The Football Thread - 17/18 Season

[Scisca]

RolStoppable said:

Scisca said:

Oh Rol, why are you doing this to yourself? Accept the fact that some people understand football better than you Think about the reasons for our quarrel - I told you England was terrible and Iceland was better. I told you Group B was by far the worst, worse than Group F. I told you that you were overestimating Spain. I told you Poland was a top 5 team, while you said Poland was worse than Czech Republic, Portugal, Croatia and England - yet here we are, Poland is still standing in the top 8, one game away from winning a medal, and out of your group of "better teams" only Portugal is left in the tournament, after barely getting out of its group in the 3rd place. You kept saying England was better and stood a chance to win the Cup, while they aren't even the best in the Isles Accept the fact, that I was right on all accounts. Look at your rank with all the changes you had to make in it and compare it to mine and how mine stands the test of time:

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=7954164

With hindsight I guess I should put Portugal one place higher - over England (Cristiano alone proved to be worth more than the English team) and drop Czech Rep under Wales. The rest stands if you ask me, and when you cut out the teams that are out, the rank is like this:

1. Italy
2. Germany
3. France
4. Poland
5. Belgium
6. Iceland
7. Portugal
8. Wales

I think it's the right order at this point. If our strikers were playing like they played half a year ago, I'd be putting Poland on 2nd or 3rd place. Probably 2nd, since in that case the final would be guaranteed, while at this point everything is still up in the air.

(...)

You have a very biased way of looking at our lists. I never put the Czech Republic above Poland (you've already provided the link, so it's easy to check for everyone). You put the CR at #8 while I had them at #14. I won't accept the "fact" that you were right on all accounts, because it isn't a fact. Better teams than Poland being eliminated before Poland isn't that surprising when you remember that those teams played against teams that are better than Poland. Meanwhile, Poland played against Switzerland and had luck on their side.

Also, there's still nobody except you who sees Poland as a top 5 team and we are already at the point where there only eight teams left in the tournament.

Not in the rank, but you said in a post that Czech Rep looks better than Poland, just like you've said this about the other teams I've listed. Plus, you put Austria ahead of us, but that is so ridiculous, that I don't even see the point of mentioning this, since you put it out of spite

Fact is, all the stuff I've said that was considered soooo controversial turned out to be true. And I am right with Poland being a top 5 team, no matter what you say. It really baffles me why it's so hard for you to admit that. We're at this stage of the cup despite Milik and Lewandowski being on strike - I think you're aware of what level of players we're talking about here? They play bad, which is sad, but they aren't bad players. Think how good this team is, when these stars play on their level, if we're still rolling with them sucking? I somehow don't see you devalueing Spain because their players play like crap, you keep them up there, probably still above Poland. Why the double standard? I'm sorry, but you seem to have a rather superficial understanding of football. Everyone will make a wrong call every now and then - it's sports, but so far this tournament isn't really surprising to me. And Poland is the better team, even though it can obviously lose to Portugal, just like Croatia did. I don't care what other people think, most people don't understand football and have no idea what to look at when judging a team. They see a team score a couple goals and go crazy about it, just like when you put Spain on the very top after they won with Turkey... I'm sorry, but that's laughable. To me Spain looked really bad in that game and lost a lot in my eyes and what do you know - they lost both of their following games. How surprising... Not. In fact, I wanted Poland to place second in the group, since I was expecting Spain to at least draw with Croatia, so that we'd play Spain in the quarterfinals - since I was 100% sure we'd defeat this terrible, terrible Spanish team, while Italy waiting on the other side of the bracket is a terrifying grindhouse. Turns out we're facing Portugal, against which we're the slight favourites as well, even though our team is underperforming - which makes me sad, since with strikers playing the way they played this whole season, we'd be a lock for the final and would tear all teams on this side of the bracket apart. At this point the final is still not out of the question, but by no means is it certain either. Unless strikers erupt, we look more like a team that only gets to the semis.

Look. We didn't beat Switzerland by luck. Taking penalties is part of the skillset (vide: Argentina). We are the better team with higher quality and better players. They scored only after a miracle circus shot, a bicycle kick from outside the penalty box, that went in off the post, when all their strikers were guarded tighly by our defenders - basically the goal of the tournament. A classic 100% scoring opportunity And that' the only goal we've lost so far. If that's what it takes to score on us, I'm fine with that You want to know, why we started the game great, dominated it, took the lead, but after 60-65 minute stopped playing? We played at 3 pm in scorching heat. It was one of the hottest days in last weeks. I'm not sure if you remember, but FIFA introduced 2 special 3 minute breaks in games played at that hour in World Cup in Brazil, because players can't make it through a game in such conditions. The conditions of our game were like the ones in Brasil (scorching sun, around 30 degrees), but there were no extra breaks. Now combine that with the fact, that Switzerland had 6 days of rest prior to the game, while we had only 4 and now you see why they tolerated the game better. It's not that Switzerland suddenly got better, or what Weaverworld says, that we had no clue on how to play. We simply ran out of fuel, which is understandable, when you play in such extreme conditions after having already played 3 games every 4 days. Swiss players entered the game much more rested and that's why they dominated the finish of the game and extra time. It's no rocket science.

I'm sorry, but you can't ignore this factor in your judgment. Time for rest is an important factor that people underestimate or ignore and then don't understand what they see on the pitch. Starting from the next stage, the winner of the game between Poland and Portugal will enjoy the same handicap that Switzerland had, which could be especially visible in the final (a bit less in the semis). We're playing on the 30th of June, while France-Iceland play their quarterfinal on the 3rd of July. We'll already forget about our game at this point. The semis are on the 6th and 7th, which means 6 days for the winner of pair A, 5 days for pair B, 5 days for pair C, 4 days for pair D. The final is on the 10th, which means 4 days for the team that rested 5-6 days, 3 days for team that rested 4-5 days. In a hypothetical final between Poland and France, we'd have Poland playing 3 games over 10 days and France playing 3 games over 7 days - another reason why I wanted Germany to win the group. This stuff adds up, especially at the end of a tournament. That's the nature of tournaments, it's good to be aware of it.

To give you extra insight on just how important this is, the first twitt after the game by Lewandowski was "I wish the Croatians and Portuguese have the pleasure of enjoying extra time as well". He knows how important it is to be at the same point physically and was so exhausted, that this was the thing he was thinking about. Fortunately, Poland and Portugal will play a fair game in this instance.