2018 World Cup

[Golfingdad]

8 hours ago, adampaul said:

I think Uruguay will definitely defeat top teams in top 16 because Uruguay is the only team who win all 3 matches of group matches.

Croatia also won all three of their matches against, arguably, much better teams than Uruguay.  Also, England or Belgium could come away with 9 points tomorrow as well.  If they don't then that group is going to be decided on yellow/red cards.

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Interesting (to me) little bits of trivia I learned recently:

• There have been 20 past World Cups and only 12 different Champions.
• Piggybacking off of that, 3 of those 12 have only one WC to their name (England, France, Spain), and the remaining 9 have won a combined 17 Cups.
• In addition to those 12 champions, only 4 other countries have ever made a final.
• Brazil, Germany, Italy and Argentina have combined for 15 WC titles and 11 WC runner-ups.
• EVERY country to ever play in a WC final has been from UEFA (Europe) or CONMEBOL (South America).

Based on this info, there are only 7 teams remaining that have a chance to make the final  ... Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, France, England, Spain, and Sweden.

Edited June 27, 2018 by Golfingdad

[dennyjones]

23 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

Based on this info, there are only 7 teams remaining that have a chance to make the final  ... Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, France, England, Spain, and Sweden.

That's what makes sports so interesting.    Anything can happen, and does.  The way that Argentina, France and Spain are playing right now, they are less likely to make it to the final.

[Groucho Valentine]

On June 8, 2018 at 9:35 AM, Groucho Valentine said:

If you're not Germany or France, you're probably just playing for fun.  One of those two teams are going to win.

1 hour ago, dennyjones said:

It was exciting to see the ending of the Germany / South Korea game.   It's not unusual for the defending champion to exit the tournament early. 

They don't have the same knights of death prowling the midfield they used to, but you're talking about the machine, here. They're too talented to not at least make it to the knockout. Shocking. 

[Zeph]

Happy to see Germany out. They haven't played well and with winning the last EC and WC, I didn't want them to get far. 

[nevets88]

IIRC, Alexi Lalas picked Germany to win the WC in the very first pre game show.

[Groucho Valentine]

Im all in on Belgium. They look ferocious. 

Edited June 27, 2018 by Groucho Valentine

[Golfingdad]

1 hour ago, Golfingdad said:

Croatia also won all three of their matches against, arguably, much better teams than Uruguay.  Also, England or Belgium could come away with 9 points tomorrow as well.  If they don't then that group is going to be decided on yellow/red cards.

---

Interesting (to me) little bits of trivia I learned recently:

• There have been 20 past World Cups and only 12 8 different Champions.
• Piggybacking off of that, 3 of those 12 8 have only one WC to their name (England, France, Spain), and the remaining 9 5 have won a combined 17 Cups.
• In addition to those 12 8 champions, only 4 other countries have ever made a final.
• Brazil, Germany, Italy and Argentina have combined for 15 WC titles and 11 WC runner-ups.
• EVERY country to ever play in a WC final has been from UEFA (Europe) or CONMEBOL (South America).

Based on this info, there are only 7 teams remaining that have a chance to make the final  ... Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, France, England, Spain, and Sweden.

Guys, I totally blew this.  There have been only EIGHT different champions, not 12.  12 total countries ever in the final.  Sorry for the confusion.

National team	Wins	Runners-up	Total finals	Years won	Years runners-up
Brazil	5	2	7	1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002	1950, 1998
Germany	4	4	8	1954, 1974, 1990, 2014	1966, 1982, 1986, 2002
Italy	4	2	6	1934, 1938, 1982, 2006	1970, 1994
Argentina	2	3	5	1978, 1986	1930, 1990, 2014
Uruguay	2	0	2	1930, 1950	–
France	1	1	2	1998	2006
England	1	0	1	1966	–
Spain	1	0	1	2010	–
Netherlands	0	3	3	–	1974, 1978, 2010
Czechoslovakia	0	2	2	–	1934, 1962
Hungary	0	2	2	–	1938, 1954
Sweden	0	1	1	–	1958

[mcanadiens]

The entire complexion of international football (soccer) is changing pretty rapidly. Most of us ought to live long enough to see 12 nations with World Cups.

Who knows? Maybe North America gets one in the not-too-distant future.

[nevets88]

32 minutes ago, mcanadiens said:

The entire complexion of international football (soccer) is changing pretty rapidly. Most of us ought to live long enough to see 12 nations with World Cups.

Who knows? Maybe North America gets one in the not-too-distant future.

Only a casual fan. Rapidly changing. By this do you mean fewer countries and teams dominating? 

4 hours ago, nevets88 said:

I'm torn on rooting for Mexico as they eliminated the USMNT, I wonder how the US would have done in Mexico's group though, they would be hard pressed to do what Mexico did. I did enjoy Mexico beating the Germans though.

Oi, my mistake. Forgot how US got knocked out. 

[GolfLug]

I guess gone are the days when you could pick Brazil, Italy or Germany as your horse and you would have better than 70% odds of collecting a payout. 

I am not a die hard futbol fan and usually enjoy watching late stages regardless of who is playing but won't mind if Argentina wins cause I want Messi to win one.  

Interesting that people hate on Germany similar to how people hate on Yankees and Patriots.  

Edited June 27, 2018 by GolfLug

[mcanadiens]

Just now, nevets88 said:

Only a casual fan. Rapidly changing. By this do you mean fewer countries and teams dominating? 

Yep.

It's getting globalized just like everything else. Just look at the top-flight club level. EPL and Bundesliga are full of non-native players. Even La Liga has some 43% of its players from outside Spain and that's on the lower end of it.. 

 

 

[Golfingdad]

9 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

By this do you mean fewer countries and teams dominating? 

That's a confusing sentence, lol.  Fewer teams dominating kind of sounds like the opposite of what I believe you are trying to say.  But I think that, yes, that's what he is saying.  More and more good teams all over, not just the same few powers.  Definitely becoming more worldwide - Africa has some good teams, Asia, North America hopefully too.

[Golfingdad]

There is some potential for "tanking" shenanigans in tomorrow's England-Belgium match, I believe.  It's already known that the winner of that group are faced with Brazil (or Mexico) in the quarters, and second gets Sweden or Switzerland.  Factor in that they'll also know their first round opponent by the start of the match as well.

So if you're either of those teams and you know going in a win gets you Colombia then Brazil, whereas a loss gets you Japan and then SWE/SUI winner, how badly do you really want to win that game?  Top it off with this consideration as well; a draw leaves them tied in every tiebreaker category except the last, which is fair play points.  Currently England leads in that one with one fewer yellow card.

(Mainly, this is just me trying to manufacture some drama for that last round of games, since otherwise there is none. :))

 

[nevets88]

1 hour ago, Golfingdad said:

That's a confusing sentence, lol.  Fewer teams dominating kind of sounds like the opposite of what I believe you are trying to say.  But I think that, yes, that's what he is saying.  More and more good teams all over, not just the same few powers.  Definitely becoming more worldwide - Africa has some good teams, Asia, North America hopefully too.

Sorry, I don't multitask well, yes you're right. More towards parity.

[nevets88]

Curious, anyone watching via Sling, YouTube Live, Hulu Live, Playstation, DirectTV? How is the picture quality? Anyone from UK streaming in 4K? Hulu Live, the matches can be a touch pixelly, like 720ish or below, sometimes hitting 1080.

[Moxley]

57 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

There is some potential for "tanking" shenanigans in tomorrow's England-Belgium match, I believe.  It's already known that the winner of that group are faced with Brazil (or Mexico) in the quarters, and second gets Sweden or Switzerland.  Factor in that they'll also know their first round opponent by the start of the match as well.

So if you're either of those teams and you know going in a win gets you Colombia then Brazil, whereas a loss gets you Japan and then SWE/SUI winner, how badly do you really want to win that game?  Top it off with this consideration as well; a draw leaves them tied in every tiebreaker category except the last, which is fair play points.  Currently England leads in that one with one fewer yellow card.

(Mainly, this is just me trying to manufacture some drama for that last round of games, since otherwise there is none. :))

 

Definitely a factor, I'd prefer us to be tactical and finish 2nd, because avoiding Brazil early is huge. At the least , we should treat the game like a friendly.

[dennyjones]

3 hours ago, nevets88 said:

Curious, anyone watching via Sling, YouTube Live, Hulu Live, Playstation, DirectTV? How is the picture quality? Anyone from UK streaming in 4K? Hulu Live, the matches can be a touch pixelly, like 720ish or below, sometimes hitting 1080.

I watch via Roku via the Fox Sports app.  Very good picture with multiple options for viewing.

[Golfingdad]

3 hours ago, Moxley said:

Definitely a factor, I'd prefer us to be tactical and finish 2nd, because avoiding Brazil early is huge. At the least , we should treat the game like a friendly.

Then again, is it better to play Brazil later?  Or are they only jelling and getting better as the tournament goes on.  Maybe earlier is better, lol.

Supposedly the English manager said today that they want to win the game. Good for him.