World Cup Russia 2018

[mhnessie]

WC 2018 is over and with France one of the better teams won. But I will remember this WC as one of the worst WC that I've ever watched.
Most games were dominated by tactics and defensive, negative styles of football.
Also something that comes to my mind when thinking of WC 2018, all the fake injuries and the attempts to kill time when being in front.
And the VAR needs to be improved soon, doesnt make sense as its used at the moment.

 

[Bundesbiers]

Congrats to the French. They played well all tournament.

 

[Bundesbiers]

I think this has been one of the better World Cups that I've seen in a long time. The powerhouse teams (besides France) were set into the background by the mid-major teams like Croatia, Belgium, Russia, Sweden, Colombia and the Swiss. There were 169 goals (3rd most ever) behind 171 goals from Brazil 2016 and 171 goals in France 1998. It was extremely enjoyable and I think Russia did a great job hosting the event. I was able to speak to many fans and several who also attended the past 2 World Cups in Brazil and South Africa, and they all said that Russia was better, safer, had better food, had better fan zones, had other activities to do for families. I was glad to be a part of it.

 

[PackerFan71]

I think this has been one of the better World Cups that I've seen in a long time. The powerhouse teams (besides France) were set into the background by the mid-major teams like Croatia, Belgium, Russia, Sweden, Colombia and the Swiss. There were 169 goals (3rd most ever) behind 171 goals from Brazil 2016 and 171 goals in France 1998. It was extremely enjoyable and I think Russia did a great job hosting the event. I was able to speak to many fans and several who also attended the past 2 World Cups in Brazil and South Africa, and they all said that Russia was better, safer, had better food, had better fan zones, had other activities to do for families. I was glad to be a part of it.

Yes they did a great job, just shows that you should not always believe the outside negativity and most importantly the Russian people were fantastic.

 

[mhnessie]

Fully agree, the Russians did a great job hosting the WC. But regarding the quality of the games shown I stick with my opinion, scored goals dont say anything about the quality if you bear in mind that Panama (!) alone conceded 11 goals. And I can hardly remember a defensive-oriented football like the WC 2018 offered.
Looking forward to Quatar (wonder how this will work out) and most important - the next (2.) Bundesliga season, watching HSV and propably Efzeh on their way back up.

 

[Bundesbiers]

So, FIFA has spoken and the 2022 WC in Qatar has been changed to something like 7 Nov - 15 Dec. How do you all think this will affect the Euro domestic leagues. Will the Premier League/Bundesliga etc... change their season to accommodate? If not, will the club teams let their players go to play in the WC?

 

[Croak]

The U.S. commentators are saying this may be the best World Cup in their lifetime. I'm not so sure. Russia did a great job hosting it, from all I can tell. But the matches themselves were really strange. The officiating was not very consistent and as Nessie mentioned, the VAR wasn't used as well as it could have been. The diving and time wasting are always a complaint of mine. The previous world cup had a bunch of diving. I don't remember as much time wasting.

 

[Itkovian]

So, FIFA has spoken and the 2022 WC in Qatar has been changed to something like 7 Nov - 15 Dec. How do you all think this will affect the Euro domestic leagues. Will the Premier League/Bundesliga etc... change their season to accommodate? If not, will the club teams let their players go to play in the WC?

2022 World Cup is an all around disaster. What an embarrassment to the sport.

 

[Itkovian]

I thought the 2018 World Cup was generally entertaining. I wouldn't call it the best ever, but it certainly wasn't poor either. VAR was mostly effective but had some issues. I certainly think it was better with VAR than without. As Bundesbiers said, there were a lot of major teams that got bumped out early, so that made it pretty fun watching some of the "little guys" advancing so far. I do understand Nessie's complaint about the defensive styles, though I think that was only a handful of teams *cough*portugal*cough* really abusing it. I mean, the two teams in the final were two of the teams that played the most forward and open, IMO.

 

[Bundesbiers]

2022 World Cup is an all around disaster. What an embarrassment to the sport.

Agreed. How 2022 has NOT been ripped away from Qatar given all the proof of human rights abuses, deaths, fraud in the voting process is unreal. I still hold out for a small hope, 2022 will be played somewhere else.

And putting in the winter is stupid.

 

[mhnessie]

Well, if human rights would have been important for the decision who‘s going to host a WC a couple of WC‘s hadnt been played. Just think of Argentina and yes, also Russia had to be discussed to be honest though I have many sympathies for this exciting country.
But Qatar is indeed the worst possible decision. Fully agree with Bundes and Itkovian. Wonder who will be next that fits in this category. China propably if they pay the Fifa good enough.
However, will be interesting to see if the leagues will take a break during the WC or if they keep up the usual schedule. Havent heard anything so far by DFL, think they simply dont know yet what to do.

 

[mhnessie]

So, FIFA has spoken and the 2022 WC in Qatar has been changed to something like 7 Nov - 15 Dec. How do you all think this will affect the Euro domestic leagues. Will the Premier League/Bundesliga etc... change their season to accommodate? If not, will the club teams let their players go to play in the WC?

As much as I know there is a rule that clubs cant anything do against it. If the national team is going to play a major tournament the have to make them available for it. Except the player retires from the national team of course.

 

[PackerFan71]

So, FIFA has spoken and the 2022 WC in Qatar has been changed to something like 7 Nov - 15 Dec. How do you all think this will affect the Euro domestic leagues. Will the Premier League/Bundesliga etc... change their season to accommodate? If not, will the club teams let their players go to play in the WC?

A winter World Cup? it just seems wrong in every way.

 

[PackerFan71]

The U.S. commentators are saying this may be the best World Cup in their lifetime. I'm not so sure. Russia did a great job hosting it, from all I can tell. But the matches themselves were really strange. The officiating was not very consistent and as Nessie mentioned, the VAR wasn't used as well as it could have been. The diving and time wasting are always a complaint of mine. The previous world cup had a bunch of diving. I don't remember as much time wasting.

Agreed, i think the first two French goals in last nights should not have been allowed. The free kick awarded was a dive by Griezmann and the penalty award was harsh too. Ball to hand instead of hand to ball.

 

[scotscheese]

So based on the media reports you Scots hate the English football team ??? What do you expect the media to do ? Write off the teams chances ?, it's what the press do for a living. Do you remember "we're on the march with Ali's army", we didn't make a big deal of that crap, WE actually hoped and wished Scotland well at the time even though you got well and truly beaten. It gets up your noses because we get there and Scotland rarely do. Do you know we can't fly our own flag in England because it might offend others ffs..... I Don't expect us to win it, but I'll support them because it's my country and I'll enjoy the fact that even if it ends here, we STILL got further than any other home countries team once again.

i have never stated i hate the English football team Bill, and i don't hate them or English people. what i do hate is the way the media can make everything about England, and how at every tournament finals they turn into liverpool fans thinking it's their year again. the build up to this tournament wasn't as bad as normal as it looked like they were being a bit more realistic regarding Englands chances, but as soon as the Panama game was over all of a sudden England were the best team in the world. and now they're being treated as if they were all conquering heroes, where as i think they got to the place where i thought they would at the beginning or the tournament.

as for it getting up our noses or being jealous, i don't think this is quite as much the case as most English people think it is. since i got old enough to follow football we qualified for 3 out of 5 tournaments between 1990-1998(france 98 being the last finals we qualified for), so it's not like we were like wales in the case of how often we qualified, but the last 20 years have shown just how bad scottish football has been run and funded(our TV deal is currently worth 1.1% of the EPL). some of these qualy campaigns have been "glorious failures" but have mostly been pish from us, and after how close we got to qualifying for france 16, i fully expected us to manage to qualify for Russia, but again we let ourselves down.

Fly your flag, you should be able to without any fear of "offence", if anyone is offended by you flying your flag, then they're the ones with the problem, i've seen cars up here flying the english flag with no issues.

 

[scotscheese]

well it certainly was an interesting world cup. and though it may not have been the best footballing worldcup, i think the entertainment levels were still really good with lots of games that could have went either way. VAR was mostly used correctly i think, but there were a few occasions that it got it's decision wrong, france's penalty in the final being a big error.

the worst thing for me were the manhandling of players in the box, i know this goes on a lot, but it seemed really bad, and i was surprised that england didn't get at least one pen against tunisia.

and again the diving and play acting, there should be retrospective cards and punishments for this

 

[Itkovian]

#jogiout

 

[mhnessie]

He needs to be sacked, his time is over. And its time to get rid of players like Hummels and Boateng. They‘re done. Old and slow. Time for a fresh start with new manager and new, young players.