Year Round The Football/Soccer Thread v3

[Jorge D. Dragon]

Well, about potential WC favourites... It's quite hard to decide now, since it's quite some time to go and tons of things can change if we consider injuries and other factors that can play a role against any of the top teams.

Anyways for now the big 4 I would choose would be Brasil, Spain, Italy and Germany (it doesn't matter how to put hem, since they are more or less close, even though Brasil won against both Spain and Italy). Germany now is quite strong, especially since Bayern and Borussia are currently the two best teams in Europe (of course it can be argued, but my point is that they are the teams who played in Champions League final), so Germany will have a great chance to win WC after a long time.

After those 4 it's quite hard to decide... Well, I can just name those who can more or less fight for the Cup... France, Argentina, Netherlands, Uruguay (though it would be quite hard for them to show as good result as they shown in the previous WC) and maybe Portugal (though after Euro 2012 they aren't that impressive).

Apart from these two groups I can't really think of any other possibilities. Of course there is England, but currently they aren't nearly as good as they were before, since most of their decisive players are either getting quite old (Lampard, Stivie G and Terry), while others either don't have much of a practise in their respective clubs or just aren't as good as they were before like Rooney. At best England can challenge those who are in the second tier, but I doubt they have any real chances.

 

[FrostyMouse]

France and Argentina have absolutely no chance. Argentina has more of a chance than France, but not too much more.

Belgium has a definite chance to get to the QFs, if not the SFs. They're not a real threat to win the WC, but I think that they're better than France, Argentina, Holland, England, and Uruguay.

---------- Post added at 03:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:42 PM ----------

Portugal are fighters and I see them as better than any of the other teams below the assumed best four.

 

[Hardy]

Belgium has a definite chance to get to the QFs, if not the SFs. They're not a real threat to win the WC, but I think that they're better than France, Argentina, Holland, England, and Uruguay.

France and Argentina have absolutely no chance.

WUT

 

[FrostyMouse]

Hardy, I know you're Argentinian, but face facts. Argentina, apart from the forward area, are not that gifted of a side.

I've been a France supporter for 15 years and I can tell you that France has no chance.

Just because Belgium aren't a traditional power doesn't mean that they don't have good players. They have problems in the FB area and they don't actually have a CAM right now, but if they fix up those problems, they'll be a threat in the WC (a dark horse, if you will), although not a real contender.

 

[kakashi919]

Belgium a bigger threat than Holland? O_o

 

[Hardy]

Dude, we don't need big names in the defense. Our coach, Sabella, is a great tactician when it comes to defense (dunno if you remember the Estudiantes that almost beat Barcelona, that was his team and they didn't have any stars besides Verón and maybe Boselli).

Our midfield ain't bad at all, simple as that. Maybe Mascherano, Biglia, Di María, A. Fernández, Lamela, etc aren't good enough for you, but they are top lvl.

And our Fowards are second to none, simple as that.

We don't have a dominant GK, I admit that. But saying that Belgium has a better chance and that our chances are close to none? No way.

 

[FrostyMouse]

Belgium a bigger threat than Holland? O_o

I think so. There are always problems to be found in Holland's camp somewhere. Sure, RVP and Robben have sorted out their issues, but what about the other nine starters? VDV was the only Dutch player who showed up at the Euros. I don't know how well VDV played this season, so I don't know where he is right now.

---------- Post added at 05:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:14 PM ----------

Dude, we don't need big names in the defense. Our coach, Sabella, is a great tactician when it comes to defense (dunno if you remember the Estudiantes that almost beat Barcelona, that was his team and they didn't have any stars besides Verón and maybe Boselli).

Our midfield ain't bad at all, simple as that. Maybe Mascherano, Biglia, Di María, A. Fernández, Lamela, etc aren't good enough for you, but they are top lvl.

And our Fowards are second to none, simple as that.

We don't have a dominant GK, I admit that. But saying that Belgium has a better chance and that our chances are close to none? No way.

You still can't turn mediocre defenders into world beaters, no matter how good your coach. You need a certain level of talent. I trust Zabaleta, but not the other three.

Mascherano's fallen since he joined Barca and has been completely mishandled and played out of position. Biglia was thought to be a rising star a bunch of years ago, but I'm not sure how good he ended up being. Di Maria is a good crosser, but I'm still not completely confident in him. You need goals from somewhere other than your strikers and even he doesn't contribute that many. Fernandez, nah. Lamela, he has talent, but he's not consistent enough.

Obviously Messi and Aguero are great, but they need service.

That keeper issue is a big problem. Look at yesterday's match between Spain and Brazil. Casillas failed to save any of those three goals (at the very least, Fred's two goals should've been stopped, even if you're not willing to say that Neymar's should've been saved) and all three of them were saveable.

What I mean by "no chance" isn't that you won't get out of the group stages or anything, it's that you have no hope of winning the WC. England and France don't have any hope of winning the WC either. Belgium doesn't have any chance of winning the WC, to be honest, but I think that they have more potential than Argentina and they're more of a team. In direct comparisons, apart from Messi, Aguero (although not according to the numbers for him), and Zabaleta, Belgium are better. This is just my opinion, but it's what I think.

Spain, Germany, Brazil, and Italy (although their hopes require Andrea Pirlo to be fully fit) are the only nations with any real hope of winning the WC.

 

[kakashi919]

As if Holland has ever needed RvP...when did he sort out his issues for Holland? Never..he still never scores for them..in fact, I still think he's vastly overrated. How many years he took at Arsenal to have two good seasons? VDV,Sneider,Robben were the core of the team. Their defense isn't that bad either...sorry..Belgium has awesome players, but a bigger threat than Holland? Don't think so...we"ll see.

 

[xi0]

The issue is you can't really compare Belgium's young talent to any of the top teams because they haven't qualified for the last Euro or the WC before that. On paper and in friendlies/qualifiers they look great. But there's no pedigree there. They're still not even a shoe-in for the WC with Croatia in their group and not far behind. They still have to play them in Croatia. If they don't finish first, they might have to go to the playoff and anything could happen there.

 

[FrostyMouse]

As if Holland has ever needed RvP...when did he sort out his issues for Holland? Never..he still never scores for them..in fact, I still think he's vastly overrated. How many years he took at Arsenal to have two good seasons? VDV,Sneider,Robben were the core of the team. Their defense isn't that bad either...sorry..Belgium has awesome players, but a bigger threat than Holland? Don't think so...we"ll see.

I never said that RvP sorted out his issues for Holland; I was just saying that he sorted out his issues on the pitch at the club level and it could perhaps translate for Holland. He was woeful in the Euros, so realistically, he hasn't sorted out those issues.

VDV and Robben are the main players for Holland. Sneijder isn't too good these days.

Holland are historically an underperforming team, so...Admittedly, that side did make it to the 2010 WC Final. Still, do you remember all of the style over substance Holland teams?

 

[Imperium]

I dont think the 2010 dutch team could be classed as a style over substance team. More like abuse over style.

 

[Hardy]

Funny how Argentina and the Netherlands don't have enough stars to fight for the title but Belgium surely is a competitive team that will go for the WC

 

[xi0]

Funny how Argentina and the Netherlands don't have enough stars to fight for the title but Belgium surely is a competitive team that will go for the WC

Belgium have plenty of young, up and coming stars. As well as many members who are captains on their club teams. There isn't anything to judge them on at top level competitions, so they have a lot of hype. We've seen Argentina and Holland flounder despite their talent, so of course people are skeptical.

 

[FrostyMouse]

I dont think the 2010 dutch team could be classed as a style over substance team. More like abuse over style.

Nigel de Jong, bringing violence to football since 2010. It's still shameful that he wasn't sent off. I was rooting for Holland there, but come on. I know it's a WC Final, but Zidane got sent off in '06. Nigel de Jong's assault was far worse than Zidane's.

 

[Jorge D. Dragon]

Well, if we talk about Argentina, they have great players in attack like Messi, Aguero, Iguain or Tevez, but it's not a team. They had more or less the same team in the last WC and there wasn't a team. Even though they have some stars they still need to be tuned together. Real Madrid has the same problem quite often as if we count their players separatly, then they should win against most of the teams in the World, but unfortunately this doesn't happen as smoothly as it has to be, since they don't always play as a team. The same goes to Argentina.

About Belgium... Well, I don't think they have better chances than Argentina or Netherlands. They do have good and talented players noiw who play in different big clubs, but still they have to at least get to WC for us to be able to talk about their possibilities. I would call them Dark Hourse for now.

Anyways, we might actually see some team beeing like Greece. The one who get to the later stages not with the help of stars or good teamplay, but with a great effort and virtue of luck.

 

[Hardy]

They had more or less the same team in the last WC and there wasn't a team.

Our whole defense is different (and it's actually a defense that respects positions, no 2s and 6s playing as 3 and 4), Tevez won't be there either... that's half of the team, right?

 

[ibra87]

Argentina doesn't have a chance, lol. The attacking unit can't possibly carry the rest of the team. And the fact that Barcelona hasn't won anything should really hurt Messi's performance.

Holland is... random. I know they've been horrible so far, but they have the potential to win, although Sneijder sucks now though I doubt it.

Belgium has the chance to impress, not to win. Come on guys, let's be honest, they can't compare with the big dogs.



All the rage this year is Iran and Austarlia.

 

[kakashi919]

I never said that RvP sorted out his issues for Holland; I was just saying that he sorted out his issues on the pitch at the club level and it could perhaps translate for Holland. He was woeful in the Euros, so realistically, he hasn't sorted out those issues.

VDV and Robben are the main players for Holland. Sneijder isn't too good these days.

Holland are historically an underperforming team, so...Admittedly, that side did make it to the 2010 WC Final. Still, do you remember all of the style over substance Holland teams?

Sorry..you made it sound like RVP was an important player for Holland...

 

[xi0]

Sorry..you made it sound like RVP was an important player for Holland...

76 caps, 35 goals. I'd say that means he's pretty important. He isn't Bergkamp or even Kluivert as far as goals go, but he's damn close. Plus he's only 29. Sneijder and Robben haven't really been lighting it up in qualifiers either. It's been all RVP, VDV, and Lens.

 

[FrostyMouse]

76 caps, 35 goals. I'd say that means he's pretty important. He isn't Bergkamp or even Kluivert as far as goals go, but he's damn close. Plus he's only 29. Sneijder and Robben haven't really been lighting it up in qualifiers either. It's been all RVP, VDV, and Lens.

Qualifiers are a different story from tournaments, however. RVP was coming off the back of a tremendous season last summer, but was pretty poor in the Euros. Admittedly, everyone, apart from VDV, and perhaps Robben, was awful in the Euros for Holland.

Pedro's leading Spain in goals for WC Qualification, but you wouldn't say that he's pretty important for Spain.

Gary, I'm unsure if you're aware of RVP's history, but up until recently, he wasn't considered a great striker by any means, in large part due to so many injuries. What that means is that while he's healthy right now, we don't know how he'll be by next summer. With all of the injuries in the past, it could mean that he could play to an older age (as he doesn't have as much wear and tear on the rest of his body), or it could mean that he could have half a season next season and break down permanently.

You shouldn't expect Sneijder to be lighting it up anyway. VDV has been Holland's best player for a few years now. It was foolish of Spurs to let VDV go back to Hamburg. If they'd kept him, they would've been in the CL for next season.