Ousmane Dembele says hello
1 Szczesny
2 Juranovic 4 Van Dijk 5 Carter-Vickers 3 A Johnston
6 Ntcham 8 Mooy 7 Irvine
10 Weah 9 Maeda 11 Frimpong
3 Likes
Carter Vickers hasnât put a foot wrong. Great shout
Whatever the rule about a hand reaching out to break your fall. Do lads not think he just stuck his hand out to stop it, after being skint? If you are falling on your arse your hands go beside you, not behind you like you are doing the splits. Think it was fairly clearly deliberate and had nothing to do with him reaching out when falling
2 Likes
You couldnt be up with them sneaky South Americans.
The default postion with the Uruguayans should be to assume they are trying to cheat at all times. Thatâs their whole system. Itâs beautiful
Iâd hate to punish them for it though.
The Uruguayans have an infinitely better team than us. I donât know if anyone bar maybe Nathan Collins would even make their squad.
They have a football culture and history we can only dream of.
Yet they have no problem playing defensive football, low possession and hitting long balls.
Why do we feel the need that we have to play âgoodâ football. Without the players required to do so?
I wonder how much the Iranians are paying their lad. We need to get someone like that, proven record in international management of getting results and making teams better
4 Likes
Anyone got the various scenarios / permutations of possible outcomes for todayâs games? @Aristotle @Cheasty
I used to wonder if itâs our footix culture where most of the country prefers watching football from abroad on telly than going to games. They half expect then to be served up the same type of football they see in the Champions League by a midfield trio of Molumby, Cullen and Hendrick. But thatâs kinda turned on its head now because the âmatch goingâ League of Ireland fans are resolutely behind Kenny and singing from the âyouâre going nowhere if you donât want to pass the ball and retain possessionâ hymn sheet, even though they religiously watch their teams whack the ball into the stand every week. I think the RTE panel had quite an influence on public sentiment too, especially back in the day. Sure Dunphy excoriated Jack Charlton in 1990 and that continued through to the relative success under Trap and then OâNeill. It was a crime for a nation that brought us Ruby Walsh, Henry Shefflin, Padraig Harrington and Katie Taylor to be playing such rudimentary football. In summary, it could be a bit of these things or none of them.
11 Likes
Uruguay have a poor record at world cups for a team littered with absolute superstars. Theyâve wasted a golden generation similar to Belgium
2 Likes
Genuine question, given all the distractions nowadays, (tablets, youtube, gaming etc) are the kids these days into the World Cup as much as we might have been as kids? My 2 are too young.
OkâŚ
Itâs day 10 of the World Cup.
Today Gianni Infantino feels like a tree.
1 Like
The young lads in my estate are out playing ball during the matches. The polish family had them all in for the polish match the other day with snacks to try get them to watch it but they were all out playing again 10 minutes in to it
4 Likes
Ah theyâve always had a serious tail to the team and have done well considering. Semis in 2010, knocked out by a good Colombia team in 2014 and quarters after knocking out Portugal in 2018
Thatâs the job. Theyâll have time enough to be watching matches to escape work and family when theyâre older.
5 Likes
Ah definitely. The eldest here is stone mad into it for the first time, has the wall charts, Messi Argentina away jersey (his request although is regretting not getting the Mbappe one). I doubt many of them sit down and watch a full 90 minutes, but then again, I doubt I did either for Euro 88 or Italia 90. I know I missed the start of Ireland England in the first game of Italia 90 because I was playing soccer with my friends. My mother presumed I was dead somewhere because to miss the game after talking about it for about 12 months was unthinkable.
2 Likes
They had 3 players who played at the very top level of club football and were amongst the best in Europe and a good cast of players to support them. Theyâve had two of the best goalscorers in Europe up front.
Look at croatia, a 3rd, with a different generation and then a 2nd, with another generation after nothing really in the middle, without any superstars bar modric and playing good ball.