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FIFA WC 26 - Other Nations LIVE Match Thread ⚽

ClockworkOrange said:
Only if you consider any team that has flair players as better than any team that doesn’t? Seems to be how you rate teams. A few past German and Italian teams were better than teams with flair players in my view. Obviously we have different opinions on what makes a top team.
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You are saying Cape Verde have better flair players. I'm.noy disagreeing with you. I'm saying that if that's the case, then our system is broken. Considering our infrastructure, more money, and system, we should not have less flair players than a Cape Verde.
ClockworkOrange said:
Seems that you see one team do well for a few games (while getting no further than us) and all of a sudden we’ve got to change our entire system to play like Cape Verde?
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No. I've seen a team ranked way lower than us, with lower ranked players take the favourites to extra time and rattle them, and also get out of a group they expected to be thumped in, vs us. A team expected to be more challenging, play drab boring football without any intent to win games and gone, "cape verde are doing better than us".

We're not saying change our system to be like cape verde, but rather that if teams of that level can go out and show some attacking intent, why the heck can't we.
 
zimbos05 said:
You are saying Cape Verde have better flair players. I'm.noy disagreeing with you. I'm saying that if that's the case, then our system is broken. Considering our infrastructure, more money, and system, we should not have less flair players than a Cape Verde.

No. I've seen a team ranked way lower than us, with lower ranked players take the favourites to extra time and rattle them, and also get out of a group they expected to be thumped in, vs us. A team expected to be more challenging, play drab boring football without any intent to win games and gone, "cape verde are doing better than us".

We're not saying change our system to be like cape verde, but rather that if teams of that level can go out and show some attacking intent, why the heck can't we.
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You do remember we also were close to taking Argentina to extra time in 2022 with no flair players… go figure eh?
 
2022 Round of 16:

UEFA: 8
AFC: 3
CAF: 2
CONMEBOL: 2
CONCACAF: 1

2026 Round of 16:

UEFA: 7
CONMEBOL: 4
CONCACAF: 3
CAF: 2
AFC: 0

So Europe went down slightly, both Americas did better (home WC certainly helps), Africa the same while AFC disappoints.
 
I have had a few hours to settle down and watching Cabo Verde take it to mighty Argentina renewed my faith in football .Lots of recriminations and vitriol on the forum and understandable.Sorry for Souttar and Herrington who had both played their hearts out and had put up their hands to take the penalties.Sorry for Beach that he didn't get to stay on for the shootout-Popa needed to trust him as he had during the tournament.Very sorry for Ryan who after being replaced in all the games gets sent on and has the unenviable task of facing the shootout.He has been an outstanding player for the Socceroos and now has been made one of the scapegoats for our loss.
Also I know we would have had fifth penalty taker if it had got that far and I guess that would have been Toure or Hrustic-one of them should have taken the first penalty and Herrington should have been the second or third .
 
booney52 said:
What an effort by Cabo Verde .Brave and had some excellent transitional play.I guess Infantino will say their progress justifies a 48 team WC and he has a point.
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I was as sceptic but this match was highly entertaining, willing to fall on my sward and say 48 teams is OK..... Anymore and its going to get stupid though.
 
ClockworkOrange said:
Goal of the WC to date.
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Agree... When old mate lost his head and ran into the stands looking for his girlfriend, clearly overwhelmed at what he just did I teared up... no bullshit.. Football is fuckin beautiful sometimes. Extra time of this match was some of the most compelling football Ive seen in a while - not from skill, just the storyline.
 
ClockworkOrange said:
Qualified more easily in a tougher group, took the knockout match to extra time.
Thank god you’re not English, German ir Italian … waiting for that improvement.
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Anything sounds good when you exclude all the info. Imagine celebrating not winning in 90 minutes, and scoring 2 goals all campaign.. Sadly, England is my first team, so I've had my all life waiting for the improvement.

I get that you're trying to be positive, but that's the same attitude that keeps us in this continuous cycle. Get through qualifying unconvincingly. Pull off one result in the WC, and we go "great success!!"

It's ok to go we punched above our weight, but Popa is not the man. He has gotten more things wrong than right this world cup
 
ClockworkOrange said:
Qualified more easily in a tougher group, took the knockout match to extra time.
Thank god you’re not English, German ir Italian … waiting for that improvement.
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On a side note, Italy may not have qualified for a world cup but they won a Euros not too long ago. Germany will be back up and running once Klopp takes over
 
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zimbos05 said:
Anything sounds good when you exclude all the info. Imagine celebrating not winning in 90 minutes, and scoring 2 goals all campaign.. Sadly, England is my first team, so I've had my all life waiting for the improvement.

I get that you're trying to be positive, but that's the same attitude that keeps us in this continuous cycle. Get through qualifying unconvincingly. Pull off one result in the WC, and we go "great success!!"

It's ok to go we punched above our weight, but Popa is not the man. He has gotten more things wrong than right this world cup
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Not celebrating… just pointing out that it’s not as bad as you paint. Then again, 52 years ago we made the final 16. Damn, we’ve gone backwards.
 
zimbos05 said:
So we're back to, cape verde are better than us which means our system and structure is broken and needs fixing.

Is Popovic the right man to do so? No.
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I wouldn’t say they’re a better team at all, but they definitely played better than we did. On paper, they’re a decent side but not of our standard. However, don’t be fooled by that. We’re worse than Turkey on paper but beat them comfortably with much less possession. We’ve also struggled against Bahrain and the All Whites under Tony Popović but the Socceroos are clearly better on paper (Cape Verde are better than NZ though).
 
zimbos05 said:
Anything sounds good when you exclude all the info. Imagine celebrating not winning in 90 minutes, and scoring 2 goals all campaign.. Sadly, England is my first team, so I've had my all life waiting for the improvement.

I get that you're trying to be positive, but that's the same attitude that keeps us in this continuous cycle. Get through qualifying unconvincingly. Pull off one result in the WC, and we go "great success!!"

It's ok to go we punched above our weight, but Popa is not the man. He has gotten more things wrong than right this world cup
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I’d say a pass … but I don’t think he’s the guy to get the best out of this current crop unless he’s prepared to learn and gets some better assistants.
He clearly didn’t know what to do with Volpato and he was wrong to play Ira centrally. But many sides would be pleased to have such a well drilled defence.
 
ClockworkOrange said:
At

Not celebrating… just pointing out that it’s not as bad as you paint. Then again, 52 years ago we made the final 16. Damn, we’ve gone backwards.
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I don't think it's as good as your suggesting
HonestSpursFan said:
I wouldn’t say they’re a better team at all, but they definitely played better than we did. On paper, they’re a decent side but not of our standard. However, don’t be fooled by that. We’re worse than Turkey on paper but beat them comfortably with much less possession. We’ve also struggled against Bahrain and the All Whites under Tony Popović but the Socceroos are clearly better on paper (Cape Verde are better than NZ though).
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I didn't say they are better. That was me being facetious. They are clearly worse than us. My point was, how can a team much weaker be more impressive.

ClockworkOrange said:
I’d say a pass … but I don’t think he’s the guy to get the best out of this current crop unless he’s prepared to learn and gets some better assistants.
He clearly didn’t know what to do with Volpato and he was wrong to play Ira centrally. But many sides would be pleased to have such a well drilled defence.
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Agree to disagree. Not a pass for me. If he's not the guy to get the best out of this group, then he's not the right guy for the job.

I agree you need a well drilled defence, but defences don't score goals.
 
Australia could play like Cape Verde with a different coach and picking better players and taking shots.

Volpato can shoot. We need Irvine to finally get rid of and get Robertson in.
 
Given the fact Australia were supposed to lose all 3 and we ended up going out on penalties it's probably just about what we had hoped for with the chance of a little more.

The results are mixed and so is the manner.
 
The Egypt laptop footage being some reason for their win is nonsense. Absolute nonsense. The shooters had already picked their spots. You can't change your stance and direction in under a second when you see the keeper shift.

They had picked their side and Ryan had simply chosen the other way. If the right way he stops 2 that were on the ground.

Their defenders took penalties correctly. Low and hard.
 
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