Goooooooooooooooooooooooooool

[Brad]

I thought it was an odd match. France has the ball only 36% but outshot Belgium something like 19-9. Belgium can’t be happy with themselves, obviously. Lukaku seemed out of sorts or didn’t anticipate the ball in certain situations. 

 

[erwbol]

6 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

One can only hope...

Brexit means Exit.

[brownie]

Breathtaking match from the two best teams of this World Cup! France deserved to win in the  end...

 

[erwbol]

France played awful but effective football. Ugly.  I hope Croatia wins the final.

[soulpope]

1 minute ago, erwbol said:

France played awful but effective football. Ugly.  

Spot on .... and what a waste of talent ....

[erwbol]

What good is football if it is not aesthetically pleasing?

[mjazzg]

Football's a sport not an art. We fans romantically talk about artists on the pitch and the aesthetics but we're only the fans. For the players it's a win or lose competition, not art.

I really appreciated both sides' displays tonight. France defended marvellously and also created chances. Belgium failed to take their chances but created some good ones. 

If you can't appreciate the skills on display tonight from Hazard, De Bruyne, Mbappe, Varane, Pogba, Matuidi, Lloris then you're watching the wrong sport. The fact that there are more French names, and defenders at that, in that list goes some way to explain why they won

[erwbol]

10 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

Football's a sport not an art. We fans romantically talk about artists on the pitch and the aesthetics but we're only the fans. For the players it's a win or lose competition, not art.

From the spectators' side, football is mostly a money drain for hate-filled knuckle-draggers.

Edited July 10, 2018 by erwbol

[mjazzg]

4 minutes ago, erwbol said:

hate-filled knuckle-draggers

Not too sure who you're referring to here but no-one's making you watch it

[erwbol]

The players' side:

WTF? Have cake and eat it? Who knows?

[sidewinder]

1 hour ago, erwbol said:

Brexit means Exit.

[Brad]

1 hour ago, erwbol said:

France played awful but effective football. Ugly. 

 

1 hour ago, mjazzg said:

Football's a sport not an art. We fans romantically talk about artists on the pitch and the aesthetics but we're only the fans. For the players it's a win or lose competition, not art.

I really appreciated both sides' displays tonight. France defended marvellously and also created chances. Belgium failed to take their chances but created some good ones. 

If you can't appreciate the skills on display tonight from Hazard, De Bruyne, Mbappe, Varane, Pogba, Matuidi, Lloris then you're watching the wrong sport. The fact that there are more French names, and defenders at that, in that list goes some way to explain why they won

I think there is truth to both of the above. 

The way Brasil played years ago and I mean years ago was artistic — o jogo bonito — but that’s not the way it’s played any more. 

It’s more of a European game, which is not always pretty, but effective. 

[Dmitry]

Here's why soccer isn't popular in the USA [and may never be]. What are these people doing commenting on soccer for the worldwide internet news giant YAhoo?!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ronaldo-leaving-real-madrid-join-italian-club-juventus-155916649--spt.html

Also, why stress the "Italian club Juventus". Anywhere else in the world it would be just Juventus.

Paris, France...Berlin, Germany,,,London, England. Is this a distinctly American thing to inform the other parties where a city is located? Used to annoy me when I heard it said like that, now I just don't care.

[Brad]

17 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

Here's why soccer isn't popular in the USA [and may never be]. What are these people doing commenting on soccer for the worldwide internet news giant YAhoo?!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ronaldo-leaving-real-madrid-join-italian-club-juventus-155916649--spt.html

Also, why stress the "Italian club Juventus". Anywhere else in the world it would be just Juventus.

Paris, France...Berlin, Germany,,,London, England. Is this a distinctly American thing to inform the other parties where a city is located? Used to annoy me when I heard it said like that, now I just don't care.

Are you talking about the comments section? I find that where comments aren’t moderated, the comments tend to be useless and not worth reading.  Certain parts of Twitter are worse.  

[mandrill]

29 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

Paris, France...Berlin, Germany,,,London, England. Is this a distinctly American thing to inform the other parties where a city is located? Used to annoy me when I heard it said like that, now I just don't care.

Perhaps just so that Americans won't mistake those for Paris, TX, Berlin, NH or London, OH, etc

Edited July 10, 2018 by mandrill

[Jim R]

7 hours ago, brownie said:

Breathtaking match from the two best teams of this World Cup! France deserved to win in the  end...

 

Congratulations, brownie!  France did indeed deserve to win, as they defended very well, and were smart and disciplined in managing the game until the final whistle.  I also agree that these were the two best teams remaining, which is why I was very excited to watch this match today.  Even though I've been watching the World Cup since 1974, I still find it difficult to remind myself that the high stakes so often cause these later matches to be disappointing (no, I'm afraid I didn't find this match to be "breathtaking"... but then I'm not French! ).  The nerves take their toll on most players, and the tactics can become so conservative as to virtually destroy the potential for appealing play with teams willing to take risks and attack and create excitement.  In this match, it wasn't surprising to see a scoreless first half.  What surprised me (and that's an understatement) was the way Belgium failed to assert themselves after they went down a goal.  These Belgian players are experienced and battle-tested, and it appeared to me that they lost their courage and confidence.

I've since watched several analysis programs on youtube with various experts commenting (Jose Mourinho did a very good interview, for example), and they all agree with what I've stated above.  The one thing that really surprises me is that even the experts seem to overlook some of the details.  The one that stands out to me is the notion that Hazard and De Bruyne (and Lukaku) were somehow all equal in their "failures".  A few analysts are recognizing that Hazard was in fact quite good today (at least he seemed to sense the urgency, created some danger, and didn't often lose the ball), but I've heard very little criticism of De Bruyne specifically, and to my eyes he was dreadful.  Gave the ball away cheaply time after time.  Anyway, even if he had been decent, I think (as many people are saying) that no matter how long that match lasted, Belgium simply weren't going to find the net today.  Credit to the French defensive mentality and team spirit.

[Dmitry]

7 hours ago, Brad said:

Are you talking about the comments section? I find that where comments aren’t moderated, the comments tend to be useless and not worth reading.  Certain parts of Twitter are worse.  

No, I was raving about the video.

[Brad]

I just watched the video.  To describe their patter as idiotic would be an insult to idiots. Now, you know why Yahoo stock cratered and the company was sold for next to nothing. 

[erwbol]

9 hours ago, Jim R said:

What surprised me (and that's an understatement) was the way Belgium failed to assert themselves after they went down a goal.  These Belgian players are experienced and battle-tested, and it appeared to me that they lost their courage and confidence.

This sadly did not surprise me at all. I think a fail of nerves and lack of believe in oneself at crucial moments is very Belgian. It's no coincidence the Flemish had two Dutch analysts on their panel, even if these former Dutch footballers, father and son Mulder, have connections to Flanders. Mulder senior always gets the first word in at half and end time.

9 hours ago, Jim R said:

I've since watched several analysis programs on youtube with various experts commenting (Jose Mourinho did a very good interview, for example), and they all agree with what I've stated above.  The one thing that really surprises me is that even the experts seem to overlook some of the details.  The one that stands out to me is the notion that Hazard and De Bruyne (and Lukaku) were somehow all equal in their "failures".  A few analysts are recognizing that Hazard was in fact quite good today (at least he seemed to sense the urgency, created some danger, and didn't often lose the ball), but I've heard very little criticism of De Bruyne specifically, and to my eyes he was dreadful.  Gave the ball away cheaply time after time.  Anyway, even if he had been decent, I think (as many people are saying) that no matter how long that match lasted, Belgium simply weren't going to find the net today.  Credit to the French defensive mentality and team spirit.

I'm sure Mourinho had a ball last night. On most English language media (e.g. Gary Lineker and his BBC team) that narcissistic asshole and his brand of repulsive football can do no wrong. Once again this is a case of the language barrier. On the VRT it was immediately and clearly acknowledged both De Bruyne and Hazard had off nights.

[brownie]

The French team did not play exciting soccer against Belgium. Blame this on coach Deschamps who never got over France's undeserved defeat against Portugal in the  2016 final of the European Cup and stuck to his principles to have a win this time and make France happy. It's Vive Deschamps now!

[Dmitry]

53 minutes ago, erwbol said:

 

I'm sure Mourinho had a ball last night. On most English language media (e.g. Gary Lineker and his BBC team) that narcissistic asshole and his brand of repulsive football can do no wrong. 

He has a lot to back his banter, don't you agree?

Debruyne laid a couple of beautiful long distance balls into France's penalty box, but the recipients didn't do them justice. 

Who wasn't 100% yesterday is Lukaku. The spear of the Belgians was not sharp, much to France's relief.

[Brad]

1 hour ago, erwbol said:

This sadly did not surprise me at all. I think a fail of nerves and lack of believe in oneself at crucial moments is very Belgian. It's no coincidence the Flemish had two Dutch analysts on their panel, even if these former Dutch footballers, father and son Mulder, have connections to Flanders. Mulder senior always gets the first word in at half and end time.

I'm sure Mourinho had a ball last night. On most English language media (e.g. Gary Lineker and his BBC team) that narcissistic asshole and his brand of repulsive football can do no wrong. Once again this is a case of the language barrier. On the VRT it was immediately and clearly acknowledged both De Bruyne and Hazard had off nights.

You couldn’t be more right about Mourinho. He has a short shelf life before people want him to leave. 

24 minutes ago, brownie said:

The French team did not play exciting soccer against Belgium. Blame this on coach Deschamps who never got over France's undeserved defeat against Portugal in the  2016 final of the European Cup and stuck to his principles to have a win this time and make France happy. It's Vive Deschamps now!

At times they did but it was not a concerted effort. Considering the talent on this team, I expect better. 

[mjazzg]

2 hours ago, Dmitry said:

He has a lot to back his banter, don't you agree?

Debruyne laid a couple of beautiful long distance balls into France's penalty box, but the recipients didn't do them justice. 

Who wasn't 100% yesterday is Lukaku. The spear of the Belgians was not sharp, much to France's relief.

But also Martinez changed formation to make Lukaku the spearhead and therefore became overly reliant on him performing. Against Brazil it was three up front, with Lukaku out wide and they were unstoppable at times going forward

18 hours ago, Brad said:

The way Brasil played years ago and I mean years ago was artistic — o jogo bonito — but that’s not the way it’s played any more. 

It’s more of a European game, which is not always pretty, but effective. 

Football was always played better in our memories 

[Brad]

Apparently, Modric is not universally loved in Croatia. 

Croatia and Modric

[soulpope]

What a bullet !!!