Sports FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

Korea toothless in attack, as usual. Zero ideas in the final third, Son looks rusty as hell. Cho Gyu Seong and Lee Kang In when he came on were the only bright spots on this team today. Why Kang In isn’t in the starting lineup is beyond me.
 

awyp

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I will talk about Argentina's game and a bit about its situation after beating Mexico.

Argentina: after the game I was scrolling in twitter then I saw that a spanish commentarist said 'It wasn't a win for Argentina, it was an exorcism' and I think it's accurate. Argentina was playing against ghosts of the past, against the fear of being out of the World Cup so soon, and that clearly affected the game as we played poorly the first half. In the second half the coachs decided the game, Martino by retreating his team (mistake) and Scaloni by making some substitutions, all of which had a positive impact. Argentina still needed one more change: the mentality; then Messi appeared. The team needed the impact of a goal, and specifically a Messi goal, to start to believe again. After that Argentina improved a lot, and for that a player was key: Enzo Fernández. Enzo's level is ridiculous, his goal shows all his talent, he played like he's one of the best players of the world and maybe he is going to be up there. He should be starting the game against Poland.

As Scaloni always said, nothing has been won, the team still needs improvement and the game against Poland is still to be played, but like in the last Copa América, Argentina found answers in the crisis. Scaloni and Aimar almost crying after Messi's goal is enough to see how important, and needed, was this exorcism.
This is very true, as a fan who of course wants to see Messi and Ronaldo do well in their last world cup the last thing I wanted to see was Argentina get kicked in the group stages. Thankfully Messi did legendary things, that strike was world class and as you said gave Argentina the momentum to win the game.

Korea is the 4th representative of Asia to lose in the 2nd round of the World Cup group stage
After round 1, I thought there was a lot of chance for Asian countries to make it through the group stage, but not anymore
I think Iran might make it out to be quite honest, I still see a lot of opportunity for an Asian country to make it out.

Edit: Now this is the Portuguese team I'm talking about. Aside from a 30 min bad spell for Portugal where Uruguay's offense just kept going. Portugal played a great defensive game and I loved how their GK today did not lose his cool and was one of the better plays. My man Bruno Fernandes! had a fantastic game. He's a world class player and he showed it all today.
 
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awyp

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France are just on auto-pilot against Tunisia. USA deserved to win yesterday, Iran was folding their chances.

I'm really excited for the game later today, Poland vs Argentina is a game I was eyeing before the start of the World Cup. I didn't think Argentina would be down still looking up (Thought they would have 6 points) so it's making it an even better game to watch since both teams are fighting for something.
 

SpaceSpeakers

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oh lmao
France is losing against Tunisia and Australia has a chance to make it through group stage?
France did not want to use Mbappe, Giroud, Griezman,... in the match against Tunisia for fear of injury and could not play in the play-off round?
Similar scenario is about to happen with Korea
 
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Adeleine

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heartbreaker for tunisia. after a solid performance this cup, doing their part and knocking off the (admittedly not full capacity) french, they're blocked out because the vaunted danes couldnt slip one goal against the ozzies when their lives depended on it.

oh yeah, the sexy finals pick danes flat out lost the group. that happened

props to australia though!
 

awyp

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heartbreaker for tunisia. after a solid performance this cup, doing their part and knocking off the (admittedly not full capacity) french, they're blocked out because the vaunted danes couldnt slip one goal against the ozzies when their lives depended on it.

oh yeah, the sexy finals pick danes flat out lost the group. that happened

props to australia though!
Shoutout to Tunisia they played fantastic, sucks that they're going out but that's football.

I'm shocked about Denmark, they were my predicts to go through to the Ro16.

Shoutout to:
#AustraliaSweep
I didn't forget about you Drifting you might be onto something!
 
Not going to say he singlehandedly lost the game for Mexico, but watching Lozano play was the most annoying thing ever. He absolutely refuses to pass the ball to his teammates unless he thinks he can get it back. 90% of the time though he is only looking to take on the entire defense. He has multiple teammates open but is the only one who wants the glory and takes 20 shots. He had about 5 cross attempts today, none of which were within 20 yards of his teammate (not even an exaggeration). Of course he's incredibly talented but he refuses to actually facilitate his teammates with the ball and tries to do everything himself. His workrate was great in the first half and obviously he can create chances but then spends the entire last 30 minutes walking off ball, dunno how he wasn't subbed.
 

Bughouse

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omggg congratulations Tunisia and Australia
Sorry for my stupidity: is Australia considered as the first Asian country that make it out of the group stage?
if you mean this world cup, yes. Australia plays in AFC which stands for Asian Football Confederation... so yeah they're "asian" as far as the world cup is concerned, I guess.
if you mean ever, though, no definitely not. Japan made it to knock outs last time and both Japan and South Korea have made it at least twice in general. In 2002 when they co-hosted, they actually both won their groups. Saudi Arabia made the knockouts in 1994 and North Korea in 1966 too.

Also... first time Mexico doesn't make it to knockouts in my lifetime :o
Poor Memo Ochoa :(
 

Grillo

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ENZO IS WORLD CLASS. Poland were absolute trash, didn't deserve to go through, sad for Mexico that tried it so hard and scored two incredible goals (and they had one disallowed goal that should have been given)

Really solid performance from Argentina, proving the team isn't Messi-dependant, showing confidence again and dominating the 100% of the game. Argentina even tested some players and they did well. Julián was excellent, Alexis was excellent, Messi was great despite his finishing, Otamendi is being one of the best CBs in the tournament, Molina had a great performance too, etc.. Argentina was almost perfect. The only thing to consider is that it was against a really, really bad team, that proves (with Wales) that 13 teams from Europe is excessive. France will be happy ig.

Really sad for Tunisia :(
 

awyp

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ENZO IS WORLD CLASS. Poland were absolute trash, didn't deserve to go through, sad for Mexico that tried it so hard and scored two incredible goals (and they had one disallowed goal that should have been given)

Really solid performance from Argentina, proving the team isn't Messi-dependant, showing confidence again and dominating the 100% of the game. Argentina even tested some players and they did well. Julián was excellent, Alexis was excellent, Messi was great despite his finishing, Otamendi is being one of the best CBs in the tournament, Molina had a great performance too, etc.. Argentina was almost perfect. The only thing to consider is that it was against a really, really bad team, that proves (with Wales) that 13 teams from Europe is excessive. France will be happy ig.

Really sad for Tunisia :(
I agree, I think Álvarez as well was just getting cleared and had a lot of opportunities in front of goal, shockingly the better choice over Martinez. Definitely sad for Mexico, but they knew what the stakes were before the match today so they knew it might come down to this situation. I don't think this team has been Messi dependent maybe since 2014 but even then they relied on Di Maria A LOT. I do think the matchup is in their favor against Australia, France definitely wanted Argentina to win vs Poland lol, no one wants to play Argentina right now (too much firepower).
 
The powerful Belgium, the second-best national team by the FIFA ranking, was eliminated. Who could have anticipated that? Congratulations to Morroco for being the first in their group! Maybe this is the biggest surprise in this world cup, more than the victory of Saudi Arabia against Argentina or Japan against Germany.
 

awyp

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I think Morocco are probably the dark horses of the competition
Well damn, I've been saying keep an eye on Morocco they are nothing to joke about. I knew they were going to get out of the group stages, I'm hoping they don't end up facing Germany but will see.

Sad game for Belgium, I can't believe it ended in a tie with all the opportunities that Lukaku had, seriously I still can't believe it.
 

Adeleine

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As a primary croatia fan, much congratulations to morocco! They’ve been excellent and they’re definitely a team I want to do well too. Agonizing end to hrv-bel, I’m shook even though my team went on, so my sympathies to the belgians for sure.
 

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