If it wasnt for Penalties they'd never have gotten this far.
Their path to the final was a gift, but as soon as it got hard they stumbled in typical England fashion.
I thought it was interesting that the commentators were lamenting England's exhaustion to get to this point and how hard they worked and the minutes and etc, etc.
Despite the fact that Croatia played longer games and more minutes. But no, the English were hard done by because they got the easiest path to the finals in decades.
Their path was a joke 100%, I don’t think I’ve seen a path to the final of a World Cup like that since my first World Cup (2002). I think if you are an English supporter that has to be something that drives you crazy. It really was right there for the taking and if they made the final anything could happen. There are a lot of people applauding this England team but I honestly don’t think they really deserve it. They fumbled and choked this golden opportunity. They almost lost to Tunisia, They almost lost to a James-less Colombia, and they blow a lead with 22 minutes to go in the semi final vs Croatia while having 1 shot on target in 120 minutes. The only games they looked good in was vs Sweden and Panama. I really don’t see that many positives besides the fact they got an insanely lucky draw. Not trying to pile on England but they will have to make major improvements for the next World Cup to get back to the semis.
Meh... It's easy to pile on England but they did ok and easily could have won today. Croatia deserved it but that flick that tied the game could have gone in 10 different directions.
They had an easier path but honestly no one would have bet on them getting this far so good on them. Remarkable that a nation of 4 million people is in the final though!
There was at least
1. The Trippier goal
2. The Kane shot saved by the keeper before the crazy play off the post
3. The Stones header cleared off the line.
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There was at least
1. The Trippier goal
2. The Kane shot saved by the keeper before the crazy play off the post
3. The Stones header cleared off the line.
Because I think Kane’s play was called offside. I may be wrong tho.
One shot, two shots, three shots, either way they had a huge drop off in play in the second half and extra time. Very little created in a game where they should have been buzzing.
All this talk about England blowing an easy path to the finals but Croatia had an even easier path to the finals.
Denmark = Columbia
Russia < Sweden
And Croatia needed penalties twice to get through. Plus IMO Croatia were the favourites against England coming in - so technically England having to beat Croatia was a tougher path than Croatia beating England.
When you Look at the path of the past champions going back to 1990 this year does look a bit soft to get to the finals.
Germany in 90: Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, England, Argentina (who beat Brazil, Yugoslavia, Italy)
Brazil in 94: US, Netherlands, Sweden, Italy (who beat Nigeria, Spain, Bulgaria)
France in 98: Paraguay, Italy, Croatia, Brazil (who beat Chile, Denmark, Netherlands)
Brazil in 02: Belgium, England, Turkey, Germany (who beat Paraguay, US, South Korea)
Italy in 06: Australia, Ukraine, Germany, France (Beat Spain, Brazil, Portugal)
Germany in 14: Algeria, France, Brazil, Argentina (who beat the Swiss, Belgium, Netherlands)
Honestly think the reason the path to the finals looks soft this year is because a champion usually has to beat at least two of Germany, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Argentina, or France to get to win the World Cup. But this year all those teams (outside of France) have disappointed with Brazil making it the furthest to the QFs.
Croatia: Denmark (PK), Russia (PK), England (ET) ... that looks more like a Euro cup group.
France: Argentina, Uruguay, Belgium... tougher for sure and more in line of what you’d expect but Argentina the only “power” in the last 30 years and they were no good this year.
I’ll say right now if Croatia wins the finals on penalties it will be the easiest path to a title ever - it’d be 3 PK wins and not having to beat Germany, Brazil, Italy, or Spain. Only other finalist that’s path to the final has been easier IMO is Germany in 02 and they lost in the final.
Last edited by SuperMatt18; 07-11-2018 at 09:00 PM.
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Going back further Croatia and England even had easier qualifying groups.
Croatia had Iceland, Ukraine, Turkey, Finland, Kosovo - finished 2nd there and then lucked out with Greece in the playoff.
England had Slovakia, Scotland, Slovenia, Lithuania, Malta.
Compared to France who qualified through Sweden, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Belarus. (And still only had 1 defeat - a 94th minute goal from Sweden on the road)
Last edited by SuperMatt18; 07-11-2018 at 09:42 PM.
I think that England had a good chance given their route, but what can you do? You play who you draw at the tournament and that’s that. I also don’t think it was a failure for them. There was nothing expected and they had their chances today; they didn’t generate a ton of chances, but they had a couple excellent ones. And honestly, sometimes you don’t get the bounces. The other thing is that saying that England bottled it or whatever is just an insult to Croatia, who played really well.
I think it’s a really good, young English team. In four years the majority of them are going to be there and many right in their prime. That has to bode well. I know it’s fun to take a run at them and call them the Leafs of the World Cup and all that, but the truth is the Premier League has been the absolute class of this tournament. The English team is entirely PL players (I think?), so it’s really a positive story for English soccer I would say.
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All this talk about England blowing an easy path to the finals but Croatia had an even easier path to the finals.
Denmark = Columbia
Russia < Sweden
And Croatia needed penalties twice to get through. Plus IMO Croatia were the favourites against England coming in - so technically England having to beat Croatia was a tougher path than Croatia beating England.
No kidding. All I've been reading here is how easy England's path has been and how crap they are with zero mention how equally if not easier Croatia's has been and how they've squeaked past equally weak opponents and crap England.
Fact is Croatia have benefited from a gift route also but no one wants to mention that?
But european teams are hard to beat, I hear this all the time on here. There should be 25 European teams in a 32 team World Cup.
So beating three of them is not an easy route.
It is if you technically tie two of them and need penalty kicks to win. Plus one of the two didn’t have to qualify, and was a host ranked in the 70s coming in.
Plus People say that about Europe and South America in comparison to Asia, Africa, and North/Central American teams...the federations whose teams rarely make it out of the round of 16 or into the knockouts at all.
Of the 14 finalists I’ve listed since 1990 they’ve only had to beat 6 teams outside of Europe or South America on their path to the finals - US and Nigeria in 94, US and South Korea in 02 (Germany in 02 had the easist path to the final ever), Australia in 06, Algeria in 14.
There can still be levels of easy in the quality of European and South American teams you have to beat on the way to the finals.
Last edited by SuperMatt18; 07-11-2018 at 09:44 PM.
There was at least
1. The Trippier goal
2. The Kane shot saved by the keeper before the crazy play off the post
3. The Stones header cleared off the line.
1. The shot
2. Offside
3. Stopped by a non-goaltender. Blocked shot, not a save.
They had a better performance than you'd expect if you only heard that statistic though.
I can assure you england were the betting favorites going into the match.
The betting favourites doesn’t mean they were favourites. The betting market follows the money. In this instance the market was heavily skewed by England supporters.
The Croatia team is simply more talented than the England team.
I said it when we got the finalized round of 16 bracket, but the France side was the Champions League and the Croatia side was the Europa League. I think you could make a strong argument that all of the teams in the France side could have came out of the Croatia side, but that none of the teams in the Croatia side would have gotten out of R16 on the France side. I will say that while both Croatia and England had easy paths, Croatia had to play the doped up Russian team which is probably harder than Sweden or Colombia minus James.
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Modric must win the Ballon D'or this year right? Break the string of Ronaldo and Messi, they have won since 2008. In fact they have been 1st and 2nd since 2008 other than Iniesta finishing 2nd in 2010.
Trivia: who won the World Footballer of the Year (now Ballon D'Or) in 2007?
you get 10 guesses.
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Modric must win the Ballon D'or this year right? Break the string of Ronaldo and Messi, they have won since 2008. In fact they have been 1st and 2nd since 2008 other than Iniesta finishing 2nd in 2010.
Trivia: who won the World Footballer of the Year (now Ballon D'Or) in 2007?
you get 10 guesses.
