World cup England in Quarter final

[Las Palmas]

3 minutes ago, dutchie01 said:

who is the star of this championship? Messi or Mbappe?

That is the big M question.

But best player in the last game France played was Griezmann.

[dutchie01]

4 minutes ago, Las Palmas said:

Hard to compare football 30 years ago with football now. Everything is different, equipment, playground and cameras catching everything that happens. It is fine that you think Pele is the greatest ever, but no film I have ever seen support that claim. Have seen on TV Maradona play and was impressed with the way he took it when, being thrown to the ground, just getting up and continued. Sportsman: yes. Far too many now roll 7 times round when they want the referee to give the opposition player a yellow or preferably red card.

Looking forward to the matches Saturday and more Sunday.

By the way, the Japanese players that cleaned the stadium after their game, showed something that is not seen often.

Fully agree, recently saw argentina vs the netherlands 1978 and i just could not believe it. So slow, players simply walking with the ball without beeing attacked and boy was it mean and hard! in todays world 10 players would have been sent off. Football has become so much faster and players ar athletes now. In those days smoking drinking and nightclubs were the norm.

[Bluemarlin]

1 hour ago, First_Lexus said:

Pele must be the greatest ever, surely?

I was once fortunate enough to see Pele play, in a friendly match between Fulham and Santos, which Fulham won 2-1. Apparently he later became a scout for Fulham.

It was a capacity crowd with record gate receipts of around £12,000.

[Rabbers]

58 minutes ago, dutchie01 said:

who is the star of this championship? Messi or Mbappe?

Patience, Bernard.  Wait for the final and we’ll find out.  So far I think they are just about even.

[serbarry]

Are we all together supporting Argentina? Or someone prefers the French to win?

[dutchie01]

21 minutes ago, serbarry said:

Are we all together supporting Argentina? Or someone prefers the French to win?

wine

[dutchie01]

Just now, dutchie01 said:

wine

sorry, too quick.

wine. arg vs france          i guess france?

meat                                 argentina

cars                                  france

women                             hmmm, draw

nationalistic arrogance    france surely

diplomatic superiority      france

 

Oh well, footballwise i think france does have the better team whilst argentina is built around messi. For me France is the favorite but if they cannot control messi he only needs 1 m2 to score.

[Rabbers]

Bernard, one or two of your cultural and social observations may be open to debate but your conclusions are not,

[Las Palmas]

2 hours ago, dutchie01 said:

Fully agree, recently saw argentina vs the netherlands 1978 and i just could not believe it. So slow, players simply walking with the ball without beeing attacked and boy was it mean and hard! in todays world 10 players would have been sent off. Football has become so much faster and players ar athletes now. In those days smoking drinking and nightclubs were the norm.

That is why I before thought that football players were all Neanderthals kicking and beating each other. Smoking and drinking has no place in top athletes life.

[Bluemarlin]

16 hours ago, Las Palmas said:

That is why I before thought that football players were all Neanderthals kicking and beating each other. Smoking and drinking has no place in top athletes life.

Tell that to the top level athletes who play darts 🙂

[Bluemarlin]

17 hours ago, serbarry said:

Are we all together supporting Argentina? Or someone prefers the French to win?

That's a tough one, as I'd prefer France, but had a small bet on England and Argentina before the tournament started. So, my heart says France, but my wallet says Argentina.

[serbarry]

I also have a bet on Argentina to win the world cup that I did before the start of the competition but anyway even without the bet I would prefer Argentina to win 😉.

[Las Palmas]

1 hour ago, Bluemarlin said:

Tell that to the top level athletes who play darts 🙂

My mistake. Thought athletes were fit and not fat. Sorry.

[Rabbers]

43 minutes ago, Las Palmas said:

…Thought athletes were fit and not fat….

You mean like snooker players?

[Las Palmas]

1 hour ago, Rabbers said:

You mean like snooker players?

It will be difficult to lie on the pool table with an inflated airbag underneath. No?

[Las Palmas]

Fine football till now.

Wonder what kind of glue kept the yellow card in pocket for so long. Could have been used at least 3 times before it finally came out.

But so far really entertaining match.

[Bluemarlin]

Very entertaining match, with the late French revival making it exciting.  In the end the better team on the day won though.

Can't imagine what it must have felt like to score a hat trick in a world cup final and still lose.

[Las Palmas]

Seems that since UK no longer have a team in the game, so did interest for football here, so maybe I am the only one in the forum that enjoyed the very long and entertaining game.

[Las Palmas]

1 minute ago, Bluemarlin said:

Very entertaining match, with the late French revival making it exciting.  In the end the better team on the day won though.

Can't imagine what it must have felt like to score a hat trick in a world cup final and still lose.

Think it must be hard to play in team with the best footballer ever.

[J Henderson]

32 minutes ago, Bluemarlin said:

Can't imagine what it must have felt like to score a hat trick in a world cup final and still lose.

Even worse when the guy who did lift the trophy is a teammate at your club...

Messi doesn't strike me as the type of person that would forever wind people up about the result, but he'll be a constant reminder for Mbappe. At least until the end of the season.

The right team won. Would've been a travesty if France had managed to win after such a shocking display for the first 80mins. Although to be fair, the contest was more even during extra time.

Great final. Shame Messi was made to wear a silly cape thing for the trophy lift.

[serbarry]

I absolutely agree with you: I think the best team won. Argentina has dominated the match until the 80' minute. France absolutely embarrassing in the first half for being a finalist: not even one shot on target. I think the 2 french goals in less than 2 minutes are more the fault of Argentina than the ability of the French to come back. In other words Argentina should not have wasted 2 goals lead just 10 minutes to the end of regular time even though I must admit that the second goal by Mbappe' was extraordinary. After all I am very happy for Argentina and Messi who has achieved the only missing trophy in his fabulous career and especially I am happy that I won my bet.

[ALAW]

3 hours ago, Las Palmas said:

Seems that since UK no longer have a team in the game, so did interest for football here, so maybe I am the only one in the forum that enjoyed the very long and entertaining game.

No i watched it all John it was very entertaining indeed good game.

[ALAW]

2 hours ago, J Henderson said:

Even worse when the guy who did lift the trophy is a teammate at your club...

Messi doesn't strike me as the type of person that would forever wind people up about the result, but he'll be a constant reminder for Mbappe. At least until the end of the season.

The right team won. Would've been a travesty if France had managed to win after such a shocking display for the first 80mins. Although to be fair, the contest was more even during extra time.

Great final. Shame Messi was made to wear a silly cape thing for the trophy lift.

Even worse when the guy who did lift the trophy is a teammate at your club...

That's interesting John another interesting fact is they both play for PSG who incidentally are owned by Qatar. 

[ALAW]

2 hours ago, serbarry said:

I absolutely agree with you: I think the best team won. Argentina has dominated the match until the 80' minute. France absolutely embarrassing in the first half for being a finalist: not even one shot on target. I think the 2 french goals in less than 2 minutes are more the fault of Argentina than the ability of the French to come back. In other words Argentina should not have wasted 2 goals lead just 10 minutes to the end of regular time even though I must admit that the second goal by Mbappe' was extraordinary. After all I am very happy for Argentina and Messi who has achieved the only missing trophy in his fabulous career and especially I am happy that I won my bet.

France weren't at the game in 1st half remarkable that the manager made substitutions just before half time.

[Rabbers]

Seen from Italy, whose team didn’t qualify for the final stage for the second consecutive time, this World Cup has been particularly enjoyable because the otherwise inevitable excessive patriotic fervour on the part of fans and commentators was replaced by a generally more dispassionate appreciation of the quality of the play and players.  Which is not to say that Italy’s participation would not have been welcome. Perhaps the only exception to this forced neutrality was what has now become a more or less traditional antipathy towards the French team (in which Italy supporters are not alone), and, of course, this has less to do with levels of footballing merit than perceptions of national arrogance.