World Cup: 2018 FIFA World Cup

[Stray Wasp]

Kante found his luck abroad? What the heck are you talking about? I told about his talents right here when he was in L1 !
And a demographic merit? How so?
No it has to do with the scouting, the double nationalites and more importantly, the efforts France has done for decades towards academies, with amateur football extremely funded by pro football.

Ban this communistic talk.

We want dog-eat-dog, asset stripping, selling every playing field you can. Singing God Save the Queen louder is the key.

 

[Deficient Mode]

Ban this communistic talk.

We want dog-eat-dog, asset stripping, selling every playing field you can. Singing God Save the Queen louder is the key.

I thought the queen was a left wing icon now after she got annoyed at Trump on camera????????

 

[Stray Wasp]

I thought the queen was a left wing icon now after she got annoyed at Trump on camera????????

If she is, the left wing are going to be sadly disappointed in her.

 

[Albatros]

Griezmann had to go to Spain early because no French academy accepted him, Kanté was still playing in the 9th league when he was nineteen and could make it forward only because the club president personally arranged him an opportunity in the 5th league reserves of a second league club. Even there no one for a long time believed in him because he like Griezmann was deemed too small to play professional football. Maybe these attitudes are changing now, but for years the French were rather clueless in their youth development and just emphasized size and strength at the expense of more diverse skill sets.

 

[Evilo]

Clueless in their youth development?
The YT program who forms the most pro players in the world

What you described is certainly not being clueless, it's making choices (and some I disputed for years BTW). Not only have their things evolved, but that doesn't make your point any more right.

 

[Evilo]

Anyway, so far, the organisation of this WC has been incredibly perfect.

 

[Chandrashekhar Limit]

Meh

 

[MaxV]

Not surprising that history was made in this game and it’s very fitting for this tournament.

Mandzukic becomes the first player ever to score own goal in WC final.

 

[maclean]

Griezmann had to go to Spain early because no French academy accepted him, Kanté was still playing in the 9th league when he was nineteen and could make it forward only because the club president personally arranged him an opportunity in the 5th league reserves of a second league club. Even there no one for a long time believed in him because he like Griezmann was deemed too small to play professional football. Maybe these attitudes are changing now, but for years the French were rather clueless in their youth development and just emphasized size and strength at the expense of more diverse skill sets.

But undersized players are undervalued everywhere. The fact is they made it through both of them despite that, and it's a false narrative to say that it was only thanks to others developing them. If a player makes it to the NHL despite being undrafted, it is not generally considered some kind of "failure" by the NHL drafting system. The fact that you can name a couple of smallish players it took a bit longer to break through is not something you couldn't find in any other system in the world, perhaps still struggling to break through in most other places.

 

[Albatros]

Even if they ultimately made it through elsewhere thanks to their immense ability and perseverance, it's still a bad system if your top talents have to play abroad or in the domestic bush leagues while the academies are full of one-dimensional nobodies. And all these things happened while the Spanish neighbors were having tremendous success thanks to their own small guys.

 

[Evilo]

One dimensional nobodies...
Your top talents...
Domestic bush league...



I think the fact Fabregas and Pique had to get playing time elsewhere than in Spain shows the spanish teams get it all wrong...

Wait, that'd be stupid.

 

[Hadoop]

Masterful from France and DD. They knew coming in their best chance to win a short tournament with so many great teams was to keep it simple and play to the strengths of their world-class players (i.e. Varane, Kante, Pogba, Mbappe and Griezmann) and that is exactly what they did (i.e. be a rock on D, destroy and press in midfield and be industrious and counterattack on offense). Obviously they caught a few breaks along the way (VAR today, Meunier's injury in the semi-final, etc.) but their style of play was consistent and in a tournament where the more ambitious powerhouses crashed out they were the elite team that was most capable of forcing their opponents to play on their terms.

 

[PanniniClaus]

Thank you Russia. I always hit a little low when this tourney ends.

Helps knowing that the Premier League gets going in less than a month.

Cheers to France.....

 

[koyvoo]

FIFA awards Spain the FairPlay award...

 

[kovacro]

FIFA awards Spain the FairPlay award...

Should of given it to Japan, they advanced to the knockout based on fair play.

 

[Evilo]

Why Spain? Weird.

Anyway, I'll write it here again since it probably got lost in the other thread.
France is the second youngest WC winning squad in history, one month older than Brazil 70.

 

[Suiteness]

Lots of kids around the world with Messi jerseys currently begging their parents to buy them Mbappé jerseys now.

 

[Ceremony]

One dimensional nobodies...
Your top talents...
Domestic bush league...



I think the fact Fabregas and Pique had to get playing time elsewhere than in Spain shows the spanish teams get it all wrong...

Wait, that'd be stupid.

This is a pretty redundant comparison, since it's not as if Griezmann or Kante or whoever else was unable to get playing time in the first team of one of the biggest clubs in the world who had the best players in the world in their respective positions.

Knowing little to nothing of the realties of French footballing development (and certainly less than you) my opinion isn't worth much. But as someone whose domestic football is run abominably, whose national team's best player was let go by the best team in the country at fifteen because he was too small, I think there's a legitimate criticism to be made of a program which produces players of the individual and collective ability of this France team (and others not in the squad), and the relative low prestige/continental success of club teams.

Not that I think two hours after seeing my country win the World Cup is a good time to be arguing about it on the internet either, mind.

 

[Evilo]

Most french players move to foreign teams because that's where the money is.

 

[Evilo]

Absolutely great idea going on on the Arc de Triomphe.
Every first name and face of each player is reflected on the Arc de Triomphe, with the town they grew up in. The motto is "it's in France we won it".

Brilliant.

 

[Nalens Oga]

Lots of kids around the world with Messi jerseys currently begging their parents to buy them Mbappé jerseys now.

Didn't Mbappe whine like a bitch till he got his PSG move or am I remembering wrong? Not a Messi fan but I don't think he ever did something like that.

 

[Evilo]

No, he didn't.

 

[N o o d l e s]

Absolutely great idea going on on the Arc de Triomphe.
Every first name and face of each player is reflected on the Arc de Triomphe, with the town they grew up in. The motto is "it's in France we won it".

Brilliant.

Tim Peel thinks this should be erected in Africa

 

[cgf]

Absolutely great idea going on on the Arc de Triomphe.
Every first name and face of each player is reflected on the Arc de Triomphe, with the town they grew up in. The motto is "it's in France we won it".

Brilliant.

I may not like the ramifications your victory could have on german football if we lend too much credence to the screaming old men who hated the way we played in 2014...but that's awesome.

 

[Chandrashekhar Limit]

Lots of kids around the world with Messi jerseys currently begging their parents to buy them Mbappé jerseys now.

Is this a joke?