Lurker > RyoCaliente

ctesjbuvf posted...

Today is a good day to sort out bad sports media outlets or reporters from your feeds, basically removing any that says Argentina showed lack of class by mocking the dutch after winning upon that fight of a match, in which it was most of the dutch players that kept crossing the mid line to mock any Argentine player walking back or forward from shooting.

In other words, I know today will be all about England and France but I am pretty hyped to see the first match as well.

Like Martinez did? Both the Argentinians and the Dutch were classless, but I definitely feel the Argentines were more classless.

I believe this is what the young'uns refer to when they say: "kek"

Snake5555555555 posted...

I like this a lot!

Yeah, I love the haunting sound it has.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN7PIFjukZQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdRUMqds5r8

If you thought Japan's penalties were bad, Spain took "hold my cerveza" to a whole other level.

XIII_Rocks posted...

Um, yes? 2010 Germany were young and unproven, and that squad has Terry, Cole, Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney - proven world-class players in the latter stages of CL. Barry and Carrick were also both terrific players and Lennon was in hiscbest ever form around that time.

The big loss is Ferdinand, who typically performed well with Terry but missed that tournament.

It's some weird-ass revisionist history to say England's players in 2010 were anything less than excellent. Certainly a step below Spain's side at the time, but I wouldn't say anyone else's. Again, English teams got to CL finals almost every year around that time - often knocking out other English teams on the way - and the core of England's starting XI were key in those teams (Terry, Cole, Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney. Barry was also excellent and would go on to win the title with City two years later, playing almost every league game).

There are weaknesses and Capello did his best to expose those weaknesses, but to say it's anything other than a very high-quality group of players is silly.

Also worth pointing out that England should have never played Germany in that tournament, because they failed to win a group that was just as easy as the one they had this time. Because of terrible management - and that's the thing about this discussion. You can make the argument for Germany, but there is absolutely no debate that England's team there was better than Algeria, USA, Slovenia and Ghana (who would have been the ro16 opponents). The criticism then must fall on Capello, and every piece of information about the awful preparation and execution that has come out since backs that up. He got it very badly, historically wrong.

Gerrard and Lampard never played well together. This is also the period when Ferguson was still active, who always pushed his United players to hate their rivals and care little for the NT. Carragher was 32 and this squad barely had a striker worth the name. Lennon might have been in the best ever form, but he was a Tottenham player, so his best wasn't that good anyway. You can say that Capello's incompetence made them not mesh, but while these players were good or great for their clubs, they just weren't when they were put together in the NT. No coach managed to get them to work. Germany's team might have been young, but guys like Schweinsteiger, Gmez, Podolski,... already had a great amount of caps, and guys like Khedira and Gmez had already won the Bundesliga with Stuttgart (!) at this point. They had the talent and the experience across the board. Give me that Germany side any day of the week.

XIII_Rocks posted...

Thinking that group of players was capable of beating Germany in 2010, for instance, is entirely reasonable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup_squads#England

This group of players huh, could've beat '10 Germany?

shane15 posted...

To be fair it was a 4th and a 2nd with very kind draws. It's not like we beat all the best teams on the way to those results.

That's just something that can happen in a tourney, especially now when they're adding more teams. In 06 Italy didn't really play anyone until the semi-finals, which they won after extra time, and the final, which they won on penalties. In '16 Portugal played one good team, France, in the final (and then they still only finished third in their group).

Few fans are funnier than England fans. When you guys were proper shit everyone talked about a golden generation but England was never anywhere close to doing anything, and now England finished fourth and second in recent tournaments and people have zero faith in the team.

What the actual hell. At least we won't be the most embarrassing exit today.

I do think this has something to do with the timing of the WC. The players of the big nations play the top competitions and CL and have something to really focus on after the WC as well. For the 'lesser' teams though, this is absolutely the peak of their season.

I understand the choice for Lukaku, but he also showed why maybe you don't start a striker who hasn't had a game in months. Should've started Openda rather than Mertens and then see what happened with Lukaku.

I also think he's crap but Vanaken should've had gametime over Tielemans.

Imagine supporting Bruno Fernandes or any team he plays for.

I will take this loss if it means Martinez will no longer waste any of our time with his shite coaching.

Mertens and Tielemans, man I hate Martinez.

Belgium and England have the same problem: manager. Both have their qualities and have lifted their national teams to their respective levels, but their deficiencies also keep holding them back. What is going through your mind when you decide to put on Grealish and Henderson? England's game was crying out for Foden or Maddison.

How is that not a red card?

Very undeserved but well, we got the goal. Defence is showing the shortcomings I imagined, but at least they have the footballing intelligence and experience to cover. Tielemans has been anonymous, De Bruyne has been poor, but Hazard and Batshuayi have been positive at least.

I actually kinda wished we'd done the 2018 France against Canada. Oh, you like pace huh? Defensive lineup, park the bus, put our own speedsters as forwards and just let Canada have the ball. But judging from the lineup we're going to play our own game and hope our defence can manage.

MartinFF7 posted...

Let the record show that unlike MZero's belief in his countrymen, I never believed in Canada's chances since they lost their last two qualifiers to Costa Rica and friggin Panama where wins or even draws might have given them Pot 3 status in the group draws, instead dropping down to Pot 4...

Even with all the juggernaut upsets to date, I'm going Belgium 3-0 Canada. Strike me down and prove me wrong, oh mighty futbol gods!!

Please don't, mighty futbol gods, just let his prediction come true please.

Wow, Denmark was very disappointing.

Joelypoely posted...

Enjoyable game, decent result (I'm neutral).

One problem with football (soccer) I noticed compared to other team sports I watch is that the players so often seem to be in the face of the referee complaining after each decision which goes against them. It seems so disrespectful. If I was them I would start yellow carding for that kind of behaviour.

I would love to see this happen, however I will say in players' defence, there are zero competent refs in football.

Like, that's not a hyperbole. Every referee is complete and utter garbage. They're never helped by the vagueness of some rules, but they're all pretty crap for a myriad of reasons.

Wales should test Turner more. I haven't been convinced by him in our Europa games, so it feels like pressuring him with shots or pressure could force an error.

Man can put on Ben White

Puts on Eric Dier

lmao

Bukayo bby!

Man's mad for staying on. It's a game of football dude.

pezzicle posted...

I think they just aren't good

Sure, but they had some decent results in recent years. And even so, there's been plenty of teams that weren't good in previous WC. This was a completely different level.

Wow, that was shocking. I wasn't expecting Qatar to do anything of note, but it's not that they were just bad. They also didn't seem to care at all. No pressing or anything.

My predix:
Qatar 2 - 2 Ecuador
Senegal 0 - 3 Netherlands
England 4 - 0 Iran
USA 1 - 1 Wales
Argentina 4 - 0 Saudi-Arabia
Mexico 2 - 3 Poland
Denmark 4 - 1 Tunisia
France 4 - 0 Australia
Germany 2 - 1 Japan
Spain 2 - 1 Costa Rica
Morocco 0 - 2 Croatia
Belgium 3 - 0 Canada
Switzerland 3 - 0 Cameroon
Brazil 3 - 0 Serbia
Uruguay 2 - 0 Korea Republic
Portugal 3 - 0 Ghana

Qatar 0 - 3 Senegal
Netherlands 2 - 1 Ecuador
Wales 0 - 1 Iran
England 3 - 0 USA
Poland 2 - 0 Saudi Arabia
Argentina 1 - 0 Mexico
Tunisia 0 - 0 Australia
France 1 - 3 Denmark
Japan 1 - 1 Costa Rica
Spain 2 - 3 Germany
Belgium 3 - 0 Morocco
Croatia 1 - 1 Canada
Cameroon 0 - 2 Serbia
Brazil 2 - 0 Switzerland
Korea Republic 2 - 0 Ghana
Portugal 0 - 1 Uruguay

Ecuador 0 - 2 Senegal
Netherlands 3 - 0 Qatar
Iran 2 - 1 USA
Wales 1 - 3 England
Saudi-Arabia 0 - 2 Mexico
Poland 0 - 2 Argentina
Australia 0 - 2 Denmark
Tunisia 1 - 0 France
Costa Rica 1 - 1 Germany
Japan 0 - 1 Spain
Canada 0 - 0 Morocco
Croatia 0 - 1 Belgium
Serbia 0 - 0 Switzerland
Cameroon 0 - 1 Brazil
Ghana 0 - 3 Uruguay
Korea Republic 0 - 1 Portugal

We did not lose games, really. Qualifications, friendlies, we dominated.

We rarely played anyone of note, but that doesn't really matter for the FIFA rankings, so...

shane15 posted...

I wouldn't be surprised if Canada or Morocco made it out of that group. Belgium and Croatia are at the end of golden generations. Younger people might not realise that Belgium before 2014 were a pretty bang average country for football.

Me either, Canada is good enough to ride on WC hype enthusiasm. A lot will depend on small details. If Lukaku is fit, he might well tear Canada's defence to shreds. If he's out, Canada's defence still wouldn't be great, but there'd be a less fearsome striker from Belgium.

Morocco's got enough quality in defence and attack to be a major pain, but midfield is the most important part of a football team and they're pretty average there. Canada could really hurt our slow defenders (as could Morocco...as could most teams), so it's mostly hoping for Courtois masterclasses for Belgium.

Who was insane enough to vote Belgium?

Figure 8? Over Either/Or or XO? Brave choice.

I don't really know, I just like the other songs much more now. Still Take You Home isn't a bad song, but I don't feel like there's a moment in it that I'm always drawn to, like with the other tracks.

WHEN I WAS

1. From The Ritz to the Rubble
2. A Certain Romance
3. When The Sun Goes Down
4. Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured
5. I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
6. You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me
7. Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But...
8. Mardy Bum
9. Fake Tales of San Francisco
10. Riot Van
11. The View from the Afternoon
12. Dancing Shoes
13. Still Take You Home

• Funny how this used to be my favourite track off this album.

F-Zero because it's the only one that would benefit from being rereleased.

I was also somewhat confused with how the scoring works, as I thought Interpol votes would be added to both Queen and Whatever, tying them up, and then Queen winning because it was top, but so it's only the top vote of the least voted for album.

And I've also just now realized it wasn't 6-5 but 7-8 so Interpol votes didn't matter anyway. Oh well.

Whatever People Say I Am won?! The queen literally died, what is needed for people to vote for it?

Glaceon > Umbreon > Vaporeon > Jolteon > Espeon > Sylveon > Flareon > Leafeon

I don't think I have a cutoff point, they're all ok to me.

Live albums could be a fun shift too. Because of the track list they'd fall in the greatest hits category for this, but some show the true sound of the band more than any studio recording (Stop Making Sense comes to mind).

Dark Mode but I think something like Cloudy Blue is actually best. I don't need either extreme, but I definitely can't stand the eye-searing whiteness of the vast majority of websites.

The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead

Probably the best album by my favourite band of all-time (Louder Than Bombs does exist). Funny, emotional, and the entirety of the band at their musical peak. Iconic 80's record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siO6dkqidc4

Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights

Honestly for me the start of the alternative rebellion against pop music of 2002. Effortlessly cool, dark, and a great debut.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC5zHACynR4

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

This album could actually be seen as a kind of response to TotBL. Arctic Monkeys feel more like popular kids rock music; there's a definite sense to party/dance music to a lot of the tracks without them ever feeling bland. A good time for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqkBRVukQmE

I like that Matt was stuck in MnonCU hell, and in like the span of a year has met Spidey, She-Hulk, Hulk, and technically Abomination.

Hawkeye >> FatWS > Wandavision > She Hulk > What If > Ms Marvel > Moon Knight > Loki

Tegan is insufferable, as she spends every episode whining about how she doesn't want to be on the TARDIS and just wants go home. And then in her final episode she has the gall to go "It's not fun anymore, Doctor". It was never fun for you, or any of the people watching.

And yes she was not helped by being paired with Adric or Nyssa (who is not bad, just tremendously underutilized and not really well-defined.) There's a real gap of likeable/interesting companions between Romana II and Turlough.

I did not respond as I rarely get PMs and was not expecting one for this topic. Notice is not really a problem; I could give you a ranked list of 100 albums I'd like to see nominated. The only thing that could mess it up is if another user would nominate one of the artists.

How is Romana I below Kamelion and Dodo (and Benton and Yates for that matter, who I wouldn't even rate as companions).

Espeon posted...

He still has two seasons before that, though. The last season adds some complexity to his character.

Well yes, but I wouldn't show them the first season because it's pretty much poop outside of Paradise Towers. Season 25 could be a good shout though.

Definitely wouldn't rank Six this high. The take on the character is interesting, sure, but it doesn't change the fact that the majority of his episodes just aren't a good time, and the obnoxious arrogance just makes him...obnoxious, no matter how interesting the idea of his arc might be.

I would never introduce someone to DW with 7. His manipulations of Ace in the final series are so unlike the other series.

Wow, I cannot put into words how much I disagree with this list. Troughton is easily top three; he's the originator of Sylvester McCoy's schemer. Troughton isn't the star, but that's the point. He lurks behind the scenes, making himself look like a cosmic silly imp, figuring out everything that's going on in the meantime while nobody thinks anything of him but taking down the bad guys at the end.

And Hartnell might have originated the role, but Troughton is the actual first Doctor, in the way the character of the Doctor is defined; "There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything that we believe in. They must be fought!" Hartnell was an explorer who just wanted to look around the universe. Troughton is the first to take up the mantle of a hero.

Smith too low, and Jodie too high. I'm sorry, but all your criticisms of Davison apply perfectly to Jodie. 13 is nice. That's really all you can say about her. At no point does she embody the being of the Doctor. Easily the least memorable Doctor to me, a wasted opportunity from A to Z.

I really enjoyed the first few She-Hulk episodes, but everything since has been a chore to get through for me. Even Daredevil felt so shoehorned in, just a quick "yeah he's definitively in the MCU now" kinda thing after Spidey.