Segun Oluwaniyi

Benelux countries at this tournament both look in a good position to go through at this point, but they have played rubbish. Mendy's foolishness and Canada's wastefulness the saving grace.

Win for Ecuador is a bad result for my adopted homeland of Senegal, but they would have earned it.

I am actively watching this match to laugh at Ghana's defeat and I still think the penalty was a disgraceful decision. It is objectively just incorrect.

Belgium are not in this match at all. Disorganised defensively, second to every ball low energy all over the pitch. Easily the worst "contender" thus far. Only poor decisions from Canada in attack have kept this 0-0.

4 minutes ago, Emotic said:

Poland is a shit sandwich. One good goalie, one good striker, absolute dross in between. 

Zielinski and Zalewski are very exciting players in Serie A. This team is just set up to play negative football with these players.

This is the least talented El Tri I can remember watching. Very little attacking quality. This has been the worst match of the tournament by a distance thus far.

No idea why Wales did not start Moore. The US looked questionable defensively once there was a player there to engage with them. 

Zimmerman just gave away two points with that challenge, for no reason whatsoever. Very frustrating. US did not create enough chances with their dominance, either.

17 minutes ago, Interpolic said:

 

 

Come on, man.  I even stay here legally now, I am American. I sang the anthem word for word. U-S-A!!

My fellow Americans, I don't mean to discredit the boy, but are we seriously meant to believe that from the pool of anyone born from roughly 1984 to 2007 in all 50 states + various territories and expatriates abroad, the best striker available for the World Cup is Josh Sargeant? I cannot believe this to be the case. The US is very strong in midfield and wide positions at the moment, but the strikers, keeper, and defenders are below their usual standard,  imo. 

There is enough in this team to beat Wales and make the knockout stage if we play well, though.

11 minutes ago, KaKa said:

 

I think that long break affected them more. 

 

However, having said that I really like the team Southgate picked.

 

The balance of complementary attributes that England midfield three has is great, and the two wide players either side of Harry Kane have great movement and pace that he can link with.

 

Be interesting to see if Southgate is brave enough to stick with this formation against better teams.

If things play out well for you, there may not be a "better team" until the quarterfinals. USA, Wales, and Senegal/Ecuador are decent teams, but a level below England. 

13 minutes ago, Manxst said:

World wide? How do you figure that? Can’t say I know much about them other than a few club players. Have they played anyone decent? 

They are very difficult to score against and generally one of the most organised teams at this level under this manager, that is all I meant. He has led this team for several years and throughout two World Cups, two Asian Cups, and qualifiers, this is just not a team that concedes multiple goals, unless they are pushing forward in desperation. Even his Egypt side was like this. 

I do not know if this is the quality of England, or just poor play from a team with serious turmoil in their country, but I have never seen Iran under Queiroz treated like this. This is historically one of the most difficult sides to play against in international football and they are being abused all over the pitch.

That is the exact penalty that helped spur England's run to the semifinals four years ago, so I guess the rules have changed in that time.

Reviving this thread: Just leaving Stadico Olimpico after Derby Della Capitale, highly disappointed as someone that came hoping to see Roma win. Atmosphere was incredible, of course, game generally was horrendous. Ibanez gifted Lazio the goal, they had no desire to pursue more and Roma created almost nothing.

The decline of Tammy Abraham this season has been shocking. In his current form, the boy is a liability. All-around play is not as good as it previously was and missing countless easy chances every match. Roma in general are held back by their attack, Dybala is the only reliable player. They will struggle to get top four without sorting it out.

Stade Velodrome is a beautiful place when there is a big match. My first time in attendance and the atmosphere was beautiful.It is a shame that l'OM lack the quality and mental fortitude to actually compete at the level though. Spurs were not there at all in the first half, they should have been down more than one, but it was an entirely different match in the second half. Kolasinac miss was unbelievable, that man is just pure rubbish. Mbemba was MOTM, he was brilliant throughout. The last second to crash out of Europe was disgraceful though . Just making random loose passes with every single player on the pitch and the Tudor running on the pitch to try and have the ref stop the match during a 2 v. 1.

1 hour ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Is this sacking in any way reasonable? I know they’ve had a bad start like, but they’ve just backed him with billions. Like, last week. 

Chelsea have played rubbish football for a good while now, and every single attacking player at that club has regressed or under-performed with Tuchel. The only one that has looked capable this season is Sterling, who Tuchel has not had time to ruin yet.

So, in a sense, it is unreasonable as a manager who won the Champions League 1.5 years ago should have earned a chance to build a team with some stability, but the reality is that no Chelsea fan will miss him. It did not seem like he had any idea of how to fix the issues they were going through this season.

42 minutes ago, Flip said:

 

Either that or Juventus is absolute shit. 

All of the Italian teams are rubbish at the top level, tbh. The top 7 teams in Serie A this season are strong and quite equal, but nowhere near the top contenders in the Champions League.

Donnarumma has regressed badly at PSG.

PSG may still have issues in terms of their defensive structure with all three superstars on the pitch in the final stages of the CL, but Galtier has improved them drastically. The team will be a juggernaut this season.

Leicester need to sack Rodgers or they could actually be in danger of relegation. They have dynamic players in throughout their squad and chose to play backwards/sideways the whole match. I do not know what has happened at that club, but there is no reason for the to be so poor going forward with the team they have.

4 minutes ago, ponsaelius said:

 

It shows him completely level with the defender with some lines pointlessly drawn onto the single frame.

 

VAR completely loses the entire point of the offside rule which is to stop players gaining an advantage. He’s not gaining any advantage and pre-VAR a competent liner wouldn’t have flagged that in a million years.

 

 

 

I have said from the beginning, I do not even trust this offside process being used with VAR at the small margins it is being used to adjudicate decisions. There was another yesterday where Gray looked visually onside for Everton, but was declared off by the arbitrary lines. The goal-line technology (which is much simpler) has failed in the Premier League at least once, so I am not sure why we take this seemingly manual geometric process as gospel?

It is unbelievable that this boy scored 8 goals in 14 matches at one point. He looks lost with the ball at his feet, in every part of the pitch. Misplaced passes, consistently rubbish clearances, and hesitant in attacking positions. His workrate and athleticism make him an "OK" player at this level, but overall very disappointing since signing permanently.

Even five minutes of added time is quite a bit for the events of the second half with one goal and few serious injuries. It is laughable that we are meant to accept that "time-wasting" means the opposition gets an extra 2-3 minutes to score, when this has not been the case at all in my decades of watching football. This would only happen away on a "storied night at Anfield" or other certain clubs. Very annoying.

Lascelles, cot damn.

Mitrovic (also his own managerial failings) making Scott Parker look like a fool this season.

Ludicrous that Bruno's challenge in the first five minutes was a yellow and Rodrigo's cynical tackle on ASM just now was not. 

No touch. Onside. Goal.

16 minutes ago, KaKa said:

 

Chill out man 

 

 

I am not hyping a single Naija player until after the World cup (maybe even until after the election). They seriously vexed me and my family with the rubbish they pulled against Ghana. Along with many vexations about that place in general. I wish the boys well, but that is as far as we go now.  

1 hour ago, SUPERTOON said:

Another one for Forest, previously linked here 

 

 

Forest should be careful not to sign too many Nigerians, it has been a recipe for relegation.  Fulham in 2021 and Watford in 2022 both fell prey to this strategy. Honestly, I could see all three they've signed/been linked to being decent for them: Awoniyi is a strong, quick player to knock the ball up to (Do not see him being as prolific as in Germany, where no one defends), Dennis has attitude issues but is very dangerous, and Moses has great pace and dribbling (Even though he is often going nowhere useful, he can win his team the match sometimes and was good for Nantes).