World Cup: QF: Russia vs. Croatia, 7/7/2018

[N o o d l e s]

Brazil is not the power it once was. Their last team that was a typical Brazil team was probably in the 80s. I remember when Dunga was criticised for not being artsy enough. And post world cups mean very little too. I wonder which player of the current team has active memories going back to their last win. In any case, it has little to do with the population size of each winner. Uruguay wears a couple of stars "(two or four, take your pick), West Germany won with barely 60m, Russia and the US play a small roll despite being highly populated, Italy has around 60m. It has everything to do with the structures, the chances and if that is about equal, it has to do with coinciding peaks and form of the team. Make no mistake, Belgium loves their footy.

I can’t understand, with all the young talent that is filtering around Europe, why guys like Renato Augusto and Paulinho and others not only make the roster, but play. They have the talent in house but their selections seem strange.

 

[koyvoo]

I believe Carlos Alberto Pereira was the first one who sacrilegiously uttered- “#%£¥ joga bonito!” Lol

 

[Eisen]

I can’t understand, with all the young talent that is filtering around Europe, why guys like Renato Augusto and Paulinho and others not only make the roster, but play. They have the talent in house but their selections seem strange.

I can't tell. I have little opportunity to watch the Brazilian league, only some snippets late night of important games and not even regularly. I see more of the J-League...

 

[koyvoo]

I mean, you’re always going to wave that sort of depth but sometimes in can shoot you in the foot. It’s easier to make the wrong or questionable choices. It def brings more opportunities for scrutiny and second guessing if things don’t go well.

But at the final squad point, the depth of quality advantage is diminished. Especially as the gaps between tiers of quality are getting smaller and smaller. Brazil might have 125 legit top quality choices compared to another countries 30 choices. But it matters less when it’s whittled down to a 23 man squad.

 

[RandV]

I think we need to consider the context to Russia overperforming.

On seeing the group they'd drawn, who didn't expect them to reach the round of 16? True to expectations, they beat the two weaker teams in the group. Then the one good opponents they faced at that stage played beat them by three clear goals- a wider margin than I'd imagined likely.

Yeah the way I look at it with this being Russia as the host country and all the corruption that surrounds FIFA the random group seedings look highly suspect (I'm sure it's been talked about to death but I've only recently tuned in). But after that getting to the elimination games full credit to the team for pulling off an upset win and almost another in front of the home crowd.

 

[N o o d l e s]

Re: Russia, I said that Spain team wasn’t as great as everyone made it out to be. I was shocked some people had them winning but the entire thing. Very top heavy. I asked who was going to score the goals. Costa is very volatile and inconsistent. On top of that, they had a coaching change on the eve of the tournament. Add that to the home support Russia got and it shouldn’t be surprising.

 

[Eisen]

I believe Carlos Alberto Pereira was the first one who sacrilegiously uttered- “#%£¥ joga bonito!” Lol

And Dunga was his captain was in 94