He's so mesmerizing to watch at times.
Also, it never made sense to me how kicking someone on the head with a bicycle kick is usually just a simple foul.
Printable View
He's so mesmerizing to watch at times.
Also, it never made sense to me how kicking someone on the head with a bicycle kick is usually just a simple foul.
Because bicycle kicks are cool.Quote:
Originally Posted by Adramelch
Almost.Quote:
Originally Posted by CJay
Toggle Spoiler
Now for the Czechs to score a second which would leave Turkey out and see Georgia advance as second, courtesy of yellow cards.
Kvaratskhelia has the look of the character in a British gangster film who goes along with it all to try and belong but gets bullied by the others.
Mikautadze is a fantastic player.
Three most cohesive teams over the three games so far:
Spain
Austria
Georgia
Switzerland probably deserve to be up there too actually.
Scotland battered two of them in qualifying :(Quote:
Originally Posted by CJay
The Georgian keeper :cool:
Portugal still probably up there to be honest. I know they lost today and all but it was the second string.
Great finish for Turkey's second.
More late drama. What a tournament.
Turkey and Georgia both deserve going through tonight after that first game
All the tiny teams going through except Bcotland.
Pathetic groups half them were in tbf
Soucek :lol:
20 cards in total in that Turkey game
Georgia into the tougher half of the draw. Not sure Sagnol has thought this through.
As opposed to your group of death?Quote:
Originally Posted by Waffdon
The third toughest group I’d say. So yeah lolQuote:
Originally Posted by Adramelch
Turkey then. Our national team historically has never dealt well with the few times they were favorites, so it will be uncomfortably close at least. Should really beat them, though.
Also just realized that, if we win, we're most likely paying the Netherlands again in the quarter final, two matches after playing them in the group.
How boring. I'll throw my support behind Romania for that alone
Them missing Akaydin might have an impact. I know he had the horrendous mistake against Portugal but it feels like he has carried their defence a lot in this tournament.
What did I miss?
There’s a Dutch football podcast call ‘de dere helft’ (The Third Half). Coincidence or is it breakaways from whatever the Dutch part of the board was called back in the day? I heard it referenced on Football Clichés the other day.
https://www.dederdehelft.nl/
Probably those Benelux gimps.
Kendry Paez :wub:
I see Guehi getting a lot of praise online and in the podcasts... I can't be the only one who thinks he's been a bit of a bombscare? Like decent 90% of the time, but a big, big howler in every game so far.
Harsh.
Think he's looked decent and has generally recovered well from any errors. An order of magnitude better than Maguire.
Not quite the next Bobby Moore yet.
I think he's been good, but he's barely been tested so it's hard to say how well he'll do in the tougher games en route to us winning this. I'm sure a pep talk with Sir Gareth will keep him at the top of his game as required though.
Spain vs. Germany quarter final.
This is what it must feel like to be an Indian cricket fan, with the whole draw rigged in your favour. :drool:
The only upside to all of this is that whoever makes the final from the hard side of the draw will presumably be shit hot and thus should take care of England. We hope.
Waff, you simply can't fight the forces that Sir Gareth has on his side. How can one beat what one cannot see?
England back to 7/2 and outright favourites again. A touch long I think and not a fair reflection of the way Sir Gareth has navigated us through our group and managed the draw for the knockout rounds. Momentum is clearly building so I see that being backed into 3/1 by the time we play our last 16 game.
It sounds like you and DS have joined that mob from series 1 of The Leftovers.
This whole "good side" of the draw thing is ridiculous and so outdated. Like if you've watched a fair amount of the Euros you'd say the bad side of the draw is wherever Spain and Austria are. Spoiler: Austria are in the same side as England.
Just because England are seemingly away from "big names" like France and Belgium, so what? Both have been turgid. I'd argue England currently have a better chance agasint France than Switzerland.
It's not like teams like Georgia and Slovenia are breathing a sigh of relief for avoiding tournament favourites England, just cos they're a big team. Chances are Georgia would roll England over, like they did to Portugal B last night.
England are no better off facing the likes of Slovakia and Switzerland than if they played Belgium or Slovenia again. Slovakia have scored more goals than England and Switzerland got as many points as England, while also scoring loads more. There's a good chance England would (and will) get beat off either of those.
There's no easy side of the draw when you're abysmal because your manager is so bad he'd probably be chuffed with a 0-0 draw against Moore United Under 8s.
Agreed to a degree but at the same time if you go up against France and both sides are shit, there's still a decent chance you just get Mbappe'd.
That is to say, England has a unique way of making both sides play like shit, and once you're there you'd rather be facing the Bozeniks of the world.
I think there's also the mental factor. England are more likely to shit themselves against a big nation.
Whilst there's a good chance anyone on England's side of the draw might beat them, there's a higher chance that most of the teams on the other side would. England also have some pedigree for beating tier 2 nations in knock-out competition, whereas they have absolutely none for more 'established' nations. Obviously it could still end up Slovakia/Italy/Holland which isn't, on paper/in the mind, the lolfest that Slovakia/Switzerland/Austria would be, even if that latter sides have played better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Baz
The mistake here is implying that the only available data is the three group games and the sentiment down your local.
Austria are not actually better than England. Not even close.
England are a bit too short in the outright but favs is correct. Conditional probability baby.
Yeah, this isn't the way tournament football works. There's a hierarchy involved, which is formed from a combination of historical standing and quality of the current set-up. When you beat a team above you in the hierarchy in a knock out match (which does happen quite often) that's your final and essentially your tournament win, so to go and repeat it a second time is much much harder due to the mental energy you've spent and controlling the elation you're feeling at achieving something great (and happens much less often as a result).Quote:
Originally Posted by Baz
For example, let's say England beat Slovakia and Switzerland beat Italy (which I could well see happening) so that the two then meet in the quarter-finals. Switzerland have already had their tournament 'win' and are much less likely to repeat that again against England as a result, even (in the incredibly unlikely event) that England don't play that well against them.
There are outliers to this, Greece and Denmark being the classic examples, but it really doesn't happen very often and even less so in the World Cup.
You need to check your negativity. 7/2 is too long.Quote:
Originally Posted by -james-
I was blind to it for too long, but now I can see and realise I have sinned. In Sir Gareth we are dealing with a force so exceptional that words can't really do it justice, but I shall try. The false sense of security he's lulled these teams we'll be facing into is a masterstroke. Slovakia will now be thinking that La Liga's player of the year, Bayern's fastest ever goalscorer and Man City's metronome offer no threat whatsoever. They'll carry that thinking into the last 16 and boom, then it'll hit them. We'll be in the semi-final before anyone realises and when they do they'll wonder how it's happened and how a team that have conceded only one goal to that point (and a worldie at that) can ever be beaten.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
I didn't watch or particularly follow the Czech Rep game but fucking hell that was a lot of cards.
11 yellows for Turkey? Good grief.
Yev's turn here is like when Stone Cold joined Vince.
Stone Cold turned heel though. Big face turn from Yev here joining the enlightened.
He needs to give it up. Normal Yev is refreshing
Nah man he's shown he's fickle and a turncoat. If England were to lose, which they won't, he'd be cracking me into the ring posts and putting me through a table.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben
Haha. I'll get bored and revert to what I actually think soon enough, but for now this act will probably bring me more joy than continuing to watch a dogshit England team and moan about it. I've done enough of that for now and have covered every conceivable horror show imaginable.
The key is that we continue to progress whilst playing the worst football imaginable.
It'll all come unstuck if any sort of mood of national euphoria takes hold. Expectations must be managed.