c
Some critical thoughts on this World Cup!
* Qatar 2022 had a lot of drama but lacked overall quality
* The World Cup final was NOT THE BEST EVER. France was non-existent for the first 75 minutes in fact. They were honestly terrible. The penalty and the Mbappe equalizer changed things drastically. So you can say the last 15 minutes of regular time and ET
(108 min and onwards) were exciting.
* Too many top-level teams were either very much underwhelming (Belgium, Denmark, Uruguay) or just played with the worst possible strategy (all-possession-no penetration Spain, all-attack no-defense Germany). And this Brazil with so many super stars were
largely underwhelming (they struggled against Serbia and Switzerland in the group games... don't forget that). Except for those dances in the Korea game and that Richarlison bicycle kick, they were not very exciting and hardly played as a team.
* Too many teams with all defense-mindset (Japan, Croatia, Morocco) went through with just one or two good attacking moments.
* Croatia made it to semis with just a single win against Canada. Morocco made it to semis with just a single win against Belgium and a 1-0 win over Portugal playing defense the ENTIRE game!
*R16 was one of the WORST ever... not even one game was exciting in stark contrast to the final round of group games which themselves were exciting but not up to quality.
*There were very few high quality games actually. In fact these are the only ones, I consider as high quality from beginning to end. And yes that does not include the Argentina vs Netherlands game which was very exciting only at the very end of regular
time and the very end of extra time.
* France vs Denmark 2-1 (Group D game)
* Spain vs Germany 1-1 (Group E game)
* Serbia vs Switzerland 2-3 (Group G game)
* England vs France 1-2 (QF)
* There were few other nail-biters in the group stage but those seemed like battle of lightweights.
* The hosts Qatar were exceptionally POOR (way worse than South Africa in 2010) and had no right to be in the World Cup as a competing team.
* There were too many games with empty seats. It seems like most of the Europeans boycotted the WC. The games Latin Americans, North Africans and Middle Eastern nations played were mostly filled, though.
* I never officially got on the Moroccan bandwagon. For me it was horrific to see a team with almost no attacking talent making it to the semis. Yes solid defense, but was their strategy? 0-0 in group and penalties in KO? Yeah, a nice story! But were
they exciting? No. Nigeria of 1994 was exciting even though they lost out in R16. The only thing exciting about Morocco was they were placed 4th.
* It also felt there was no consistency in the VAR decisions at all. Some were shockingly overturned, and some were predictably and wrongly accepted by the referee.
* And finally way too many penalties and wrong VAR decisions... how was the penalty against Poland that Messi missed, a penalty? And officials were quick to give away yellow cards... but balked at red cards? Why???
* And wait... one more... what's up with the kits... almost everyone of them was horrific. Everyone complained about the American kit being bland... but what about the weird Portuguese kit, the weird golden-orange of the Dutch, the travesty that was the
Spanish away kit, the blindingly shiny white of the Ghana... the list is endless. Many of them deserve all-time worst considerations!!!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Monday, December 19, 2022 at 7:24:21 PM UTC, LedZep IgaSwanTech wrote:

c
Some critical thoughts on this World Cup!
* Qatar 2022 had a lot of drama but lacked overall quality
* The World Cup final was NOT THE BEST EVER. France was non-existent for the first 75 minutes in fact. They were honestly terrible. The penalty and the Mbappe equalizer changed things drastically. So you can say the last 15 minutes of regular time and

ET (108 min and onwards) were exciting.

* Too many top-level teams were either very much underwhelming (Belgium, Denmark, Uruguay) or just played with the worst possible strategy (all-possession-no penetration Spain, all-attack no-defense Germany). And this Brazil with so many super stars

were largely underwhelming (they struggled against Serbia and Switzerland in the group games... don't forget that). Except for those dances in the Korea game and that Richarlison bicycle kick, they were not very exciting and hardly played as a team.

* Too many teams with all defense-mindset (Japan, Croatia, Morocco) went through with just one or two good attacking moments.
* Croatia made it to semis with just a single win against Canada. Morocco made it to semis with just a single win against Belgium and a 1-0 win over Portugal playing defense the ENTIRE game!
*R16 was one of the WORST ever... not even one game was exciting in stark contrast to the final round of group games which themselves were exciting but not up to quality.
*There were very few high quality games actually. In fact these are the only ones, I consider as high quality from beginning to end. And yes that does not include the Argentina vs Netherlands game which was very exciting only at the very end of regular

time and the very end of extra time.

* France vs Denmark 2-1 (Group D game)
* Spain vs Germany 1-1 (Group E game)
* Serbia vs Switzerland 2-3 (Group G game)
* England vs France 1-2 (QF)
* There were few other nail-biters in the group stage but those seemed like battle of lightweights.
* The hosts Qatar were exceptionally POOR (way worse than South Africa in 2010) and had no right to be in the World Cup as a competing team.
* There were too many games with empty seats. It seems like most of the Europeans boycotted the WC. The games Latin Americans, North Africans and Middle Eastern nations played were mostly filled, though.
* I never officially got on the Moroccan bandwagon. For me it was horrific to see a team with almost no attacking talent making it to the semis. Yes solid defense, but was their strategy? 0-0 in group and penalties in KO? Yeah, a nice story! But were

they exciting? No. Nigeria of 1994 was exciting even though they lost out in R16. The only thing exciting about Morocco was they were placed 4th.

* It also felt there was no consistency in the VAR decisions at all. Some were shockingly overturned, and some were predictably and wrongly accepted by the referee.
* And finally way too many penalties and wrong VAR decisions... how was the penalty against Poland that Messi missed, a penalty? And officials were quick to give away yellow cards... but balked at red cards? Why???
* And wait... one more... what's up with the kits... almost everyone of them was horrific. Everyone complained about the American kit being bland... but what about the weird Portuguese kit, the weird golden-orange of the Dutch, the travesty that was

the Spanish away kit, the blindingly shiny white of the Ghana... the list is endless. Many of them deserve all-time worst considerations!!!

Yeah, agree with a lot of this. I'd have included Cameroon 3 - Serbia 3 in the list of high quality games. Completely agree about Morocco, first African team in the semi finals or not I found it very hard to get enthusiastic about their style of football
and their progress robbed us what could have been a classic Portugal v Spain quarter final.


RM

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Monday, December 19, 2022 at 3:47:20 PM UTC-6, Real Mardin wrote:

On Monday, December 19, 2022 at 7:24:21 PM UTC, LedZep IgaSwanTech wrote:

c
Some critical thoughts on this World Cup!
* Qatar 2022 had a lot of drama but lacked overall quality
* The World Cup final was NOT THE BEST EVER. France was non-existent for the first 75 minutes in fact. They were honestly terrible. The penalty and the Mbappe equalizer changed things drastically. So you can say the last 15 minutes of regular time

and ET (108 min and onwards) were exciting.

* Too many top-level teams were either very much underwhelming (Belgium, Denmark, Uruguay) or just played with the worst possible strategy (all-possession-no penetration Spain, all-attack no-defense Germany). And this Brazil with so many super stars

were largely underwhelming (they struggled against Serbia and Switzerland in the group games... don't forget that). Except for those dances in the Korea game and that Richarlison bicycle kick, they were not very exciting and hardly played as a team.

* Too many teams with all defense-mindset (Japan, Croatia, Morocco) went through with just one or two good attacking moments.
* Croatia made it to semis with just a single win against Canada. Morocco made it to semis with just a single win against Belgium and a 1-0 win over Portugal playing defense the ENTIRE game!
*R16 was one of the WORST ever... not even one game was exciting in stark contrast to the final round of group games which themselves were exciting but not up to quality.
*There were very few high quality games actually. In fact these are the only ones, I consider as high quality from beginning to end. And yes that does not include the Argentina vs Netherlands game which was very exciting only at the very end of

regular time and the very end of extra time.

* France vs Denmark 2-1 (Group D game)
* Spain vs Germany 1-1 (Group E game)
* Serbia vs Switzerland 2-3 (Group G game)
* England vs France 1-2 (QF)
* There were few other nail-biters in the group stage but those seemed like battle of lightweights.
* The hosts Qatar were exceptionally POOR (way worse than South Africa in 2010) and had no right to be in the World Cup as a competing team.
* There were too many games with empty seats. It seems like most of the Europeans boycotted the WC. The games Latin Americans, North Africans and Middle Eastern nations played were mostly filled, though.
* I never officially got on the Moroccan bandwagon. For me it was horrific to see a team with almost no attacking talent making it to the semis. Yes solid defense, but was their strategy? 0-0 in group and penalties in KO? Yeah, a nice story! But were

they exciting? No. Nigeria of 1994 was exciting even though they lost out in R16. The only thing exciting about Morocco was they were placed 4th.

* It also felt there was no consistency in the VAR decisions at all. Some were shockingly overturned, and some were predictably and wrongly accepted by the referee.
* And finally way too many penalties and wrong VAR decisions... how was the penalty against Poland that Messi missed, a penalty? And officials were quick to give away yellow cards... but balked at red cards? Why???
* And wait... one more... what's up with the kits... almost everyone of them was horrific. Everyone complained about the American kit being bland... but what about the weird Portuguese kit, the weird golden-orange of the Dutch, the travesty that was

the Spanish away kit, the blindingly shiny white of the Ghana... the list is endless. Many of them deserve all-time worst considerations!!!

Yeah, agree with a lot of this. I'd have included Cameroon 3 - Serbia 3 in the list of high quality games.

I didnt see that. That was at 4 am here.

Completely agree about Morocco, first African team in the semi finals or not I found it very hard to get enthusiastic about their style of football and their progress robbed us what could have been a classic Portugal v Spain quarter final.

RM

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Monday, December 19, 2022 at 2:24:21 p.m. UTC-5, LedZep IgaSwanTech wrote:

c
Some critical thoughts on this World Cup!
* Qatar 2022 had a lot of drama but lacked overall quality

Yeah, I would agree with that, so many weak teams, the football was quite forgettable.

* The World Cup final was NOT THE BEST EVER. France was non-existent for the first 75 minutes in fact. They were honestly terrible. The penalty and the Mbappe equalizer changed things drastically. So you can say the last 15 minutes of regular time and

ET (108 min and onwards) were exciting.
It probably was the best final ever for me, OK maybe not mesmerizing football and yes France were poor for 75 mins, but the comebacks and drama were good, most finals are low scoring, tight games so this match was different.

* Too many top-level teams were either very much underwhelming (Belgium, Denmark, Uruguay) or just played with the worst possible strategy (all-possession-no penetration Spain, all-attack no-defense Germany). And this Brazil with so many super stars

were largely underwhelming (they struggled against Serbia and Switzerland in the group games... don't forget that). Except for those dances in the Korea game and that Richarlison bicycle kick, they were not very exciting and hardly played as a team.
Yeah, the so called top level teams were poor. really thought this would be the chance for a team like England, Denmark, Netherlands or Portugal to shine, but they did not seize the opportunity.

* Too many teams with all defense-mindset (Japan, Croatia, Morocco) went through with just one or two good attacking moments.

I did not think they were overly defensive, yes they played a conservative style, but that is to be expected.

* Croatia made it to semis with just a single win against Canada. Morocco made it to semis with just a single win against Belgium and a 1-0 win over Portugal playing defense the ENTIRE game!

They beat Canada as well.

*R16 was one of the WORST ever... not even one game was exciting in stark contrast to the final round of group games which themselves were exciting but not up to quality.

I cant recall a game from the rnd of 16.

*There were very few high quality games actually. In fact these are the only ones, I consider as high quality from beginning to end. And yes that does not include the Argentina vs Netherlands game which was very exciting only at the very end of regular

time and the very end of extra time.

* France vs Denmark 2-1 (Group D game)
* Spain vs Germany 1-1 (Group E game)
* Serbia vs Switzerland 2-3 (Group G game)
* England vs France 1-2 (QF)
* There were few other nail-biters in the group stage but those seemed like battle of lightweights.

Meh, none of the teams showed me much, passing was poor and no team actually had the ability to control matches like good teams usually do.

* The hosts Qatar were exceptionally POOR (way worse than South Africa in 2010) and had no right to be in the World Cup as a competing team.

They were quite bad.

* There were too many games with empty seats. It seems like most of the Europeans boycotted the WC. The games Latin Americans, North Africans and Middle Eastern nations played were mostly filled, though.

Kind of expected that.

* I never officially got on the Moroccan bandwagon. For me it was horrific to see a team with almost no attacking talent making it to the semis. Yes solid defense, but was their strategy? 0-0 in group and penalties in KO? Yeah, a nice story! But were

they exciting? No. Nigeria of 1994 was exciting even though they lost out in R16. The only thing exciting about Morocco was they were placed 4th.
OK, they were no Cameroon of 90, but I thought they played well.

* It also felt there was no consistency in the VAR decisions at all. Some were shockingly overturned, and some were predictably and wrongly accepted by the referee.

You can say that about the EPL as well. VAR is here to stay and has improved some things, but it has not been the cure all people expected. Now it just takes more time for them to make bad decisions.

* And finally way too many penalties and wrong VAR decisions... how was the penalty against Poland that Messi missed, a penalty? And officials were quick to give away yellow cards... but balked at red cards? Why???
* And wait... one more... what's up with the kits... almost everyone of them was horrific. Everyone complained about the American kit being bland... but what about the weird Portuguese kit, the weird golden-orange of the Dutch, the travesty that was

the Spanish away kit, the blindingly shiny white of the Ghana... the list is endless. Many of them deserve all-time worst considerations!!!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)