Segun Oluwaniyi

Even in a pre-blood/oil money world, it would be highly disappointing not to sign a starting quality forward in this summer, whether it be a wide player or a striker. Both were clear weaknesses last season, there is a spot now with Gayle gone, and ideally it would be time to eliminate one of Murphy, Fraser, or Almiron. I do not think it is unusual at all to be unnerved when it is nearly August and arguably the main target of the transfer window remains unfulfilled. Leicester, West Ham, and Villa are realistic teams to compete with this season and the quality in attacking areas of those sides is markedly superior. 

43 minutes ago, Disco said:

Maybe, he was still playing regularly though. Next to Pepe n all so not like they were too arsed about blooding youth. Wonder if getting insurance for him is problematic?

I would think it is a combination of the discrepancies in his documents and not providing the wage and length of deal he would want. OM have definitely increased his wage and for three years.

The age issue is nothing new. It is the same 1988 date that has followed his career from Anderlecht to Newcastle to now. So, Porto signed him initially with this knowledge. My wife was also born sometime between 1988 and 1994 in Kinshasha, so I will ask her for direct evidence, but it's impossible to know otherwise, that country is dysfunctional even compared to it continental counterparts.

2 hours ago, Tomato Deuce said:

 

We have just missed the last one primarily due to internal incompetence, the successful basketball and athletics teams were just recently banned internationally due to further incompetence, and the people in power make Trump and Biden seem like Alexander the Great. You are laughing, but I am deadly (Mike translation: dead-ass) serious.

1 hour ago, cubaricho said:

That drive in particular is pretty brutal. All my buds in bands do it and fucking hate it, usually tacking on an off-day in Denver just to recover.  

 

And yeah geographically it is further out but everyone will be flying for this and DIA is the busiest airport in the country, traffic wise, so it makes sense to have it here based on that alone. Most of the planes will literally be landing here at some point anyway.  

You are not lying, I love driving long distances in all manner of scenarios, but when the wind started whipping in the Wyoming mountains with all of those trailers around, I was actually scared for my life. I cannot even imagine it in winter, there was snow around in April, still. That makes sense about the airport, never seen the city, but as you say, have been through the airport a few times. KC is actually rubbish and boring anyway, so I do not doubt Denver is better. 

1 hour ago, B-more Mag said:

 

I agree. It's ridiculous that D.C. doesn't have a state-of-the-art stadium in the city. And Baltimore gets continually fucked by the perception that we're nothing more than a crime-ridden shit hole. 

 

Bit of a shambles that there won't be matches in two of the U.S.'s five largest combined statistical areas (Chicago - 9,986,960; DC/Baltimore - 9,973,383).

DC United Stadium is quite nice, but tiny, yeah. Baltimore has problems that everyone knows about, but the stadiums are wonderful and I doubt people are coming from all-over the world to stay in Park Heights and Walbrook, anyway. In Russia, the events were essentially in two places for most of the cities, there was not a need to go elsewhere. 

10 hours ago, cubaricho said:

 

Kansas is a wild choice. So, so far away from everything.

 

I am sure Denver is wonderful, but is it not even further from other places than Kansas City? I had to drive from Salt Lake City (which a map says is one of the closer cities to it) to Denver airport after an unfortunate travel incident a while back, and it was roughly 9 hours through an actual mountain.   Kansas City meanwhile is three hours from Saint Louis. 

The hope was for matches in Batimore, but I strongly doubted this after it had to combine with DC. The fact that Baltimore, which has perfectly adequate stadium and facilities, felt the need to attach itself to another city and DC had to abandon the idea of hosting matches in their disgraceful stadium in the boondocks of PG County, meant FIFA likely did not view either favourably. 

There is a distinct possibility that Nigeria will again fail to qualify, be banned internationally, or fail to exist in general by 2026, but still I will spend the next four years wishing to have a match in Dallas or Houston. Would be madness and essentially a home match, as long as it is not against a Latin American team or the US. 

Costa Rica essentially still have the exact same team that they brought to the World Cup in 2014. Just 8 years slower and older. 

Roma have played good football for most of this season, from what I've seen. Having a back to wall defensive performance in a major final is not a rarity specific to Mourinho. His Spurs side was defensive in general, for whatever reason, but this season has not been that way, tbh. 

Bizarre that City cannot ever handle these games simply.

Even in 2019 they went down against Brighton who had just been confirmed safe and had nothing to play for.

Everton will remain in the league due to the inadequacies of Leeds. Brentford will defeat them.

I remember Asenjo was always considered a decent keeper and was the starter last season. I have no idea why this Rulli has replaced him. The boy is consistently unconvincing and cannot even catch the ball.

9 minutes ago, ManDoon said:

I’m sure other clubs do too. No proof but it is highly irregular to maintain this level of intensity, especially players who are over 30/near 30. I’ve never seen it at elite level, they are in like 4 competitions, no Injuries, no drop offs in energy? It’s just not really rationally possible imo 

The difference in the intensity and quickness of play amongst the top sides is incredible compared to ten or so years ago, tbh. I saw someone mention 20 years, but you do not need to go back that far. It is not just Liverpool, but they are a glaring example of it. Their entire style of play comes off as amphetamine-inspired.  

This Real Madrid team are bizarre, they have been the weaker side in each of the three knockout rounds. You would expect a side like that to depend on defensive solidarity, but they have been rubbish at the back throughout.  It is primarily just incredible finishing by Benzema and heavy reliance on defensive errors and missed chances from the opposition. If there was still the away goals rule, I would have them as favourites in the next leg, but will be a 50-50 tie if the score stays this way. 

During Argentina-Nigeria at 2018 World Cup I was reliably informed it was not handball when it came off of your head first. 

7 minutes ago, Flip said:

Tbf Foden did exactly what any Atl Madrid player would do. I agree in a way that it's boring, but there's also a charm to it for me. Making that clock tick is an art. 

I definitely agree, the nonsense that would have taken place if Atletico had the one goal is unimaginable, but for some reason that particular brand of time-wasting just really angers me.  If you roll back to the pitch just to writhe in false pain, someone should actually inflict some for you. 

Injured players rolling back on the pitch to waste time should genuinely be a red card. One of the most laughably cynical things you can do in football.  

The beauty of football is the different ways of playing the game, tbh. Personally, I find City much more boring than Atletico.

Terrible day for Sissako of Mali, one of their biggest matches in their history and he has scored an OG by directly passing the ball into the net and then received the softest red card I have ever seen, all within five minutes.

Very difficult few weeks for Veratti

Italy's World Cup performances since the title in 2006 are incredibly poor for a nation of its stature. Four straight embarrassments. 

Nonsense red card  That same tackle happens nearly every match. Cynical and a yellow card, but the rules have changed if that is red. 

7 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

The front three doesn’t really work together somehow. But I don’t even think their midfield or their defence usually looks ‘that’ bad. They were just all over the place tonight. But I never seem to know what their gameplan is when I watch them in Europe? 
 

Just seems to be leave the front three up. Try and get the ball to them and see if they can win it. 

The front three is never going to be a perfect fit, just because Messi and Neymar have 0 pace at this point in their careers. Three players who do not track back at all (Messi, the oldest and slowest probably does the most defensive work of the three), with two of those being slow players who want to dwell on the ball, is a recipe for overburdened midfield and disjointed play in general. 

Obviously, it was plenty sufficient in this tie, even if they were a bit wasteful. Would be harsh to blame this on any of the big three when experienced world class players were having mental breakdown behind them.

For Messi, especially, this can change, he mostly just needs to finish better; but neither he nor Ronaldo have been a top 10 player in the world this season. The new generation has arrived. These giants are no longer the standard.

PSG have barely held possession since Donnarumma's nonsense. Astounding collapse. It seemed likely they would grab the 3rd or 4th goal until that happened. 

Marquinhos and Donnarumma have both been shameful in the second half.

Seems like a foul? He didn't get the ball and pushed Donnarumma over? Deserves to concede due to idiocy, anyway.

12 minutes ago, Mike said:

Ah man is Messi finished?

This "washed"/"past it" version of Messi is interesting; his game is just 100 percent finesse. He rarely attempts to beat players with direct dribbling and pace and his shots have so little conviction, but he still creates many, many chances for himself and the other players. PSG would be much better, if he was not possibly the worst finisher in the top European leagues this season. Has hit the post, mishit the ball, or hesitated in goal scoring posiitons a remarkable amount this season.

Egypt are 100% going to win the Final, despite being atrocious this entire tournament.  You cannot understand how much I hate this tournament.

Just hoping for Senegal to win at this point. Cameroon and Egypt are probably #2 and #3 respectively in terms of teams I hate in Africa. Cameroon had a good start, but match has been horrendous since the 30th minute. Anything other than penalties would be unjust. 

Also, it is AFCON, we are not expecting too much, but Cameroon hosting this competition is a disgrace. They were meant to host in 2019, but were not ready in time. So, with 2.5 extra years to prepare, we have a tournament that has been horribly unorganised in every aspect, including the actual deaths of some spectators, and are watching a semi-final with the host nation and one of the world's top players on a pitch that is actually unplayable, with players falling and the ball bouncing everywhere. The Final is on this same pitch.  

1 hour ago, JeffJ said:

Like for like Aguero replacement. Finished at the top level and has cardiac problems. 

Did we ever figure if he actually had cardiac issues? Because I thought the story transformed into he and Lemina being thrown out of Gabon's camp for bringing ashewo girls back to the team hotel when they were ostensibly under Covid protocols.

At least they are not buying him, not sure if he is physically done, but he doesn't seem to care about his career anymore.