Soccer 2017-2018

Good luck trying to predict what will happen in this group!

As for Columbia being as good as Japan while one man down, let's not be silly, it's just that all plans made by both teams got out the window 3 minutes in. Japan suddenly was unsure if it needed to play or preserve the win, chose to not play and of course got punished for it. In the 2nd half, Japan played and dominated outrageously a Columbian team that paid the real price for being one man down: you have to work harder and working harder for basically a full match is exhausting. This domination ended in a goal, but with the lead Japan got a little nervous again (though they had some good phases of ball movement to keep possession) and obviously Columbia threw all its remaining energy in the last few minutes so it got a bit hairy.

I wonder if Lewandowski still considers himself equal to Ronaldo.

The 0:2 was hilarious. instead of defending, the Polish player instead pulls a what we call here "protest arm Müller", after Thomas Müller who during his weaker two years was mostly recognized on the pitch by raising his arm to protest ref decisions. Opposing player going for the ball who might not be here? I'll rather turn around and ask the referee instead of clearing the ball out.

Lewandowski proves once again all he can do is wait in the opponents penalty box for the ball to fall on his foot to score, which is exactly why he keeps winning the top scorer trophy in the Bundesliga year after year, but every game of importance he might as well stay on the bench.

Bayern better slap a price tag on him and send him to China.

Lewandowski is an enigma. He scored like 5 goals in less than 15 minutes or some shit in a game, which is a record, and can look sublime at times.

Others he looks like a replacement level player.

I don't know if it exactly applies to Lewandowski, but there is a type of player that are called in french "renards des surfaces" so roughly... boxes foxes? Basically they are players that are good at exactly one thing: through a mix of eagle eye, insight, ruse and explosive first steps, they are the first guy on any ball in the box that is not properly dealt with by the defense and score. This is often not pretty and most of the match these guy look useless, because they don't handle the ball well enough to eliminate defenders, they don't control the ball well enough to score off clean crosses, they don't run fast enough to be useful on fast breaks, they don't have the power to score from outside the box... but as soon as there is some confusion in the box, it's them who end up pushing the ball in the net while 20 other players are still wondering where the ball is.

Maybe in the modern game this type of players tend to disappear, because we now ask forwards to be able to do that AND a bunch of other things and because defenses are now extremely well organised, making the phases of confusion few and far between, but a great box fox used to yield a lot of goals.

Supplies of beer running low in Moscow

Just a week in and already Russians are complete fail.

Szlia said:

I don't know if it exactly applies to Lewandowski, but there is a type of player that are called in french "renards des surfaces" so roughly... boxes foxes? Basically they are players that are good at exactly one thing: through a mix of eagle eye, insight, ruse and explosive first steps, they are the first guy on any ball in the box that is not properly dealt with by the defense and score. This is often not pretty and most of the match these guy look useless, because they don't handle the ball well enough to eliminate defenders, they don't control the ball well enough to score off clean crosses, they don't run fast enough to be useful on fast breaks, they don't have the power to score from outside the box... but as soon as there is some confusion in the box, it's them who end up pushing the ball in the net while 20 other players are still wondering where the ball is.

Maybe in the modern game this type of players tend to disappear, because we now ask forwards to be able to do that AND a bunch of other things and because defenses are now extremely well organised, making the phases of confusion few and far between, but a great box fox used to yield a lot of goals.

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The famous Wenger quote when he signed Francis Jeffers was that he was a "fox in the box".

I was out in Liverpool after the fa cup game vs non league Havant & Waterlooville, bumped into Jeffers who told me he was gay and that i was going home with him :s

Szlia said:

I don't know if it exactly applies to Lewandowski, but there is a type of player that are called in french "renards des surfaces" so roughly... boxes foxes? Basically they are players that are good at exactly one thing: through a mix of eagle eye, insight, ruse and explosive first steps, they are the first guy on any ball in the box that is not properly dealt with by the defense and score. This is often not pretty and most of the match these guy look useless, because they don't handle the ball well enough to eliminate defenders, they don't control the ball well enough to score off clean crosses, they don't run fast enough to be useful on fast breaks, they don't have the power to score from outside the box... but as soon as there is some confusion in the box, it's them who end up pushing the ball in the net while 20 other players are still wondering where the ball is.

Maybe in the modern game this type of players tend to disappear, because we now ask forwards to be able to do that AND a bunch of other things and because defenses are now extremely well organised, making the phases of confusion few and far between, but a great box fox used to yield a lot of goals.

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He scores lots and lots of goals in the Bundesliga without any confusion. Just straight up shots from anywhere. The last time he repeatedly scored in a really big match he was still playing for Dortmund. He's been a complete and total no show for Bayern in all late stage CL games, and I'm sure he'll have nothing to show in the next match.

any streams guys?

Ronaldo all time (European) international scoring leader now. Not much else for him to accomplish at this point besides lift the Jules Rimet trophy itself. I dont think he will, but even if he doesnt, he has scored over 700 goals for club and country in just over 760 total overall appearances, meaning he is good for about .8 goals per game in his career, which is fucking ridiculous.

He is also that rare player who performs for club AND country, as most superstar players either feature more prominently in one form or the other, with Ronaldo he has shined just as bright for Portugal as he has for ManU and RM. Its fucking crazy how quick the international scene can change though, 2 years ago Renato Sanchez was looking like one of the brightest young stars in the world, and Eder unleashes a wonder strike in extra time to beat Les Bleus in Paris.

Now Sanchez is missing in action, and Eder has been put out to pasture. The side is still mainly the same one from the Euro triumph, with Moutinho, and Carvalho in the middle, and that Guerriero kid and Pepe in the back with Patricio in goal, but now feature Guedes up front with Silva out wide and Cedric Soares and Joao Mario, who have been pretty good as defensive roamers/initiators.

The one constant is Cristiano of course, its crazy when you think he played in the 2002 Euro Final.

2002 was a World Cup year, not a UEFA Euro. You mean 2004?

lol google just stated for 10 minutes straight that POR MOR ended 0:0. I was like, VAR decided after the match that the 4' goal actually is invalid? Imagine how hilarious that would be.

Yea 2004 sorry.

Quineloe said:

2002 was a World Cup year, not a UEFA Euro. You mean 2004?

lol google just stated for 10 minutes straight that POR MOR ended 0:0. I was like, VAR decided after the match that the 4' goal actually is invalid? Imagine how hilarious that would be.

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I saw that and thought the same thing.

I'm getting ZA 2010 PTSD flashbacks. That fucking noise

Iran deserved a little better, despite Spain's possession numbers.