The World Cup Squads and Preamble; And it's ... Live!!

MIAHammer

Karma took 12 years

IronHerb

I'm not much of a fan of Xhaka but his performance against Serbia, both in football terms and passion, was immense. He, along with Shaqiri, would have taken on the entire Serbian state head on. 👏👏👏

BubblesNeverDies

Good article by Danny Murphy (surprisingly)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63834268

Ravel49

I know everyone loves an underdog
But for me this round I wanna see all the big teams (favourites) go through to set up an epic quarter final lineup!

OutcastLondoner

Not for me. All the smaller teams have deserved to be there and have taken the game to more established teams. The African teams have been managed by coaches from their own countries rather than these journeymen Europeans no one has ever heard of who usually set them up so defensively, so it would be nice to see that rewarded.

jay_in_cpt

OutcastLondoner said:

Not for me. All the smaller teams have deserved to be there and have taken the game to more established teams. The African teams have been managed by coaches from their own countries rather than these journeymen Europeans no one has ever heard of who usually set them up so defensively, so it would be nice to see that rewarded.

Does this then include Senegal ??

OutcastLondoner

No comment

Slacker

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/dec/03/pele-moved-to-end-of-life-care-in-hospital-reports-say

😥

IronHerb

😢

https://twitter.com/Neymoleque/status/1599048599936958464

IronHerb

I'm gathering from the BBC commentary and punditry that Australia are very well organised. Who'd a thunk?

buffybegood

So, just how boring is Danny Murphy? Guess I've not listened to him much before to not have noticed until now.

IronHerb

Very.

Kuchinghammer

PrestonHammer said:

Kuching Town, somewhere in Essex I reckon.

Borneo Island North, geographically (thank you apellcheck) East Malaysia politically. When I was working in the Middle East, my employers bought me a ticket to Kuching India. So Kuching Essex was close.

Kuchinghammer

buffybegood said:

Such a shame we won't get double headers like this at the next World Cup thanks to the ridiculous decision to expand the number of participants to 48 with 16 groups of 3 (top 2 qualify). FIFA at their worst. Also means the possibility of match fixing rears it's ugly head again, as one team sits out the final fixture in each group.

Imo, if you can't qualify for a 32 team WC, you shouldn't be there. It's getting to the stage where we needn't bother having qualification to get there, just invite everyone.

Yes, just pull the names out of a big hat. Or maybe each country can try on that Harry Potter hat thing

Giant_Hammer

Love the Japanese way of playing but their supporters songs and whistling are really annoying.

steve

Japan has a nice fresh feel to this simple game

thornburyiron

Can’t kick properly from 12 yards though.

buffybegood

Shocking penalties from Japan, only scored one 1 of 4. Croatia go through.

MIAHammer

VAR doesn't seem to be checking whether the goalie moves before the kick. Having said that, terrible penalty taking by the Japanese players. It's as if they weren't prepared at all.

IronHerb

VAR spotted Lloris off his line last night when he saved Poland’s penalty.

steve

our very own Paqueta scores for Brazil

alderz

Paqueta playing in a midfield two, btw. He looks a real player. I would love to see him play with Dec in the middle.

Slacker

Oops, looks like Brazil have woken up.😳

ASLEFshrugged

alderz said:

Paqueta playing in a midfield two, btw. He looks a real player. I would love to see him play with Dec in the middle.

Looks more like a 4-3-3

Paqueta

Casemiro

Neymar

OutcastLondoner

Is it possible to see a first half only heat map? I wonder whether it would be different before they were so comfortable.

ASLEFshrugged

Paqueta first half touches

Casemiro

Neymar



Has there ever been five Premier League players in the Brazilian starting XI?

Ravel49

6

2014 WC

https://amp.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/05/brazil-squad-2014-world-cup

Ravel49

And all 6 were on the pitch at the same time vs Germany
3 started
And 3 came on as subs
But not for any of the 3 starters

Ravel49

And in case anyone wants to be pedantic

Yes 5 did START in the 3rd place play off

alderz

ASLEFshrugged said:

alderz said:

Paqueta playing in a midfield two, btw. He looks a real player. I would love to see him play with Dec in the middle.

Looks more like a 4-3-3

Paqueta

Casemiro

Neymar

I'm not sure it does. Paqueta got forward and Casemiro held, but I think you'd be hard pressed to argue that Neymar played as a central midfielder. Personally, I prefer average positions to heat map - feels a bit more definitive.