Surprised he didn’t miss when punching the plastic screen

Finishing 1st ahead of 2nd and 3rd place of the last WC, not too bad. Horrible football today though, second half was awful

Belgium deserved to go home for that atrocious kit alone. Looks like one of them early PES kits when they didn't have licences

Claudius wrote:

Exactly. National team managers have a shit job. This conservatism is not unusual. See how players like Reyna, Martinelli, etc are all sitting down despite their abundant talent. It's nothing to worry about.

The national managers are generally 2 or 3 tiers lower than club managers. Their main job is probably man manager and motivator, less of tactics and all due to lack of time.

Martinelli is understandable, Reyna less so and there are many concrete suggestions about a rift with Berhalter. For Saliba, Deschamps is a dud. He got lucky with Lucas injury, he wouldn't have played Theo and they would have so much lesser goals. Playing Camavinga and and Disasi as fullbacks, Guendouzi as a RW is hilarious

MistaT wrote:

Lukaku 😆

Missed 4 sitters, probably wants to quickly return to Chelsea.

That tackle by Gvardiol was something else though, literally worth a goal, or the entire world cup campaign for Croatia. Phenomenal CB. So so intelligent in his positioning when you have an overview of the entire game you can see how good he is

Clrnc wrote:
Claudius wrote:

Exactly. National team managers have a shit job. This conservatism is not unusual. See how players like Reyna, Martinelli, etc are all sitting down despite their abundant talent. It's nothing to worry about.

The national managers are generally 2 or 3 tiers lower than club managers. Their main job is probably man manager and motivator, less of tactics and all due to lack of time.

International football as a whole is a level below club football so it's not surprising. One or two teams are quality outfits but the rest are mid-table or worse. What makes it interesting is the pressure and expectations are higher than domestic competitions.

Clrnc wrote:
MistaT wrote:

Lukaku 😆

Missed 4 sitters, probably wants to quickly return to Chelsea.

That tackle by Gvardiol was something else though, literally worth a goal, or the entire world cup campaign for Croatia. Phenomenal CB. So so intelligent in his positioning when you have an overview of the entire game you can see how good he is

His wikipedia currently reads:

Joško Gvardiol (Croatian pronunciation: [jôʃko ɡʋârdioːl];[3][4] born 23 January 2002) is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Bundesliga club RB Leipzig and the Croatia national team. A centre-back, he can also play as a left-back. In 2022 he was crowned King of the Belgians, and has one son named Romelu.

Japan still won’t start their best 11

Lukaku looked like a Croatian agent in that game

Morata scores and commentators here says expert header from an expert striker wut… Is he killing it on some league somewhere now?

Jones, what would it take to get Musiala out of the evil empire?

Mirth wrote:

Japan still won’t start their best 11

What’s their deal?

Seem to have made this tournament far harder than it would already have been for them. They threw a terrible line up at Costa Rica too.

Damnnnnnnn that’s a heater

Hehe, fuck germany. Come on Japan, hold on

Yes 2-1 Japan. Fuck Germany again

Damn I thought it was out. Lukaku would’ve missed that too.