Day 4: Morocco vs Croatia | Germany vs Japan | Spain vs Costa Rica | Belgium vs Canada

Gemany can't beat Asian teams anymore. First it's 1-2 to South Korea in Russia 2018 and now 1-2 to Japan. If Spain and Japan beat Costa Rica and Germany fail to beat Spain next, they are f*cked.
 
I was speaking to a German fan this morning in work and I said Japan are a decent side. He was like nah we’ll beat them.
 
antohan said:
Europe typically brings along 13 strong teams, the chances two of them make the final and at least three make the semis are massive.

It all essentially boils down to: suspect Brazil vintage and grossly mismanaged Argentina. Other than that, it's not much different from what it has always been like, bar a minor hiccup in 2002.

So no, it isn't an era of European dominance but an uncharacteristically poor Argentina and Brazil. It happens to the best of them, like Italy.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think when the only viable winners from outside of Europe are two nations in South America, one who hasn’t won it since 1986, it’s fair to say that Europe dominates this tournament. Especially when 81% of the last four world cup semi finalists have been European, with only 40% of the teams in the tournament being European.
 
JPRouve said:
No it's not and you know it. And the main factors are the contractual situation of a player and the identity of his club, specifically the wealth of that club.

As an example is Sterling a better player today than he was this summer, is Tchouaméni a worse player today than he was this summer; is Haaland a significantly better player today than he was this summer?
Click to expand...
Why is Harry Kane (29, 2 years left at Tottenham) worth more than Leroy Sane (26, 3 years left at Bayern)? Because he's judged to be a better player. It's silly to say quality is not an indicator.

Sterling and Tchouameni have the same price now as in the summer, so I'm not sure I understand the point there.
 
DJ_21 said:
I was speaking to a German fan this morning in work and I said Japan are a decent side. He was like nah we’ll beat them.
Click to expand...

Clearly doesn't watch Germany enough if he was confident we would beat any team, let alone Japan.
 
Big sides just seem to think a stroll would be enough to get the points against out of their radar oppos? Mind, it happens all the time, every WC, though.
 
Lot of empty seats in this one, surprising as most of the others have been packed.
 
Torres-Asensio-Olmo is such an underwhelming attack from Spain. Do they not have better forwards?
 
I think trusting all of alba, Busquets and Azpilicueta is not going to end well for Spain... Busquets sure, but the other 2 shouldn't be starting.
 
Spain really are just allergic to naming any striker in the squad other than Morata.

How do you not at least take Rodrigo from Leeds as an option?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.