That would’ve been some Lewy highlight goal.
Good for Lewandowski!
Lewy scores, easily. It’s unbelievable that it’s his first goal in a WC, but it’s true.
Well football doesn’t really work like that. In maths terms, the teams aren’t constants.
Pretty much any of the sides in the tournament are capable of an off-day and similarly are capable of playing out of their skins. Various combinations of those mean that the outwardly logical calculations you suggest don’t really work.
Applying logic to football is a path to insanity.
This.
Additionally team A can be easier to defeat for team B than for team C, but C can be harder for B, is more like a jiggsaw puzzle than arithmetic.
If the strengths of a team match the weaknesses of the other they can win but there’s no guarantee than future opponents will have the same strengths and weaknesses.
It’s a bit like the old boxing adage “styles make fights”, probably less explicit in football than boxing but it is somewhat true nonetheless.
England was playing more cautiously against the US than they did Iran…none of that commutative stuff works in sports.
Next up for the US: start Reyna?
I get that relative strength of teams is not really something quantitative, but usually there is some predictive rhyme or reason to it.
In the long term, yes. That’s why the end result of a long season over dozens of games is never a fluke. The team on top really were the best over that period and though one-off shocks happen they are drowned out by the long-term performances.
With a single game though? Over a short knockout tournament? One-off results will happen and have a huge effect. That’s the beauty of the game, a decent degree of unpredictability is baked into every individual match.
I wouldn’t say never a fluke. Recently in the EPL Liverpool could have won a couple seasons City won and City could have won a Liverpool’s championship season, so the best team in those seasons is debatable. Much much less variance than in knockout tournaments though.
However, while the Euros and Copa America have had teams win that arguably weren’t the best, when’s they last time that happened in the WC? Every world cup in my watching career was arguably the best team in the world vs Greece winning the Euros
I would say though that “fluke” doesn’t really apply in those cases. Two very closely matched teams were hard to separate. Neither of them winning those trophies would count as a fluke for me.
Denmark as well at Euro 92 were absolutely a surprise.
I don’t think there has ever been an unworthy World Cup winner, the length of the tournament overall ensures that you are likely to get quality teams at the sharp end.
But along the way you do get surprise results at the group stages and certainly at the knock-out stages. Were Italy truly the best team in the world in 2006?
2006 might be the weakest winner of the last 20 years, but looking back that roster is still damn solid. Totti, Pirlo, Cannavaro, and Buffon are all legends. Gattuso and Materrazi have their places. But France were maybe more talented so perhaps worthy vs best is a useful distinction. Kinda don’t like the connotation though. I would say Greece were worthy winners of Euro 2004 because they played exactly as they need to to win. Don’t know what a better word would be.
eta: 1954 was surely a worse team winning, and perhaps 1974 as well.
Mbappe remains amazing.
Denmark equalize against the run of play as I was composing this post.
taps the sign
That goal was half Griezmann’s for his wonderful and precise cross. The French offensive force is incredible.
Yeah, and they have their place too. It’s not just throwing out their best players. Giroud might score, might not, Griezmann too. But whether or not their attackers are scoring they’re contributing.
With the win France becomes the first team to make it to the elimination stage. No matter what happens in the next matches, they are through.
//i\\
Ok. Here we go!
FRA-DEN was a nice warming up; but I never thought the French were in trouble. Now we’re gonna see the first serious matchup of the tournament.
Looking forward to this.
Todo o nada for Messi.
IMHO, FRA-DEN was the best game overall of the tournament so far.
It was the best “affice” on paper so far. But I think Mexico is a stronger side than Denmark.
Made all the more fun because both (ARG && MEX) have little chance to continue if they lose or draw.