the Last-16 and will have a great game.

Croatia are going to be flattened by the free-flowing Brazilians.


I can't call either of these last two round of 16 matches TBH. Morocco were impressive and Spain had weaknesses, bit Spain are on paper the much better team. Portugal and Switzerland are quite evenly matched, although Portugal have more goals in them.
 
I thought Japan had one of the worst Penalty Shootout performances in a long while.

Step forward Spain, who managed to score no penalties out of the three they took, and let Morocco take an amazing win to get through to the Quarter-Finals.
And seeing as it's Portugal or Switzerland as their next opponents, I would not be surprised to see Morocco get through to the Semis!
 
Yassine Bounou, when it comes to penalties:

Deny Nba Playoffs GIF by NBA


I'm happy for Morocco too, they've played hard and certainly deserved the win here. Glad to see them moving on!
 
Jimlaad43
I thought Japan had one of the worst Penalty Shootout performances in a long while.

Step forward Spain, who managed to score no penalties out of the three they took, and let Morocco take an amazing win to get through to the Quarter-Finals.
And seeing as it's Portugal or Switzerland as their next opponents, I would not be surprised to see Morocco get through to the Semis!
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Ugly game. Spain barely created any real chances in front of the goal. Morocco totally solid in defence throughout. And then that penalty performance by Spain! 🙄
 

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