Football Thread 21/22

[LipeJJ]

RolStoppable said:

LipeJJ said:

Don’t be so sure. Everyone, except Spain, was bad this first round. This team is definitely better than 2014’s and it’s campaign to the WC proved it (was the best one all around), but today it played badly.

The common expectation I've been seeing over many years is that there should be teams that more or less dominate a tournament from start to finish, but that's something that is only very rarely the case. The important thing to remember about the group stage is that teams can afford to play draws or suffer one loss. Teams that looked dreadful on matchday 1 can turn it around, teams that looked good can falter.

All of the big favorites for the title struggling so far is actually a good thing for impartial viewers. A slap in the face that humbles players makes it more likely that they will try to play to their fullest potential, plus the necessity to score goals spices up the group stage.

That’s true. It happened in the recent past too. Spain lost to Switzerland in the first match of the 2010 WC and then they got their shit together. I hope you’re right and the favorites try their best and up their games as a result.