They kept it close and didn’t try to play beyond their ability. That means parking the bus and looking dreadful. They were in it till well into the second half. It was a credible performance against an offensive powerhouse. They didn’t embarrass themselves in their first WC match imo.
Ill give myself one more chance to put my foot in my mouth.
I believe that England is a strong dark horse candidate to make it to the final. They have a strong young squad much like Germany in 14. Gareth Southgate is the perfect coach to guide this team. I think both England and Belgium easily qualify and the group will be decided in their matchup in game day 3. It doesn’t really matter who wins the group as Group H is void of the big nations.
Nah, I think they have a better shot in 2022. The World Cup is usually won by teams which had talented youngsters in the previous edition. Germany had players like Ozil, Khedira, Nauer, Ozil, with Kroos on the bench in 2010, while Spain had Torres, Villa, Ramos, Alonso, Fabregas and Iniesta in 2006 and Italy had Totti, Buffon,Zambrotta, and Gattuso in 2002 (Pirlo would get called up right after the WC).
It takes a little while to adjust to international football and gel as a team, I think it was Puyol who said that a tournament match at international level is played with a heavier intensity than Cup finals at club level; everyone is going flat out.
I agree with your analysis but there doesn’t seem to be a clear favorite. And both England and Belgium have fairly easy paths to the quarters.
You are free to think as you want, but defeating the previous champion and losing by only one goal against a middle of the pack European team do not, for me, mean “being a serious contender”, everybody except perhaps Asia is a serious contender if that is all it takes.
As I said before, the second teams of the 3 main South American teams could qualify if they played in the CONCACAF.
So I read that FIFA can deduct points from a team or even expel a team from the World Cup if its fans/supporters make racist/homophobic chants during the game.
Obviously, this is intended as a deterrent against fan behavior, but what prevents a group of fans from deliberately false-flagging a rival team? Have a bunch of Argentine fans dressed as Brazilian fans and chanting racist slurs over the course of multiple games to try to get Brazil docked points or expelled?
Interesting…, do you know any racist or homophobic slur in Portuguese? asking for a friend…
Which is complete bullshit. COMENBOL teams are living 9th their past glory. Could Brazil and Argentina qualify? Probably yes. Any of the rest its a toss up. Only really Germany would easily qualify in the New World. The other big Euro nations would have a struggle on their hands.
If I was King of FIFA I would eliminate regional qualifying with international qualifying based on FIFA ranking: #1 plays #200 etc and so on until we get our final 48.
fair enough, perhaps “dreadful” was too strong on my part. I reserve that for Saudi Arabia.
Anyhoo, England v Tunisia to start. Tunisia are the top-rated African nation and the England team is very young and very inexperienced but there is enough quality in there to do some damage if they can play to their plan and their strengths.
I expect it to be close with England winning by the odd goal.
BTW the 3rd best S American team couldn’t qualify with their first team and Argentina barely squeaked through.
“Their past glory” of 4 years ago when CONMEBOL teams were in the second and fourth position and no CONCACAF team… I don’t know passed the quarter finals?
If all the americas, from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska played a unified qualifying group only Mexico and perhaps the USA would qualify from time to time of any of the CONCACAF teams.
Money and a large media market have given the CONCACAF countries’ people an inflated sense of their own status in football.
And watse-of-Sterling misses a chance. Why is he even starting? They should have played Vardy with Kane as two strikers.
For the 7 plus two play in places? Haha. Once we are past Brazil and Argentina the field is wide open. And Argentina is fading.
When the CONCACAF teams were invited to Copa América Centenario - Wikipedia they did well. The USA finished ahead of Brazil.
The world is a much smaller place. The gaps in quality have narrowed.
I agree. Sterling has horrible composure. He was dreadful in a few of the vital late city games for Man City. But he has pace.
So we’ll se Panama in the quarter finals this year? and Mexico will finally get to the Semis?
There is a female color commentator on Telemundo. A first as far as I know.
Panama will be joining Peru in the quarters. 
Mexico is a wild card. If they avoid Brazil in the round of 16 they might just make the semifinals. They shut out Germany.
First match jitters. Never put too much stock on the first match.
And Cameroon shut out previous champion Argentina in 1990 and Switzerland defeated Spain in it’s first game in 2010 inaugurating the current African and Alpine dominance in the world cup…