The 2018 World Cup Superthread

marklazarcovic

Will I Am Not wrote: »

Immense performance from Laxalt. He looks a decent player.

Not far off mom despite two from cavani for me

The Golden Miller

Ronaldo best player ever? As I said after Portugals first game, Ronaldo would ultimately limp out with a more lethargic performance than Messi. Maradona is the greatest, a level above everyone else. Goal scoring, vision, technical ability, passing, dribbling, leadership.... the complete player who rose to the biggest occasions

nullzero

martyos121 wrote: »

Messi and Ronaldo out of the competition on the same day, at least one of them made an impact today though, didn’t see a whole lot of quality from the “GOAT” in the game just finished. :pac:

Football is a team sport, Ronaldo threw United's first champions league final against Barcelona away by being a selfish swine and he was enabled by Ferguson that night. He's a top player but that isn't always enough, unless you're playing in la Liga where most sides roll over.

Will I Am Not

Portugal are a poor outfit. Ronaldo’s performance v Spain was all they had and he’s not going to do that every game.

eigrod

CSF wrote: »

Uruguay are a great defensive unit, but they're helped in a huge way by being allowed away with murder by the referee. No idea how they finished that game without a yellow card, given the amount of cynical fouls in the first half, and the Godin one is a penalty.


Think France will dispose of them with relative ease.

Thought the ref did very well. Didn’t go brandishing cards for normal fouls.

Enjoyed that.

Cavani was superb. Thought Suarez aside from the play acting was excellent too. Ronaldo had a poor game by his standards. Was hoping him and Messi would stay in the tournament longer.

eigrod

RoboKlopp wrote: »

Enjoyed that.

Cavani was superb. Thought Suarez aside from the play acting was excellent too. Ronaldo had a poor game by his standards. Was hoping him and Messi would stay in the tournament longer.

Suarez never stops working, closing defenders down and selfless running.

nullzero

Iused2likebusts wrote: »

Brilliant stuff from Uruguay population smaller than Ireland and they regularly overachieve. Its also good to have a S American rather than another European team remain in the competition.

Uruguay isn't a country where football is the fourth most important sport. Ireland could have a similar record to a Uruguay or Netherlands in international football if we're didn't have the Gaa and rugby monopolizing all the top athletes in the country.

castletownman

For once I have no sympathy for Ronaldo. Mainly due to his ridiculous attempt at growing facial hair.

Loafing Oaf

Quazzie wrote: »

Ronaldo going home but not before he gets a yellow for nearly headbutting the ref when shouting at him. Seems about right for him.

A right buffon indeed...

Akrasia

eigrod wrote: »

Suarez never stops working, closing defenders down and selfless running.

Agreed. He just needs to get that intermittent migraine issue sorted to make him likable

kerplun k

Cavani, what a f**king player.
We never mention him in the same breath as Naymar, iIbrahimovic, Messi, Ronaldo, but is he up there? Is he at the level?
I think he is.

Iused2likebusts

eigrod wrote: »

Suarez never stops working, closing defenders down and selfless running.

Lads on Rte were just saying the total opposite.

IncognitoMan

Ronaldo poor by his standards but Portugal created nothing and Uruguay are excellent at defending so I don't know what else could have been done.

Suarez is a disgrace and I'd love the lads in the VAR room to make a call to the ref to book a player when he's at that ****e. Obvious cheating should be called out.

Uruguay are going to be a tough nut for France to crack but hopefully they do.

The Talking Bread

kerplun k wrote: »

Cavani, what a f**king player.
We never mention him in the same breath as Naymar, iIbrahimovic, Messi, Ronaldo, but is he up there? Is he at the level?
I think he is.

He is a class act. But no

adox

CSF wrote: »

Uruguay are a great defensive unit, but they're helped in a huge way by being allowed away with murder by the referee. No idea how they finished that game without a yellow card, given the amount of cynical fouls in the first half, and the Godin one is a penalty.


Think France will dispose of them with relative ease.

It seems a common theme in their World Cup and indeed in the premier league. Give away fouls to break up attacks. So it constantly across the team and you seem to get away with it.

This World Cup has been great so far. Loads of goals and entertainment. VAR has even shown that it’s worthwhile or at least will be when the kinks are ironed out.
It’s been great to see so many penos given as well for shirt pulling and holding. All positives.

But there have been some pretty big negatives too. Surrounding the ref and screaming at him over every little thing seems to be acceptable again. Also the play acting, diving and feigning injury has reached epic proportions.

It’s typical FIFA. They get a couple of ongoing historical issues with the game sorted and let others creep, hell stampede back in.

It needs a serious review. I’ve no idea why the refs let players confront them en mass. I’d card the lot of them.

CSF

kerplun k wrote: »

Cavani, what a f**king player.
We never mention him in the same breath as Naymar, iIbrahimovic, Messi, Ronaldo, but is he up there? Is he at the level?
I think he is.

We never mention him in those conversations, because he is not in that bracket. 2 great goals tonight though. Fair play to him

nullzero

kerplun k wrote: »

Cavani, what a f**king player.
We never mention him in the same breath as Naymar, iIbrahimovic, Messi, Ronaldo, but is he up there? Is he at the level?
I think he is.

He played well tonight against a clueless Portuguese defence, had a couple of patchy games in the group stages and probably showed a little lethargy (perhaps a by product of playing in Ligue 1). He put Portugal to the sword tonight and can only beat the team in front of him, will be a miss for them against France who you'd have to fancy to progress.

Iused2likebusts

nullzero wrote: »

Uruguay isn't a country where football is the fourth most important sport. Ireland could have a similar record to a Uruguay or Netherlands in international football if we're didn't have the Gaa and rugby monopolizing all the top athletes in the country.

Football isn't the fourth most important sport in Ireland. Its the most important. Granted we lose some players to other sports but no way are the gaa and rugby monopolizing the top athletes.

kerplun k

The Talking Bread wrote: »

He is a class act. But no

You’re Talking Bread, he 100% is. If he played one season in the premier league you’d have a different opinion.

Will I Am Not

There’s far, far more football clubs in the country than GAA or rugby.

Sprinter Sacre

Bernardo Silva is going to be some player even though he's already class. City got a right bargain last summer.

nullzero

Iused2likebusts wrote: »

Football isn't the fourth most important sport in Ireland. Its the most important. Granted we lose some players to other sports but no way are the gaa and rugby monopolizing the top athletes.

To me football is the most important sport but in reality Gaelic football hurling and rugby are sports that are much better organized have higher levels of participation particularly with children. The FAI have utterly failed to keep up with the GAA and IRFU when it comes to developing talent and attracting young people into the sport, if we see Ireland in a major championships again I'd be gobsmacked although with extra places available in tournaments going forward we may crawl in.

CSF

kerplun k wrote: »

You’re Talking Bread, he 100% is. If he played one season in the premier league you’d have a different opinion.

I don't think you're going to find much agreement on this one.

Will I Am Not

Sprinter Sacre wrote: »

Bernardo Silva is going to be some player even though he's already class. City got a right bargain last summer.

Thought his end product was very poor throughout the WC to be honest. He was amazing at Monaco, I don’t think he’s been nearly as good since.

The Talking Bread

kerplun k wrote: »

You’re Talking Bread, he 100% is. If he played one season in the premier league you’d have a different opinion.

It is all very reactionary to claim Cavani is at the same level as Messi and Ronaldo. I don't get what you mean by the PL comment.

adox

kerplun k wrote: »

You’re Talking Bread, he 100% is. If he played one season in the premier league you’d have a different opinion.

Nah. He’s around the level of Lewondoski but nowhere near Messi and Ronaldo.

We are talking about two of the greatest players to ever play the game and there’s no one else playing the game at the moment who comes into that bracket.

Iused2likebusts

nullzero wrote: »

To me football is the most important sport but in reality Gaelic football hurling and rugby are sports that are much better organized have higher levels of participation particularly with children. The FAI have utterly failed to keep up with the GAA and IRFU when it comes to developing talent and attracting young people into the sport, if we see Ireland in a major championships again I'd be gobsmacked although with extra places available in tournaments going forward we may crawl in.

This is nonsense. Far more kids play football every weekend than any other sport. Gaelic football the only one that can get relatively close. The participation level for kids playing football every weekend over rugby would be absolutely huge. The DDSL is a huge operation that is extremely well organised and with changes in how small sided games are organised should see an increase in technical players in the future.

nullzero

Iused2likebusts wrote: »

This is nonsense. Far more kids play football every weekend than any other sport. Gaelic football the only one that can get relatively close. The participation level for kids playing football every weekend over rugby would be absolutely huge.

I'd love to know where you're getting this from.
Football has always been the poor relation in Ireland, maybe in Dublin you can argue that football has high participation levels but GAA is streets ahead particularly in rural areas which make up the majority of the population of the country, and more and more kids are migrating to rugby from soccer.
Figures on participation appear to be based on recreational preferences (heading to your local Astro league as a casual participant appears to be seen as equal to somebody participating in club or county level gaa from one report).

gormdubhgorm

Iused2likebusts wrote: »

This is nonsense. Far more kids play football every weekend than any other sport. Gaelic football the only one that can get relatively close. The participation level for kids playing football every weekend over rugby would be absolutely huge. The DDSL is a huge operation that is extremely well organised and with changes in how small sided games are organised should see an increase in technical players in the future.

Hasn't this been said for years?
Appointing Dutch fellas as 'high performance' directors etc

Wim Kovermans 2008:

http://www.dutch-football.com/football/ireland/fai_wim_koevermans.shtml


Ruud Dokter 2013:

http://www.thecoachdiary.com/fai-appoint-another-dutch-man-as-new-high-performance-director/

The sad truth is, the reason the FAI have lagged behind other sports in the country is because people with a business education / third level education / are few and far between in the soccer world.
In a lot of cases there was/is a lack of common sense in the FAI off the pitch.

Basically not that bright off the pitch and have wasted money time and again.
Internal politics etc.
Bad deals with stadiums (Shamrock Rovers homeless for years, no FAI home stadium, the AVIA will revert to IRFU ownership when the lease runs out.
Poor marketing (Of LOI games).
Poor structures (Everywhere).
Poor planning (All the time).

So they have belatedly (in relation to thier history) copped on to this and imported structural talent from elsewhere.

Also the former Dutch FAI performance director mentioned his fear of talent drain from soccer to GAA. Seven years ago!

https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/koevermans-admits-fai-fears-over-talent-drain-to-gaelic-football-26799190.html

I wonder what it is like now with the success of the Dublin GAA team and the failures of a very mediocre Irish soccer team?

Skylinehead

CSF wrote: »

We never mention him in those conversations, because he is not in that bracket. 2 great goals tonight though. Fair play to him

He's easily as good as Ibra was in fairness.

kerplun k

The Talking Bread wrote: »

It is all very reactionary to claim Cavani is at the same level as Messi and Ronaldo. I don't get what you mean by the PL comment.

True.
But if you look at his raw statistics over the last 4 years he’s up there with the best. I’m not talking about Messi and Ronaldo bending regarded as GOAT, I mean should he be at this moment in time, currently still playing the game, as one of the best.

Taking those statistics, if that was in the PL, with the English press the way it is, and our exposure to it, you could bet your bottom dollar he would be mentioned in the same bracket as Ronaldo, Messi, Ibra and Naymar.

gormdubhgorm

I think Uruguay could do a job on France in the quarter final.

Sprinter Sacre

Definitely a level or two below the big two but he's definitely on par with how Ibrahimovic was.

28 in 32 games this year, 35 in 36 games last year. 26, 23 and 29 goals across three seasons at Napoli back when himself and Lavezzi were an inspired partnership years ago. He's been top class for years when he was always considered a donkey. Ibrahimovic had 38, 30 and 26 goal seasons with PSG and a 28 and a 25 with AC and Inter Milan so there really isn't much between the two. Cavani is a tireless worker too, always gives everything and will be all over the pitch. Hard not to be fond of him.

Iused2likebusts

nullzero wrote: »

I'd love to know where you're getting this from.
Football has always been the poor relation in Ireland, maybe in Dublin you can argue that football has high participation levels but GAA is streets ahead particularly in rural areas which make up the majority of the population of the country, and more and more kids are migrating to rugby from soccer.
Figures on participation appear to be based on recreational preferences (heading to your local Astro league as a casual participant appears to be seen as equal to somebody participating in club or county level gaa from one report).

There are 160 teams playing a fixture at U8s in the DDSL every week. There are also two other leagues at U8 in Dublin. So just in Dublin your looking at 3,000 8 yr olds playing a game of football every weekend. Can't see any other sport competing with that bar Gaelic football. Going way off topic here though so I'll leave it at that.

Stephen15

nullzero wrote: »

Uruguay isn't a country where football is the fourth most important sport. Ireland could have a similar record to a Uruguay or Netherlands in international football if we're didn't have the Gaa and rugby monopolizing all the top athletes in the country.

Football is the most popular game in Ireland. You only have to look at the amount of coverage RTE give to the World Cup which Ireland aren't even in or The UCL which no Irish teams have ever been in.

As for GAA and rugby monopolizing the top talent it's very hard to know if that's true or not. Plenty of GAA used to play football particularly one's from Dublin do you if they were brillant at football they would have been scouted and chose to play for professional English clubs over playing amateur GAA. If they were good enough they would choose to play football.

Also there are plenty of big countries where football is the most popular sport or only sport but still do poorly internationally look at Turkey with a population of 80 million but yet they are at a similar standard to Ireland at international football.

As a more geographically close example look at Scotland similar population and football is their most popular sport here but yet their teamis probably worse than ours for a long time now. I don't think Shinty is eating their talent somehow.

MD1990

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Messi offered nothing when it was required the most. Make no mistake: this hurts his legacy.

Doesn't have the manball needed

gormdubhgorm

Stephen15 wrote: »

Football is the most popular game in Ireland. You only have to look at the amount of coverage RTE give to the World Cup which Ireland aren't even in or The UCL which no Irish teams have ever been in.

That is mainly due to the fact that the World Cup is a worldwide event like the Olympics as for the champions league coverage most Irish fans 'support' English/British teams.

As for GAA and rugby monopolizing the top talent it's very hard to know if that's true or not. Plenty of GAA used to play football particularly one's from Dublin do you if they were brillant at football they would have been scouted and chose to play for professional English clubs over playing amateur GAA. If they were good enough they would choose to play football.

Yes but that is ignoring those that 'do not make it' in England. and rather then play in the haphazard world of the league of Ireland they return to Gaelic games.

Then they are lost to soccer, just because they did not 'make it' in England does not mean they are no good..

This was said years ago by the former FAI high performance director Wim Koevermans

https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/koevermans-admits-fai-fears-over-talent-drain-to-gaelic-football-26799190.html

It must be worse now?

kerplun k

kerplun k wrote: »

You’re Talking Bread, he 100% is. If he played one season in the premier league you’d have a different opinion.

Do you mean like how Zlatan was a youtube footballer until that one season he played in PL at the end of his career? And then he evolved into one of the all times greats?

IncognitoMan

IncognitoMan wrote: »

Ronaldo poor by his standards but Portugal created nothing and Uruguay are excellent at defending so I don't know what else could have been done.

Suarez is a disgrace and I'd love the lads in the VAR room to make a call to the ref to book a player when he's at that ****e. Obvious cheating should be called out.

Uruguay are going to be a tough nut for France to crack but hopefully they do.

Yeah, but if they start calling out the cheats post game there'd be no players to play. you're be loved Ronaldo would have retired 15 years ago

The Talking Bread

kerplun k wrote: »

True.
But if you look at his raw statistics over the last 4 years he’s up there with the best. I’m not talking about Messi and Ronaldo bending regarded as GOAT, I mean should he be at this moment in time, currently still playing the game, as one of the best.

Taking those statistics, if that was in the PL, with the English press the way it is, and our exposure to it, you could bet your bottom dollar he would be mentioned in the same bracket as Ronaldo, Messi, Ibra and Naymar.

Your point is very muddled though?

Just because he has those stats in La Ligue doesn't mean he would peak so high in the PL anyway, season by season.

If you want to make the point regarding players that should be mentioned in the same bracket as Ronaldo, Neymar and Messi "currently still playing the game", you would have another few dozen players to throw in.........if basing on stats or overall performance. So it is hardly worthy of having conversations that put him in the same bracket. Especially considering here he is playing at the moment.

See Salah, Kane, Coutinho, Suarez, Icardi, Griezzman, Dybala, Aguero, Lewandoski, Immobile,Hazard in the last few years. Stick those in that PSG team and they would have just as high performance stats. Even Lukaku would look like a world beater in La Ligue, Pogba, hell hy not include Jonas in for the craic!

There are plenty of good players out there at the moment whose performances on a disjointed basis makes them look as good as a Messi or a Ronaldo and Cavani is included in the above selection but it is all a bit of a muddled comparison and "bracket".

nullzero

Stephen15 wrote: »

Football is the most popular game in Ireland. You only have to look at the amount of coverage RTE give to the World Cup which Ireland aren't even in or The UCL which no Irish teams have ever been in.

As for GAA and rugby monopolizing the top talent it's very hard to know if that's true or not. Plenty of GAA used to play football particularly one's from Dublin do you if they were brillant at football they would have been scouted and chose to play for professional English clubs over playing amateur GAA. If they were good enough they would choose to play football.

Also there are plenty of big countries where football is the most popular sport or only sport but still do poorly internationally look at Turkey with a population of 80 million but yet they are at a similar standard to Ireland at international football.

As a more geographically close example look at Scotland similar population and football is their most popular sport here but yet their teamis probably worse than ours for a long time now. I don't think Shinty is eating their talent somehow.

I think the difference is that while football has a lot of "grassroots" participants Gaa and rugby are far better organized and people who participate in those sports participate at a higher level within those sports.
By the logic you're putting forward Ireland should have a massively popular football league but most people have never attended a league of Ireland game nor intend to.
Scotland has a football league that is so far ahead of the league of Ireland that comparing the two is not even reasonable, Celtic and rangers are huge clubs with massive international fanbases and regularly participated in top European competitions. Also shinty is not on a par with hurling or Gaelic football in terms of participation in Scotland.
While a lot of Irish people play the game, the game is not organized anywhere near as well as Gaa and rugby and let's not forget the numbers of people who play those sports and also pop down the Astro once a week for a kick about as well and also play for clubs.

Ultimately you can see how the sports compare in the success of each at the top level and football in Ireland is lagging so far behind its sickening.

IncognitoMan

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Yeah, but if they start calling out the cheats post game there'd be no players to play. you're be loved Ronaldo would have retired 15 years ago

Nah, it would only happen a couple of times and then players would stop. The reason Suarez goes on the way he does is because he can only gain an advantage from it without fear of any consequences. If it doesn't work there's no loss.

He's an absolute joke. I'd say he's the worst I've ever seen for it.

Stephen15

nullzero wrote: »

I think the difference is that while football has a lot of "grassroots" participants Gaa and rugby are far better organized and people who participate in those sports participate at a higher level within those sports.
By the logic you're putting forward Ireland should have a massively popular football league but most people have never attended a league of Ireland game nor intend to.
Scotland has a football league that is so far ahead of the league of Ireland that comparing the two is not even reasonable, Celtic and rangers are huge clubs with massive international fanbases and regularly participated in top European competitions. Also shinty is not on a par with hurling or Gaelic football in terms of participation in Scotland.
While a lot of Irish people play the game, the game is not organized anywhere near as well as Gaa and rugby and let's not forget the numbers of people who play those sports and also pop down the Astro once a week for a kick about as well and also play for clubs.

Ultimately you can see how the sports compare in the success of each at the top level and football in Ireland is lagging so far behind its sickening.

Whatever about rugby don't see how GAA is very well organised. I played it as a kid but never thought it was particularly well organised. There's a few big clubs in Dublin that are very well organised such as Cuala, Ballyboden and Vicents but the vast majority are small local affairs same as football clubs which you could also make a case for the likes of Joey's, Home Farm and St.Kevins.

The best Scottish players play in England also. The SPL is just Celtic really and too some extent Rangers the teams at the lower end of the table wouldn't be a whole lot better than LOI. Bar Celtic LOI teams have performed better in Europe in recent seasons no Scottish teams has got to the UEL group stages since 2012 bar Celtic or Rangers. 2 LOI teams have Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers.

Rugby is a bad example too as so few nations actually play the game on a World stage. The top nation is New Zealand which only has the same population as Ireland they put all their emphasis into rugby so by that logic if Ireland put they amount resources into rugby we would be better than New Zealand. Also the English rugby team has done than their football despite it being less popular in the last couple of years. They won a RWC in 2003 but they when to go back to 1966 for their last football win.

Rugby is this part of the world is predominantly by private schools and football is predominantly played by the working class in almost every country. If the posh boys played football in England would they do better than they are doing now at football.

For a small country Ireland hasn't done too badly at football on the international stage imo while we may not be as good as Croatia or Uruguay we have done better in recent than some bigger country and ones our own size.

StringerBell

Whatever happened to yer man Fabio coentrao?

qwabercd

StringerBell wrote: »

Whatever happened to yer man Fabio coentrao?

Asked not be selected for the world cup because he was too tired..

The Talking Bread

World Cup knockout stats........

Lionel Messi - 0 goal in 756 minutes (8 games)

Cristiano Ronaldo - 0 goal in 514 minutes (6 games)

Between them...............1260 minutes.........14 games,,,,,,,,,,,,,4 world cups

Emile Heskey....................1 goal in 123 minutes

StringerBell

Nixonbot wrote: »

He's easily as good as Ibra was in fairness.

No, love cavani. Love him, always have but no he has never reached the level of Ibra. Just a step below that. Best player Uruguay have ever had though maybe...

Only seeing highlights again now, Bernardo Silva missed a really good chance in the second half. Uruguay were spot on, just made sure Ronaldo couldn't have much of a say in proceedings and the rest of that team is very limited.

Can't see them going much further though, particularly if El Matador is crocked.

StringerBell

qwabercd wrote: »

Asked not be selected for the world cup because he was too tired..

Assuming there's a joke here I'm missing?

The Talking Bread

StringerBell wrote: »

Whatever happened to yer man Fabio coentrao?

he asked not to be chosen....................for the world cup.............and then came out and said "I will never turn my back on my country,"..........after turning his back on his country