IT'S COMING HOME
I'm from an English family, in case any of you were wondering how I became such a miserable sarcastic curmudgeon.
World Cup 2018
IT'S COMING HOME
I'm from an English family, in case any of you were wondering how I became such a miserable sarcastic curmudgeon.
Well at least if you don't win, we know you'll flame out in absolutely spectacular fashion.
Here are your semi-final match-ups:
France vs. Belgium
Croatia vs. England
First semi-final, France-Belgium, is set for Tuesday.
France vs. Belgium
Croatia vs. England
First semi-final, France-Belgium, is set for Tuesday.
Very, very possible. That's a terrific team. Modric is criminally underrated.
KBLEE
- Montgomery, IL
Many consider him to be the best midfielder in world. 3 years in a row he's been named to the FIFA World XI and finished 5th last year in the Ballon d’Or (behind Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar and Buffon). That's some pretty good company.
bdutts
- Houston, Texas
The biggest issue I have with these tourney games is ending on PKs. Should make it sudden death (golden goal as they would say in the football world) and give them 3 more subs. To me, ending on PKs is like ending an NCAA tourney game on free throws or an NFL game on field goals. Teams end up playing not to lose (see Russia v Spain).
I have watched plenty of football (I lived in Scotland for three years) so I learned to like it over the years. But the PK ending just leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I’d imagine a lot of other Americans feel the same way.
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I have watched plenty of football (I lived in Scotland for three years) so I learned to like it over the years. But the PK ending just leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I’d imagine a lot of other Americans feel the same way.
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My idea for this is to play extra time in 7-8 minute segments in which you progressively take off one player per side. 10 v 10, 9 v 9, 8 v 8, etc. With every guy you take off it becomes much more likely that someone scores. Perhaps allow a couple subs at the start of the process to keep legs fresh.
The other interesting idea I heard the other day was to do the penalty shootout before the match. Thus one team knows that they must win, and so you avoid those extra times where both teams are content to play for penalties.
Yeah, soccer people know. But someone like Andrea Pirlo is probably a bigger celebrity to the average fan, certainly he was at the same age, and while he was a similar type of player, he wasn't nearly as good as Modric.
bdutts
- Houston, Texas
Your first paragraph would probably work well enough although it seems "gimmicky", kind of like overtime in the NHL regular season (I'm good with ties after an overtime period of some length, BTW) and I'm sure football "purists" would poo poo the idea. There has to be some way to break ties without having to do penalty shots. Anything but penalties, please!
You've got three choices. Penalties, games that last forever with the injury problems, TV problems, low quality of play problems and everything that brings, or something gimmicky.
IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
Penalties are the answer only in tournaments and games that deserve a knock out. You get 30 minutes of extra time to score, any longer and the game becomes brutal due to the lack of subs. It's not an ideal way to end but 30 minutes to play and penalties is much better than golden goal was before it.
Removing players progressively doesn't do much beside leading to even more tired legs, and having penalties before the game makes absolutely no sense. Teams still want to win without going to penalties. It only is the underdog that knows they can withstand the storm and potentially get to penalties and have a chance to win, no favored team EVER wants to make it to penalties.
you aren't serious are you?
Deadly.
Pirlo was a great, but limited player. Modric is not the dead ball specialist Pirlo was, but his work rate, tackling, and defensive awareness makes him much more complete.
IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
Modric is a fantastic player but Pirlo was one of the best of all time at his position.
I don't want to overly criticize Pirlo, he was a genius in his role, but with a player like that, you need an equally great indefatigable midfield dynamo alongside him if you want to be a great team.
Pirlo and Gattuso were a picture-perfect partnership for club and country. And at Juve there was Vidal and Pogba with boundless energy and mobility around him.
So I agree that at what he did, Pirlo was among the best ever, but Modric is just about his equal in that department and has more completeness to his game to boot.
bdutts
- Houston, Texas
I would prefer that the players win the game, playing the game as it's meant to be played. If that means changing the sub rules, so be it.
bdutts
- Houston, Texas
then I would change the sub rules to allow the players to dictate who goes forward.
Peoria Illini
- Peoria, IL
Modric does have better mobility and is an incredible midfielder, probably Croatia's best ever, but I'd give the nod to Pirlo over Modric. Pirlo's vision and passing ability was incredible. Not sure you can just label him a free-kick specialist.
But really, they were two different positions. I'd put Modric as more of an attacking/Central midfielder, an 8 or a 10, whereas Pirlo was more of a holding mid, a 6.
Both great midfileders, but me personally, I'd give the nod to Pirlo.
Regarding Croatia, I love the combo of Modric and Rakitic. I think Rakitici is an underrated midfielder. He's starting to come into more of his own at Barcelona this past season.
IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
Agree but Pirlo is a deep lying playmaker more than a holding midfielder. The position is basically named after him. Pirlo was so incredibly fluid on the ball and his ability to dictate play and play the ball to anywhere on the pitch is almost unrivaled. Modric is great and more of a true center mid than a deep lying playmaker but he does not get to the levels that Pirlo was able to.
IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
That changes the whole essence of the game and is not something that will ever happen. That change would have greater and more negative consequences than the occasional penalty shoot out.
bredhartmann
- Centralia, IL
Not technically Word Cup news but Cristiano to Juventus is official. The rest of the summer transfer window just got a whoooole lot more interesting. Hide your Hazards, hide your Salahs...
KBLEE
- Montgomery, IL
orangeroses07
- Centralia, IL
France vs Croatia in the Final!
Peoria Illini
- Peoria, IL
Should be a great game. Two very entertaining and talented midfields on both teams.