World Cup - Mens' Football 2022

[EJG1980]

Intriguing and watchable game between Croatia and Japan, without being off the charts exciting. Japan deservedly lead at the break, Croatia equalise against the run of play (really good header from Perisic), and then fairly even after that, with Croatia probably shading it. Croatian penalties all good except for one, Japanese penalties all poor except for one, Croatia into the quarters.

Blooooody hell, what a goal that third Brazilian goal was against South Korea. The Richarlison head juggling, strength and clever pass to start it off, the intricate passing move cutting open the defence, with the ball finally getting back to Richarlison to complete the move he started. Fair to say he’s now got the best individual goal of the tournament with his overhead kick and finished off the best team goal of the tournament with this one.

As with a lot of matches where one team scores a load in the first half, the second was fairly pedestrian in comparison. Nice for South Korea to at least get a memorable consolation goal. Not much else to say about the match, pure demolition job from Brazil. They will be tough to stop when they’re in that mood.

[fallenangle]

The penalty taking by Japan in the first match was indeed lamentable. You could see they were likely to fail even before the ball was kicked.

Amazing first half to the other game and that Richarlison goal - utterly brilliant. Other clubs are going to want to poach him off us even more now. His value must have jumped significantly after his performances in the WC. Now if we can only get him doing stuff like that for Spurs I'd be very happy.

[EJG1980]

Morocco! Spain on their way home, first big shock of the knockout stage.

The penalty taking by Japan in the first match was indeed lamentable.

Amazingly, the Spanish were even worse, especially when you take into account the quality of the players involved. Didn't think I'd see anyone top Japan's effort for a while, let alone the next day!

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Wow, what a strike from Ramos, decent way to mark your first ever start for your country.

3-0 to Portugal now and another one for Ramos. I’m gonna make the bold prediction that Portugal will go on to win this match from here.

5-1 and a hat-trick for Gonçalo Ramos! What an incredible night for him.

Six in the end, great goal from Leao to finish things off. Very impressive showing from Portugal, another team that'll be tough to beat if they're playing at their best (and for all he's done in the past, surely their best right now is with Ronaldo sitting on the bench at kick-off).

[fallenangle]

The Morocco game was quite a good watch, even though 0 - 0 it was an excellent exercise in how committed defending can stifle even the best teams. Spain were unlucky not to win it in extra time where that shot from the right grazed the left post; six inches to the right and it would have been in.

But to go out on penalties as badly as that, perhaps they did not deserve to win because, as said, they were as bad or worse than the Japaneses ones the day before.

The Portuguese game was an unexpectedly great watch; their performance I'd rate higher than the Brazilians because the opposition was, on paper, of a higher calibre and unlike the Brazilians they didn't take their foot off the gas in the second half.

They gave a away a goal by sloppy marking at a corner ie. it was their own mistake but they played the full 90 minutes with the same intensity and commitment to attack.

If we can deal with the French England will almost certainly be facing them in the semi-finals - that has the potential for another great match but what the result will be I do not want to predict.

[EJG1980]

Brazil vs Croatia: I didn't think the match started off too badly but eventually those first 90 minutes became quite attritional. The extra time and penalties really delivered though, great drama, and the upset victory for Croatia. What they've achieved since the mid-90s, for a country of their size, is pretty amazing.

I don't think the Brazil coach should have taken off Richarlison; he may have only made seven passes but four of them set up direct shots on goal for a team mate, more than any other player on the pitch at the time he was taken off. All ifs and buts, but I think they might have had more chances on the Croatian goal if he'd stayed on.

I saw last week that Spurs had been linked with a move for Josip Juranovic in the January transfer window, and on today's showing at least, he could be a good signing, had an excellent game. I'd love to see Gvardiol at Spurs too, what a player for a 20 year old, but I think all the really big hitters will be in for him (which everyone already thought before this World Cup).

Argentina vs Netherlands: Well I was all ready to write that this hadn’t been that great a game, but Netherlands had been disappointing and deserved to go out because they were so toothless in attack… and then those last twenty minutes happened! That free kick to equalise for the Netherlands was brilliantly worked, and a nice bit of hoofball to get them back into the match before that. Extra time here we come!

Why have Netherlands stopped the hoofball in extra time? Argentina were all over the place but Netherlands going back to the patient passing approach has allowed Argentina to get their composure back.

Argentina win on penalties! Exciting shootout too. And, at last, we had a match at this World Cup with some mass handbags brawls between the players

I think Argentina deserved to go through, aside from the crazy period right at the end of the match the Dutch did very little. They should have had the momentum going into extra time but they didn’t capitalise on it and Argentina had the big chances to win it in ET before it went to penalties.

[fallenangle]

My own thoughts about the two games yesterday exactly:-

Why did he take of Richarlison?

In the other game: what on earth were the Netherlands thinking in extra time? After actually having to take risks, putting Argentina on the back foot and scoring they bizarrely returned almost throughout the whole of extra time to what they had been doing for most of the previous ninety minutes which had failed completely.

Were they playing for penalties? Who knows but whatever it was they were thinking it let the Argentina off the hook and they deserved to lose.

Still the penalty shoot outs in both games were great entertainment which just about made up for the very long dull periods in both cases.

Just hope the games today are better in their totality and have the wanted result in normal time in England's case. I'm not sure I could bare to watch another England penalty shoot out where you can not help but expect them to fail and so often that proves the case.

[EJG1980]

Well well well, 1-0 to Morocco against Portugal just before half time.

get in Morocco! What a brilliant achievement. When they went down to ten men in injury time, and then missed that one on one chance, I thought it was all set up for a heartbreaking last gasp Portugal equaliser. So glad they held on and won!

Now, who will they face in the semi-final, England or France?

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Gah, the answer was France.

Gutted for Harry, becoming England's all time tournament top scorer, then equalling Rooney's record, for it to end like that. I was hoping so much that Rashford's last second free kick was going to go in so Harry could get redemption and score the winner in extra time, but it wasn't to be. Ah well, I don't suppose you're a fully paid up member of England until you've experienced some personal heartbreak at a big tournament!

Thought England did well in the match, with more periods where they were the better side (especially second half) than France had. Annoyingly my Dad got it spot on during the second half, said that we'd been on top but hadn't taken the lead, France hadn't had a meaningful attack for a while, watch someone like Giroud pop up out of nowhere to give them back the lead. Two minutes after he said that, 2-1 France.

One mistake I think Southgate made was taking off Saka. He was doing very very well in that second half and I think Theo Hernandez was really happy to see him go off. Especially replacing him with Sterling who had been away from the squad, not training, and had rightly been distracted by off field events.

Aside from that, it was close 50/50 match with the World Champions that could have gone either way, not too much to be critical about.

With England out, my preferred winners would be either Croatia or Morocco, the former because I'd love to see Modric lift the trophy and the latter because it'd obviously be the biggest (well, only!) fairytale win in World Cup history, first win for Africa, etc.. I wouldn't begrudge Messi finally winning it with Argentina either to cap off his career, and as a Spurs fan I'd be really happy for Hugo Lloris if he became the first ever double World Cup winning captain.

[fallenangle]

When the HK penalty at 2-1 was awarded I immediately thought: now what can go wrong? HK could miss........no that's not going to happen.

My theory is that he'd decided to go straight down the middle but mid-run up he wasn't sure which way Lloris was going or if he was going to move at all. So he put in some extra power. I've seen him before kick a penalty worryingly high into the top of the net before and I think that is what he was trying to do but he just overcooked it this time.

Hugely disappointing.

My money, if I had any to spare, would be on Croatia. I've not seen anything from Argentina to suggest they're going to be able to unlock their defence unless the Croatians make a mistake. Even when in full defensive mode they also always get the chance of scoring too.

So the final for me will most likely be Croatia v. France; the latter I think will have enough class to break the Morocco defence, force them to come out and they'll get another chance when the Moroccans are out of shape.

But I've been proven wrong about Portugal who never looked like the great team they were in the previous match so who knows; an Argentina v. Morocco final I would not rule out. But if Croatia do get through I'll definitely be supporting them; one and a half Spurs players, Peresic and Modric, trumps Lloris although it would be an incredible achievement if the latter did get a second WC winners medal.

[EJG1980]

But if Croatia do get through I'll definitely be supporting them; one and a half Spurs players, Peresic and Modric, trumps Lloris although it would be an incredible achievement if the latter did get a second WC winners medal.

Plus Vedran "Charlie" Corluka is the assistant manager for Croatia.

I think I'd bet on it being a Croatia vs France final too. The same final two world cups running, like 86 and 90 when we got Argentina vs West Germany twice in a row.

Could Croatia be like Germany and win the second one after losing the first, or are they going to be the modern version of the 70s Dutch team and get to two finals in a row and lose both?

I suppose they need to get there first Any team with Messi can always win with one moment of magic from him.

[EJG1980]

I think I'd bet on it being a Croatia vs France final too.

My powers of prediction up to their usual standards, 2-0 to Argentina 40 minutes in The second Argentine goal was great, lovely counterattack and superb run from Alvarez.

Gonna take something very special from Croatia to turn this around from here. Almost three too, great save from the Croatia keeper.

20 minutes left and it is 3-0 now. All over, barring a miracle. Croatia have played some nice stuff at times (especially in the first half) but only up to a point, no cutting edge once they get near to the opposition box.

Nice seeing Juan Foyth getting five minutes at the end of the match. Great performance from Messi this evening and Argentina's best performance of the tournament as a team. Maybe they're peaking at just the right moment.

[fallenangle]

Yes, prediction about Croatia for both of us a 'bit' wrong although I will mention that I did say:-

I've not seen anything from Argentina to suggest they're going to be able to unlock their defence unless the Croatians make a mistake.

Boy did Croatia make a mistake; in fact they made two. Both goals were essentially as the result of Croatian mistakes. Particularly the fantastic second one where it all stemmed from a lousily taken corner giving it away with most of their defence up in the Argentina 18 yard box waiting for the cross that never came.

That Messi created third goal was a thing of brilliance. They well deserved the win.

Forgotten about Foyth until they said he was coming on but that's not enough to persuade me to support Argentina in the final even if they face the French. It'll stick in my throat doing it but I'll have to side with Lloris and his chums.

What I really hope is that Morocco get through and then its an easy choice to support the underdog especially against Argentina.

[EJG1980]

All down to the Spurs players for me: Lloris has been at Spurs for a decade and is our captain, Romero (as much as I like him as a player) has only been at Spurs for a year, so, in an Argentina vs France final, I'm going with France. If Lloris was Argentinian and Romero was French, I'd be backing Argentina.

However, it's the World Cup, and an underdog story trumps all, so come on Morocco!

1-0 France after 5 minutes, big big task for Morocco now.

Great shot by Morocco just now though, good save from Lloris. Good response from Morocco so far, they haven’t let the early goal phase them… but they can’t keep making mistakes like the one that just let Giroud hit the post.

So unlucky Morocco! Brilliant overhead kick and a great save from Lloris. They’ve survived a couple more mistakes that they were lucky France failed to punish, but Morocco certainly aren’t out of this as long as it stays 1-0.

Great start to the second half from Morocco, really going for it.

2-0 to France after 35 minutes of mostly Moroccan pressure. They just couldn’t quite make the breakthrough and France finally made them pay for it.

Agh, almost a grandstand last couple of minutes with that late Moroccan chance! France into the final, but Morocco can go out with their heads held high, superb effort from them. I enjoyed that, good match.

[EJG1980]

Lovely goal to give Croatia the lead in the third place playoff, one of the best headed assist and finish combos I’ve seen from Perisic and Gvardiol. And as I type Morocco have equalised, looks like this could be a fun match!

Oof, what a beautiful goal from Orsic to give Croatia the lead again.

[fallenangle]

That first Croatian goal was indeed as sweet as a nut and then the second equally as good. Both worth seeing even although the rest of the game, whilst pleasing enough to watch wasn't as entertaining as it promised. But good see both sides taking it seriously.

If the weird Morocco goalkeeper's kicking error across his own goal near the start had gone in it would have in every YT goalkeeping fails' clips for all eternity.

Final today - just hope it is a good game.

[EJG1980]

Argentina much more on the front foot than France in the opening minutes here.

Romero reminding Lloris there are no club friendships in the World Cup

1-0 Argentina, Messi penalty. Thought it was a pretty soft award, but Argentina deserve the lead.

2-0, brilliant sweeping counter attack goal, lovely passing. France still haven’t even had a shot of any description yet, or even been in Argentina’s half that often, well off the pace.

Ballsy move by Deschamps, two subs before half time. As Jenas said on comms though, he had to do something.

Hasn’t really made any difference, France still doing very little and Argentina looking more likely to fully kill it off with a third. Although I think France finally just had their first shot after 68 minutes with that off target header!

Side note: Christian Romero is superb.

Slightly less superb from Ottamendi, poor tackle to gift France a penalty and chance to get back in it from nowhere. This goes in and it’s suddenly an interesting last ten minutes… goal!

Bloody hell, 2-2!!

A couple of minutes ago I was gonna write that it was an okay final with some nice Argentine play, but France had been too far off the pace for it to be that exciting or a classic… it’s in classic territory now!

Great save from Lloris to deny Messi the last gasp winner. Extra-time here we come.

A couple of big chances for Argentina at the end of extra time first half, great blocks from France. I hope somebody wins this before it goes to penalties.

3-2 Messi!! Unlucky Lloris, great save from the first shot only for it to fall to Messi. In real time I thought Martinez was well offside and was sure it’d be disallowed, but the replay showed my eyes suck, clearly onside.

MY WORD, another penalty for France! 3 bloody 3!

Flipping hell what a last gasp save from Martinez to keep Argentina alive! Penalties it is. Blimey

Argentina do it! Bloody hell, I need a lie down What a final that turned into, absolutely incredible.