The Official 2018 FIFA World Cup Thread

#284
#284
ButchPlz said:
One of those countries where average IQ is around 70.
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There's been a couple of games where I'm sitting here like how do these refs get picked but that game just proves how corrupt FIFA is. No way France gets that much leniency without something going on
 
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#285
#285
Persian Vol said:
France doesn’t strike me as a team that can win the World Cup.
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France always, on paper, looks like a team that could win. Their roster is seemingly always loaded with talented individuals at all positions.

They rarely actually play like it. They are the Georgia Bulldogs of international soccer. They should consistently be elite, but they have only appeared in the WC final twice in their history, winning one of them. They've had the talent over the years to have won has many WCs as Brazil or Germany.
 
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#286
#286
05_never_again said:
Flopping in soccer can be ended tomorrow if they just hand out automatic yellows for embellishment.

There is not an equivalency between flopping in soccer and any other sport, basketball included. It's disgusting. Guys will give up good scoring chances/odd man rush opportunities to flop.
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100% agree! watching a game the other day and they were in a fast break kinda deal and the defender flops and the other team scores, that aggravated me! i turn to my wife and told her, if he would had played the ball rather than trying to get a foul he may have stopped him. This is my first time watching soccer and other than all the flopping i have enjoyed it.
 
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#287
#287
Jmyers1033 said:
100% agree! watching a game the other day and they were in a fast break kinda deal and the defender flops and the other team scores, that aggravated me! i turn to my wife and told her, if he would had played the ball rather than trying to get a foul he may have stopped him. This is my first time watching soccer and other than all the flopping i have enjoyed it.
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The risk/reward of duping a ref with flopping is really imbalanced in soccer. The players have not adjusted to replay yet, but I think they will and we'll get more quality and less flopping. If you don't have to sell contact in the box when someone clearly fouls you, you can attempt to play through it and then get the benefit of replay.

Defense will also adjust. Fouling has become a lot more costly. What have we played, 24 games and we've had 5 PK's from replay? Defenders would have gotten away with some of those in the past.
 
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#288
#288
05_never_again said:
France always, on paper, looks like a team that could win. Their roster is seemingly always loaded with talented individuals at all positions.

They rarely actually play like it. They are the Georgia Bulldogs of international soccer. They should consistently be elite, but they have only appeared in the WC final twice in their history, winning one of them. They've had the talent over the years to have won has many WCs as Brazil or Germany.
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I recommend a book called Soccernomics. There is a lot of statistical analysis about penalty kicks and other interesting stuff like that, but the most interesting part was they built a model that predicts international success. It's basically a function of national wealth, population, and history as a soccer country.

Brazil has the history and the population to be dominant. Germany has the money, history, and a pretty big population. England has the history and the money, but their population is not that big. I would guess that France is just a slight underachiever, based on that analysis. Netherlands and Argentina would be overachievers.
 
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#289
#289
n_huffhines said:
The risk/reward of duping a ref with flopping is really imbalanced in soccer. The players have not adjusted to replay yet, but I think they will and we'll get more quality and less flopping. If you don't have to sell contact in the box when someone clearly fouls you, you can attempt to play through it and then get the benefit of replay.

Defense will also adjust. Fouling has become a lot more costly. What have we played, 24 games and we've had 5 PK's from replay? Defenders would have gotten away with some of those in the past.
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The risk/reward is really imbalanced when the flop occurs in or around the box, but it occurs everywhere on the field, not just in places where you might get a penalty kick or a free kick chance from in close.

I've lost count of how many times I'll see a team go on a strong counterattack, sometimes with numbers, and the player with the ball will fall down as if shot somewhere around midfield after little or no contact. They are giving up an odd-man rush opportunity in favor of a flop, which actually resets the flow of play and allows the opponent to get their guys back down on that end of the field. Flopping is so ingrained in the sport it's like a reflex. If these guys get touched, they collapse immediately. There's no willingness to play through contact, no matter where it occurs on the field.
 
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#290
#290
I’m trying to imagine who at this point would be considered a favorite to win it.

Brazil is still one of the most if not the most talented team in the tournament.

Despite dropping their game to Mexico, if there is a team that can bounce back, it’s Germany.

France has equal if not better talent than anyone else, but they just don’t play up to their potential.

Belgium is an interesting choice, but we need to see how they play against teams not named Panama.

Spain has a lot of experience and I can see them going far. I have much more faith in Spain than all the other powers not named Brazil or Germany.

Argentina hasn’t looked great, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Messi ends up bouncing back and carrying this squad similar to 4 years ago.

I like Ronaldo, but as a team I don’t see them competing with the heavyweights late into the knockout stages.
 
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#291
#291
n_huffhines said:
I recommend a book called Soccernomics. There is a lot of statistical analysis about penalty kicks and other interesting stuff like that, but the most interesting part was they built a model that predicts international success. It's basically a function of national wealth, population, and history as a soccer country.

Brazil has the history and the population to be dominant. Germany has the money, history, and a pretty big population. England has the history and the money, but their population is not that big. I would guess that France is just a slight underachiever, based on that analysis. Netherlands and Argentina would be overachievers.
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That's interesting; I'll look into that.

France (and those other countries you mentioned) have much smaller populations than Brazil, but in any given year the 11 guys France runs out there appear, on paper, to be just as talented as the 11 Brazil runs out there. That's pretty consistent, over a long period of time. However Brazil has been to 7 finals, France 2. France didn't even appear in a Final until 1998. That seems like pretty notable underachievement; England has underachieved too, despite the population, because there is just so much money and tradition there, although in more recent times their rosters are pretty clearly not as talented as numerous other countries. Outside of their dominance from 2010 - 2012, Spain honestly appears to have underachieved too, even when you consider they have a smaller population than Germany, France, or Italy, and especially Brazil. They have just the one WC final appearance in their history, and it was relatively recent.

Missing the WC this year notwithstanding, Italy seems to have done pretty well for a country of its size too. Smaller than Germany, but has just as many WC titles (4).

I agree that Netherlands and Argentina are notable overachievers, as are Uruguay and Belgium.
 
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#292
#292
Persian Vol said:
I’m trying to imagine who at this point would be considered a favorite to win it.

Brazil is still one of the most if not the most talented team in the tournament.

Despite dropping their game to Mexico, if there is a team that can bounce back, it’s Germany.

France has equal if not better talent than anyone else, but they just don’t play up to their potential.

Belgium is an interesting choice, but we need to see how they play against teams not named Panama.

Spain has a lot of experience and I can see them going far. I have much more faith in Spain than all the other powers not named Brazil or Germany.

Argentina hasn’t looked great, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Messi ends up bouncing back and carrying this squad similar to 4 years ago.

I like Ronaldo, but as a team I don’t see them competing with the heavyweights late into the knockout stages.
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England, Portugal, and believe it or not Russia are top 3 right now
 
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