I’ve never seen Saudi Arabia play with this much skill before. In the past I’ve seen them play with a lot of energy, playing like little Energizer bunnies when the other side starts slowing down. But this year they are just so much better.
There’s the final whistle. Wow. I can’t believe it. The part of me that’s an Argentina fan believes it, of course. They always find a way to mess it up. But Saudi? Wow.
Heh, I haven’t seen any games either. I agree; as much as I love world soccer, watching it play out in Qatar feels icky.
Whose hand is it though? Or does it change with whomever has the biggest wallet?
What in the world?
I suppose this makes a dream final of Argentina vs Brazil slightly more likely. Provided, of course, that La Albiceleste make it out of the group stage, which is no sure thing anymore.
Our response would be obvious.
But certain, non European, countries/cultures might be decidely unfussed about this symbol.
Oh I agree with this (edit: indeed, I said as much upthread), but what if in 2026 a country, or group thereof, decides they want to represent a group/some values we dont like?
For example Qatar displaying homophobic stuff?
Danes getting pressed into a bad place by Tunisia. They can’t get or maintain possession for more than a pass or two.
With so many teams playing a pressure game, it’ll be fascinating to see how subsequent matches go, whether they wear down through the tournament.
Man what happened to Argentina? I was working…
Thought they were favourites?
Still, Spain in 2010 did lose one of their initial matches iirc?
Just watched the highlights.
3 goals offside? Seems more like bad luck than bad play from Argentina.
So when another team presses up on every ball relentlessly, what’s the counter-tactic? Is it to try to run the legs off the pressing team? “Oh you want to sprint at the ball? Great, run all you like for the next 25 minutes or so…”
Or, is it the quick counter long-ball to catch the pressed-up team out of shape and position?
Incredible save by Schmeichel. Might’ve come back for offside, but still.
Yeah, that was a golden opportunity for Tunisia.
Maybe? I’m just saying it’s a slippery slope fallacy. We can permit X without also permitting Y, even if you think Y should be prohibited.
Should I ever in life need a pacemaker, I’m asking for the Eriksen model.
All viewpoints are not created equal. That’s what makes this sort of thing (that is, human society and philosophies of morality) so complicated :).
Off sides! Lucky for Tunisia.
Erling Haaland needs to register as “Scandinavian” and just attach himself to whichever of Norway, Sweden or Denmark qualifies for a tournament. The Danes are just so toothless up front.
You basically play some short passes in the defence and midfield to “spring the press” and find the open player who rapidly makes yards upfield and looks for the open player in front of him. Sometimes if you have time on the ball you can switch the play with a long crossfield ball, either way the open player joins those players upfield who will generally be one on one with the defenders not pressing, the guy carrying the ball makes the extra man and from there you have an overload.
This is why you see fullbacks so high and wide up the pitch nowadays
If you have a big target man (a la Wales) then you can aim for him, let him bring it down and build from there but that usually is a slower build up as you have to get around him and support him as he lays the ball off, usually he is covered by 2 or 3 players once the ball is played up to him. You could see the difference once Wales made their sub at half time, they had an “out ball” that meant their less technical players weren’t hunting for a pass that was difficult for them.
You can definitely try and tire the opposition out by simply keeping the ball but that is a high risk strategy really, you make one mistake and you are usually punished. It’s far more effective to spring the press and force those 5, 6 or 7 forward pressers into a lung busting run to get back and cover, but if you have the players and can be confident you won’t make a mistake it’s very effective.
It’s also a good way of creating frustration in the opposition forward line, eventually the midfielders will simply tire too much to press effectively and you will see the opposition forwards waving their hands in frustration as they close a man down only to see a simple pass to an unmarked colleague, you could see in the 2nd half as Iran simply ran out of gas versus England the Iranian forward started berating his colleagues.
The XG on that Cornleius chance was 0.829.
He did well to hit the post there.
They really are, very little presence up front at all. No physicality, pace or trickery. It’s all very rudimentary.