World Cup 2018

[Ursegor]

Poor quality World Cup overall. After Qatar 2022 international football will be dead for good. Football in general is on the decline. Those comedy goalkeeper errors in the CL and WC finals (and also both semi-finals) are symptomatic.

Last quality WC was 2006. Riquelme's Argentina, Germany at home with the fighting spirit, Zidane's France, Pirlo's Italy, Figo's Portugal, Brazil with all the big names (Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Kaka, R. Carlos) choking. Afterwards the Vuvuzela sirens in 2010 heralded the downfall of intl. football. It's only getting worse every tournament.

 

[BenRobbins]

Poor quality World Cup overall. After Qatar 2022 international football will be dead for good. Football in general is on the decline. Those comedy goalkeeper errors in the CL and WC finals (and also both semi-finals) are symptomatic.

Last quality WC was 2006. Riquelme's Argentina, Germany at home with the fighting spirit, Zidane's France, Pirlo's Italy, Figo's Portugal, Brazil with all the big names (Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Kaka, R. Carlos) choking. Afterwards the Vuvuzela sirens in 2010 heralded the downfall of intl. football. It's only getting worse every tournament.

Did you not enjoy this tournament?

 

[Morten]

Poor quality World Cup overall. After Qatar 2022 international football will be dead for good. Football in general is on the decline. Those comedy goalkeeper errors in the CL and WC finals (and also both semi-finals) are symptomatic.

Last quality WC was 2006. Riquelme's Argentina, Germany at home with the fighting spirit, Zidane's France, Pirlo's Italy, Figo's Portugal, Brazil with all the big names (Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Kaka, R. Carlos) choking. Afterwards the Vuvuzela sirens in 2010 heralded the downfall of intl. football. It's only getting worse every tournament.

Perhaps it was low quality, seeing as so many big teams got embarassed by smaller teams, but it was great entertainment, only a single 0-0 game this entire tournament.
I agree a bit though, in some ways today didnt feel like a final, some of the goals Croatia let in was comical, then the blunder by the french gk, you have to go back to the 70-80s to find more goals in a final.
Cant really say France lacks individual quality though, they have loads of it, and probably would have done quite well in any tournament the past few decades.

Qatar wont kill international football though, it will just delay it.

 

[RMU ReBorn]

A tournament is a success if it's enjoyed by vast majority. I get it , possession obsessed fans won't enjoy teams winning it from spot kicks , set pieces and headers . This has been one of the enjoyable world cups since i have started following football which was from Korea japan 2002 . For me favorite world cup was 2006, because Italy won it . They were the team that i was routing for and they won it . Was quite a memorable won for me . And i still have paper cuttings ( Local news paper) and photo Collage's from that world cup in my Album .

 

[Yannik]

Poor quality World Cup overall. After Qatar 2022 international football will be dead for good. Football in general is on the decline. Those comedy goalkeeper errors in the CL and WC finals (and also both semi-finals) are symptomatic.

Last quality WC was 2006. Riquelme's Argentina, Germany at home with the fighting spirit, Zidane's France, Pirlo's Italy, Figo's Portugal, Brazil with all the big names (Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Kaka, R. Carlos) choking. Afterwards the Vuvuzela sirens in 2010 heralded the downfall of intl. football. It's only getting worse every tournament.

I liked 2014. I mean obviously we won and I'm happy, but there was a lot of special stuff like Netherland vs Spain, Suarez bite incident, heroic individual performers like James, Ochoa, Klose becoming all time top scorer, and the 7-1 of course, the arguably most memorable match of all time.. And there was a hell lot of atmosphere in and around the stadiums. You say it went "downhill" in 2010, but I found 2002 the worst of all the World Cups I've seen so far.

 

[dakt]

Being African is in no way a bad thing.

^Epilogue. However it's very bad thing to be a Scotsman because they all are tight-fisted and miserly.

I don't think we are ever "allowed" to mock or call people names, no matter what they do and not just what they are, because we all fall short all the times and that would make us nothing but hypocrites. "who is without sin cast the first stone". But this is our nature, we do that all the times. You for example, have an avatar of Z.Mamic. The aim here is clearly not to admire him, but to mock him or his persona because you _feel_ you are allowed to.

What is worrying is that the humour itself is attacked here. We in fact tend to make humour exactly out of things we cannot control, like big nose, small penis, gender, ethnicity and yes -> skin colour. So the contrast of what France team was before 30 years and what is now is by definition a material for humour.

 

[JamDav1982]

^Epilogue. However it's very bad thing to be a Scotsman because they all are tight-fisted and miserly.

I don't think we are ever "allowed" to mock or call people names, no matter what they do and not just what they are, because we all fall short all the times and that would make us nothing but hypocrites. "who is without sin cast the first stone". But this is our nature, we do that all the times. You for example, have an avatar of Z.Mamic. The aim here is clearly not to admire him, but to mock him or his persona because you _feel_ you are allowed to.

What is worrying is that the humour itself is attacked here. We in fact tend to make humour exactly out of things we cannot control, like big nose, small penis, gender, ethnicity and yes -> skin colour. So the contrast of what France team was before 30 years and what is now is by definition a material for humour.

Two totally different things.

Inferring the players are African and not French and then others joining in trying to back up that point is what folk dont agree with would think.

Can easily flip it and say 'humour' is used as an excuse.

Either way all of them are French and they took the world cup home.

 

[gsgosal]

Russia as hosts aside ... they did brilliant btw

Has VAR changed the game going forward? Set pieces etc. How will this impact domestic leagues going forward? I think its big, probably big enough for teams to take note of players who header the ball well having more of an impact. Hope i'm wrong

 

[Yannik]

Russia as hosts aside ... they did brilliant btw

Has VAR changed the game going forward? Set pieces etc. How will this impact domestic leagues going forward? I think its big, probably big enough for teams to take note of players who header the ball well having more of an impact. Hope i'm wrong

VAR in the past year has been either great, or just not helpful. It's a slight improvement, but not as big as I hoped it would be. Might come with time when refs are used to it.

 

[Jenks]

Compared to what?

Compared to a summer World Cup in most places. December temperatures in Doha range between 17-25°C with relatively low humidity.

 

[Morten]

Russia as hosts aside ... they did brilliant btw

Has VAR changed the game going forward? Set pieces etc. How will this impact domestic leagues going forward? I think its big, probably big enough for teams to take note of players who header the ball well having more of an impact. Hope i'm wrong

VAR is good, those in the VAR room are the problem, as well as the ref, who makes the final decision in the end.
VAR spotted a possible penalty situation, its kinda soft, but its okay to give it as a penalty.
VAR didnt spot Pogba interfering on the set-piece from an offside position, how come?

 

[JamDav1982]

VAR is good, those in the VAR room are the problem, as well as the ref, who makes the final decision in the end.
VAR spotted a possible penalty situation, its kinda soft, but its okay to give it as a penalty.
VAR didnt spot Pogba interfering on the set-piece from an offside position, how come?

Pogba wasnt offside.

Looked like that at first but Croatia players leg was behind him.

 

[dakt]

Two totally different things.

Inferring the players are African and not French and then others joining in trying to back up that point is what folk dont agree with would think.

Can easily flip it and say 'humour' is used as an excuse.

Either way all of them are French and they took the world cup home.

A friend sent me a message with a picture of African children smiling and down below it says: "It's coming home".
Not for the hearts on these boards though.

 

[gsgosal]

VAR in the past year has been either great, or just not helpful. It's a slight improvement, but not as big as I hoped it would be. Might come with time when refs are used to it.

Its definitely made it easier to score from corners and free kicks. Its made the game more exciting, just hope not one dimensional

 

[JamDav1982]

A friend sent me a message with a picture of African children smiling and down below it says: "It's coming home".
Not for the hearts on these boards though.

Hilarious friends you got there.

Knows his audience.

World Cup did go home. To France won by Frenchmen.