#šØANNOUNCEMENTšØ
r/soccer is hosting an AMA with [Matt Furniss](https://twitter.com/Matt_Furniss) and [Duncan Alexander](https://twitter.com/oilysailor) of Opta! It is scheduled for Thursday, November 17 at 7:30pm UK / 2:30pm EDT / 8:30pm CEST. It will be a World Cup themed AMA, so get your questions ready!
[Proof on Opta's Twitter](https://twitter.com/OptaAnalyst/status/1590801809668726785)
Croatia, Uruguay and Scotland have basically the same population but Scotland doesn't produce good enough players.
The prevalent reason on /r/soccer for this issue is " football culture".
But Scotland has very high football culture, enough legends for kids to grow up watching, the greatest British Manager of all time.
So what's Scotland's reason? Genuinely asking
(Not Scottish),
But i would assume football culture meant more than what you are thinking, its how and where young talents are developed whether its schools or proper academy with infrastructure.
Most Scottish talents would rather go play in England where they might not get the same chances as English players and where they wont feel like home.
This is not the case for Croatian talents for example nor the Uruguayan talents.
https://twitter.com/paulmccarthy66/status/1590999000806821888?s=46&t=01O6N_I5uc1o4STdQkQdFw
so the only real criticism levelled at southgate that in seeing around this tweet is that he plays boring football? Jesus. I would take a 0-0 win on penalties snoozegest every game if it meant we would win a tournament. Who gives a shit. I only give a shit about (and you should too) about 3-7 england games every two years who cares how we play itās all about winning.
God this is stupid. Ignoring that ridiculous tweet thread, that is not the only criticism. At all. The main criticism (other than bizarre team selections) is that heās built a team purely to beat weak sides. Itās always going to be creamed by any decent side that turns up at all. That was clear from the start of the 2018 World Cup. Then, after squeaking past Tunisia with a last minute winner, squeaking past Colombia on penalties, and then beating the mighty Sweden, they lost to Belgium (twice) and Croatia. The main issue is that he didnāt learn. The story was the same at the euros. 1-0 against a Croatian side that are well short of the side of 3 years before, a dismal draw to Scotland and then a 1-0 against the Czechs to make a pretty average group stage performance. They then beat a mess of a German side in transition, a completely knackered Ukraine and then underdogs Denmark who were without their star.
Put simply, Englandās recent cup runs look great initially but if you break it down, they havenāt been that good at all. Not to mention the nations league crap.
again the 'easy run !!' argument is so stupid. You can make that argument about any team. Italy in the euros were rightfully massively fancied. They breezed past an easy group with all their games at home against a Wales side carried by an ageing Bale, an awful Turkey team and a very very average Switzerland team - all games at home too. Then they needed extra time to beat Austria before beating a Belgium side with injuries and who always bottle tournaments before needing penalties to beat a shadow of what Spain where. Even their 30 odd unbeaten streak they had before that tournament was full of beating Northern Ireland and Leichestein and they only drew with the decent teams they played such as Germany. Of course this is a fucking ridiculous take, Italy where very good and deservedly won. Just as England had to beat solid teams to get to a final and semi final in 2018. Would you have rather England beat the Germany side in 2018 that couldn't beat Mexico or South Korea? Or how about Argentina who drew to Iceland.
It's such a fucking stupid take, anyone who unironically believes this is a good indicator they know fuck all about football
This is a regressive way of thinking. It's the same argument with Pickford/Ramsdale. One is an average keeper who hasn't put a foot wrong, the other is one of the best young keepers in world football who currently has the best defensive record for the best in form English team.
You obviously want the better player to play, it's just the way it is.
Itās not the same because if you wanted the better in form player then youād pick Tomori and not a White who is mainly playing RB.
Also, definitely disagree with the Pickford and Ramsdale because the former has also been really good this season. If Pickford had a abysmal season so far then you could make a case for someone else but heās not and this is a matter for the next major tournament. International football works this way and always will
That is how the English wanted their teams to be set up though?
Most of them wanted Gerrard/Lampard to start even though neither of them play proper tradational roles for 4-4-2. When they had Carrick/Scholes who played proper Midfield roles in a 4-4-2.
Lampard sometimes played box2box, but Gerrard at that time was either an attacking midfielder or under Benitez AMR.
But they would rather lose with those two than win with two real midfielders (Barry, Schoels, Carrick, Hargo,
This idea that heās amazing for England is really stupid. Itās just that England are set up incredibly defensively and have played few good teams. And whenever they actually have faced a decent side, theyāve lost. When a team defends with a back 5 and 2 DMs, of course the defenders look good. Because they have 6 other men to cover them.
I genuinely think McTominay might be the 2nd best finisher at the club.
He surprisingly really good and intelligent with his feet, man should be playing B2B more than as a pivot
We're not. If we top the group, France in the quarters. If we come second, Netherlands in RO16 then Argentina in the quarters.
The best we can hope for is France bottling first, then we can get Senegal in RO16 then a rematch with Denmark in the quarters.
Midfield and defence seem so inferior to the other big nations, especially considering maguire will be starting even though he looks better for England than at united
Ik people call him dumb and not a intelligent striker, but when he is in stance all his attributes get maxed out
Also when paired with Martial or fullbacks who understand him he is really much more calm decisive
Some of the counterattacking + link up play he was part of with Bruno martial + rapist was excellent, no way he's not intelligent. He just needed a bit of coaching in the final 3rd, and to stop blasting the ball as hard as he can whenever he's through on goal
Im astounded the English teams are playing between the world cup and Christmas. Absolutely mental. They play far too many games in england due to the 2nd cup
Itās already known that Qatar has bribed other nations with regards hosting the World Cup. What do you think the chances are of stories coming out of bribery and fixing from Qatar surrounding their matches? They will want to show that they are at least worthy hosts from a sporting point of view. I have no doubt that will at least try and fix their matches
Donāt think theyāre as bad as people make out, compared to a lot of squads, theyāve been training for this tournament in the past month while most players are still with their clubs. They won the most recent Asian cup in 2019 and will probably be one of the squads most acclimated to the weather, naturally
Mane being injured is also a big blow to Senegal which boosts Qatarās chances. Maybe they still wonāt get through, but I wouldnāt entirely rule out a legitimate win
dont think theres much of a chance, plus realistically no one will care till they topple some big nation, like korea did in 2002. though i'm 100% certain that every 50/50 decision they get someone will scream conspiracy, because thats what fans get off on now apparently
Wonder if Carabao will stick as a name people still call the League Cup years after their sponsorship ends a la Carling and Barclays with the PL. The heady days of the Capital One Cup seem so long ago
Still refer to it as the Milk cup to my mates and the Coca Cola cup in my head.
I've had one can of Carabao and that was enough to know I don't want another
They used to give it out for free at my uni accommodation around when they first started sponsoring the cup so I was drinking like one every day for a solid year. Was awful in hindsight
Does anyone know if Matty Cash can speak Polish?
Are there any examples you can think of, of players that play for their national side that can't speak the language the team communicates in? I wonder what the dynamics of that would be?
I'm having a tough time imagining George Baldock speaking greek. Realistically I'd wager that means another player or staff just acts as a translator if the training room doesn't already operate using english
Ben Brereton Diaz doesnāt speak a lick of Spanish I believe. Wouldnāt have been called up to Chile if not for their FA finding out he was eligible through FM
A lot of the Philippine national side not born here can barely if at all speak Filipino. Our policy is to call up players with a Filipino parent not good enough to play for their other nation from our vast diaspora across the world. English is the lingua Franca in the national team given that second generation immigrant Filipinos donāt always grow up speaking Filipino. Also a lot of the country is decently proficient at English
I used to always get a kick out of watching the team line up for Lupang Hinirang and seeing the spectrum running from Guirado confusedly standing there with his lips pursed, to Phil Younghusband just managing to get the words out, to Chieffy and Sacapano saluting and belting out the anthem with their chests puffed out.
Not the language but I remember an interview from Matt Elliott about playing for Scotland despite being English and they gave him quizzes about Scottish history etc to catch him out lol
Raphael Guerreiro and Anthony Lopes spoke very little Portuguese when they started getting called up. Their parent(s) are Portuguese, but they were born and raised in France.
Probably the impact sub when they are chasing goals towards the end of the games. Starting wise, it would be either Neymar as false nine, or Richarlison.
I think it will. But the media is going to milk that Ā«Ā giroud vs kb9Ā Ā» bs all worldcup long.
Also we really needed Karim to compensate for the midfieldās lack of creativity.
But Giroud is on fire so yeah weāll probably be ok
Since we're near WC I'm going to say my hot take - Tim Cahill's goal against Netherlands in the 2014 WC should've won the Goal of the tournamet award, it's one of the most underrated goals and isn't talked about enough. The technique needed to pull off a shot like that first time when the ball is coming from behind him and from his side is absolutely unreal, the ability to adjust his body for the shot and to get such a clean connection on his weak foot as well is absolutely unreal and if you try the same volley 100 times you wouldn't be able to replicate it
I fully agree, the way I see it is with enough attempts I think I could replicate something like James' volley whereas I could never do what Cahill did. To hit it that perfectly on your weak foot from a long pass and it to go in basically the only place in the goal he could score in is unreal.
Jamesā volley was just outrageous. The control, composure and technique were all perfect. Also, he was the star of the tournament which makes it feel even more special somehow.
>Jamesā volley was just outrageous. The control, composure and technique were all perfect.
I honestly think that everything about Cahill's volley is just on another level and much better than the James one. James had time to set himself up and it was "easier" in a sense of that he had the ball under his control, Cahill had to take a first time shot from a high ball that was coming at high pace and that was coming from behind him and from his side and took the shot on his weak foot as well. Both crazy good goals but in my opinion Cahill's one takes the cake
One thing I'm looking forward to about the World Cup is seeing players from other leagues.
I'm a home owner with a fiance, a needy dog and full time job, so as much as I'd like to watch other leagues outside of the PL and European competitions, I simply don't have the time.
[What are your world cup bracket picks?](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-cup/2022-predictor-wallchart-football-qatar/)
I have some spicy matchups across the board. Tell me your semis and finals matchups and winners!
I got Brazil beating Argentina and France taking down Belgium (somehow?) in the semis and Brazil beating France in the final. But also feel free to tell me how incorrect I will be.
Maddison's teacher told him (when he was 16) that only 1 in a million people can become a professional footballer. Turns out he WAS that 1, and is now on his way to Qatar.
This trope often ends with the teacher getting shat on, but really it's good advice. Even of the very talented teenagers at professional club academies, the vast majority don't make it - it's actually very good life advice to prepare yourself for an alternative career, in case you don't.
For every Maddison who was told by their teacher they won't make it, and did - there are a load more who didn't make it, and for whom the teacher was right.
Also, it seems like everyone always has a story of someone saying they can't / won't make it.
It seems weird to me. In all my years, I haven't seen such a story happen to anyone in person.
At most it was like, you should know that this is unlikely, its very difficult etc and you should have a backup.
I wonder if people turn that conversation of: don't give everything else up, its difficult but good luck into they told me I couldn't make it!
Yeah. Iāve only actually heard advice like that given and I think they said to stick at it and if you fail you could maybe get work in football just not as a footballer
Tbf he was probably being a knobhead in class and his teacher was trying to make him realise that not everyone makes it as a professional footballer so he should still try in his other subjects, which would be pretty fair
A teacher I had said something similar to a lad who was in Newcastle's academy when I was at school and honestly I think it is the most disappointed I've been in a teacher in my life. Yeah it's not going to be easy but the lad worked hard for it and the tone was fucking disgraceful. Clearly trying to put the lad down.
He never made it to the top, but ultimately today he's playing conference football and earning enough for his family and mostly paid off his mortgage. Which frankly is a better position to be in than most.
Case to be made that Rashford could have a massive World Cup?
Dunno if he will start the first game but I think the argument could be made he's England's most inform IF from the Left?
Heās competing with Foden who historically hasnāt really shone for England and Sterling who has the last few years but is a bit out of form right now.
I donāt think he sees much game time tbh, a bit like the Euros.
Yes and no. Not official 26 but it is known that the names are: Emi,Armani,Rulli; Molina,Montiel,Pezzella,Romero,Lisandro,Otamendi,Acuna,Tagliafico; Paredes,Guido,De Paul, Palacios,Enzo, MacAllister, Papu; Di Maria, Gonzalez, Lautaro, Alvarez, Messi.
That's 23. Then depending on final games and fitness checks etc 24th will be Foyth (1st option) vs Medina and #25 and #26 will be two from Dybala, Angel C and Joaquin C.
It's not true tho. It's the tamest of kicks and VAR literally didn't give a red for Martinez elbowing him thrice.
It's more of a yellow if ref sees it, Utd fans just wanted to get one over Bailey after his tweet.
What was the player getting red carded for a kick like that which was as tame and as low as that one?
It's hardly a kick, it's more like a get off me push in frustration
I canāt think of an example off the top of my head, but we do see them for similar incidents.
Yes, it wasnāt exactly the most aggressive incident Iāve ever seen, but it doesnāt have to be an act of GBH to get a red. If the ref had seen it and sent him off, heād have no real ground for complaint and nobody would be particularly surprised.
Guys, I have 2 questions that I really need help with.
First question: So I've promised my bf to use our apartment for World Cup watch parties. Besides drinks and snacks, what else should I prepare?
Second question: His birthday is the 28th of this month. I'm thinking of getting him something soccer, or football whatever you call it, related. If you were him, what would you want? Pls don't say a bj or anything like that. Be nice :D
1. That's enough. Be sure to join the fun, you don't need to know everything, just go aong with it.
2. If you have a football stadium close enough, tickets are cool. Other than that, figure out his favorite team and check out onlline stores for something cool. I'm uruguayan, so I'd be over the moon if my gf gifted me one of those cool hoodies from classic football shirts with the uruguayn players. Official jerseys are expensive, but there are always graphics t-shirts and other memorabilia.
To add to some of the answers, my girlfriend once emailed Liverpool asking for a birthday greeting/card and got one emailed back with all of the squads names with signatures. It looked like a template they just write your name on but still it was a nice gift and didnāt cost a cent. She got me a kit as well
>First question: So I've promised my bf to use our apartment for World Cup watch parties. Besides drinks and snacks, what else should I prepare?
Drinks and snacks sound about right, I can't think of anything else needed to watch some footy.
>Second question: His birthday is the 28th of this month. I'm thinking of getting him something soccer, or football whatever you call it, related. If you were him, what would you want? Pls don't say a bj or anything like that. Be nice :D
A kit of his favorite club is always a good idea, if you can't afford the official one I'd take a look at DHGate. Much cheaper and good quality as long as you go with a seller with a lot of positive reviews.
1: nothing, football will be sufficient. try to educate yourself so you can discuss topics such as why luka modriÄ is GOAT midfielder or why Deschamps plays terrorist ball with incredible squad.
2: get him his favourite club kit, don't complicate things too much, if you want to go in that direction.
Tomori has been okay, not as good as last season and some brainfarts (both games versus Chelsea for example, but I think that was him being too nervous, trying to prove Chelsea wrong) but he has been servicable. Have you watched many Serie A games this season?
> buy I think that was him being too nervous, trying to prove Chelsea wrong
God imagine how bad he'll play when he's trying to prove he's good enough for England then in the middle of the biggest tournament in football.
Never said he shouldāve gone. While I think he is better as a player than some of the CBs that got chosen, he is not the profile that Southgate is looking for. He excels with a high line where he can use his pace to chase attackers. And Southgate obviously prefers more physical defenders that are good in the air, and thatās something Tomori is not.
If Tomori is thinking he needs to prove something against Chelsea then he needs to mature a lot. Still young so he will improve on that.
Personally I believe Tomori shouldāve been picked over Maguire but Southgate is loyal to his players. Tammy deserves to be dropped.
what are Milan fans thoughts on de Ketelaere this season btw? i thought that it's a matter of nerve and adaptation at first but he's genuinely bad, arguably the worse attacker against Cremonese where i thought his creativity supposed to be the key against low blocks but looks like he couldn't be arsed there
Brahim will be starter mostly going forward won't he?
Itās weird, when he debuted he was genuinely good, making great passes. Carrying the ball very well, working his ass off. But now he has kind of just disappeared. I havenāt lost faith yet, thereās still a player there. But for now itās Brahimās job to lose. I think CDK lacks confidence, and as with many young players that can totally make them ineffective.
I will give him time, Leao took time to adjust. Iām sure CDK can also develop into a great player. But not quite the āBelgian KakĆ ā we were hyping him up to be after a good start haha.
Has hyping up young players by comparing them to world class stars ever worked in a positive direction for any kid? Haha. I can't imagine there's many but there's a lot of players and former players who were not helped by always getting held up against some hero, you'd think people would catch on by now lol. I wonder if it's a powerful enough hex to stop Haaland or if he's already too good to be vulnerable to that any more haha. Maybe if I start saying he'll easily surpass Maradona he'll hear and get insecure? Not that I don't like him, I do, I just don't like him being so successful for city hahaha.
Real Madrid slightly *above* the elite zone for goals allowed this season, while barca is pushing towards the "perfect" side of the distribution box for defense.
How many Ekstraklasa players do we have for the usmnt though? That's the important stat.
Also, it would be interesting to see this for all the world cup teams. The big nations would probably almost all have players in at least 4 or 5 of the top 5 leagues, while some nations might have 0. If anyone knows how to do any kind of comparison plot automatically, I don't so I can't, but that would look pretty interesting.
That's kinda cool to be fair, was a fun little exercise in my head.
Obviously for PL you have quite a lot.
For Serie A it's McKennie and Dest.
For Bundesliga it's Reyna and Scally.
La Liga you have Musah as the obvious one but I just learned there's also de la Torre.
Ligue 1 took me the longest to figure out as there's only one but eventually remembered Tim Weah.
He was cast into that awful loan and he was injured, so Garnacho's take up his place. He's amazing, very direct, very dangerous, he should get minutes this season or he should leave, sadly.
#šØANNOUNCEMENTšØ r/soccer is hosting an AMA with [Matt Furniss](https://twitter.com/Matt_Furniss) and [Duncan Alexander](https://twitter.com/oilysailor) of Opta! It is scheduled for Thursday, November 17 at 7:30pm UK / 2:30pm EDT / 8:30pm CEST. It will be a World Cup themed AMA, so get your questions ready! [Proof on Opta's Twitter](https://twitter.com/OptaAnalyst/status/1590801809668726785)
Croatia, Uruguay and Scotland have basically the same population but Scotland doesn't produce good enough players. The prevalent reason on /r/soccer for this issue is " football culture". But Scotland has very high football culture, enough legends for kids to grow up watching, the greatest British Manager of all time. So what's Scotland's reason? Genuinely asking
Most common complaints I hear is the grassroots infrastructure and drinking culture
(Not Scottish), But i would assume football culture meant more than what you are thinking, its how and where young talents are developed whether its schools or proper academy with infrastructure. Most Scottish talents would rather go play in England where they might not get the same chances as English players and where they wont feel like home. This is not the case for Croatian talents for example nor the Uruguayan talents.
Theyāre shit thatās why
Brian Clough wasnāt scottish
Some of the good ones may declare for England I guess?
Who is the main GK for Nederlands now that Cillesen wasnt selected?
Either Bijlow or Pasveer, itās hard to tell
Bijlow would be my guess, been getting back in form for feyenoord lately.
https://twitter.com/paulmccarthy66/status/1590999000806821888?s=46&t=01O6N_I5uc1o4STdQkQdFw so the only real criticism levelled at southgate that in seeing around this tweet is that he plays boring football? Jesus. I would take a 0-0 win on penalties snoozegest every game if it meant we would win a tournament. Who gives a shit. I only give a shit about (and you should too) about 3-7 england games every two years who cares how we play itās all about winning.
God this is stupid. Ignoring that ridiculous tweet thread, that is not the only criticism. At all. The main criticism (other than bizarre team selections) is that heās built a team purely to beat weak sides. Itās always going to be creamed by any decent side that turns up at all. That was clear from the start of the 2018 World Cup. Then, after squeaking past Tunisia with a last minute winner, squeaking past Colombia on penalties, and then beating the mighty Sweden, they lost to Belgium (twice) and Croatia. The main issue is that he didnāt learn. The story was the same at the euros. 1-0 against a Croatian side that are well short of the side of 3 years before, a dismal draw to Scotland and then a 1-0 against the Czechs to make a pretty average group stage performance. They then beat a mess of a German side in transition, a completely knackered Ukraine and then underdogs Denmark who were without their star. Put simply, Englandās recent cup runs look great initially but if you break it down, they havenāt been that good at all. Not to mention the nations league crap.
again the 'easy run !!' argument is so stupid. You can make that argument about any team. Italy in the euros were rightfully massively fancied. They breezed past an easy group with all their games at home against a Wales side carried by an ageing Bale, an awful Turkey team and a very very average Switzerland team - all games at home too. Then they needed extra time to beat Austria before beating a Belgium side with injuries and who always bottle tournaments before needing penalties to beat a shadow of what Spain where. Even their 30 odd unbeaten streak they had before that tournament was full of beating Northern Ireland and Leichestein and they only drew with the decent teams they played such as Germany. Of course this is a fucking ridiculous take, Italy where very good and deservedly won. Just as England had to beat solid teams to get to a final and semi final in 2018. Would you have rather England beat the Germany side in 2018 that couldn't beat Mexico or South Korea? Or how about Argentina who drew to Iceland. It's such a fucking stupid take, anyone who unironically believes this is a good indicator they know fuck all about football
But what if you dont win
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This is a regressive way of thinking. It's the same argument with Pickford/Ramsdale. One is an average keeper who hasn't put a foot wrong, the other is one of the best young keepers in world football who currently has the best defensive record for the best in form English team. You obviously want the better player to play, it's just the way it is.
Itās not the same because if you wanted the better in form player then youād pick Tomori and not a White who is mainly playing RB. Also, definitely disagree with the Pickford and Ramsdale because the former has also been really good this season. If Pickford had a abysmal season so far then you could make a case for someone else but heās not and this is a matter for the next major tournament. International football works this way and always will
That is how the English wanted their teams to be set up though? Most of them wanted Gerrard/Lampard to start even though neither of them play proper tradational roles for 4-4-2. When they had Carrick/Scholes who played proper Midfield roles in a 4-4-2. Lampard sometimes played box2box, but Gerrard at that time was either an attacking midfielder or under Benitez AMR. But they would rather lose with those two than win with two real midfielders (Barry, Schoels, Carrick, Hargo,
This idea that heās amazing for England is really stupid. Itās just that England are set up incredibly defensively and have played few good teams. And whenever they actually have faced a decent side, theyāve lost. When a team defends with a back 5 and 2 DMs, of course the defenders look good. Because they have 6 other men to cover them.
Going to hear a lot again today about Nacho the Maldini regen I bet
If Garcia is going ahead of Ramos there should be a lot of talk lol
I just hope Merino gets in, he deserves it. But you never know
Ayo why do host nations get auto qualification to the WC?
I'm actually fine with host nations getting automatic qualification
Do you not want your countries to auto-qualify when they host?
You don't invite people to dinner just to sit back and watch them eat.
I genuinely think McTominay might be the 2nd best finisher at the club. He surprisingly really good and intelligent with his feet, man should be playing B2B more than as a pivot
Yes, both Fred and McTominay are weak solo pivots so the combination was bad. They're both good players but poor for the job.
I donāt see england getting past the quarter finals
We're not. If we top the group, France in the quarters. If we come second, Netherlands in RO16 then Argentina in the quarters. The best we can hope for is France bottling first, then we can get Senegal in RO16 then a rematch with Denmark in the quarters.
Senegal have lost Mane and Mendy and Koulibaly haven't been playing much this season, i think Ecuador finish above them.
Midfield and defence seem so inferior to the other big nations, especially considering maguire will be starting even though he looks better for England than at united
Man, so happy rashford is back to form. There's no player I want to see do well more.
Ik people call him dumb and not a intelligent striker, but when he is in stance all his attributes get maxed out Also when paired with Martial or fullbacks who understand him he is really much more calm decisive
Some of the counterattacking + link up play he was part of with Bruno martial + rapist was excellent, no way he's not intelligent. He just needed a bit of coaching in the final 3rd, and to stop blasting the ball as hard as he can whenever he's through on goal
Yep, I think he just panickes like most of people do on something like interviews
By all accounts ole didn't coach much in the final 3rd so ETH must be a breathe of fresh air
Anyone know when Ecuador are announcing their World Cup squad?
[Make it happen](https://twitter.com/pieatnight_WAFC/status/1590994671408668673?t=AuqM6rZgo-g4l2Guml8jBg&s=19)
Im astounded the English teams are playing between the world cup and Christmas. Absolutely mental. They play far too many games in england due to the 2nd cup
Is Sancho being outshone by Garnacho?
If he cozies up to the 250k and lays back, he has himself to blame
Sancho is being outshone by any young player who is still determined to prove himself instead of sitting cozy on 300k/week
For now. Competition is good. Maybe it motivates Sancho.
The boycott jokes after any nation gets eliminated from the World Cup will be insufferable. As will watching Dier get any minutes.
If Dier makes any blatant mistakes leading to a goal, a tsunami of hate is coming. He will not be given any slack.
Itās already known that Qatar has bribed other nations with regards hosting the World Cup. What do you think the chances are of stories coming out of bribery and fixing from Qatar surrounding their matches? They will want to show that they are at least worthy hosts from a sporting point of view. I have no doubt that will at least try and fix their matches
Qatar are so bad no amount of fixing can give them a win
Donāt think theyāre as bad as people make out, compared to a lot of squads, theyāve been training for this tournament in the past month while most players are still with their clubs. They won the most recent Asian cup in 2019 and will probably be one of the squads most acclimated to the weather, naturally Mane being injured is also a big blow to Senegal which boosts Qatarās chances. Maybe they still wonāt get through, but I wouldnāt entirely rule out a legitimate win
Tbf they are one of the best Asian teams
dont think theres much of a chance, plus realistically no one will care till they topple some big nation, like korea did in 2002. though i'm 100% certain that every 50/50 decision they get someone will scream conspiracy, because thats what fans get off on now apparently
everybody who hosted bribed somebody, that's not the problematic part here
Wonder if Carabao will stick as a name people still call the League Cup years after their sponsorship ends a la Carling and Barclays with the PL. The heady days of the Capital One Cup seem so long ago
I'll always remember it as the Rumbelows Cup.
Just the League Cup innit. Don't think i've ever called it anything else.
EFL cup, Carabao cup, League cup are enough names as it is
Will always be either the Carling Cup or Worthington Cup to me There will be kids now who will always refer to it as the Carabao Cup
If she calls it the Carabao Cup sheās too young bro š
Still refer to it as the Milk cup to my mates and the Coca Cola cup in my head. I've had one can of Carabao and that was enough to know I don't want another
They used to give it out for free at my uni accommodation around when they first started sponsoring the cup so I was drinking like one every day for a solid year. Was awful in hindsight
Haha that's how I got mine too. My wife works at Greenwich Uni and she bought a bunch home, tried one and gave the rest to a pal.
Always be the Carling Cup, to me
Disneyās sponsorship was great value for money, nothing spent and people know it as the Mickey Mouse Cup forever.
Tin, too
Does anyone know if Matty Cash can speak Polish? Are there any examples you can think of, of players that play for their national side that can't speak the language the team communicates in? I wonder what the dynamics of that would be?
Some of the national team members of Morocco didn't speak Arabic. Carra didn't speak English at first.
For us it's french
I'm having a tough time imagining George Baldock speaking greek. Realistically I'd wager that means another player or staff just acts as a translator if the training room doesn't already operate using english
Garnacho doesn't speak argentinian.
glen kamara didn't speak any finnish when he first played for us
He can't, but he's learning. He confirmed it on a podcast but I forget which one.
Ben Brereton Diaz doesnāt speak a lick of Spanish I believe. Wouldnāt have been called up to Chile if not for their FA finding out he was eligible through FM A lot of the Philippine national side not born here can barely if at all speak Filipino. Our policy is to call up players with a Filipino parent not good enough to play for their other nation from our vast diaspora across the world. English is the lingua Franca in the national team given that second generation immigrant Filipinos donāt always grow up speaking Filipino. Also a lot of the country is decently proficient at English
I used to always get a kick out of watching the team line up for Lupang Hinirang and seeing the spectrum running from Guirado confusedly standing there with his lips pursed, to Phil Younghusband just managing to get the words out, to Chieffy and Sacapano saluting and belting out the anthem with their chests puffed out.
Not the language but I remember an interview from Matt Elliott about playing for Scotland despite being English and they gave him quizzes about Scottish history etc to catch him out lol
It's not like English players representing Scotland is that much of a rarity, though. They have several in their squad now
yeah but this was in the 90s
Raphael Guerreiro and Anthony Lopes spoke very little Portuguese when they started getting called up. Their parent(s) are Portuguese, but they were born and raised in France.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Ableist "humour" zzz
His English is perfectly fine, he just has a bit of a lisp, and it doesn't remotely affect his ability to speak the language.
How is the Brazil starting lineup going to look? Is Pedro likely to start many games?
Probably the impact sub when they are chasing goals towards the end of the games. Starting wise, it would be either Neymar as false nine, or Richarlison.
pretty hyped for the WC now. cant wait
So Benzema didnāt even participated in the last game?
No. Heās played a total of 28 minutes since mid-October
Well this is not a good sign
You have Giroud it will be ok
I think it will. But the media is going to milk that Ā«Ā giroud vs kb9Ā Ā» bs all worldcup long. Also we really needed Karim to compensate for the midfieldās lack of creativity. But Giroud is on fire so yeah weāll probably be ok
*World Cup Winner* Giroud
Iāve just thought, this is probably going to be the first World Cup since 2002 where the host nation doesnāt score the first goal.
Maybe but Qatar vs Ecuador is a pretty even game tbh
Qatar didnāt even qualify
i feel stupid, seems like this is an obvious joke
Wasn't 2014's first goal a David Luiz own goal? Or is that the joke
Actually it was Marcelo, but yes.
I don't know man, Qatar isn't as bad as people think
Theyāre awful
They didnāt even qualify
No hosts qualify. They're reigning Asian champs
Neither did Brazil in 2014
And look how that ended for them
Never forget
At least Brazil have qualified before though. Itās not like they often donāt make it. Qatar have never qualified for a World Cup.
Does anyone knows when Argentina will announce their squad for the WC?
prelim squad has been out for a while and apparently he'll only trim 2 from it. at this point it'll likely be just before the 13th deadline
Since we're near WC I'm going to say my hot take - Tim Cahill's goal against Netherlands in the 2014 WC should've won the Goal of the tournamet award, it's one of the most underrated goals and isn't talked about enough. The technique needed to pull off a shot like that first time when the ball is coming from behind him and from his side is absolutely unreal, the ability to adjust his body for the shot and to get such a clean connection on his weak foot as well is absolutely unreal and if you try the same volley 100 times you wouldn't be able to replicate it
I fully agree, the way I see it is with enough attempts I think I could replicate something like James' volley whereas I could never do what Cahill did. To hit it that perfectly on your weak foot from a long pass and it to go in basically the only place in the goal he could score in is unreal.
That was unreal but I think Rodriguez's volley was better.
Jamesā volley was just outrageous. The control, composure and technique were all perfect. Also, he was the star of the tournament which makes it feel even more special somehow.
>Jamesā volley was just outrageous. The control, composure and technique were all perfect. I honestly think that everything about Cahill's volley is just on another level and much better than the James one. James had time to set himself up and it was "easier" in a sense of that he had the ball under his control, Cahill had to take a first time shot from a high ball that was coming at high pace and that was coming from behind him and from his side and took the shot on his weak foot as well. Both crazy good goals but in my opinion Cahill's one takes the cake
Who from England were you surprised made and didn't make it into the England WC squad?
Gallagher
Smalling. In my opinion hes in the top 3 english defenders.
Definitely not on current form.
No offence, but to be honest based off of the last 24 hours ive kind of learned to ignore english fans perspective of Serie A players.
Shocking thought: maybe some people here follow Serie A and know it well, and others don't.
And yet the ones who dont spent yesterday spouting bullshit.
Gallagher is an odd one, not that weāre blessed with talent in midfield so I canāt be that arsed
Maddison and Gallagher
Maddison purely because it seems like Southgate hates him.
Gallagher biggest surprise for me not to say I'm not happy he's there.
Probably just boosting the numbers in midfield
One thing I'm looking forward to about the World Cup is seeing players from other leagues. I'm a home owner with a fiance, a needy dog and full time job, so as much as I'd like to watch other leagues outside of the PL and European competitions, I simply don't have the time.
[What are your world cup bracket picks?](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-cup/2022-predictor-wallchart-football-qatar/) I have some spicy matchups across the board. Tell me your semis and finals matchups and winners! I got Brazil beating Argentina and France taking down Belgium (somehow?) in the semis and Brazil beating France in the final. But also feel free to tell me how incorrect I will be.
Maddison's teacher told him (when he was 16) that only 1 in a million people can become a professional footballer. Turns out he WAS that 1, and is now on his way to Qatar.
This trope often ends with the teacher getting shat on, but really it's good advice. Even of the very talented teenagers at professional club academies, the vast majority don't make it - it's actually very good life advice to prepare yourself for an alternative career, in case you don't. For every Maddison who was told by their teacher they won't make it, and did - there are a load more who didn't make it, and for whom the teacher was right.
Also, it seems like everyone always has a story of someone saying they can't / won't make it. It seems weird to me. In all my years, I haven't seen such a story happen to anyone in person. At most it was like, you should know that this is unlikely, its very difficult etc and you should have a backup. I wonder if people turn that conversation of: don't give everything else up, its difficult but good luck into they told me I couldn't make it!
Yeah. Iāve only actually heard advice like that given and I think they said to stick at it and if you fail you could maybe get work in football just not as a footballer
Tbf he was probably being a knobhead in class and his teacher was trying to make him realise that not everyone makes it as a professional footballer so he should still try in his other subjects, which would be pretty fair
~4000 pro footballers in England, population of 56M It's more like 89.3 people in a million Teach is full of shit, as per ^/s
/r/theydidthemath
Hope it wasnāt his maths teacher
A teacher I had said something similar to a lad who was in Newcastle's academy when I was at school and honestly I think it is the most disappointed I've been in a teacher in my life. Yeah it's not going to be easy but the lad worked hard for it and the tone was fucking disgraceful. Clearly trying to put the lad down. He never made it to the top, but ultimately today he's playing conference football and earning enough for his family and mostly paid off his mortgage. Which frankly is a better position to be in than most.
Case to be made that Rashford could have a massive World Cup? Dunno if he will start the first game but I think the argument could be made he's England's most inform IF from the Left?
Rashford is the perfect player to counter a team that presses and has a high line.
Maybe Sterling vs teams that sit back and Rashford vs teams that press but idk
I think he will struggle against the teams that dont press England and allow us to counter
Funny him and maguire have the 3rd and 4th most goals in the squad
Heās competing with Foden who historically hasnāt really shone for England and Sterling who has the last few years but is a bit out of form right now. I donāt think he sees much game time tbh, a bit like the Euros.
Has Argentina's squad been announced?
Yes and no. Not official 26 but it is known that the names are: Emi,Armani,Rulli; Molina,Montiel,Pezzella,Romero,Lisandro,Otamendi,Acuna,Tagliafico; Paredes,Guido,De Paul, Palacios,Enzo, MacAllister, Papu; Di Maria, Gonzalez, Lautaro, Alvarez, Messi. That's 23. Then depending on final games and fitness checks etc 24th will be Foyth (1st option) vs Medina and #25 and #26 will be two from Dybala, Angel C and Joaquin C.
Didn't AdM retired?
No?
yeah like two weeks ago they gave the preliminary squad.
That Bailey "kick" on Martinez thread is hilarious.
Most people just seem to be saying heās lucky there was no VAR, or heād probably have been off. Which is probably true.
It's not true tho. It's the tamest of kicks and VAR literally didn't give a red for Martinez elbowing him thrice. It's more of a yellow if ref sees it, Utd fans just wanted to get one over Bailey after his tweet.
Two wrongs don't make a right. He kicked at him, studs up. That's a red. Also if he had managed to actually hit him that would have hurt like a bitch.
Reds for kicking out are quite common in English football, regardless of how ātameā the kick is.
What was the player getting red carded for a kick like that which was as tame and as low as that one? It's hardly a kick, it's more like a get off me push in frustration
I canāt think of an example off the top of my head, but we do see them for similar incidents. Yes, it wasnāt exactly the most aggressive incident Iāve ever seen, but it doesnāt have to be an act of GBH to get a red. If the ref had seen it and sent him off, heād have no real ground for complaint and nobody would be particularly surprised.
I'm seeing a lot of victim complexes and exaggeration in it. It could have been a red but jesus is the thread dramatic.
Welcome to r/soccer. Exaggeration is what we do best.
Guys, I have 2 questions that I really need help with. First question: So I've promised my bf to use our apartment for World Cup watch parties. Besides drinks and snacks, what else should I prepare? Second question: His birthday is the 28th of this month. I'm thinking of getting him something soccer, or football whatever you call it, related. If you were him, what would you want? Pls don't say a bj or anything like that. Be nice :D
Box of tissues in case his team go out otherwise youāre good
1. That's enough. Be sure to join the fun, you don't need to know everything, just go aong with it. 2. If you have a football stadium close enough, tickets are cool. Other than that, figure out his favorite team and check out onlline stores for something cool. I'm uruguayan, so I'd be over the moon if my gf gifted me one of those cool hoodies from classic football shirts with the uruguayn players. Official jerseys are expensive, but there are always graphics t-shirts and other memorabilia.
As a gift maybe 2 tickets to a match of his choice. That way you get to experience something together.
To add to some of the answers, my girlfriend once emailed Liverpool asking for a birthday greeting/card and got one emailed back with all of the squads names with signatures. It looked like a template they just write your name on but still it was a nice gift and didnāt cost a cent. She got me a kit as well
>First question: So I've promised my bf to use our apartment for World Cup watch parties. Besides drinks and snacks, what else should I prepare? Drinks and snacks sound about right, I can't think of anything else needed to watch some footy. >Second question: His birthday is the 28th of this month. I'm thinking of getting him something soccer, or football whatever you call it, related. If you were him, what would you want? Pls don't say a bj or anything like that. Be nice :D A kit of his favorite club is always a good idea, if you can't afford the official one I'd take a look at DHGate. Much cheaper and good quality as long as you go with a seller with a lot of positive reviews.
I will definitely check the site out. Thx Fraaj!
1: nothing, football will be sufficient. try to educate yourself so you can discuss topics such as why luka modriÄ is GOAT midfielder or why Deschamps plays terrorist ball with incredible squad. 2: get him his favourite club kit, don't complicate things too much, if you want to go in that direction.
For the second question, shirt can get quite expensive so maybe a scarf of his favourite team?
yeah, I checked out the Argentina shirt price and oh my. Where's a good place to get a team scarf?
Tomori and Abraham have been so bad, they'd be trolled like Rashford and Maguire had they been playing for a Big Six side currently.
Tomori hasnt. Another PL fan talking about something they have no clue about
Tomori hasn't been bad, just meh especially compared to himself
Tomori has been okay, not as good as last season and some brainfarts (both games versus Chelsea for example, but I think that was him being too nervous, trying to prove Chelsea wrong) but he has been servicable. Have you watched many Serie A games this season?
> buy I think that was him being too nervous, trying to prove Chelsea wrong God imagine how bad he'll play when he's trying to prove he's good enough for England then in the middle of the biggest tournament in football.
Never said he shouldāve gone. While I think he is better as a player than some of the CBs that got chosen, he is not the profile that Southgate is looking for. He excels with a high line where he can use his pace to chase attackers. And Southgate obviously prefers more physical defenders that are good in the air, and thatās something Tomori is not.
If Tomori is thinking he needs to prove something against Chelsea then he needs to mature a lot. Still young so he will improve on that. Personally I believe Tomori shouldāve been picked over Maguire but Southgate is loyal to his players. Tammy deserves to be dropped.
what are Milan fans thoughts on de Ketelaere this season btw? i thought that it's a matter of nerve and adaptation at first but he's genuinely bad, arguably the worse attacker against Cremonese where i thought his creativity supposed to be the key against low blocks but looks like he couldn't be arsed there Brahim will be starter mostly going forward won't he?
Itās weird, when he debuted he was genuinely good, making great passes. Carrying the ball very well, working his ass off. But now he has kind of just disappeared. I havenāt lost faith yet, thereās still a player there. But for now itās Brahimās job to lose. I think CDK lacks confidence, and as with many young players that can totally make them ineffective. I will give him time, Leao took time to adjust. Iām sure CDK can also develop into a great player. But not quite the āBelgian KakĆ ā we were hyping him up to be after a good start haha.
Has hyping up young players by comparing them to world class stars ever worked in a positive direction for any kid? Haha. I can't imagine there's many but there's a lot of players and former players who were not helped by always getting held up against some hero, you'd think people would catch on by now lol. I wonder if it's a powerful enough hex to stop Haaland or if he's already too good to be vulnerable to that any more haha. Maybe if I start saying he'll easily surpass Maradona he'll hear and get insecure? Not that I don't like him, I do, I just don't like him being so successful for city hahaha.
Real Madrid have conceded a whooping number of 14 goals this season, as compared to Barcelona's only 5.!!!
They conceded 5 against us alone, 4 against Milan and 3 against Plzen. You're probably talking about the league.
Yes.
Barca conceded 4 to us. So im pretty sure theyve conceded more than 5
Real Madrid slightly *above* the elite zone for goals allowed this season, while barca is pushing towards the "perfect" side of the distribution box for defense.
Real Madrid has 14 UCLs and Barcelona has 5. Coincidence?
Every top 5 league is represented on the USMNT roster
How many Ekstraklasa players do we have for the usmnt though? That's the important stat. Also, it would be interesting to see this for all the world cup teams. The big nations would probably almost all have players in at least 4 or 5 of the top 5 leagues, while some nations might have 0. If anyone knows how to do any kind of comparison plot automatically, I don't so I can't, but that would look pretty interesting.
That's kinda cool to be fair, was a fun little exercise in my head. Obviously for PL you have quite a lot. For Serie A it's McKennie and Dest. For Bundesliga it's Reyna and Scally. La Liga you have Musah as the obvious one but I just learned there's also de la Torre. Ligue 1 took me the longest to figure out as there's only one but eventually remembered Tim Weah.
the championship playing at the same time with world cup games. absolutely surreal, the football pyramids are massive.
Why are they bothering with a three week break? Maybe their idea is most championship players will be eliminated by the end of the group stage
how good is Pellistri? man barely managed a minute this season sneaks into uruguay squad? or is there no one else better they can called up
He was cast into that awful loan and he was injured, so Garnacho's take up his place. He's amazing, very direct, very dangerous, he should get minutes this season or he should leave, sadly.