Bill 13,717 Posted December 13, 2022 Share Posted December 13, 2022 For some reason this WC seems to have run its course for me. I couldn't raise the enthusiasm to watch beyond the penalty tonight and drifted off to do other things. I think it's because once more we will have no new winner and it will yet again be won by one of the same countries that always wins the trophy. From domestic leagues all over the world to the World Cup itself, success in football is the preserve of the very few and it's as boring and inevitable as hell. I absolutely enjoyed the cricket from Pakistan though. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott7 6,004 Posted December 14, 2022 Share Posted December 14, 2022 I’m more the other way round. No excitement for it and only watched bits of the opening games. I don’t mind the same teams winning so long as they play up to their standards. Only Argentina and maybe France will be in the final and neither has been up to usual levels. I enjoyed Japan, Morocco and South Korea for adding enthusiasm to very good skill levels. Croatia did well. Bill is right about two things. The cricket was very much better in both performance and contest. And as he said earlier Qatar have produced the competition very well indeed. Not their fault the football’s not been great. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
compo 7,038 Posted December 14, 2022 Author Share Posted December 14, 2022 Excellent stadiums good weather and has given me something to watch as the racing is mostly off due to the weather 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
buster. 5,186 Posted December 14, 2022 Share Posted December 14, 2022 On 12/12/2022 at 12:55, Sutton_blows_goats said: cant be that underrated if barca paid over 100 million for him https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63934955 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill 13,717 Posted December 14, 2022 Share Posted December 14, 2022 2 hours ago, compo said: Excellent stadiums good weather and has given me something to watch as the racing is mostly off due to the weather The biggest surprise for me has been realising how good an idea it is to hold the WC tournament in December or possibly January. We were all told this WC would be a moral and organisational disaster, how wrong they were. Also, having heard that not a single England supporter was arrested in Qatar, perhaps we should hold every WC in a country with authoritarian regimes 😄 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sutton_blows_goats 5,335 Posted December 14, 2022 Share Posted December 14, 2022 1 hour ago, buster. said: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63934955 I think you, I and the BBC differ on the definition of an underrated footballer. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott7 6,004 Posted December 14, 2022 Share Posted December 14, 2022 From a recent Spectator Article by Roger Alton. More relaxed and probably more interesting times “Thank the lord we can look back on a more innocent era. Like the first World Cup in 1930 in Uruguay, where (and thanks to the boisterous Upshot website for this) the refs wore suits and ties, the Bolivians played in berets and the Romanian team were selected by the King. The European sides sailed together across the Atlantic in a Scottish steamship, which stopped off in Rio to pick up the Brazilians. Egypt, the only African team, were supposed to join them, but set off late and missed the boat. Hosts Uruguay took on their detested neighbours Argentina in the final, and thousands of Argentine fans set off for Montevideo on a steamboat. It got lost in heavy fog and they arrived a day late to find their country had lost.” 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig 5,199 Posted December 14, 2022 Share Posted December 14, 2022 Messi. Absolutely unplayable at times. No superlatives left with which to describe him 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluedell 5,624 Posted December 14, 2022 Share Posted December 14, 2022 I wish Twitter had an anti-Messi filter. I thought Alvarez was MOTM last night (scored 2 and won the penalty) but yet everyone goes on about Messi. He did well in the second half, when Croatian heads were down but Alvarez was the most effective. He may be a fantastic player but refs let him get away with murder at times. He's reffed to a different set of rules. I still think Maradona is GOAT. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill 13,717 Posted December 14, 2022 Share Posted December 14, 2022 The greatest player of all time? Every generation seems to have had its Messi and they were all claimed to be the greatest player ever to play the game. The truth of course is that none of them were. They were all just great players of their time, nothing more, all comparisons utterly meaningless. The fact that the usual suspects are always prolific goal scorers and that great defenders or goalkeepers are never seen as contenders should confirm the utter futility of the notion of the greatest-ever player. I'm fairly sure Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo, Messi or Mbappe wouldn't be lauded if they weren't goal scoring forwards. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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