The Football Thread - 17/18 Season

[Player2]

Wyrdness said:

Player2 said:

 

So they defeated a bunch of teams that (at the time) had never won anything and France, which was a shadow of its former self despite the presence of overhyped Arsenal players (it was knocked out in the group stage of the previous WC and had lost key players like Djorkaeff and Deschamps (and other players were too old, like Desailly and Lizarazu)).

Czech Republic lost his star player due to a knee injury in the match against Greece, which supports my theory.

The French team then was one of the strongest teams by far (Zidane, Viera, Makelele, Henry, Thuram, Trezaguet etc...) what are you on about? That same team reached the final of the WC 2 years later and the was only two or so Arsenal players and in regards to Henry and Viera they were world class, Holland has never won a WC does that take anything away from any team that beats them? No fact is like it or not Greece were the better team even if their football was negative, Nedved also got injured at the end of the match. The best football is not necessarily the most attractive.

Yes, the same team, except for the fact that Vieira wasn't injured in the 2006 WC, and top class players like Dacourt (who?) or Silvestre (I'm sure our resident Premier League followers than aren't Man U fans will have fond memories of him) who got replaced with nobodies like Eric Abidal or Franck Ribery. How they managed to reach the WC final after those changes is a mistery.

Getting injured after 40 minutes is near the end of a match with extra time? Pfft.

Vieira wasn't better than Deschamps, and yes, Henry is overrated. He was no good without spaces to take advantage of his speed, which means he's useless against an overly defensive team like Greece (same thing goes for a guy who is useless at offense like Makelele).