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FIFA World Cup 2022

mauve

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The interest in :de: has reached a low point. Yesterday only 9,23 million watched the match against :jp:. You may say that´s still a lot, but back in 2018 ALL group games had more than 25 million viewers. xshock
Well, if even Goretzka is no reason to see the games, we are truly lost. :ROFLMAO:
 
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cegs5

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Uruguay deserved better against Korea, whilst the South Americans wanted to win, the Asians didn't want to lose.
Hopefully Uruguay up their game in the next matches.
 

Milos-BC

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Very dynamic match between Uruguay and South Korea. Loved the way South Korea approached this duel and I'm glad they ended up with a draw.
 

Milos-BC

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Well done Ghana, really good performance. It didn't bring points now but it will bring them in the next matches if it repeats itself.

And now the moment of truth :rs: :rs: :rs: !
 

cegs5

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:br: dominated :rs: from the start, especially in the second half. The second goal tho xheat
This is the most solid team Brazil has presented since 2006 maybe. They did an impressive Qualifiers and their best players are all in good shape.
 

Milos-BC

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I think we gave our maximum at this point, :br: is simply a better team and I still stand by what I said earlier - I think :br: is the biggest favorite to win the championship.

Unfortunately, we conceived the second goal right when we had a period of good play but the goal was master class, we have to admit.

Other than that, I think we "respected" :br: way too much and some mistakes that were made were a direct product of that.

In any case, congrats :br: a deserved victory,, we will have to focus on Cameroon and Switzerland to pass the group stage and this was quite clear even before this match.

I believe we will be much better against Cameroon.
 

ShoeFlo

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After match day 1 it's time to make a confederation check for the first time

UEFA (7 wins/4 draws/2 losses)
once again Europe proved its dominance; good results overall!
The top teams all get their jobs done, some of them in great fashion (England & Spain). The only big flop is Germany but I don't consider us a top team anymore, we are I think 11th in the world ranking and this is still flattering us. We should be around 20th place at best. Belgium was awful but they still won... with referee support
Wales drew which is better for them than it is for the USA, cause Wales faces England in the last match day so I suppose England might be qualified already when they meet each other
Croatia and Denmark had a hard time again strong African teams, but I am still confident they will both advance
Poland are always potential chokers but a draw against Mexico is alright, everything is possible
Both Switzerland and Serbia were alright, but sadly they will cancel each other out.

CONMEBOL (2 wins/1 draw/1 loss)
now this is very mixed... one of the big favorites lived up to the expectations, the other one collapsed.
Ecuador I think was doing very well. it's simple to say Qatar is crap but anyway finishing them within 20 minutes in such a clinical way impressed me. Uruguay however probably hoped for a win. Fight for second place in that group is pretty open.

AFC (2 wins/1 draw/3 losses)
beside the UEFA I think AFC is the winner of match day 1... I think most of us did not have high expectations regarding Asian teams and looking at the draw it seems possible that all of them get eliminated after group stage. I personally expected Iran to have the most realistic chances.
Now Saudi Arabia and Japan achieved historical results and all of sudden both are realistic contenders for the Round of 16. South Korea did well too and proved their are competitive in their group. Australia did as good as their could against a team like France. Maybe they could have surprised if they didn't make a lot of individual mistakes. Qatar disappointed but tbf even if their did their best, they couldn't make it out of the group. Iran flopped hard... the quality of the opponent is not an excuse. But still... this was the match they are "allowed" to lose .. the next two matches are the crucial ones for them

CAF (0 wins/2 draws/3 losses)
African teams were not bad, but kind of unlucky. Ghana has a young team and their showed a great mentality and reaction after the goals they conceded. They never gave up. Senegal was on a par with Netherlands until Mendy lost it for them. Cameroon from what I've heard did okay.. they were just a little too harmless.
Big respect to Morocco and Tunisia though. They faced two of the so-called dark horses from Europe and were absolutely competitive. Actually Tunisia was the slightly better side in the match against Denmark.
Despite unlucky results all teams apart from Cameroon stand realistic chances to qualify... Imagine four African teams in Round of 16. Well, I guess two will make it. Senegal and Morocco

CONCACAF (0 wins/2 draws/2 losses)
I said African teams were unlucky but the unluckiest team is for sure Canada who applied to become one of my favorite teams of the WC. USA should have done better, especially after the good first half. Mexico was saved by their World Cup legend Ochoa. Costa Rica was helpless. CONCACAF is the confederation I fear that might flop in the end. I can see all four teams going out after group stage.

OFC
xcookie

Antarctica Football Association
penguin-smack-penguin-slap.gif
 

Looren

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Don't think there's really a point comparing the confederations, since some get more spots than others you can't really compare them tbh

After round 1 the big faves that confirmed their status are : Brazil, England, Spain and France (even tho I think Australia's defenders helped them a lot)

I think we'll see everything clearer after round 2
 

Zerocalcare

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The first day of the World Cup is over, here is the ranking of the points acquired by the participating federations:

  1. UEFA (=) 25 points out of 39 available (7 wins - 4 draws - 2 defeats / 25 goals scored and 8 conceded / + 17 goal difference).
  2. COMNEBOL (+1): 7 points out of 12 available (2 wins - 1 draw - 1 defeat / 5 goals scored and 2 conceded / + 3 goal difference)
  3. AFC (=): 7 points out of 18 available (2 wins - 1 draw - 3 defeats / 7 goals scored and 14 conceded / - 7 goals goal difference).
  4. CONCACAF (+1): 2 points out of 12 available (0 wins - 2 draws - 2 defeats / 1 goal scored and 9 conceded / - 8 goal difference).
  5. CAF (-1) 2 points out of 15 available (0 wins - 2 draws - 3 defeats / 2 goals scored and 6 conceded / - 4 goal difference).

Zerocalcare's Opinions :geek::

The ranking speaks for itself. The strongest federation at the time was UEFA. Follow the COMNEBOL held up by Brazil, Ecuador and Uruguay and AFC which surprisingly follows the same trail. The AFC was surprising both for the prolificacy in front of goal (as many as 7 goals scored) and because two of their national teams have respectively defeated global football giants. On the other hand, CONCACAF and CAF are disappointing.

Evaluating the last four games today, we have seen Switzerland get 3 important points against Cameroon; then there was the draw between Uruguay and South Korea which, unlike the other draws we have seen, gave life to an entertaining test with an uncertain result until the end (Uruguay was more solid and dangerous but the South Korea dribbled very well and faced the South Americans head-on); instead Brazil, following in the footsteps of 2014, dominated Serbia (I was very disappointed because I expected more from the Serbian national team); finally, Portugal wins by arrogance thanks to the enormous quality of its attack against a Ghana who never gave up and almost managed to draw. On Portugal I say that they are strong on dribbling and offensive qualities but, even if they could be solid, they have shown some defensive gaps. On Ghana I say that they have proven to be the strongest and most aggressive African team at the moment. Ghana demonstrated to the other African teams (except Tunisia who performed well) how to play to win and not to snatch a shy draw by playing badly xbeee

We look forward to the second day of the World Cup group stage. From tomorrow onwards we will be able to have the first answers xup
 

mauve

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Hoping for Senegal, Ecuador and Wales (Iran is okay as well) - can't decide between USA and England though. Good luck to the teams! xheart
 

cegs5

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Absolutely deserved victory of Iran, they really cornered the Welsh in the second half. Hennessey went from being the hero to villain after that criminal fault. Great to see a team comeback after being trashed in their debut.

Now, cheering on USA to make this pool more exciting.
 
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