~Soccer Thread~

[FearlessF]

[ELA]

If Spain and Portugal win today, off the top of my head, it sets up the best QF round in as long as I've seen.  You have 6 of the top 8 teams in the world, #10 Netherlands, with the one "underdog" being #16 Croatia, who made the finals in the last World Cup

Plus you wind up with some geographic rivals in England-France and Spain-Portugal

[utee94]

And, since I picked basically European chalk + Brazil and Argentina in my office pool, I'll be sitting pretty, minus Belgium's early exit.

[GopherRock]

The Morocco goalie was nails in the shootout.

[MarqHusker]

Listened in car.  Announcer fantastic description. 

[ELA]

The Morocco goalie was nails in the shootout.

He made himself some money.  He's on loan to Sevilla now

[ELA]

I was also thinking about how the expansion makes qualification nearly irreverent.  My thought is to do two tournaments.  A worldwide qualification tournament, as a midterm, and then a 32 team final every 4 years.  Both the format and the number of teams included are terrible going forward.  But just as a point, here are the additional 16 teams who would have qualified under the current format, based on the qualifying tournament, with their current FIFA rank...

• #17 Colombia
• #23 Peru
• #25 Sweden
• #27 Ukraine
• #32 Nigeria
• #37 Algeria
• #39 Egypt
• #46 Mali
• #60 Panama
• #64 Jamaica
• #65 North Macedonia
• #68 Iraq
• #70 UAE
• #74 El Salvador
• #75 Oman
• #105 New Zealand

This also tells me, all of the additional bids need to come from Europe, South America, and Africa.  CONCACAF, Asia and OFC are fine as is

[ELA]

Neymar is the most overrated player of this generation

[SFBadger96]

Is he? He was clutch in that game today. Don't think Brazil's failure to pack the defending third at the end is on him.

[ELA]

Is he? He was clutch in that game today. Don't think Brazil's failure to pack the defending third at the end is on him.

Brazil is now going on 24 years without a title, despite him being surrounded by penty of talent.  He won one champion league, thanks to Messi.

Name another supposedly great player, who has spent his entire career surrounded by talent, who has won less? I'm not saying he's bad, he's a great player, but he is no generational talent. If he isn't the most overrated player of the past 10 to 15 years, then who is?

[SFBadger96]

I don't know, man, the international football gods can be harsh. But it's an 11-man game, not a 1-man game, and his teammates let him down today, despite a brilliant goal that should have won it for them. He just tied Pele's record for men's goals for Brazil. That's not nothing.

No skin off my back--he's no Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe, or Haaland. But he does play for Brazil, so maybe he shouldn't have to be? So if we're blaming national team failures on one player, how about Harry Kane?

[ELA]

Harry Kane is good, but he's never been put in that "best player in the world" discussion.  Neymar has, and has been surrounded by more talent than anyone in that discussion other than probably Mbappe, and he's never won anything, other than one Champions League title, when he had Messi.

[SFBadger96]

I guess I've never given Neymar even a thought as being a "best player in the world." Really, really good, absolutely.

So if that's a legitimate thought about him, yes, I would say overrated. Best player in Brazil, yes. And that's saying something. But he was never remotely as good as Messi or Ronaldo, and Mbappe and Haaland (assuming his current arc) have already passed him by. But he fairly belongs in the next tier of his competitors with Suarez, Benzema, Modric, Ibrahimovich, Alvez, Ramos, Lewondowski, Salah, etc. I guess it never even occurred to me that people would think best of his generation.

[ELA]

Then yes, he's fine there.  I frequently see him lumped in with Messi and Ronaldo