Soccer 2017-2018
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Quineloe
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Jozu
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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Not to get into a philosophical discussion about inventor IQ or anything, but I've always wondered why the African nations struggle against European and South American sides. When it comes to American football, its dominated by black players when it comes to skill positions (besides QB), black athletes are almost ALWAYS the best track and field participants, the best basketball players with explosiveness are usually black, so Im not sure why that doesnt translate to a dominant African national team every now and then.
Maybe its money, as CAF is one of the poorer regions, so they don't have access to the world class facilities and capital that the teams like Germany and Spain receive etc. I guess that reason makes the most sense, as there are usually problems with CAF teams when it comes to pay, and finding a proper manager etc. Ghana has come close before, losing to Uruguay to a Suarez handball, which was fucked up as they should have won that game in 2010. And there was the 1990 Cameroon team that lost to England and I think Senegal got to the semi finals once.
But usually they are a mess and dont have much success at all, and it isnt due to a lack of effective players or talent. Look at guys like Kante, world class, there are so many quality African players yet they never even came CLOSE to winning a world cup.
Maybe its money, as CAF is one of the poorer regions, so they don't have access to the world class facilities and capital that the teams like Germany and Spain receive etc. I guess that reason makes the most sense, as there are usually problems with CAF teams when it comes to pay, and finding a proper manager etc. Ghana has come close before, losing to Uruguay to a Suarez handball, which was fucked up as they should have won that game in 2010. And there was the 1990 Cameroon team that lost to England and I think Senegal got to the semi finals once.
But usually they are a mess and dont have much success at all, and it isnt due to a lack of effective players or talent. Look at guys like Kante, world class, there are so many quality African players yet they never even came CLOSE to winning a world cup.
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faille
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I think we have the best offensive team, even after replacements.
Lukaku is a monster. He's bigger, taller, and faster then pretty much everyone, and has good insight.
Both Debruyne and Lukaku are known to have grown up in extremely poor families. In fact Lukaku stated in a recent interview that he had to eat his cornflakes with water, because they couldn't afford milk.
I guess he can these days.
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You might have missed the fact that Lukaku can be spoken to in at least 5 languages and can speak 4 himself.
His interactions on the field with those outside his team are generally very positive.
MrHolland420
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Belgium looked really good offensively, that was a nice showing from them. Get to see what Mexico can do against second best Korea,
geonbae!
geonbae!
Szlia
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To paraphrase an analyst that talked about that recently, there are three eras in african football.
There is an era when the players played in their national championship with some great players going to european clubs after being noticed in international competitions. This gave us teams that were extremely spectacular in their athletic engagement, but suffered from dubious defensive organisation and a bit of... let's say naivety. By that I mean that their physical play ended with a lot of fouls against players clever enough to fish for these fouls and 'sell' them to the ref' and a lot less fouls for them because they just refused to fall or, if they fell, to stay on the pitch (admirable, but, sadly, often counter-productive). Also, they typically got surprised by cunning plays like fast free kicks. Prototypical teams for this era where Cameroon in 90 or Nigeria in 94.
Then there is an era where european scouts just went to africa to spot great players at an earlier and earlier age, european clubs even opening formation centers in africa to find (at a cheaper price) the next great african players. Obviously, this lead both to a talent sink, making the african national championships weaker, and a standardization of play, as european clubs would get their hands on the players at a younger age and mold them to the norms of european football. This system though had a tendency to generate some serious lose-lose situations as more often than not great youngsters don't end up being great adult players (for a number of reasons), so the club invested a lot of money and effort for nothing, and a guy who left his family and culture as a teen ends up a young adult with very limited professional possibilities. Also, this did not help the national teams much, as it's very difficult to field every position with players who are in big european clubs and you can't rely on your national championship for the bulk of your team. See, Adebayor's Togo as an example. (Note that, in a way, it was a situation that was not very dissimilar to England's conundrum with its championship and formation centers packed full of foreign players)
Currently, we are in an even stranger era. The bulk of the african teams is made of players who are born and raised in Europe and often are bi-national. So, basically, if Lukaku (born and raised in Belgium) were not good enough to play for the belgian national team, he would probably play for the congolese national team. As a result, african teams end up being european teams made of second rate players. An example of that would be Senegal (in 2002 it was called the 2nd french team) or Tunisia.
Another factor, obviously, is that the management of national teams is made by the national federations...
There is an era when the players played in their national championship with some great players going to european clubs after being noticed in international competitions. This gave us teams that were extremely spectacular in their athletic engagement, but suffered from dubious defensive organisation and a bit of... let's say naivety. By that I mean that their physical play ended with a lot of fouls against players clever enough to fish for these fouls and 'sell' them to the ref' and a lot less fouls for them because they just refused to fall or, if they fell, to stay on the pitch (admirable, but, sadly, often counter-productive). Also, they typically got surprised by cunning plays like fast free kicks. Prototypical teams for this era where Cameroon in 90 or Nigeria in 94.
Then there is an era where european scouts just went to africa to spot great players at an earlier and earlier age, european clubs even opening formation centers in africa to find (at a cheaper price) the next great african players. Obviously, this lead both to a talent sink, making the african national championships weaker, and a standardization of play, as european clubs would get their hands on the players at a younger age and mold them to the norms of european football. This system though had a tendency to generate some serious lose-lose situations as more often than not great youngsters don't end up being great adult players (for a number of reasons), so the club invested a lot of money and effort for nothing, and a guy who left his family and culture as a teen ends up a young adult with very limited professional possibilities. Also, this did not help the national teams much, as it's very difficult to field every position with players who are in big european clubs and you can't rely on your national championship for the bulk of your team. See, Adebayor's Togo as an example. (Note that, in a way, it was a situation that was not very dissimilar to England's conundrum with its championship and formation centers packed full of foreign players)
Currently, we are in an even stranger era. The bulk of the african teams is made of players who are born and raised in Europe and often are bi-national. So, basically, if Lukaku (born and raised in Belgium) were not good enough to play for the belgian national team, he would probably play for the congolese national team. As a result, african teams end up being european teams made of second rate players. An example of that would be Senegal (in 2002 it was called the 2nd french team) or Tunisia.
Another factor, obviously, is that the management of national teams is made by the national federations...
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Quineloe
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Quineloe
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But Brasil looks pretty much just like that. They have only three players who play in Brazil (2 Corinthians, 1 Porto Alegre), and those three players are unlikely to see a match this world cup, having only 8 appearances between the three of them (one being the backup keeper) despite being rather old players (32 and 29)