Board 8 > Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 - Topic 2

(+) Yeah! (+)

Typical Brazil. They can play awful and still win.

No idea if Brazil can play at this level but still beat the other top teams.
Don't think anyone's looked head and shoulders above the rest so far.

voltch posted...

No idea if Brazil can play at this level but still beat the other top teams.
Don't think anyone's looked head and shoulders above the rest so far.

Yeah i agree. If i was gonna pick one it'd probably be France.

France against us was no better than Brazil today, and Switzerland always makes the top teams struggle, they're very strong defensively.

SPEAKING OF FRANCE...

Turns out that Benzema might be playing at the world cup after all.

Oh and that all but confirms France and Brazil on opposite sides of the draw.

Even then France have been leaky.
Though I guess I do have to give Brazil credit, did not think a team with those players at the back would keep 2 clean sheets

I'm ready for the last 16 now. Can't believe we've played 2 rounds of group games and only lost 2 teams.

I'm excited enough for the final group matches given how many teams are still undecided.

USA/Iran is what I'm looking forward to with how much it's been bleeding over to non sports even in the UK.

voltch posted...

USA/Iran is what I'm looking forward to with how much it's been bleeding over to non sports even in the UK.

Will the US drop the leg or will Iran make them Humble?

Tune in tomorrow!

The US Iran game is a coin flip.

Had Bentancur scored there it would have been the best goal so far.

But Richarlison still has that

Even in replay I can't see that he actually hits the ball, I thought Bruno got the goal, but the commentators are praising Ronaldo as if there is no tomorrow.

Everywhere says Ronaldo scored but they have got to change that to Bruno Fernandes, right? Not to take credit from the former, it likely doesn't go in if he's not there, he doesn't hit it.

There it is, they changed it indeed. Wonder why anywhere even got it wrong, it was not hard to see.

Ridiculous penalty decision

Yeah, that looks thin to me too, even if it's by the book or whatever

Imagine supporting Bruno Fernandes or any team he plays for.

Other than for 10 minutes following some substitutions, Uruguay have been pretty disappointing today imo. They might still move on, but Brazil will kill them probably.

Tough luck for Portugal that second place from group G is a hard one, be it Serbia or Switzerland.

Well at least this result gives Korea a chance. Even if it is a slim one.

It's not like he's spectalular, but how the f*** is Pepe still playing, that's ridiculously impressive.

What a fucking waste of time and money that was. Terrible game with a bad winner.

Really annoyingly bad results all-round so far

Based on the results after matchday 2 and the likeliest results for matchday 3, this is what the first knockout round could look like.

Netherlands v Iran/United States
Argentina v Denmark/Australia
Spain v Croatia/Belgium
Brazil v Ghana
England v Ecuador/Senegal
France v Saudi Arabia/Poland
Morocco v Germany/Costa Rica
Portugal v Switzerland/Serbia

The last 16 was looking pretty good until this round of games ended. Morocco are the only team almost certain to make it that are a surprise.

Off topic but awesome news
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63785489

Fuck off Agnelli

With Day [09/29] complete, that also closes out the Game 2 Matches!
Update time to the Group Stage Results!
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/5/4/AAE6mcAAD7pi.jpg

Since we're moving into Game 3, it's time to start the Knockout Stage discussion!
Obviously right now, it's still blank of as of right now, but tomorrow's results will add to that:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/6/1/AAE6mcAAD7pp.png
Although, looking at it, I need to amend it to include the Third Place Match as well.

The tie break after goal difference is total goals right?

So Ghana should be good with a draw?

paulg235 posted...

Based on the results after matchday 2 and the likeliest results for matchday 3, this is what the first knockout round could look like.

Netherlands v Iran/United States
Argentina v Denmark/Australia
Spain v Croatia/Belgium
Brazil v Ghana
England v Ecuador/Senegal
France v Saudi Arabia/Poland
Morocco v Germany/Costa Rica
Portugal v Switzerland/Serbia

Would not feel safer about Ghana than most of these.

Also Morocco needs to beat Canada by two goals more than Croatia beats Belgium to keep first.

Ghana is the most likely to qualify but it also depends on how Portugal approach the game. What i find now is most teams with nothing to play for have a go for 75% of the match and then if the other team has the result they need they back off a bit.

I'm saying Uruguay should be favorites to beat Ghana which by extension makes them favorites to get second. They have underperformed so far, but their best was most definitely once Portugal had that 1-0 goal.

Let's try Ctes Predicts the round of 16 matchups.

Netherlands vs. Iran
Argentina vs. Denmark
Spain vs. Morocco
Brazil vs. Uruguay
England vs. Ecuador
France vs. Poland
Croatia vs. Germany
Portugal vs. Switzerland

I will say that Poland and Uruguay had me with most pause while Iran/USA and Switzerland/Serbia felt close to toss-ups.

masterplum posted...

The tie break after goal difference is total goals right?

So Ghana should be good with a draw?

Also yes, unless South Korea beats Portugal by +2 goals.

Finishing second in group B is probably better than winning it. Ignoring the last 16 match because i think all 3 teams from group A are pretty equal so it doesn't matter who gets who from there. You're almost guaranteed to get France or even Argentina by winning the group in the quarter final. The other route is much more open to an upset and even if it does end up being Argentina i'd take them over France. Yeah this is me attempting to keep England in for as long as possible.

Worst case scenario today is England and Wales somehow both going out, but that's highly unlikely

Most likely England win, US win and we get the generic result

I fancy Iran to beat America. They seemed really fired up in that Wales game.

I predict US Ties Iran which leads to a round of annoyed americans complaining about how dumb ties are in sports

masterplum posted...

I predict US Ties Iran which leads to a round of annoyed americans complaining about how dumb ties are in sports

predicting a tie as well. Stifling US scoring isnt hard.

10 minutes to go and the scores look like this. I know which game i'd have my eye on.

England 0 - 1 Wales
Iran 0 - 0 USA

masterplum posted...

I predict US Ties Iran which leads to a round of annoyed americans complaining about how dumb ties are in sports

It's a given.

Drawing all their group games and calling it a tournament sounds like the most United States thing ever.

Unless Wales win, Iran is through with a draw.

Im expecting a draw between the US and Iran as well.

I think Iran is going to be doing an enormous amount of time wasting and flopping in this game. Its VITAL that the US starts aggressive and strong and gets an early goal to dampened down those tactics. Otherwise we could be in for a long, boring afternoon with a likely bad result.

If America get knocked out it'll be because of the dropped points against Wales and England. They should've won at least 1 of those games.

Didn't realize that the first games begin an hour earlier, good thing I caught that before missing half a game.

Valencia is starting for Ecuador again. Love watching him, he's been subbed off with injury in both games, so it didn't feel certain to me. He is currently joint top scorer and has basically scored the latest 6 WC goals Ecuador has made.

Qatar seems exactly like the type of team Netherlands get their 6-0 wins against.

This Gakpo is one to follow

I don't think hosts should be given an automatic 1 seed. The top 8 countries should be given that honour and the host should get a 2 seed.

shane15 posted...

I don't think hosts should be given an automatic 1 seed. The top 8 countries should be given that honour and the host should get a 2 seed.

The whole point of the hosts getting an automatic 1 seed is to give them a host's advantage and to stop them from running into someone like Brazil at the start of the tournament. I am completely fine with that since it gives the hosts a bigger opportunity to show what they can do. If they're good, they'll still make a deep run, anyway. If they're bad (or not good enough to advance), then whatever.

The issue, of course, is that Qatar should have never been hosts to begin with and their performance this year demonstrates why they never made it into the tournament before. At least South Africa managed it at least once before hosting it in 2010.

I get the point it's to avoid a top nation. But a host being a 1 or 2 seed doesn't make much difference. So they avoid a Brazil by being a top seed but they still get a difficult team from pot 2 anyway especially if they don't come from Europe.