Official Worldwide Football (Soccer) Discussion Thread (44 Viewers)

[BKisback]

They also have ridiculous depth. Williams and Torres were fantastic off the bench, pretty sure Pedri has been a young player of the season/tournament recently, and they had two league-winning goalies on the bench. Best of all for Spain fans, they are going to have this core together for awhile.

 

[BonScot]

@BonScot This may be news to you, but the players have no control over the referee’s decisions or VAR. The referee calls the match as he sees it, and the players simply play football.

Congratulations to you all for winning the world cup. Argentina just didn’t show up when it mattered.

Paredes’ altercation after the match was disgraceful, and we’re all ashamed of it.

That was very painful to sit through at roughly $100 per minute -_- But at least the water was only $5.

See you all in 4 years

Your team weren’t up to their usual standard. They had a lot of decisions go their way. FIFA being FIFA would have wanted Messi to stay in the competition for as long as possible.

Messi should have been sent off in your opening game. In the same way Ronaldo should have missed Portugal’s first two matches following his suspension after violent conduct.

I like Argentina (a lot of Scottish people moved there and were heavily involved in introducing football). I still have a shirt from 30 odd years ago. Maradona is my favourite player of all time.

But this year they were not great and did not deserve to win. The fouling and play acting by their players was poor. The behaviour after the final whistle was disgraceful.

I’m glad for football that Spain won.

 

[ChaosRock]

Congratulations to you all for winning the world cup. Argentina just didn’t show up when it mattered.

Paredes’ altercation after the match was disgraceful, and we’re all ashamed of it.

That was very painful to sit through at roughly $100 per minute -_- But at least the water was only $5.

See you all in 4 years

Yep, Argentina played their worst in the final. I can see several reason for it, the first of which being they played against a better pressing team and Spain must get the credit for it. Now, I have no idea why Scaloni started Gonzales. When I saw the announcement I told my wife Argentina was fucked. That was THE GAME Scaloni should have started with those four defensive midfielders I mentioned in the other post (Paredes, Fernandez, MacAllister and De Paul). I understand Nico entered some games well but with a tired opponent and with space for his pace. That is not how a game with Spain ever starts. Didn't like the Montiel for Molina either. Also, even with Spain's press, i've never seen MacAllister play this bad. Imo, he had been the best Argentina player in previous games, Messi aside, and against Spain he couldn't complete a single easy pass. Same goes for Fernandez, who didn't have a good WC. So they lost the midfield completely, and thus, the game.

The whole team looked super tired. Maybe all of those nail-biter games took the toll. It felt like Argentina played their final against their rival England and empty their chamber. They had nothing left vs Spain. Li Martinez and Romero got hurt and subed, and Tagliaffico couldn't walk the second half of overtime, injured as well.

Spain was Spain. They played well. After the game I was talking to friends I had no idea who was the man of the match as there wasn't one (Rodri if I had to pick one). It was the team. Just like Argentina, Spain wasn't super great during tournament. They barely went through against Portugal and Belgium. Played well vs France and barely beat Argentina playing their worst. Deserved the trophy? Yes. Great team? Not really...

Now, about Paredes. Did you see the whole sequence? Everything started when the game ended and Rodri ran by Molina celebrating. Molina punched him in the stomach. Did Rodri say anything to Molina? Only those two would know... Rodri turned back to challenge Molina and Garcia also got there. Paredes saw the 2x1 and went in defense of Molina, pushing Garcia off. After a few seconds, that's where the most viewed clip was shot. It shows Garcia trying to get back at Paredes, who grabbed him by the throat and they push each other. Then Pedri (I think) got there and got shoved to the ground by Paredes. Why am I saying this? It was MOLINA who punched Rodri, that started the whole thing. Paredes was protecting a team mate without knowing what had happened. Still, he should have acted differently but his reaction was totally expected.

Those things happened in other games and other teams. No one said anything. Even against Portugal, Rodri celebrated a defended goal that Fernandez was about to score by fist pumping his face while Fernandez was still on the ground. Fernandez stood up promptly and they almost got in a fight. This is part of football, rightly or wrongly. So it's not that Argentina is the scumbag and all the other teams are the angels. That is just the narrative put forth.

And on that narrative, something smells fishy to me. Too much, too quickly and too widespread. Not organic imo. Have a few theories but those will stay private...

 

[Budha]

Yep, Argentina played their worst in the final. I can see several reason for it, the first of which being they played against a better pressing team and Spain must get the credit for it. Now, I have no idea why Scaloni started Gonzales. When I saw the announcement I told my wife Argentina was fucked. That was THE GAME Scaloni should have started with those four defensive midfielders I mentioned in the other post (Paredes, Fernandez, MacAllister and De Paul). I understand Nico entered some games well but with a tired opponent and with space for his pace. That is not how a game with Spain ever starts. Didn't like the Montiel for Molina either. Also, even with Spain's press, i've never seen MacAllister play this bad. Imo, he had been the best Argentina player in previous games, Messi aside, and against Spain he couldn't complete a single easy pass. Same goes for Fernandez, who didn't have a good WC. So they lost the midfield completely, and thus, the game.

The whole team looked super tired. Maybe all of those nail-biter games took the toll. It felt like Argentina played their final against their rival England and empty their chamber. They had nothing left vs Spain. Li Martinez and Romero got hurt and subed, and Tagliaffico couldn't walk the second half of overtime, injured as well.

Spain was Spain. They played well. After the game I was talking to friends I had no idea who was the man of the match as there wasn't one (Rodri if I had to pick one). It was the team. Just like Argentina, Spain wasn't super great during tournament. They barely went through against Portugal and Belgium. Played well vs France and barely beat Argentina playing their worst. Deserved the trophy? Yes. Great team? Not really...

Now, about Paredes. Did you see the whole sequence? Everything started when the game ended and Rodri ran by Molina celebrating. Molina punched him in the stomach. Did Rodri say anything to Molina? Only those two would know... Rodri turned back to challenge Molina and Garcia also got there. Paredes saw the 2x1 and went in defense of Molina, pushing Garcia off. After a few seconds, that's where the most viewed clip was shot. It shows Garcia trying to get back at Paredes, who grabbed him by the throat and they push each other. Then Pedri (I think) got there and got shoved to the ground by Paredes. Why am I saying this? It was MOLINA who punched Rodri, that started the whole thing. Paredes was protecting a team mate without knowing what had happened. Still, he should have acted differently but his reaction was totally expected.

Those things happened in other games and other teams. No one said anything. Even against Portugal, Rodri celebrated a defended goal that Fernandez was about to score by fist pumping his face while Fernandez was still on the ground. Fernandez stood up promptly and they almost got in a fight. This is part of football, rightly or wrongly. So it's not that Argentina is the scumbag and all the other teams are the angels. That is just the narrative put forth.

And on that narrative, something smells fishy to me. Too much, too quickly and too widespread. Not organic imo. Have a few theories but those will stay private...

So you’re saying it’s not Paredes (or Argentina’s) fault, just them getting a bad rap - lol.

Simply to demonstrate this isn’t new, explain this one:

https://www.google.com/search?tbnid...&tbnw=0&vld=cid:de9fdf7a,vid:s3fdDU4Wnuk,st:0

 

[ChaosRock]

So you’re saying it’s not Paredes (or Argentina’s) fault, just them getting a bad rap - lol.

Simply to demonstrate this isn’t new, explain this one:

If you had read my reply to @Argenchino with some care, you'd know that wasn't what I was saying. To summarize: on the after the whistle altercation, Molina (an Argentinean) punched Rodri (Spaniard). Everything after that was a result of this act. Yes, it's Molina's fault (again, an Argentinean), I'm giving Rodri the benefit of the doubt he didn't say anything, like he did in other games. Paredes took it from there in defense of Molina, with a hot head. Yes, he could have chosen to just submit, but he didn't.

Am I saying Paredes is a clean player? Not at all! Romero, Paredes and Otamendi are among the 'dirtiest' players around, but so are many others of many other teams. Only the Argentineans were called out during the Cup.

Even that Messi supposed red card is funny. There's a montage of at least 10 similar fauls other players committed during the Cup without it being called a faul but only that Messi one is mentioned, right?

The referee is on the pitch and there is a humongous difference between grazing another players calf with the cleats and driving the cleats with extreme force on someone calf. A still shot would look exactly the same. See the difference? Not saying Messi's is the former but there is discretion there. If you're a referee and you see someone like Messi doing that and someone like Romero doing that, would you be biased towards one or the other? It's human nature... It's way, way, way more likely Romero really wanted to hurt the other player, right?

What I was saying though, is that from the get go, there seems to be an organized campaign against Argentina in the social media. Not absolving Argi for any of their wrong doing at all, but the campaign seems to be absolving all the other instances that should be pointed as well...