Crap, looks like Japan vs Belgium
Very poor effort by England. Really nice goal by Januzaj.
Oh I don’t think so. I’m very critical of England but they had some good chances and some decent possession. Very difficult to gauge where either of them are when they were both playing their second string line-ups.
Belgium certainly had the edge and all things being equal I’d say that they should be a goal better than us but I don’t think we’ve learned too much tonight that we didn’t already know.
Except for the one glaring miss by Rashford one-on-one with Courtois, England had nothing of note. By comparison, Belgium could (and perhaps should) have scored at least once in the first 15 min. of the game. England never did figure out how to use Vardy to any real degree (the trouble with playing Vardy, as Leicester City managers have found out, is that you have to set up your entire team around him), though Maguire at least had a better idea what to do with him. The real bright spot for England was the play of Loftus-Cheek; by comparison I thought that Delph and Dier were simply phoning it in a fair amount and Danny Rose’s inability to defend was exposed more often than just by the goal he gave up while having to pick up his jock strap from where it had fallen after he was completely juked by Januzaj.
It’s not that England were BAD (meaning couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag), but they weren’t GOOD in any meaningful way (meaning showing that they could actually step up in the knockouts and dominate a game). Given the tepid displays from Tunisia and Panama, the results of the first two games don’t really tell us much. Fortunately, it’s not like Columbia have anyone shaking in their boots, but the quarter-final match will be either Sweden or Switzerland, and as they each demonstrated in the group stages, they have the ability to push good teams to limits.
BTW: My pick for winning it all now that the prelims are done is France, over Croatia. Belgium v. Sweden in the third-place game (no pick there).
Octo-final winners: Portugal, France, Brazil, Belgium; Spain, Croatia, Sweden, England.
Quarter-final winners: France, Belgium; Croatia, Sweden (obviously, from my statements above)
Looking at the bracket - wow, yeah, one half is ridiculously stacked, maybe 2x as stacked as the other. England did a good job losing today.
This video is making some rounds on Facebook after Korea’s win over Germany.
Here are the updated odds after the group stage. Usual suspects are favored, with Brazil slightly better than at the beginning of the tournament.
Brazil 7/2
Spain 9/2
Belgium 6/1
England 15/2
France 17/2
Croatia 10/1
Argentina 12/1
Portugal/Uruguay/Colombia 22/1
What’s Russia paying?
Russia plays against Spain in the round of 16
I think what he meant was, what are the betting odds on Russia and what is the money one could get by betting on Russia.
66/1, which is also the same as Sweden and Mexico
Switzerland is at 33/1
Denmark is 80/1 and Japan 125/1
Surprising odds from Switzerland… they’ve been fairly solid.
I heard all eyes are in Neymar 2 days ago. What’s the latest update?
Fun fact. Mexico (except for 1986) have never gotten past the first KO stage. None of the teams they have been beaten by have ever won the WC. Despite getting whats, let face it, a bye.
2014: Netherlands
2010: Argentina
2006: Argentina
2002: USA
1998: Germany
1994: Bulgaria
1990: expelled
1986: QF (yay), lost the W Germany, who lost to Argnetina
TL: DR The Brazilians are fucked.
One of the SF will be Sweden, Switzerland, Columbia or England.
At best only one of the Semi Finalists from four years ago can make it gto the SF.
My SF:
Belgium v Argentina
Spain v Engalnd
WC Final: Argentina v Spain. Ramos breaks both of Messis legs in the final and is “pushed” by Augero; getting him sent off. An early Rojo goal is equalised in 90+5 by a Ramos header (despite injury time only being 3 minutes) and the Sapinish win 4-1 in injury time. Flipe VI abdicates in favour of King Sergio. Civil war in Catalunya.
*England beat Belgium 4-0 in the Third Place match with Harry Kane getting a hatrick, and we hear about it for the next 275 years.
Incidentally if Portugal win the World Cup, does Ronaldo become the GOAT?
I think so. IMO, he already is the BOAT (best of all time). The GOAT, to me as a fan of American sports, is someone who transcends the sport beyond his or her performance on the field, to the point of being a legend. Kind of like the Lebron vs. Jordan debate in the NBA. Muhammad Ali is the GOAT in boxing but nowhere close to the best boxer of all time. Babe Ruth and Wayne Gretzky have an argument for being both. So for Cristiano to surpass Pele or Maradona, especially while playing in the same era as Messi, would be a stretch. And a World Cup win could be that tipping point.
I had a beautiful fantasy that the coaches and captains would understand the ridiculousness of the situation, and make an arrangement beforehand to play a normal friendly for 85 minutes (i.e. trying to win, but also trying not to get injured), then use the last 5 minutes to ensure a tie score and extra yellow for England, so it would have to go to a coin flip. That way, there’d be a real match (as real as a friendly can get with actual important games coming up soon, anyway), and the only shenanigans are to give a neutral result.
Yeah, I’d say Sweden v Switzerland is the closest game to a toss-up in the Octos.