World Cup: Group E discussion

What a great match this is. Honduras v ecuador

That tackle

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:BC

Not sure why you were skeptical of the midfield though, Cabaye is always great for France and Matuidi/Pogba speaks for itself.

Plus Valbuena like Cabaye has been fantastic for France for a long period of time.

I thought it had a lack of grit to it. I see Cabaye as more of a CM than a DM and thought this would hurt them when trying to build attacks, forcing Matuidi to do more defensive work than he would like.

So far I've been wrong but let's see what happens when they face a better team, like potentially Germany.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:BC

Not sure why you were skeptical of the midfield though, Cabaye is always great for France and Matuidi/Pogba speaks for itself.

Plus Valbuena like Cabaye has been fantastic for France for a long period of time.

I thought it had a lack of grit to it. I see Cabaye as more of a CM than a DM and thought this would hurt them when trying to build attacks, forcing Matuidi to do more defensive work than he would like.

So far I've been wrong but let's see what happens when they face a better team, like potentially Germany.

He's as much of a DM as Pirlo is, he's not really a DM in this set up from what i can see.

Deep lying playmaker with two physical, agressive, box to box midfielders.

As for this game so far....

Mole is correc... France haven't played with a DM since Deschamps has taken over. In the 3 man mid setup, Cabaye is the deep playing mid like Motta and Alonso with Pogba and Matuidi (or sissoko) going b2b. Cabaye's job is to manage flow and pick out open playera at any distance. Defensively, he's only responsible for the middle.

Benzema has been robbed a goal again ..

Ecuador upsetting clear favourites Honduras..

Ecuador gk was a farmer.

farfan wrote:btw why is your boy sommer benched ? benaglio didn't inspire confidence at all.

Because Hitzfeld loves to troll me badly

Hitzfeld is way to conservative and goes with Benaglio as he thinks Benaglio has more experience and is thus better. Unfortunately he seems to forget that Yann Sommer has far more experience in high profile knock-out games in the CL and EL... *grumbles*

Bénin wrote:Benzema has been robbed a goal again ..

Agree, the choice of the referee to whistle in a such action is incredibly stupid, he should have waited the end of the action to whistle.
Actually referee probably bet on a win 5-2 and he didn't want to lose his money.

To be fair, the game was already 3:30 into extra time when the ref had only indicate 3 mins.  Sissoko slowed down before suddenly making that pass to Benz...  it would have been nice to just let the action finish.  But imo, the action should never have been allowed to start.  Once the French recovered the ball at 3:15, the whistle should have blown.

I don't think Benz cares much for his goal totals at the end of the day.  He says so himself every time.  As long as the team plays well and he's decisive...  the Benz is satisfied.  Not a stat padder at all.  He models himself on Zidane right now...  his stats aren't world shattering; but when you watch the game, you can't deny his enormous impact and he almost always plays big in the biggest games.

Swiss defender Steve van Bergen is out of the World Cup with a broken facebone after his collision with Olivier Giroud. This is not good at all as he is normally responsible for keeping the defense together.

sportsczy wrote:No historical holdever...  until the friendly this past year, Germany hadn't beaten France in any game since WC 1986.  Most of these players weren't even born then

Besides, both France and Germany play completely different styles than the 80s obviously.  There's nothing there.

If you don't agree then you don't agree but it's not necessary to ridicule every single point that you don't agree with. I believe it's not just about the individuals in the present teams and what they have gone through but a factor, albeit small, is the collective psyche of a nation. A country that has recently seen success tends to inspire new upcoming players. Similarly a country which has not seen success for a long time has players freezing faster in high pressure situations. In one on one battles between two nations also this can come into play if not in a major way. One side could think we have beaten them before when it mattered and will do it again. The other side may think we have lost to them in crucial situations in the past and now is the time to change history. Both are determined but the former may have a slight psychological edge. France went out to Germany in key matchups in world cups specifically 1982 and 1986. In both cases France were considered the better team but still went out for whatever reasons. Since this happened many years ago it may not be so significant now but it could still be a small psychological factor any time these two sides meet in a major matchup, that is until France some day turn this around and dump Germany out of a world cup.

Hapless_Hans wrote:I'm pretty sure Germany won't encounter tough times against Ghana or USA, they're both crap.

If this world cup has taught us something it is that it is better to watch what you say beforehand. Germany lost to Serbia in the group stage last year when no one had seen it coming with the possible exception of Paul The Octopus.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

Hapless_Hans wrote:I'm pretty sure Germany won't encounter tough times against Ghana or USA, they're both crap.

France are looking pretty good, that will be a very tough quarter.

Maybe so, but they are still better than Honduras, Ecuador and arguably the Swiss too.

Technically Germany will face tougher opposition in the group stage, if they have any problems is another debate entirely.

Agree 100%

Not ridiculing...  it just occured to me that Benz is the class of '87 and the last bad football memory that involved Germany was in 1986.  It hadn't occured to me until now that most of these guys weren't even alive when that happened.  Laughing more to myself and thinking "where has all this time gone" lol.

It was more a stylistic antithesis back then.  France played a very attacking and open style while Germany were the kings of anti-football and dirty/physical play.  They had far less technique than the Italians, which made them even more awful to watch at that time.  Gone were the days of Beckenbauer... in the 80s, Germany were basically thugs.

farfan wrote:

rwo power wrote:I have not been amused. Next match: Yann Sommer + Fabian Schär in, Diego Benaglio + Philippe Senderos out and hoping that Steve van Bergen can play again to kick out Johan Djourou, too.

don't worry ,honduras are crap and can't play football.
if anything SZ should keep some of their best players from getting hurt in that game.

However they can kick people really well and so I don't expect this to be an easy matchup by any means. Switzerland have the quality to win but I expect Honduras to make them bleed and weep for it.

sportsczy wrote:Not ridiculing...  it just occured to me that Benz is the class of '87 and the last bad football memory that involved Germany was in 1986.  It hadn't occured to me until now that most of these guys weren't even alive when that happened.  Laughing more to myself and thinking "where has all this time gone" lol.

Oh I see. Thanks for the reply. Now that you say it, it does seem so long ago but if this matchup does happen the media is sure to open up old wounds.

sportsczy wrote:To be fair, the game was already 3:30 into extra time when the ref had only indicate 3 mins.  Sissoko slowed down before suddenly making that pass to Benz...  it would have been nice to just let the action finish.  But imo, the action should never have been allowed to start.  Once the French recovered the ball at 3:15, the whistle should have blown.

I don't think Benz cares much for his goal totals at the end of the day.  He says so himself every time.  As long as the team plays well and he's decisive...  the Benz is satisfied.  Not a stat padder at all.  He models himself on Zidane right now...  his stats aren't world shattering; but when you watch the game, you can't deny his enormous impact and he almost always plays big in the biggest games.

It's so unbelievable what a turnaround Benzema has gone through. Just a few months back he was told that a starter for Real Madrid can't possibly be that bad for France. However more recently he started performing well. Then with Ribery falling victim to injury someone here said Benzema now has got to be the star and leader of this team. The man has sure delivered so far but big challenges lie ahead. Yesterday's performance was stupendous. I even commented it may be his career best performance. Even Benzema may not have seen himself as France's leader one day but time has made it happen and he has to continue to deliver now.

messixaviesta wrote:

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

Hapless_Hans wrote:I'm pretty sure Germany won't encounter tough times against Ghana or USA, they're both crap.

France are looking pretty good, that will be a very tough quarter.

Maybe so, but they are still better than Honduras, Ecuador and arguably the Swiss too.

Technically Germany will face tougher opposition in the group stage, if they have any problems is another debate entirely.

Agree 100%

Yeah. Too much drunk-posting, sorry, can't believe I insisted on claiming Honduras are 'surely better' than Ghana or USA lol

Probably because the survey that was linked in the other thread told me Honduras is the team I'm secretly supporting, since I like Ingmar Bergman

BarrileteCosmico wrote:In spite of all my hating on French players I did say they were underrated and expected them to do well

They have one of the best defenses and that's what takes you deep in knock out tournaments. I did not expect the midfield to work so well though. Always liked DD as well.

So similar to my thoughts. France's defence is one of the best at WC 2014 and that's a crucial factor, not just in terms of starters but in terms of who can come in from the bench.

Also I have always liked Deschamps and felt that he has never been given his due. Imagine if Monaco had won the UCL 2003-04 final instead of Porto, where would Mourinho be and where would Deschamps be?

France's midfield players continue to grow. Hardly any of them have yet been acknowledged as world class stars but maybe that will change soon.

It'll be interesting to see when which tactic will be used. More specifically when will a single striker be played with Griezmann and when will Benzema support Giroud. Both options have strong pros and cons and the coach will have to choose wisely depending on the need.

messixaviesta wrote:

farfan wrote:don't worry ,honduras are crap and can't play football.
if anything SZ should keep some of their best players from getting hurt in that game.

However they can kick people really well and so I don't expect this to be an easy matchup by any means. Switzerland have the quality to win but I expect Honduras to make them bleed and weep for it.

Well, last World Cup, Switzerland won against Spain, lost against Chile and then could have progressed if they won against Honduras.

Guess what? They played a miserable scoreless draw against Honduras and went out. With their 2:5 against France, they messed up their goal difference big time, so if they don't win by a good margin against Honduras, the same fate could befall them - and somehow I doubt they will manage to win (much less by a big margin) if Ottmar Hitzfeld keeps up playing the same team to stay safe.

And mind you, Steve van Bergen is already on the plane back to Switzerland to get proper treatment for his broken facebone.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:No point risking Sakho in a meaningless game, i'd be inclined to rest anyone important on a yellow card too.

Completely second the thought. Not one player who could potentially get banned for the knock out match should even see the pitch or even if he did it should be for a short time and under specific instructions.

rwo power wrote:

messixaviesta wrote:

farfan wrote:don't worry ,honduras are crap and can't play football.
if anything SZ should keep some of their best players from getting hurt in that game.

However they can kick people really well and so I don't expect this to be an easy matchup by any means. Switzerland have the quality to win but I expect Honduras to make them bleed and weep for it.

Well, last World Cup, Switzerland won against Spain, lost against Chile and then could have progressed if they won against Honduras.

Guess what? They played a miserable scoreless draw against Honduras and went out on goal difference. With their 2:5 against France, they messed up their GD big time, so if they don't win by a good margin against Honduras, the same fate could befall them - and somehow I doubt they will manage to win (much less by a big margin) if Ottmar Hitzfeld keeps up playing the same team to stay safe.

And mind you, Steve van Bergen is already on the plane back to Switzerland to get proper treatment for his broken facebone.

Actually Switzerland didn't go out on goal difference - they were lower on points than Chile. However you are right that they could have gone through if they beat Honduras. Also agree with the rest of your comments. Switzerland could win but it's going to be really tough.

messixaviesta wrote:Actually Switzerland didn't go out on goal difference - they were lower on points than Chile. However you are right that they could have gone through if they beat Honduras. Also agree with the rest of your comments. Switzerland could win but it's going to be really tough.

I corrected that already - but you were too fast with your reply  (I'd better check stuff before writing + posting   )

Let's say - Switzerland have to win against Honduras with as many goals as possible, or they are out as they can't rely on France winning against Ecuador, especially if France decide to rest players.

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/Echographie-rassurante-pour-sakho/476051

MRI showed nothing muscular. Just a knock. Sakho is available for the game against Ecuador.