If Jordi Alba was Argentine, this would be the third World Cup for Messi imo

    Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert Don't really remember anything from 94 bar Baggio's pen and Leonardo getting sent off but I watched the shit out of tapes of it in the late 90s. 98 was great, 06 was class and 10 and 18 were fun to watch too.

    Will have to wait for some time to pass but even trying to think as a neutral 22 might have surpassed all of them.

      arsedocmd if Higuain and Agüero didn't turn full donkey all of a sudden he'd 100% have at least one more. Seems to be some Argentine curse that afflicts at least one player per big tourney, Lautaro this time around and I don't recall which tournament specifically but Tevez usually played like shit for Argentina too.

        Clrnc

        Claudius
        No place for Anguissa? Thought he carried his quality into the tournament. Together with Mac Allister (all the basics consistently), Bellingham (movement, press, runs), Greizmann (creativity, counter attacking, defending), Modric and Casemiro (passing penetration) would be my stand out midfielders. Admittedly didn't watch a lot of Morocco.

              Mirth At 15 seconds when he says "listen to me carefully," it would have been amazing if he then said "I shall say zis only once."

                Great World Cup. Not as good as 82, 86 or 90 though. Those three are out there on their own.

                  90 had good groups but and knockouts but a shit final. Can’t comment on earlier tournaments.

                  KingslandBarge

                  Those are all good shouts but I like my guys.

                  I think Fifa will think long and hard about more mid season tournaments where appropriate. The players were largely in peak condition. So impressive.

                      Claudius not the worst idea to have it alternating between January and July depending on where the tournament is.

                        Yeah. If they do a Morocco tournament, they should do it mideason. I would’ve done a Mexico tournament mideason as well but they’re going to mix it up with this US monstrosity in 2024. That tournament will be a mess.

                          jones No way he remembers 82. I don't remember 82 and, sadly, am a little bit older than my Kentish friend.

                            I didn't think this World Cup was that great at all. Not that much brilliant football, not really consistent top class teams. I would be against having another winter world cup. Think it drained a lot of the buzz out of the whole thing.

                              The Moroccan bid looks interesting in any case. Failing that, it should go to the Uruguay-Arg joined bid for a 100 year anniversary of the first Uruguay WC although their stadiums does look extremely dated.

                              The Greece-Egypt bid looks awful. All of their stadiums have a running track around the pitch

                              QuincyAbeyie would be in line with the recent choices I guess. Russia, Qatar, USA and then Western Sahara's occupants after that.

                              I'll be honest, I know nothing of the country's politics. My interest is mainly derived from exploring dense, old cities and drinking tea.

                                  Pepe LeFrits won't pretend that I know that much about the situation either. Definitely looks like a beautiful place. Was supposed to go there with my high school class, but in the end the school decided against it for budgetary reasons.

                                    QuincyAbeyie "Western Sahara occupants" I've absolutely no love for the Moroccan king or government but occupant is a ridiculous term. There are issues in the region but occupation of a different country means something vastly different than what's going in the Sahrawi republic.

                                    Also as Moroccan I'd hate to see a world cup going there, the ensuing explosion of corruption, damage to the economy etc would be unreal.

                                      Qwiss Agree 100 %. The World Cup is a Summer event mixed with beers, barbeque, garden parties or other social events outside. The whole Fifa/Qatar thing also leaves a seriously bitter after taste. Not even close to one of the best world cups ever.

                                          Pepe LeFrits exactly. For Argentina this was their first ever summer event mixed with beers asado etc, bet they'd keep it like this forever if they could.

                                            Segway He's a pyscho, simple as.

                                            This thread is interesting. Don't think I have seen such an insane character in football for a long time.

                                            Don't think any other goalies would have won Argentina 2 back to back shootouts like this.

                                              In fairness as good as Martinez is you can see why he was never going to be someone who Arteta would warm to.

                                                Segway Odd to poke fun at Mbappe when he scored 4 goals past him in that game.

                                                Also is a bit cheap really, leave the shithousery on the pitch.

                                                  I reckon Argentina are going to be in for a rough ride once Messi retired - similar to Barca but with even less scope for succession planning - and these guys will come crashing back to earth.

                                                    Mirth I'm not convinced Emi is from Earth to begin with.

                                                      Pepe LeFrits I didn't like the PL season being broken up by this World Cup, but I don't see how anyone can call it a "global sport" if the World Cup doesn't cater for any country on earth potentially eventually hosting it, over time and depending on infrastructure etc … also, the break in the season so far feels like less of a drag than I felt at first.

                                                        Qwiss In fairness I can see how when we started a bit of a clear-out that factored in personality and mentality, Martinez didn't quite make the cut. Great to have him in your Cup side that's doing well, but who knows what he's like in the dressing room at a struggling outfit like Villa—22 goals shipped this season and all, so he's no silver bullet.

                                                            Burnwinter Think there's a lot of hindsight analysis regarding Martinez antics, pretty sure everyone here knows how your behaviour changes dramatically depending on what group of people you're with. Don't think we've seen any Emi antics in an Arsenal shirt have we? No reason to assume Arteta didn't like him personally, especially when we've ultimately replaced him with Ramsdale who's a bit of a character/dickhead himself.

                                                            The obvious answer would be Arteta trusted Leno and didn't want to rule out that he'd return as #1, which was perfectly understandable even if I disagreed with it. Leno had some form issues as well but mostly long spells of good form, Emi came in and played just 15 or so games in which he was great, it would've been a big call to decide against Leno. Ultimately we were (or are, depending which of Ramsdale's two faces comes through) worse off for it but you can't really blame anyone for making a decision with the information available at that point in time.

                                                              That's a good point, almost every other fangroup hates Ramsdale's antics and call him a dick, but we don't for obvious reasons.

                                                              I got the impression Emi demanded to be No.1, from Arteta's point of view Leno was the established first choice keeper so didn't want to guarantee it. It was obvious that if Emi had stayed patient he was going to take over from Leno. From Emi's point of view I understood as well, he's finally broken through and knows the chance might not come around again so wanted to play.

                                                              In hindsight not sure how well it worked out for us because Leno had no intention of staying at the club. While Leno was a great shot stopper he was terrible at crosses, which is something that Emi really excelled in. So we ended up having to find a replacement. Ramsdale had a good 6 months last season but has imo been nowhere near that kind of level again.

                                                              Yeah, I think that was it. I preferred Emi at that point, but we didn't know if it was just a purple patch. It's clear if he had backed himself he would have overtaken Leno, not just because of his aerial abilities, but he's much better with the ball at his feet. Not sure it worked out great for him either at Aston Villa, but that's water under the bridge now.

                                                              Let's just hope Ramsdale recovers his early form when he joined us, because he's definitely been average lately.

                                                              Yeah would agree with you both. I think from Emi's POV you can understand his displeasure when we couldn't guarantee him as first choice when he was clearly superior to Leno and as the saying goes you don't drop a winning keeper till something goes seriously wrong.

                                                              In any case whatever it is we selected the wrong keeper and wasted another 30m but it is what it is. Not as big a deal anyway even if Ramsdale has not reach those heights yet, he might be in a few years time

                                                              For the record, Bernd Leno has been much better than Emi Martinez this season. While Martinez was great in his first season at Villa, he really wasn't very good last season either. Outside of the penalty shootouts and the couple of memorable moments, he also wasn't very good at the World Cup as well. Seems odd to go and on about him without acknowledging this. I say this as someone who finds him pretty likable as a person, to be honest.