2022 FIFA World Cup - Qatar, November 21-December 18

[Santander]

Richarlison is such a don.

[Santander]

So happy to see Muslim countries achieving victories.

[Santander]

That Harry Kane failed bike reminds me of the English journalist who told Richarlison he was like the "Brazilian Harry Kane" - it's like... he wears #9 for Brazil, comparisons with Harry Kane are a bit insulting. Literally none of the England team except maybe Trippier could make the Brazil starting XI, and only a few would even make the bench.

[Santander]

That was not a good match. USA had perhaps more attacks and hit the woodwork, but it was mostly huffing and puffing without a real final product. The energy with which the American players played was impressive, though. England were pretty crap.

Southgate 🤡

England 🤡

Did you see the Iran game? The Iranians clearly weren't playing like a team and the terrible situation in Iran and the double pressure on them from the regime and the people will continue to influence their performance.

England could in principle lose to Wales or the US but that isn't particularly likely, their last match is against Wales but I don't see them sending in the reserves, too much prestige at stake (the tabloids will be merciless if they lose to Wales). The realistic US path is to beat Iran by as much as possible and only lose to England by one goal.

🤡 🤡

American commentary calls England vs. USA "the big one". 🤦‍♀️

Fox Sports 🤡

[Santander]

Belgium have some top young players like Onana and Doku, and players like De Bruyne, Lukaku and Courtois have at least another World Cup in them - they'll be just fine. Defensively, not the level they should be, but that's been a problem for a long time.

[Santander]

Portugal and Ghana were both lucky to win. But that's tournament football - sometimes it's about sh**tting your way through the tournament, which Portugal are experts at.

[Santander]

This is the population and the age piramid of Uruguay. The country has only 620K men between 15 and 40 years old. It needs to find very good 26 soccer players in this small group in order to have a good national team. Uruguay's team overperforms.

They certainly do punch above their weight, but being a small country has its advantages in that the talent pool is much easier to scout, there are fewer academies and teams so they can play high-quality matches against each other, the players in the national team get a lot of experience playing with each other, and the manager gets to know the best team and each player's strengths/weaknesses very well.

It's not like in Africa, where you have large populations, but the infrastructure (sports or otherwise) is nonexistent, and you basically have to hope great players come out of the woodwork, minus the few elite academies on the continent.

[Santander]

I wonder who deserves more blame in this situation. The manager, who failed to impose control on the dressing room? Or the players, who let their egos destroy the team?

The manager is a bit of a clown (he got the Belgium job based on a lucky FA Cup win with a team that he got relegated and one good season at Everton immediately following David Moyes) but senior players need to take responsibility for their beefs.

[Santander]

Infidels played like crap and will be torn apart by the first real team they meet.

[Santander]

Literally none of the England team except maybe Trippier could make the Brazil starting XI, and only a few would even make the bench.

This isn't how you spell Bellingham.

Otherwise fully agreed. England are always among the most overrated squads.

Oh absolutely

England aren't going past the quarter finals, and I just laughed when I was watching on Sky Sports all these Premier League Managers talking about England winning the World Cup.

Like this team is worse than the one 4 years ago, if they couldn't get past the semifinals in 2018 there was no reason for them to do so this year.

Really I can only see Brazil or France winning this World Cup (still thinking Brazil will win).

Spain is up there, too. They were the only team to outplay Italy at the Euros and are still mostly playing well. The problem with France is the tactics are rather negative and they can be rather mercurial (sh**t in the Nations League, for example). You always get the sense France has a loss in them, which you don't get at all from Brazil.

[Santander]

Oz  

Seriously, this Australia team is so bad but they are getting results in a good group. Almost the entire team plays at a very poor level.

[Santander]

Serbia have a very good chance of making it out of the group against Switzerland - they have some elite players and actually played fine against Brazil, but Brazil was just that good. They really did bottle it against Cameroon, but they are capable of beating anyone at the tournament except Brazil.

[Santander]

Lukaku 🤡

[Santander]

Also, American 🤡 commentary - "only one team left from CONCACAF" - while Costa Rica can still qualify with as little as a point.

[Santander]

Lukaku 🤡

he was injured. he has no rhythm

Yeah, he was not supposed to play, so I do cut him some slack, and the opportunities he got were mostly not as easy as they looked. Doku was extremely entertaining to watch at times, though.

[Santander]

Yeah, Germany is out despite winning 4:2 in the end because Spain lost against Japan. However, advancing to the next round was not earned, even the commentators here agree.

I'm rooting for the US now, though I'm not that optimistic about the next round here. Let's see.

Spain running up the score against Costa Rica broke the tie for them.

Credit to Spain for not allowing Japan to use the same tactics they used in 2018 against Poland, too. They had a 5 goal cushion but pushed until the end, even if winning would result in them playing Croatia, arguably a tougher opponent than Morocco.

[Santander]

Germany has solidarity to Italy.

When Italy fails to qualify for the World Cup, Germany fails to qualify for the 2nd round.

And they were kind enough to give 3 points to their Axis brethren Japan.

[Santander]

That hold up and timing of the pass from Son was ridiculous.

[Santander]

It took multiple miracles for Cameroon to qualify for the World Cup and lightning strikes again...

[Santander]

Klopp would not manage Belgium, lol. If Juve weren't such a basketcase, I'd say he might end up there, but his next job might be something more like PSG, Chelsea or maybe even one of the Spanish giants, not a national team.

[Santander]

Netherlands 0-1 USA
Argentina 3-0 Australia
Croatia 2-0 Japan
Brazil 4-1 South Korea
England 2-0 Senegal
France 2-0 Poland
Spain 2-1 Morocco
Portugal 0-1 Switzerland

[Santander]

I'd suggest bringing in a Jesse Marsch or possibly a Steve Cherundulo (Head Coach at LAFC) ahead of the 2026 World Cup.

Jesse Marsch is well-spoken and intelligent, but his biggest achievement has been getting jobs. If the US wants to achieve things, they need to hire managers who have achieved things beyond just getting the job. And plus, the sport in the US needs Jesse Marsch to keep getting good clubs jobs in Europe to pave the way for others.

Trapattoni in his later years was willing to work for Salzburg and Ireland despite having a 24 karat resume - that is the caliber the USSF needs to aim for, and maybe an Italian is the way to go.

[Santander]

That was one of the most dreadful set of penalties I've ever seen.

Up there with England at the Euros. 🤣 (minus Maguire, who took a great penalty, tbf)

[Santander]

Would love to see England win it but like the 21 Euros they usually find a way to let it slip through their fingers. Plus the small matter of other teams being more talented.

This World Cup has been typical England so far - smashing vastly outclassed teams, misleading scorelines that paper over major weaknesses - and now it's time to play a real team.

[Santander]

Morocco team prayer after match. 😍