Match Thread (for non Canada games)

[Cicero]

15 minutes ago, football_world said:

Now that is the textbook definition of bunkering.  Very nice bunkering by Morocco, coaches in the future will be studying how Morocco bunkered against Spain.

The interesting part of Morocco's bunker is, it was a very compact bunker.  Morocco was voluntarily letting Spain walk up to about 65% up the field without challenging Spain.  The striker for Morocco was positioned around the 35% part of Morocco's side.  But once Spain tried to pass into the remaining 35% of Morocco's side, that's where the turnovers happened for Spain.

Also, Morocco's defense was very organized.  Heck, the entire team was very organized on defense. Very impressive bunkering defense.

In hindsight, I think Canada should have bunkered against Croatia. Did anybody watch the Morocco vs Croatia game, did Morocco bunker against Croatia?

I really doubt our D could hold up playing so deep for a whole game, plus extra time. I think we needed to play conservatively and always have three or four back, with the mid line not pushing too high either, but I don't think we would have kept the ball out of the net if we played as deep as Morocco. They had 8 or 9 guys in the box for a good chunk of the game. 

Edited December 6, 2022 by Cicero

[Unnamed Trialist]

8 minutes ago, Trois Reds said:

Unless Switzerland beats Portugal, Canada's group is the only one to have two quarterfinalists.  So I'd say our group was the real Group of Death, and we did okay.

Edit: I was beaten to this conclusion by @ob1.

The dead making observations about the living. Ours was the Group of Life because it has the highest survival rate.

[InglewoodJack]

Sam Adekugbe still the only one able to get a shot behind Bounou.

[ob1]

5 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Moral victories...they get old pretty quick.

Nope! not at all. 

Not when you've waited 36 years and lived through some of the darkest days and most inept managing of any sports organization in the world. 

 

I'll dine on this for awhile 😁

[Trois Reds]

1 minute ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

The dead making observations about the living. Ours was the Group of Life because it has the highest survival rate.

50% of all teams making it through for all groups makes this observation dead.

[SoCalTransport]

3 minutes ago, jonovision said:

I'm no tactical genius, but Spain does not seem like a difficult opponent to bunker against.

Floro rarely lost, the only problem was that he rarely won also. So bunkering works in these one game elimination.

[A.D.I.D.A.S.]

In other news, Cristiano Ronaldo is starting from the bench today.

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

Stolen from a West Ham forum

 

The only player score against Morocco so far (including a shootout) was West Ham.  We are massive.

 

*some fine print in there. 

[Kadenge]

15 hours ago, BearcatSA said:

I've got my upset special for tomorrow with Morocco getting past Spain on penalties. You heard it here first (or not 😉)

You were SPOT on

[jonovision]

4 minutes ago, SoCalTransport said:

Floro rarely lost, the only problem was that he rarely won also. So bunkering works in these one game elimination.

We lost 11 of 30 matches under Floro. Hardly rare, imo.

[Unnamed Trialist]

8 minutes ago, Trois Reds said:

50% of all teams making it through for all groups makes this observation dead.

Obviously we were in a tough group, I feel somewhat vindicated. Was just playing with the idea that we're the only group with 2 through.

We lacked maturity and a bit of the long view, we were rushed and immature.

Edited December 6, 2022 by Unnamed Trialist

[Markoaleks]

Spain took penalties like TFC does in any cup/championship final 😀

[Big_M]

enrique looked completely defeated before the penalty kick session started..thats a bad sign and you knew right there they were losing it..cant have a coach like that

[SoCalTransport]

10 minutes ago, jonovision said:

We lost 11 of 30 matches under Floro. Hardly rare, imo.

I always remembered 0-0 ties when he was manager.

[jonovision]

I'm not hugely invested in the Messi-Ronaldo rivalry, but wouldn't it be funny if Messi led his team to a World Cup win while Ronaldo pouted his way to a bench spot and a transfer to Saudi Arabian retirement in their respective last WC finals?

[jonovision]

1 minute ago, SoCalTransport said:

I always remembered 0-0 ties when he was manager.

Fair enough. Five 0-0s out of 30 matches under Floro (16%). That does seem a particularly high number. Looks to be about double the usual rate, from sources I can find.

[Unnamed Trialist]

4 minutes ago, Big_M said:

enrique looked completely defeated before the penalty kick session started..thats a bad sign and you knew right there they were losing it..cant have a coach like that

He just said on RTVE that he chose the three first takers, and let the players decide the rest. And all three shot terribly, embarrassing shots. 

He even did that smartass move to take Nico Williams off, who had created more offense than the entire team as a late sub, and was still terrorising down the right, so Sarabia, who has not played a minute at the WC, could take that wonder of a spot kick.

No one is that upset in Spain because this team has no stars, there is not one guy there in the top 20 in the world, maybe not even top 30.

Not saying there are clearly better players out there, but you have to take some more killer strikers with heavy bodies, and you need mids who are not afraid to take a shot.

[Treppy2]

42 minutes ago, PegCityCam said:

Group F 😤

Actually, considering Herdman's comments, we should forever refer to this as Group Eff.

[mpg_29]

15 minutes ago, jonovision said:

I'm not hugely invested in the Messi-Ronaldo rivalry, but wouldn't it be funny if Messi led his team to a World Cup win while Ronaldo pouted his way to a bench spot and a transfer to Saudi Arabian retirement in their respective last WC finals?

Legit wondering if we could see Messi in 2026. He'd be 38 turning 39 during the tournament...so it wouldn't that shocking tbh.

[InglewoodJack]

29 minutes ago, mpg_29 said:

Legit wondering if we could see Messi in 2026. He'd be 38 turning 39 during the tournament...so it wouldn't that shocking tbh.

If Atiba can make Canada, why wouldn’t Argentina call up the greatest player of all time, if not just as emotional support?

[Allez les Rouges]

Don't agree about Canada's group being the "group of death." Yes, both Morocco and Croatia advanced, but on penalties and not against the tournament's best teams.

Morocco is hard to beat because they don't concede easily, but drawing them is quite doable and Canada came close. Croatia scored 1 goal in 5 hours of play against Morocco, Belgium and Japan - Canada conceded >13x as many goals per hour vs Croatia. And Belgium turned out to be by far the worst Pot 1 team other than Qatar.

Hardest group to get a point, maybe, because Morocco turned out to be the best team of Pot 3 (along with Japan). But not the hardest group to get out of because of Belgium's weakness. Needed to beat Belgium (as Canada deserved), draw Croatia (as all of Croatia's other opponents did) and draw Morocco (as almost happened). I think G was harder to get out of, and maybe E too.

[jonovision]

2 minutes ago, Allez les Rouges said:

Don't agree about Canada's group being the "group of death." Yes, both Morocco and Croatia advanced, but on penalties and not against the tournament's best teams.

Morocco is hard to beat because they don't concede easily, but drawing them is quite doable and Canada came close. Croatia scored 1 goal in 5 hours of play against Morocco, Belgium and Japan - Canada conceded >13x as many goals per hour vs Croatia. And Belgium turned out to be by far the worst Pot 1 team other than Qatar.

Hardest group to get a point, maybe, because Morocco turned out to be the best team of Pot 3 (along with Japan). But not the hardest group to get out of because of Belgium's weakness. Needed to beat Belgium (as Canada deserved), draw Croatia (as all of Croatia's other opponents did) and draw Morocco (as almost happened). I think G was harder to get out of, and maybe E too.

You're probably right, but it's also not clear at all to me who are the tournament's best teams. Of the remaining teams, only Brazil, France and England have been mostly dominant, although all took a match off.

Edited December 6, 2022 by jonovision

[canuckgbp]

Ronaldo’s replacement with a heck of a goal lol

[gigi riva]

3 hours ago, jonovision said:

You're probably right, but it's also not clear at all to me who are the tournament's best teams. Of the remaining teams, only Brazil, France and England have been mostly dominant, although all took a match off.

Of course Englands Off match had to be against the Americans  

[canuckgbp]