A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

Real Madrid is the most successful soccer club there ever was, and they won't need anybody with 450+ goals, 4 Ballons d'Or, or 3 Golden Boots on their CV to just stay competitive with Messi, Barcelona, or anybody else for that matter. Real Madrid was already doing fine before Cristiano Ronaldo came in 2009, they were already in great shape before he was even born, and they'll continue to go on being a top, top outfit long after he's gone. They're the goddamn New York Yankees, f'chrissakes.

And if the worst possible outcome is a back-to-back-to-back Champions League-winning dynasty going on a slump for a couple seasons, that would still be a welcome change of pace for once.

Edited by SeanMurrayI on Jul 10th 2018 at 6:57:47 AM

52 years?

Last time England got into the finals was 1966.

Edited by nightwyrm_zero on Jul 10th 2018 at 6:58:29 AM

Ronaldo doesn't show obvious signs of decline in his game associated with age yet, and to be fair, 33 is not that old for a forward, he's still in his prime, arguably. And the high fee is as much a consequence of him being a media icon as him being a top-level player.

As for the supposed negative impact his departure would put on RM, first, it's never a good thing to have an unsettled played stay in the squad and second, for all of his current level of ability, he's still a human being, CR 7 has two seasons' worth of competitive football left for him, tops. His departure was inevitable, be it for sportsmanship reasons or some other.

The transition of generations within RM should be smoother, of course, but we have what we have.

Edited by Millership on Jul 10th 2018 at 9:10:19 PM

England just scored against Croatia,making it 1-0

Croatia 2-1 England (a.e.t.) (goals and highlights here)

Considering all the missed chances for both sides, this definitely could've been a game with more goals.

Croatia had a lot more motivation after equalizing in regular time, and, when Mandzukic scored in extra time, the English morale sank a fair bit. Still, England finally has a team, and will get to have a rematch with Belgium on Saturday for the third place.

Croatia fought like hell to be in the final, but it's hard to tell if they'll be in shape. Three matches with extra time (and 2 of them with penalties) probably left most of the squad a bit exhausted. Still, nothing is a given, and they might recover on time to deal with the likes of France. This is their first final ever, which means they've overcome the 1998 legacy.

Now they're going to face France. Back in 1998, Lilian Thuram scored his only goals for the French NT that knocked out that golden generation. Should be a Heroic Rematch.

Edited by Quag15 on Jul 11th 2018 at 9:47:42 AM

Apparently this is the first time Croatia has made to the final,so they deserved their win

Delenn beat Marcus.

Now no doubt the third place playoffs will be spun as brexit the game.

England was England. It was truly their game to lose, but if their cloud has any silver lining, I'm pretty sure that they've already exceeded most people's expectations this tournament (they've certainly exceeded mine), and this core generation still has another four years to grow and to learn and to, hopefully, improve. Come 2022, the majority of their current 23 will still be younger than Modrić is at present. They'll probably still be even younger than Belgium's current generation, for that matter.

Some interesting sidebar news, regarding Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Italy...

Per Football Italia, as it's generally understood that (at least) some of the €€BIG MONEY€€ involved in financing CR7's club transfer and new wages would be paid for by club sponsorships and Juventus's own parent company, Exor, who also own both Fiat and Ferrari, workers at a Fiat manufacturing plant in southern Italy are set to go on strike.

A public statement from a trade union associated with the plant reads, in part:

Edited by SeanMurrayI on Jul 11th 2018 at 10:57:41 AM

I wonder if Russian fans and English fans will find a small island of agreement in that Croatia must now fall.

As for me, I'm now torn. I really like the way France have gone forward in a way that just about every previous winning team could only hope to do...and this is pitted against my desire for the winner to be completely new, as represented by Croatia.

Comparatively, both blocks were rather uneven, at least looking at how the teams looked, weren't they?

Note that this is a parody video. Though Conte WAS sacked from Chelsea, this video is merely poking fun at him.

Here are the goals and some highlights of all WC matches prior to the third place match.

Belgium 2-0 England

Belgium didn't rotate a lot of players, unlike England, who made some 4/5 rotations. The Belgians wanted this more, with Meunier being assisted by Chadli and scoring in the first minutes of the match.

In the second half, England did try to equalize, which led to a great goal line clearance by Alderweireld. Some minutes later, Hazard (Eden) scored the killing goal.

With this result, this is Belgium's best ever performance in the World Cup, beating the 4th place they had gotten back in 1986.

Man, Belgium was killing it today. They'd probably have taken the cup with this team if France hadn't descended on them. That goal clearance was a beauty, as were most of their counterattacks in the second half.

Yeah Belgium only lost because France is just that ridiculously good this cup, given the way they played today. This is why I see France as the final victor tomorrow.

Edited by FFShinra on Jul 14th 2018 at 9:53:25 AM

So, how do you think this World Cup stacks up to Brazil 2014?

5x He sure had a crappy second year at Chelsea, and I'm gonna miss him like I miss Ancelotti.

But, hey, on the plus side, now I can turn my attention to the fact that my team's signed a new star player who can make my delusional dreams of starting up a terrace chant to the tune of Van Morrison's "Domino" halfway plausible. We can definitely make this work, let's see:

Ooooo-ooooh, Jorginho...

...Versatile in midfield roles???

...Passing with his twinkle-toes???

...Gazump'd from under City's nose???

...Better than Bakayoko???

(Don't laugh. I'm onto something here.)

Edited by SeanMurrayI on Jul 14th 2018 at 2:14:37 PM

I'm happy for the Belgians, this golden generation should have reached the final, but the fact that they're not leaving the tournament without medals is good enough. Better luck next time, I guess?

So, first legs of UEFA CL first qualification round passed this Wednesday, I'm too lazy to post the results and the goals, but in case there are other Kazakh or Montenegrin tropers reading this, here's my review of the Astana - Sutjeska match I was on:

1 - 0
Murtazayev, 29' (pen)

The match started at 8 pm, so the afternoon scorcher has already passed, though it was a bit humid for football. The attendance was about five to seven thousand people. On the one hand, the Astana ultras (for a lack of a better word) couldn't be any louder and brought the drums along, on the other hand, the low attendance made doing the human wave feel awkward. And the Champions League anthem is played only starting from the third qualification round, so I didn't get to hear the fanfares. And judging from how our side (Astana) has played in this match I don't get to hear the fanfares this year at all (either doing fun human waves on the stands while hearing the fanfares or seeing your team win, how's that for a dilemma?).

Our players were winning most of the challenges. The body language of the players of Montenegrin team conveyed they were either underfed or just survived a plane crash. The ball possession percentage in the first half of the game was something like 85 to 15 percent in Astana's favor. But most of the possession was in the middle of the pitch, it didn't actually translate into getting the ball into the final third. Our crossing was awful. Our forwards, while making runs into the openings of Sutjeska's defense (there were quite many of them) were either ignored, or the passes were made too late or inaccurate. Frankly, we were lucky we won this match: Murtazayev scored the penalty awarded for a foul in a harmless situation.

Astana can pass into the second round, sure, they are more than capable to hold on through 90 minutes in Nikšić next week, but there probably won't be a football autumn this year for us. The game our team played in the offence was unworthy of the Dramatic Thunder that curtained the match at Astana Arena.

Edited by Millership on Jul 15th 2018 at 12:40:02 AM

I was unable to watch the match because I was in an estate, though I could hear some of it through radio.

<12 hours before another World Cup Final kicks off.

The perfect time to take 75-minutes to revisit The Other Final—the superb documentary about the arrangement of an "alternative" final between FIFA's lowest-ranked nations (at the time), Bhutan (no. 202) and the Caribbean island of Montserrat (no. 203), on the same day in 2002 when Brazil would beat Germany in Japan. This story, including the unexpected snags and complications in the buildup to the game (Half of the Caribbean side succumbing to a virus on arrival in Thumphu; the referee failing to show; et. al.), is a must-see celebration of the underdog for Sunday league amateurs and millionaire internationals alike...

EDIT: Man, I totally forgot about JACK WARNER popping up in this and sitting down for an interview. CONCACAF misses you, Jack!

Edited by SeanMurrayI on Jul 14th 2018 at 11:30:26 AM

So, a few hours from the final, I think it's a good moment to ask for your thoughts about how the World Cup was and how do you think it compares to Brazil 2014.

England may not be in the final, but Néstor Pitana is indeed officiating, as I had hoped. That's good enough for me.

Man, that was a beautiful goal for Croatia.

1st half, France 2-1 Croatia

France didn't have to do much (only one shot on target, iirc) to get ahead. Griezmann will probably be accused of diving, in a controversial moment that led to the free-kick which led to the goal. Mandzukic has the dubious honour of being the very first player, after all these WC editions, to score an own goal in the final of the WC. Then again, this was a WC with plenty of own goals, so, it seems fitting.

10 minutes later, Perisic equalized with a lovely shot in the area. However, Perisic later made the mistake of handballing it, which led to Griezmann scoring the penalty and doing his Fortnite celebration. Croatia did try to equalize again during the last minutes of this half, but without success.

The second half will likely be just as interesting, as France can't afford to relax or shut down in their area.

Edited by Quag15 on Jul 15th 2018 at 5:00:13 PM

Oooooh, methinks it's over now. That's not easy to recover from. And well done to France, that was a nice goal.

EDIT: Well, the French goalkeeper just royally screwed up. I still don't think Croatia has much of a chance, but it was funny to see this, at least.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Jul 15th 2018 at 1:31:36 PM