2018 FIFA World Cup Megathread

[Yaana Noore]

Except they didn't. They tried to win. And they lost. I saw the game. What I meant there, was to point out that the Russia-KSA game was played in the midfield, like a standard soccer game; the Russians were just better at converting. Much better.

I saw the game too, we'll have agree to disagree then. I thought the Saudis were incredibly negative and while they had more posession than some of your usual defensive teams like Iran, mainly due to the way Russia play, Saudi Arabia never showed much attacking desire and it seemed like they only came to play for the point. Ball was in the midfield for more than a lot of games but the Saudis never really looked to attack, didn't even have a shot on target against what is a very bad defence. Even when one, two goals down the tempo was so slow, it was like a friendly. The Saudis lacked urgency and seemed uninterested in attacking.

[The Blaatschapen]

I want two hours of my life back.

Or rather, 110 minutes. The first five minutes were good, and the last five because of the penalty. The other 110, booooring.

[Fartsniffage]

Except they didn't. They tried to win. And they lost. I saw the game. What I meant there, was to point out that the Russia-KSA game was played in the midfield, like a standard soccer game; the Russians were just better at converting. Much better.

I saw the game too, we'll have agree to disagree then. I thought the Saudis were incredibly negative and while they had more posession than some of your usual defensive teams like Iran, mainly due to the way Russia play, Saudi Arabia never showed much attacking desire and it seemed like they only came to play for the point. Ball was in the midfield for more than a lot of games but the Saudis never really looked to attack, didn't even have a shot on target against what is a very bad defence. Even when one, two goals down the tempo was so slow, it was like a friendly. The Saudis lacked urgency and seemed uninterested in attacking.

You watched a very different game to the one I saw then.

The Saudis tried to play free flowing one-touch pass and move football. They just didn't have the skill to pull it off.

[Shofercia]

I saw the game too, we'll have agree to disagree then. I thought the Saudis were incredibly negative and while they had more posession than some of your usual defensive teams like Iran, mainly due to the way Russia play, Saudi Arabia never showed much attacking desire and it seemed like they only came to play for the point. Ball was in the midfield for more than a lot of games but the Saudis never really looked to attack, didn't even have a shot on target against what is a very bad defence. Even when one, two goals down the tempo was so slow, it was like a friendly. The Saudis lacked urgency and seemed uninterested in attacking.

You watched a very different game to the one I saw then.

The Saudis tried to play free flowing one-touch pass and move football. They just didn't have the skill to pull it off.

This ^

[Val Halla]

so uhhh

I think Croatia are going to be in the world cup final now

I did not see that coming

[The Archregimancy]

I want two hours of my life back.

Or rather, 110 minutes. The first five minutes were good, and the last five because of the penalty. The other 110, booooring.

I want 240 minutes of my life back today.

I missed most of the matches yesterday due to a work meeting here in Washington DC.

I rather wish I could manipulate time and switch yesterday's matches with today's.

I have some more work meetings in DC tomorrow, which likely means that the Brazil-Mexico match - which I'll definitely miss while I do professional stuff at the US Holocaust Museum - will be one of the great all-time World Cup classics.

[Fartsniffage]

I want two hours of my life back.

Or rather, 110 minutes. The first five minutes were good, and the last five because of the penalty. The other 110, booooring.

I want 240 minutes of my life back today.

I missed most of the matches yesterday due to a work meeting here in Washington DC.

I rather wish I could manipulate time and switch yesterday's matches with today's.

I have some more work meetings in DC tomorrow, which likely means that the Brazil-Mexico match - which I'll definitely miss while I do professional stuff at the US Holocaust Museum - will be one of the great all-time World Cup classics.

You have far too high standards for World Cup knock out games.

[The Archregimancy]

You have far too high standards for World Cup knock out games.

I want every knock-out stage match to be like Brazil-Italy '82.

That's surely not too much to ask.

[Fartsniffage]

You have far too high standards for World Cup knock out games.

I want every knock-out stage match to be like Brazil-Italy '82.

That's surely not too much to ask.

I try to help you out and then you pick things before I was even born.......

[Relikai]

Laughed my way off Spain-Russia after wasting 45 mins of the first half.

Prolly gonna pop some pills and wake up for the Bel-Jpn match, and observe the results of the BRAMEX game.

[Bombadil]

I want two hours of my life back.

Or rather, 110 minutes. The first five minutes were good, and the last five because of the penalty. The other 110, booooring.

I want 240 minutes of my life back today.

I missed most of the matches yesterday due to a work meeting here in Washington DC.

I rather wish I could manipulate time and switch yesterday's matches with today's.

I have some more work meetings in DC tomorrow, which likely means that the Brazil-Mexico match - which I'll definitely miss while I do professional stuff at the US Holocaust Museum - will be one of the great all-time World Cup classics.

I don't know if 4th round games are just likely to generally be draws, teams have just got through the qualifiers and the mindset is to just play safe and get through the 4th and quarters then see what happens. Even France-Argentina would have been a 1-0 if France hadn't just stepped entirely off the gas to allow Argentina to score twice.

[Idzequitch]

I'm happy with today's results. Spain didn't do enough when they had possession (which was basically the whole match). Can't say Russia really deserved to win that match, but a couple of solid PK saves by Akinfeev make up for it.

Didn't actually watch the other match, but I think I've adopted Croatia as my side to cheer for in this tourmament, so I'm glad to see them through.

If Brazil would just lose to Mexico, that would be my favorite. I like seeing some of the usual suspects out, and I wouldn't mind if that trend continued with Neymar & Co.

[Infected Mushroom]

I AM A GOD

I wanted Russia to win and they won

Its a MIRACLE !

[Forsher]

unless brazil up a gear and turn out to be more than one megastar with an average bunch of players

You're probably thinking 2014 Brazil. 2018 Brazil is... weird. Neymar was supposed to be the star, yet he's too busy spinning on the floor like Sonic the Hedgehog on coke, while the rest of the team (minus Willian, who's very useless) picks up the scraps.

Charitably, the point is to make everyone focus on Neymar and while they're too busy doing that (resulting in several fouls), Coutinho scores a goal. And unless Neymar is incredibly more useless than he used to be, if they switch to fouling Coutinho, it will be Neymar who scores the goals. Quite a dilemma.

Besides the game against Switzerland (who as far as I can tell, have been told to act as the East Germans of a sports movie for no reason, with some major campiness coming from Behrami laughing at a downed Neymar as he got a card)

Can you explain, please? Sports movies tend to be unbearably American so I don't watch them very often at all.

Most people seem to be picking on brand name teams over performance.

I know after the fact it sounds cheap, but Portugal aren't that "name brand", certainly they're no more name brand than Uruguay. Both are more name star teams.

Eh. Hummels is a massive cunt with the integrity of a jellyfish. As a person, I vastly prefer Boateng.

He is?

That's not what offense versus defense means.

Why are you talking about this, though? Playing for a draw means you don't think you can win so you don't attack full bore. You know, how Russia approached the game against Spain. They set up with a defensive formation and played defensively, but when they had the opportunity to attack they still did so as well as they were able. And eventually they thought, "Hang on, tiki taka is still boring and now it's also ineffective, we might grab a goal here" so made some substitutions... but it ended up on penalties, which is what they were looking for when the match started.

Saudi Arabia wanted a draw from the game against Russia? I am not sure about that. But they were so bad in that match it's really quite fruitless to try and infer what Saudi Arabia wanted from it.

I'm happy with today's results. Spain didn't do enough when they had possession (which was basically the whole match). Can't say Russia really deserved to win that match, but a couple of solid PK saves by Akinfeev make up for it.

Neither team deserved to advance. A game which involves two goals, one from an own goal and the other a penalty (Pique must be Russia's favourite person right now) doesn't deserve to have penalties. That should have been decided by paper, scissors, rock.

[Bombadil]

I didn't actually bother watching last night's games as i thought they'd be a snooze fest though the Spain - Russia game was for different reasons than I expected.

I'll watch Brazil - Mexico at least as I suspect it will be a good game.

[Soviet-mongol]

As far as I can recall, the World Cup is only expanding because good ol' Platini and UEFA couldn't bear the thoughts of a World Cup without the obligatory European filler sides (think Greece, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro that one time) and thus they went with the option of just expanding things. Had they expanded it to like 40, you still could have a fairly acceptable set-up but nah, let's go overboard and go 48.

I ain't predicting a score on Russia v. Spain, winners will probably be the ones that score first: Russia could go defensive after a goal and Spain would only be able to crack them open.

The World Cup needs to give more spots to African teams, and UEFA is overpresented.

[Soviet-mongol]

Though personally, I think that Russia vs Croatia would be interesting. Battle of the Slavs. Russia/Croatia vs England/Colombia would then be really interesting. Both sides would hopefully be of similarish capability (not to the point where one tactically or overall outclasses the other) and would make for a really good game. Denmark vs England/Colombia is a bit more meh, still nice.

So the semis will be the better from the slavic derby vs. the winner between the two of whom both have african heritage. Yeah I like it,

[Morrazan]

I didn't actually bother watching last night's games as i thought they'd be a snooze fest though the Spain - Russia game was for different reasons than I expected.

I'll watch Brazil - Mexico at least as I suspect it will be a good game.

I found the Spain - Russia game to be pretty boring. There was a lot of back and forth but Spain played sloppy, and Russia busted my bracket.

[San Regada]

I've just about ceased making World Cup predictions because of all the twists and turns...

I mean, at least I got the Croatia vs Denmark match right, just never thought it would go to ET, yet alone penalties >.>

Also, Belgium vs Japan later today, Belgium should (probably) win but oh my god if Japan manages to beat them...

Honestly I have a lot of respect for the Belgian side but Japan beating them would be insanely epic!

[Infected Mushroom]

Alright. After the successive French victories and the miracle Russia win that I was supporting...

Time to test if I can indeed cause the results of FIFA games just by wishing.

Tonight... I would like to see Japan pull off a miracle win.

The results will be out in a few hours.

[Kita-Hinode]

You're probably thinking 2014 Brazil. 2018 Brazil is... weird. Neymar was supposed to be the star, yet he's too busy spinning on the floor like Sonic the Hedgehog on coke, while the rest of the team (minus Willian, who's very useless) picks up the scraps.

Charitably, the point is to make everyone focus on Neymar and while they're too busy doing that (resulting in several fouls), Coutinho scores a goal. And unless Neymar is incredibly more useless than he used to be, if they switch to fouling Coutinho, it will be Neymar who scores the goals. Quite a dilemma.

Besides the game against Switzerland (who as far as I can tell, have been told to act as the East Germans of a sports movie for no reason, with some major campiness coming from Behrami laughing at a downed Neymar as he got a card)

Can you explain, please? Sports movies tend to be unbearably American so I don't watch them very often at all.

You know, that's an actually valid tactical point, although I do wonder why they don't just place two or three on the back all the time so they can just keep both of them out of the box whenever they're needed.

Well, usually in sports movies, you have a team that is undeniably villainous. They're either too arrogant, too much of troublemakers to properly play the game fairly, yet they get a good shake to their side because they're apparently in cahoots with somebody. I believe that, in TV Tropes, they call it something like East Germany, because they were... well, communists and a former war opponent. So it was either them or the Soviet Union that got the treatment. Switzerland has been pretty much... you know, the villains.

As far as I can recall, the World Cup is only expanding because good ol' Platini and UEFA couldn't bear the thoughts of a World Cup without the obligatory European filler sides (think Greece, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro that one time) and thus they went with the option of just expanding things. Had they expanded it to like 40, you still could have a fairly acceptable set-up but nah, let's go overboard and go 48.

I ain't predicting a score on Russia v. Spain, winners will probably be the ones that score first: Russia could go defensive after a goal and Spain would only be able to crack them open.

The World Cup needs to give more spots to African teams, and UEFA is overpresented.

I agree with that. Maybe they could get like... two spots from Europe? I'm sure we could live without two of those more defensive sides that usually end up there because their qualifier group stinks.

[MERIZoC]

Beautiful match, the Brazil train has no brakes.

[Starblaydia]

Beautiful match, the Brazil train has no brakes.

It was good for about 20 minutes and then degenerated into one of the poor ones from yesterday.

Although I am a little concerned about both Brazil's momentum and also the amount of different haircuts Neymar is having.

[Conoga]

Beautiful match, the Brazil train has no brakes.

I'm sure there's something here about not needing brakes if you're just going to go so slow as to draw with Switzerland.

I can't think of anything, though.

[Neu Leonstein]

I have started my intercontinental move, so I'm in Germany at the moment and may not be on NSG very regularly for the next little while (will see). I also managed to miss the deadline for my fantasy football transfers, so I'm trying to limit the damage of having my group stage players... But a few thoughts:

1) I missed both France v Argentina and Portugal v Uruguay. I'm ok with the results though, and they seem about right to me. Of course, only one of the winners will go on to the semis, which I suppose may well end up being France, but I wouldn't put it past them to get frustrated if Uruguay's defense has a good day and get punished for a 1:0 loss or something.

2) I missed Spain v Russia as well. First thing first: I like possession-based football. I've never seen the problem with tiki-taka, and I'd rather see a team playing well past a press than a team that interprets football as meaning the task of minimising the space between their two banks of four. So of course I'd support Spain over Russia any day of the week. I think the tournament lost something, because instead of another exciting and potentially classic clash between two world-class midfields (i.e. a Spain v Croatia match), we'll get a repeat of a pretty awful Spain v Russia match. Here's to hoping that the Croatians don't give away an easy handball penalty. But, all that said, blaming Russia for playing negatively is a silly thing to do. If you're one of the world's top teams, your task is to break down opposition that knows it and plays accordingly. Coaches have been getting better at smothering short passing play since the hey-day of the Barca/Spain peak, and it is up to top teams to work out an alternative. Spain couldn't, at least without a coach (and neither could Germany, obviously). Whatever the answer is though, the outcome probably won't be that spectacular either. As long as you end up with poor teams grinding their way through tournaments instead of about even teams not overawed by each other, the result will be awful matches. The underdog narratives will have to make up for it, but I have a hard time not being cynical about a sudden unexpected improvement in performance from Russian athletes just in time for politically useful major events.

3) I managed to catch Croatia v Denmark. Good first half from the Croatians, then the Danes pushed up their line and closed down the space in midfield. For all their talent, Modric, Rakitic et al had a bad second half... the space to break into was there, but they didn't manage to stick the passes through to Perisic and Rebic that would have made the difference. A bit schizophrenic... it's good that they ended up getting the win one way or the other (how awful would a Denmark v Russia match have been ), but maybe an earlier addition of Kovacic ought to be considered in situations like these.

4) Brazil look like a team that might actually win the thing. Mexico pressed well in the early match today, and put them under pressure, but they kept their nerve quite well. It makes a big difference whether your midfield goes MIA if pressed (e.g. Khedira & Kroos) or battles through it and is then around once the opposition gets tired (e.g. Casemiro & Paulinho). It's hard for me to like them, just because of the awful acting antics every time someone touches them. But they seem defensively solid, able to get results against defensive teams and come with enough attacking talent to worry the defense of any team that tries to engage them on more even terms. Belgium would be a test, no doubt, but one that they might just be able to pass. As for Mexico, they needed an early goal to stay in the contest and they didn't get it. Then they ran out of puff and the rest seemed a foregone conclusion. In truth, they had a great first half against Germany and have lived off the hype of that half since.

5) Belgium should be comfortable against Japan... provided no surprise red cards in the first ten minutes, you'd think that offense would be able to slot in a few. But then, I've consistently underestimated the Japanese, so what do I know.

6) Tomorrow my picks would be Switzerland, and Colombia on penalties (just for the giggles).