Messi only started in 1 group game Mole, it was against the Netherlands. He didn't make an appearance in any other group game. I think you're confusing this with the Copa America where they ended up losing against Dunga's Brasil.

Doc wrote:Messi only started in 1 group game Mole, it was against the Netherlands. He didn't make an appearance in any other group game. I think you're confusing this with the Copa America where they ended up losing against Dunga's Brasil.

messi played +15 mins against serbia & scored 1

he played 70 mins against holland & scored none (understandable considering argentina already qualified)

Robespierre wrote:Same for Argentina 2002. Probably the best Argentina ever on paper ( many great players in their prime ) but they were knocked out at group lol

except the gk was the main weakest point

argentina 2002
Germán Burgos (gk)
Pablo Cavallero (gk)
Roberto Bonano (gk)

compare to:

argentina 1998
Carlos Roa (gk)
Germán Burgos (gk)
Pablo Cavallero (gk)

argentina 2006
Roberto Abbondanzieri (gk)
Leo Franco (gk)
Óscar Ustari (gk)

guest_07 wrote:

Doc wrote:Messi only started in 1 group game Mole, it was against the Netherlands. He didn't make an appearance in any other group game. I think you're confusing this with the Copa America where they ended up losing against Dunga's Brasil.

messi played +15 mins against serbia & scored 1

he played 70 mins against holland & scored none (understandable considering argentina already qualified)

Thank you, knew I got something wrong. Him not playing in any other match in the group stage did seem wrong. Not really exactly one of their best players in the group stages but thanks.

Panama 2018.

Doc wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Thurman decides he's a goalscorer of all things in the semis in that WC semi against Croatia...  The guy scored 2 goals total from 1996 to 2008 for club in 490 games.  And those were his only 2 goals in 142 caps for France.

it was miraculous tbh.

One of them was an outside the box shot too. Never seen him attempt that shot ever again in his career.

That was one of the most amazing games as stated by Sport already the circumstances for a defender who never scores to score two in the WC semi to win it He made the mistake I think was when he played the opponent onside to concede that first goal, and as result decided to amend for his mistake, couldnt have done it more perfectly

Blue Barrett wrote:Has NOTHING to do with how successful they were. Just pure talent and how stacked the teams were. Based on that, it makes sense to factor in the current WC as well.

For me:

France '98
Brazil 2006
England 2006
Spain 2010
Italy '94
Belgium '18
France '18


Some underrated teams for me would be Senegal in 2002, Ghana in 2010, South Korea in 2002, Bulgaria '94


These are all in my lifetime btw. Maybe some of you can point out squads from the 70's or 80's. They're either not in my lifetime or I was too young to know and I'm currently too lazy to look up how good every player on their teams were. The ones I listed I can remember from memory.

For me Spain 2010 is probably the best. Brazil 2006 comes very close. I would perhaps rate Italy 1990 ahead of Italy 1994. France 2002 as well if we do not consider Zidane's injury would be very high. Then Brazil 1998 as well.

From my lifetime , based on talent alone Brazil 2006
Second : Spain 2010

Brazil 98 attack (: (: (: (: (:

@elitedeam @ganso @M99 @socur toxanarosa

I can barely remember 2002 WC and ofc haven't seen beyond that.Brazil had a very talented team and back then Ronaldo was the shit and everyone talked about him but I was a fan of Rivaldo.
As for national teams I have been a fan of Italy since 2002 (from family influence) and I still remember how I cried when South Korea beat Italy lol
Ofc Italy 2006 team imo was very underrated and had world class players in every part of the field.
(Del Piero, Totti,Buffon,Cannavaro,Toni,Pirlo,Camoranesi etc)

After Italy , Netherlands have a special place in me ever since Euro 2008.
That team was not very balanced as all NED teams after that but they had too much quality in players such Van Nistelrooy,Sneijder,Van der Vaart, Van Persie,Robben, Afellay.
They beat Italy & France if I remember well.

WC 2002 was a bit of a farce for several reasons:
-  weather was unbearable
-  refereeing was incredibly biased and poor (Italy was robbed)



-  Zidane was injured so France looked like a pub team despite WC players at every position

Yes we were robbed against Croatia and Korea
Spain were robbed too
Spain Korea is probably the most robbed match in WC watched by me.
That  Spain could go far tbf , they were better than Germany (  average in that WC ... except for Kahn and Ballack)