Was flying across the Pacific yesterday and missed all the World Cup discussion.
Is there some sort of sports maxim that the higher the stakes of a game, the likelier it is to end in a 1-0 outcome? I assume it’s because both teams are super-tight and anxious and would rather play cautiously. We’ve had three World Cup finals recently that ended 1-0. Although we did have wild France-Croatia and Argentina-France high-scorers too.
I still say Ebu Martinez should be man of the match, he was magnificent with his many saves. I also don’t know why Argentina played like passive cowards in the game given that they know from watching England what the consequences are of being cowardly.
That reminds me of an article I read a while back about the unique fan culture at FC St. Pauli (a German club which has made leftist politics a central part of their brand). It mentioned that most St. Pauli fans also support Bayern (St. Pauli usually isn’t in the first division). It seemed odd that these radicals would support a rich club from a conservative region, but with this context it makes sense.
The anti-fascist stance may be a factor in the fan friendship between St. Pauli and Bayern, but Uli Hoeneß and Bayern also once saved them from bankruptcy. I told the story a few months ago in the omnibus football thread:
Yes, that. And that Bayern helped St.Pauli to survive financially when they were almost bankrupt:
In 2003, FC Bayern Munich travelled to FC St. Pauli for a charity match – to give the financially struggling local club a helping hand. It marked the beginning of a friendship that continues to this day.
The only club shirts I have are Bayern and St. Pauli!
I’ve never seen Bayern in person and may not, but we’re loosely planning a trip to the Hamburg area in the next year or so, and a stop at Millerntor Stadion is on the list.
A few neat things you see if you do a google search right now. If you do Spain National Team, it shows fireworks on the result page. If you search for Mbappé you see a trophy rolling up the page that says Golden Boot World Cup award. I imagine if you do searches for other World Cup related teams/players you would get something similar. For Mbappé, they had a kind of conffeti thing right after the 3rd place game since he broke the World Cup Scoring record, now it is just the trophy.
Nothing of the sort, Spain played so well that neutralized all possibility of attack, if our midfield had been in the state they were in Qatar things would’ve probably been different (or may be not, Spain was scary good) as it was we could only resist (and did it successfully for far more time than England) and hope for a miracle (especially after Enzo had his attack of the stupids and got sent off) or more likely try to win it in the penalty shoots.
I think the presence of Messi all game really stymied Argentina. He didn’t have the energy or stamina, so held back until late in games. That explains all the late scoring in their games. It would’ve been a risky, but ballsy move, to have him come in the 2nd half. Let your other world class creators and scorers try to get a goal early, and then have Messi come in at 60 minutes. They definitely had the defense and goalkeeping to hold Spain goalless anyway,
In any case, what a thoroughly deserved victory by Spain. I overlooked them, as their lineup just seemed so starless. Complete contrast to their 2010 championship, in which every single one of their 14 players (minus perhaps Capdevila) are all-time legends of the game (and even they were held goalless deep into extra time in the final). I think only Rodri has accomplishments to those levels, although I’m sure Yamal, Cubarsi, and maybe Olmo can get there.
I thought Argentina had a multi-layered strategy. First, employ their gamesmanship so hard they get under the Spanish players’ skin to take them out of their game, mentally and then physically, and hit Spain on the resulting break caused by a Spanish overreaction. If that didn’t work, Plan B was to play for pens.
I think we’ve probably moved on from the ‘move the free kick forward’ thing, but what the heck, I’ll just chip in anyway with my recollections. This was tried at one point (early 2000s if memory serves?), I think to copy rugby union, but was abandoned because territory just isn’t as important as in that sport, and in some cases a very dangerous free kick from, say, 28.5 yards turned into a less dangerous one from 18.5 yards (because it’s very difficult to get the ball up and down past a wall from such a short distance). I think it was originally introduced to try and stop dissent and players standing in front of the ball preventing a quick free kick. It didn’t last long.
Believe it or not, until 1990 not a single team that participated in a World Cup final failed to scored in it. Since then it has become a very common occurence: 1 0, 0 0, 3 0, 2 0, 1 1, 1 0, 1 0, 4 2, 3 3, 1 0.
The Schalke rumour came about because they were the most successful team in Germany during the 1930s. I remember one of their directors pointing out it was like claiming Liverpool must be Thatcher’s team because of their success in the 80s
It seems that the next World Cup tournament will be the first when a reigning champion is (a) host. I figure Spain has to be the odds-on favorite for that tournament in the way-too-early betting.
Hope to see everyone back in 2030! This one was fun.
Spain fans must be worrying about that, there’s a theory stating that not participating in qualifiers tend to have a deleterious effect on teams, I for one think it has merits.
While we’re on the subject, the host nations in 2030 will be Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. Additionally, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Cup, the first three group stage matches will take place in Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay.
Obviously the hosts always have an advantage but one team is going to have to play a single away match in Argentina which I find ridiculously unfair on them from a sporting point of view.
Leaving aside Uruguay and Italy pre-WWII (different times and qualifying methods), I see: England won in England 66, Germany won in Germany 74, Argentina won in Argentina 78, France won in France 98. If you consider that the host teams that did not win include Qatar, South Africa, Japan and Korea, and the USA (twice), teams that, frankly, never had a chance, no matter how much they cheated, it seems to me that not playing the qualifyers is an advantage. And nowadays probably even more so, considering how long and dense the seasons are. Not to mention the reduced injury risk.
I would consider Spain and Morocco among the favourites four years early. Portugal has a chance without CR7, we’ll see. And France will still have Mbappé and Dembelé.
Seems like a long way away today, hope to read from you all then! Bitching about the USA and Mafiantino has been fun.
And I am sure VAR will have improved a lot until then
