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

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Like we even lost to Armenia, couldn't win from Luxembourg, were destroyed by Japan, lost twice to Bosnia. It was so embarrassing.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

I've said earlier this thread that our golden generation is over, but there is actually happening more in young & new players making a breaktrough, the problem is that a lot of them have little experience, but i'm more optimistic again about future generations. Although we will never "dominate" the world rankings anymore.

This summer window was quite good.



And on the field some young players did quite well.

[buritobr]

When the World Cup had 16 national teams, there were between 10 and 12 European national teams. When the World Cup had 16 national teams, there were 13 European national teams. Now, the World Cup has 32 national teams, and 13 are European. The World Cup was expanded through the increase of number of North American, African and Asian national teams. Fair. It's the World Cup and not the European Cup.
But the qualifier became harder for European, as you mentioned, due to the split of the USSR, Yugoslavia and Checzlovachia.

[buritobr]

Austria had already qualified to quarter finals and even to semifinals in the past. The Austrians played many World Cups in the 20th century, but none in the 21st century.
Portugal played only 2 World Cups in the 20th century, and all of them of the 21st century.

Portugal and Austria have similar potential for soccer, since both are European, both have similar population. But it depends on generations. Portugal has a very good generation now: generation of players and coaches.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Eusebio, one of the all-time best football players was Portuguese, yet, they only qualified once and became third in '66 which was the year of England.

[Santander]

Eusebio, one of the all-time best football players was Portuguese, yet, they only qualified once and became third in '66 which was the year of England.

England stole the World Cup from Portugal. Eusebio was the greatest footballer of all-time.

Portugal and Austria have similar potential for soccer, since both are European, both have similar population. But it depends on generations. Portugal has a very good generation now: generation of players and coaches.

Portugal has the advantage of being better positioned to "import" national team players. Perhaps not quite as lucky as England, France or Spain, but still pretty good. Being a "working-class" country helps the talent pool in a working-class sport, too.

[buritobr]

There is a shortage of stickers in Argentina https://apnews.com/article/soccer-sports-south-america-world-cup-argentina-ddd61243d9b234257240737a162da6a3

[LAKISYLVANIA]

https://twitter.com/We_Global/status/1572980240997023751



Lol, russia.





And lol england and france. How is Hungary even winning a group with Italy, Germany & England?

[Santander]

Because England is bad - the tactics are bad and the players are bad. How is Harry Maguire still in the squad?

[Alcibiades]

Because England is bad - the tactics are bad and the players are bad. How is Harry Maguire still in the squad?

Southgate increasingly reminds me of late-stage Jogi Löw (though really this is grossly unfair to Löw, who was a far better manager, and managed Germany for much longer than Southgate has England), in that he is basing his squad selection on old favourites rather than form. The most laughable example of this in the squad that has just been picked for the upcoming Nations League fixtures is picking Harry Maguire and Conor Coady over Ben White.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

In his penultimate game for his country, Ádám Szalai ended an eight-game international scoring drought to help Hungary earn just a second win over Germany since 1985. Marco Rossi’s men lead UEFA Nations League (UNL) Group A3 by two points ahead of a winner-take-all clash with Italy in their next outing.

A top of the table clash in Leipzig would prove decisive, with Hungary sensing the importance of the occasion. Germany’s threat was minimal from the outset, with Antonio Rüdiger’s long passing into the forwards their only attacking avenue, and that was proving ineffective. The Magyars took full advantage and took a deserved lead through a piece of brilliance from their captain. Dominik Szoboszlai’s corner to the near post was delightfully flicked on by Szalai, nestling inside the far post.

Die Mannschaft were made to wait until the 39th minute for their maiden shot on target, as Thomas Müller’s header was comfortably denied by Péter Gulácsi. A desperately needed HT tactical tweak from Hansi Flick brought the hosts back into the contest, with Leroy Sané finding space on the inside left, forcing the Hungary shot-stopper into his most strenuous piece of work of the night to deny him.

Joshua Kimmich, who has directly contributed to a goal in three of his previous four internationals, was proving threatening, firing into the side-netting from range before a well-struck volley was crucially blocked. Hungary have the best defence in the group, conceding just three from their opening four games, and that stubborn rearguard was displaying why as they held the Germans at bay in the closing stages.

The Magyars are just 90 minutes away from potential history, with a draw against Italy securing their place in the UNL semi-finals, which would be the first time they’ve reached the last four of an international competition in 50 years. Meanwhile, Germany are now out of contention, as they lost for the first time in 14 matches.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

https://twitter.com/We_Global/status/1573414974869086213

All group B teams lost except for Iran in this window.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Draw for euro qualifiers

Have to play against tender branson lol.

[NewYorkExpress]

Draw for euro qualifiers

Have to play against tender branson lol.

Group F looks brutal.

Group C could be ugly too if Ukraine is able to compete.

[parochial boy]

Wow, Switzerland A and Switzerland B in the same group. Going to be a party!

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Draw for euro qualifiers

Have to play against tender branson lol.

Group F looks brutal.

Group C could be ugly too if Ukraine is able to compete.

Our group???

Our media has headed the article with "easy group for Belgians", and while we should never underestimate our opponents, this is indeed a group we normally should easily qualify in.

Ukraine is able to compete and group C is indeed a difficult one. Even North Macedonia, one should not underestimate. They were the reason why Italy isn't on the world cup in the first place.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Wow, Switzerland A and Switzerland B in the same group. Going to be a party!

Because of Kosovo? I know Switzerland has a lot of Kosovarian players, like Shaqiri. Kosovo had a good draw, they might actually be able to qualify (since 2 teams directly qualify), and Israël and Romania are doable to defeat. Even ending third still gives you a shot to qualify (but there are also Nation League qualifying spots).

[NewYorkExpress]

Draw for euro qualifiers

Have to play against tender branson lol.

Group F looks brutal.

Group C could be ugly too if Ukraine is able to compete.

Our group???

Our media has headed the article with "easy group for Belgians", and while we should never underestimate our opponents, this is indeed a group we normally should easily qualify in.

Ukraine is able to compete and group C is indeed a difficult one. Even North Macedonia, one should not underestimate. They were the reason why Italy isn't on the world cup in the first place.

I don't know. I must have a higher opinion of Austria and Sweden than you do.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Draw for euro qualifiers

Have to play against tender branson lol.

Group F looks brutal.

Group C could be ugly too if Ukraine is able to compete.

Our group???

Our media has headed the article with "easy group for Belgians", and while we should never underestimate our opponents, this is indeed a group we normally should easily qualify in.

Ukraine is able to compete and group C is indeed a difficult one. Even North Macedonia, one should not underestimate. They were the reason why Italy isn't on the world cup in the first place.

I don't know. I must have a higher opinion of Austria and Sweden than you do.

I don't have a bad opinion on them, i love these teams and i liked the draw but a Belgium on a decent, good level, should be able to defeat them. But yes, we can still lose, it can happen. But that applies for every group basically.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Draw for euro qualifiers

Have to play against tender branson lol.

Group F looks brutal.

Group C could be ugly too if Ukraine is able to compete.

Our group???

Our media has headed the article with "easy group for Belgians", and while we should never underestimate our opponents, this is indeed a group we normally should easily qualify in.

Ukraine is able to compete and group C is indeed a difficult one. Even North Macedonia, one should not underestimate. They were the reason why Italy isn't on the world cup in the first place.

I don't know. I must have a higher opinion of Austria and Sweden than you do.

Chances for qualifying according to mathematical models.

Luxembourg having a better chance to qualify than Ireland or Bulgaria is also LOL. Although i wouldn't underestimate Luxembourg. Ireland should be higher. Greece is overrated in the model. Greece has no 40% chance to qualify if Ireland only has 2.5% chance.

Also surprising that neither Italy, England, France, Netherlands and Spain are among top 8 likeliest teams to qualify.

[buritobr]

Doesn't look like, but... only 1 week to start.

Almost forgotten in Brazil in the last months, due to this election

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Doesn't look like, but... only 1 week to start.

Almost forgotten in Brazil in the last months, due to this election

There isn't much hype here, because of the controversy associated with Qatar and likely also the fact that it happens in november. A lot of events outside were cancelled because there is way less enthusiasm before, like events that anticipated 5000 people to watch a football match live outside, and only 100 to 200 already like going, which is why these events had to be cancelled i saw in the newspaper and it's all over the country.

That also has something to do with it being cold already outside, while in june this isn't the case. I've never seen so little enthusiasm for a football tournament. Doesn't help that Belgium probably also is entering some "success fatigue" when it comes to the national football team, and that expectations are already a bit lower. The national football team isn't playing well, some top players are out of form or are unsure because of injuries, and we have a relatively hard draw esp. getting into knock out phase since that likely will be Germany and Spain (if we even get there). Canada and Morocco should not be underestimated.

Some people have been treating our n°1 (now n°2) position on world ranking as very normal, and after a while even winning a match is tiring because than you got the criticism how we won with luck or on "safe mode" by people or journalists. Some even would argue for the manager to be fired after we won a match, since it was expected we would win the match but the way we won it wasn't great. There has been a kind of campaign to lower expectations, even by our star players like Kevin De Bruyne (the famous: "we're only Belgium") and the results of the last 2 years esp. our disappointing performances in Nations League seemed to have lower expectations as well. The manager has been criticized for not giving new or other younger players enough chances, which is why we will have one of the oldest national teams on the world cup on average.

And there has been a lot of talk about controversies about Qatar when it comes to human rights, corruption, labour rights of guest labor workers with documentaires and articles about that, but I personally have something like: "it's 2022, the world cup was given to Qatar in 2010". Maybe it would have been more appropriate if we started criticize FIFA and this corrupt allocation in 2010 and should have boycotted FIFA.

Now it's empty talk and simply too late. Where was everyone 12 yrs ago?

[LAKISYLVANIA]

I expect Canada to win against us. Our top striker will not be ready for the first match against Canada. And our other strikers are not as great as Lukaku.

Canada was lucky to draw us. We were one of the weakest pot A teams. We're overestimated a lot. Qatar was obviously a better pick than us. But we were one of the weakest 2-3 teams you could've drawn, however Croatia and Morocco aren't easy too, but are both teams have with lots of "question marks". Croatia has similar problems to us, it being a very old (veteran) team that is on the decline. And Morocco has a lot of individual talent, but hasn't always been able to forge a team between those players, often having a team of players that grew up in highly different environments, some even grown up in Europe and not being able to speak Arabian or Berber.

I expect Canada to be highly enthusiastic in their first world cup tournament in 30 years. Also they have fast wingers, and we have trouble with fast wingers and teams that are offensive on the wings. Also since we have only 1 player on each wing instead of 2 usually (due to having 3 central backs). The wingplayer has to do both the defensive and offensive work.

And what does Canada have.

YES.

we're doomed.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2022/11/16/wk-dorp-annulatie/

News of the day: "the world cup town - a themed event where a location would be thematically temporarily changed in a hub where you can follow the "belgian red devils", our national football team, also got cancelled today.

They announced that they sold way less tickets than they anticipated to, and decided to cancel the event to prevent losses from being made. A lot of similar places where you could follow the events of the red devils in a big screen were already massively being cancelled all over the country, due to lack of interest.

3 explanations are given:

1. It being during winter time (end november / early december) meaning it is cold outside
2. reduced expectations of the ability for belgians to shine on the tournament
3. increased dissatisfaction that the tournament is held by Qatar who violates basic human rights.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Also, a poll was being held based on expectations of Belgians



47% believes our end stage will be the second round where we will likely encounter Germany or Spain. 21% believes our adventure end in the quarter finals. 20% believes we will be eliminated in the group stage. Only 11% believes we will end among the last four.



80% believes the defence is our weakest point. Over 50% believes our goalkeepers are the best players.



KDB and Courtois (our goalkeeper) are tied to be expected to be the best players of the tournament. Leandro Trossard (Brighton), Amadou Onana (Everton), Youri Tielemans (Leicester), Goalkeeper sub Simon Mignolet (Bruges) and defender Wout Faes (Leicester) are named in the top 7.





Who will be world champion according to Belgians

34% believes it's going to be Argentina. 21% believes in Brazil. Defenders of the title France and Germany (2014 champion) are considered shadow favorites. After that Spain (6%), the Netherlands (6%), Belgium (4%) and England (4%) are named. With less votes but also over zero procent are Portugal, Denmark, Qatar and Japan, all given 1% to win the world cup.