2018 FIFA World Cup - Russia

[ElBolovo]

1 hour ago, Piano Reeves said:

 

 

 

30 minutes ago, Deceptrox said:

 

Argentina doesn't work that much as a team like Germany, France, Spain or Brazil do to name a few countries, don't be surprised if they have a hard time making it to the next round.

 

The thing against Argentina is more of the rivalry between the nations than the fear against the team per se. Also, Argentina almost always increases in production in knockout formats, I don't think they will do so badly. 

[AtroxBR]

I hope Germany continues the curse of the current champion being knocked out in the group stage. And it can happen. 

[Deceptrox]

39 minutes ago, ElBolovo said:

The thing against Argentina is more of the rivalry between the nations than the fear against the team per se. Also, Argentina almost always increases in production in knockout formats, I don't think they will do so badly. 

 

In the two previous World Cups they had more accessible groups, this time they got more challenging rivals, so they will have to improve their performance as a team if they want to qualify without having too much trouble since their best players might not win the match by themselves every match.

 

21 minutes ago, AtroxBR said:

I hope Germany continues the curse of the current champion being knocked out in the group stage. And it can happen. 

 

Considering they way Germany has been playing lately, that's highly unlikely, they were one of the best four teams in the last four World Cups. 

Edited December 1, 2017 by Deceptrox

[AtroxBR]

6 minutes ago, Deceptrox said:

Considering they way Germany has been playing lately, that's highly unlikely, they were one of the best four teams in the last four World Cups. 

 

Who knows, Spain had won 2 Euro's in a row, reached the finals of the Confederations Cup and managed to get knocked out in the GS. 

[AlchemistWer]

 

When I saw you cry I cant  avoid and cry, Thank you for all your effort and dedication ??

 

 

 

[Shahanshah1991]

Groups strength according to Fifa ranking

 

 

[HellcoreFire]

Belgium should easily win their group, at least on paper anyway. If you think about it, England is kind of Belgiums B-squad ?. Panama and Tunisia will probably park the bus against them, so it just comes to breaking that wall as fast as possible. After that, I'm personally more afraid of Colombia than Poland honestly. And the quarterfinals, if I'm not mistaken, will be against Portugal or Germany. They're both definitely too strong for The Red Devils (Belgiums nickname). And if the tradition keeps going the winner of the World Cup will either be France or Denmark.

[Deceptrox]

6 hours ago, HellcoreFire said:

Belgium should easily win their group, at least on paper anyway. If you think about it, England is kind of Belgiums B-squad . Panama and Tunisia will probably park the bus against them, so it just comes to breaking that wall as fast as possible. After that, I'm personally more afraid of Colombia than Poland honestly. And the quarterfinals, if I'm not mistaken, will be against Portugal or Germany. They're both definitely too strong for The Red Devils (Belgiums nickname). And if the tradition keeps going the winner of the World Cup will either be France or Denmark.

 

Don't underestimate rivals, remember when everybody underestimated Costa Rica in Brazil 2014 and they finished first in their group defeating Uruguay and Italy, and drawing with England. Although Costa Rica was eliminated in quarter finals they did not lose a single match.

Edited December 2, 2017 by Deceptrox

[HellcoreFire]

5 hours ago, Deceptrox said:

 

Don't underestimate rivals, remember when everybody underestimated Costa Rica in Brazil 2014 and they finished first in their group defeating Uruguay and Italy, and drawing with England. Although Costa Rica was eliminated in quarter finals they did not lose a single match.

 

On paper means in theory, which means I don't underestimate anyone.

[Nagflar]

On 12/1/2017 at 10:16 AM, Deceptrox said:

Peru, Mexico and Argentina have tough groups. 

If they play like they did before their match against Ecuador, then yes, Argentina has huge chances of fucking up; however, I doubt they will.

 

As for Mexico, I'm sure they'll barely beat South Korea, get rekt by the germans and then "surprise" everyone beating Sweden - whether they qualify or not will depend on the goal difference.

[BlackSnake1435]

Peru got one of the toughest groups after qualifying for the first time after too many years, however, don't forget what happened during the last world cup with Costa Rica and the "group of the death", we were all expecting to see Italy, England or Uruguay on eight finals, nevertheless, Costa Rica surprised all of them and did it.

 

As it is for Peru, they surprised all of us by qualifying to the world cup instead of Chile, so even though they have a very difficult way to go through, I would say that nothing in this life is imposible but avoiding the death.

 

In my case, i'm pleased to now that we'll have to face Poland, Senegal and Japan during the group stage, however, I must admit that Colombia is not at its best moment by now, anyway, there is absolutely nothing we can do but waiting.

[crft555]

83 days and 15 hours until the Fifa World Cup kicks off.

 

Australia will probably struggle with France, Denmark & Peru all of whom are good international teams. Could cause an upset, but unlikely to get through. Atleast there is no pressure to get out the group.

[matigrosso91]

ARGENTINA BABY

[KenjiCBZ]

I am Italian, and trust me: Italy did not deserve to go to Russia. I mean, maybe we've been unlucky since we only needed to score a goal against Sweden, but the fact is that none of our player is in the starting XI of any big European Club (Immobile is playing very well but only for Lazio, who is currently 4th or 5th in Serie A, Belotti plays for Torino, which is like 10th, and recently doesn't even score a lot, Bernardeschi and El Sharaawy play for Juventus and Roma but are not in the starting XI, Gabbiadini plays for Southampton, and Eder is not in the starting XI of Internazionale, maybe we have Insigne who plays for Napoli, but he doesn't score so much, after all).

 

After the draw with Sweden we needed a revolution, with new players who could fresh the line-ups. but except few new players, nothing has changed: Buffon, just to say one name, had announced his internationational retirement but he has changed his mind and now he will play in the friendly matches against Argentina and England (Which I'm pretty sure we'll both lose). It may sound strange, but it would have been, yes, unfairy, but a great, sad ending to have Buffon retiring from Italy with him crying after a disappointing non-qualifying Match, we'll se what will happen. The few new names called up for the Match against Argentina are Chiesa (Fiorentina) and Cutrone (Milan), but about them, I think that it is too early, they had to call up someone else or to change from the 4-3-3.

Edited March 23, 2018 by KenjiCBZ

[PSNPIsToxic]

On 3/23/2018 at 9:42 AM, KenjiCBZ said:

I am Italian, and trust me: Italy did not deserve to go to Russia. I mean, maybe we've been unlucky since we only needed to score a goal against Sweden, but the fact is that none of our player is in the starting XI of any big European Club (Immobile is playing very well but only for Lazio, who is currently 4th or 5th in Serie A, Belotti plays for Torino, which is like 10th, and recently doesn't even score a lot, Bernardeschi and El Sharaawy play for Juventus and Roma but are not in the starting XI, Gabbiadini plays for Southampton, and Eder is not in the starting XI of Internazionale, maybe we have Insigne who plays for Napoli, but he doesn't score so much, after all).

 

After the draw with Sweden we needed a revolution, with new players who could fresh the line-ups. but except few new players, nothing has changed: Buffon, just to say one name, had announced his internationational retirement but he has changed his mind and now he will play in the friendly matches against Argentina and England (Which I'm pretty sure we'll both lose). It may sound strange, but it would have been, yes, unfairy, but a great, sad ending to have Buffon retiring from Italy with him crying after a disappointing non-qualifying Match, we'll se what will happen. The few new names called up for the Match against Argentina are Chiesa (Fiorentina) and Cutrone (Milan), but about them, I think that it is too early, they had to call up someone else or to change from the 4-3-3.

 

 

As a Brit' and England fan i can somewhat feel your pain. We obviously endured a similar downturn in fortunes when we famously missed out on going to Euro 2008 during the much derided Steve McClaren managerial tenure. Painful but necessary to herald much needed change!

 

Football (like the majority of team sports) works in cycles. Periods of transition are natural after phenomenal superstar players reach the end of their careers (particularly if it is a cluster of players all at once.) Brazil went through it before appointing Tite. France were in disarray during the Raymond Domenech disaster run. Holland are arguably STILL going through it with the nucleus of a very strong team etc, ETC. The fact Gian Piero Ventura OR Luigi Di Biagio are allowed anywhere near coaching the Azzurri does not help matters and remains baffling to me! Your points regarding Bernardeschi and particularly El Sharaawy (calling up 40 year old Buffon but ignoring Balotelli who has scored 14 goals in 21 games???) are obviously well made....

 

The bottom line remains that Italy are far too impressive an outfit to endure endless years in the proverbial wilderness. The "revolution" you mentioned requires time and multiple changes (both on and off the field.) Yet with the ALWAYS heralded and solid Italian backline still in place and the correct blend of youth/dynamism rapidly emerging (to add to the experience in midfield and attack) i am sure Italy will always be 'around' the top 10 nations in the world and certainly qualifying for major tournaments.

 

I shall wish you luck for the upcoming friendly with England and hope your compatriots do not injure any of our starting XI in Russia! ???

[Zolkovo]

The first world cup I ever watched was in '98 as a wee lad and every 2 years since then I'd be so hopeful for England either in the Euros or WC but man they just get more and more pathetic every time, to the point where in 2016 I watched every game except the England matches (and thank f*ck for that). Needless to say, I expect we'll get destroyed by the likes of Panama and Tunisia. Can't be disappointed if I have zero expectations! I actually love Belgium as a nation anyway so wouldn't mind supporting them from the get go. I've always found Belgians incredibly friendly

 

Personally, I think the cup'll go to either France or Germany this year.

Edited March 25, 2018 by Zolkovo

[PhantomBlade19]

On 23/03/2018 at 0:33 AM, matigrosso91 said:

ARGENTINA BABY

Portugal rank 3 and Argentina rank 4???, no way... Messi is wayyyyyyyy better than Ronaldo, not to mention the entire Argentina team has better and stronger players then Portugal's. and I'm portuguese by the way. We won the Euro 2016, but.. damn... we played so badly every single game until the finals, we scored a lucky goal against France after playing backline the entire game...

Edited March 25, 2018 by PhantomBlade19

[TheWolfIsNotDead]

On 3/25/2018 at 9:19 PM, Zolkovo said:

The first world cup I ever watched was in '98 as a wee lad and every 2 years since then I'd be so hopeful for England either in the Euros or WC but man they just get more and more pathetic every time, to the point where in 2016 I watched every game except the England matches (and thank f*ck for that). Needless to say, I expect we'll get destroyed by the likes of Panama and Tunisia. Can't be disappointed if I have zero expectations! I actually love Belgium as a nation anyway so wouldn't mind supporting them from the get go. I've always found Belgians incredibly friendly

 

Personally, I think the cup'll go to either France or Germany this year.

I think it’ll be Belgium & France in the final. Belgium will go on to win 2-0 ?.

[Dark Layla]

On 3/25/2018 at 9:32 PM, PhantomBlade19 said:

Portugal rank 3 and Argentina rank 4???, no way... Messi is wayyyyyyyy better than Ronaldo, not to mention the entire Argentina team has better and stronger players then Portugal's. and I'm portuguese by the way. We won the Euro 2016, but.. damn... we played so badly every single game until the finals, we scored a lucky goal against France after playing backline the entire game...

We saw that yesterday match against netherlands lol portugal has a good collective but the problem is that some players only play when they want as is the case of quaresma, andre gomes etc..
Portugal did the same like greece on 2004 . what happen on futsal says that nothing is impossible and we can go far but its not to play this way

[Raitandrul]

32 minutes ago, Cursed Heart said:

We saw that yesterday match against netherlands lol portugal has a good collective but the problem is that some players only play when they want as is the case of quaresma, andre gomes etc..
Portugal did the same like greece on 2004 . what happen on futsal says that nothing is impossible and we can go far but its not to play this way

 

The team played very well in the qualification stages, the last two games were just to test new players... It was only good to tell who's definetly not going to be part of the team.

[Zolkovo]

Alright lads and lasses. This giveaway will be going live tomorrow, most of you in this thread will be interested. Enjoy the vid!

 

 

 

Edited April 8, 2018 by Zolkovo

[lynx_1985]

Yeah I am looking forward to the World Cup, always look forward to the Euros and World Cup. The first World Cup I have memories of is USA 94 that penalty Miss by Diana Ross (and Roberto Baggio, what a player he was though) I remember Bulgaria doing well I had a Barca kit as a kid with Stoichkov on it, the magician for Romania Hagi and Ray Houghton's goal against Italy. I am English (Liverpool fan mainly) so support England.... funnily enough there is another tournament (the one a person mentioned earlier with Steve McClaren) I enjoyed a lot and England weren't in that either - Euro 2008. Turkey did well in that one and were in two decent games the one against the Czech Republic being the best game, if you haven't seen it search for it honestly. I support England obviously but with extremely low expectations. They always get over hyped and I admit they are not very good however, in Euro 2012 we faced Sweden and I have a couple of Swedish friends who were bigging them selves up saying England are rubbish. Even had a few Dutch people say the same, saying they were supporting Sweden. Now I know England aren't the bet team but neither are Sweden, in fact we are better than Sweden so I wasn't like yeah what ever. Then we went down 2-1 after taking the lead and the people I mentioned before were all raving on twitter and then we won 3-2 haha I was so made up.

 

Thinking back about previous Euros and World Cups has got me in the mood now!

 

 

[iM-iConZz-Be]

Im from Belgium zo lets hope they play a good tournament! We have killer strikers!

 

Batsman

Lukaku

Mertens

Hazard

De Bruyne......

Edited April 8, 2018 by iM-iConZz-Be