**** 2018 WORLD CUP THREAD ***

Get a grip man, I appreciate you're pretty new to the sport but if you thought France 'Parked the bus' you genuinely do have no idea what you're talking about.

They played tight and they let Belgium come on to them, but they still made chances.

I understand it's frustrating when a team you want to win loses but Belgium have only themselves to blame. They had chances but couldn't find the finish. While it was still 0-0, it was pretty open.

Looks like Belgium put out the A squad and England put out an A/B squad, as some guys are tired from play 120' on Wednesday.

Belgium is going to pile up the goals in this one. It could get ugly.

vivalarepublica wrote:

Jorge Soros wrote:

You can bet behind the scenes the nation wreckers are trying to offer up the $$$$ to officials in the hopes of having France win in order to point to the mixed team as an excuse to let more 25 year old refugee "children" into Europe to wreak havoc and work as a proxy army to attempt to topple the West.

Take your garbage posts elsewhere, stupid troll.

He isn't exactly wrong, leftist politicians use sports to prove their viewpoints.

"Oh look, a 'diverse' team won the Cup, see how great open borders are." (not mentioning the fact that France has been struck by dozens of brutal Islamic terrorist attacks)

Brilliant run by Jakob. Clean double Gold no doubt. 13:20 at 17 is incredible.

Zakayo looks at least 50. Seriously.

https://www.nation.co.ke/sports/athletics/Zakayo-Waithaka-stage-sweep-for-Kenya-in-5000m-in-Finland/1100-4662958-22pwp4/

Oops, wrong threat, lol.

They both have their best team possible on the field.

They both want to win this game for obvious reasons....

Belgium showing how to play true counter attacking football without parking the bus. There were about 4 or 5 players in the box defending, which is why England had so many chances, but weren’t surgical.

Belgium’s attacking players were playing up waiting to get out on the counter, so there were 3-4 players pushing forward : hazard, Mertens, KDB, Meunier.

There runs were excellent, and the passes were precise. Eden Hazard moved in as a false number 9 when Lukaku went to the bench, so there was speed at the top on the flanks and in the middle, while the defenders defended.

Thank you to both teams for coming to play! It was a great game.

Also, Chelsea signed Jorginho and a new manager today!

We’re going to have a double pivot of Jorginho and Kante!

Scorpion_runner wrote:

Belgium showing how to play true counter attacking football without parking the bus. There were about 4 or 5 players in the box defending, which is why England had so many chances, but weren’t surgical.

Belgium’s attacking players were playing up waiting to get out on the counter, so there were 3-4 players pushing forward : hazard, Mertens, KDB, Meunier.

There runs were excellent, and the passes were precise. Eden Hazard moved in as a false number 9 when Lukaku went to the bench, so there was speed at the top on the flanks and in the middle, while the defenders defended.

Thank you to both teams for coming to play! It was a great game.

Also, Chelsea signed Jorginho and a new manager today!

We’re going to have a double pivot of Jorginho and Kante!

Nice game played by both teams ... No real surprises on the score or winning team but England should be proud of their World Cup.

"Belgium showing how to play true counter attacking football without parking the bus. ".... LOL just can't let it go hey!

I guess France has a fake Counter Attack football team....Lol.... Checkout the stats and learn to watch a tacticle game...

France showed the world how to beat one of the strongest offense in the world by outscoring them , outshooting them and having more dangerous chances to put in in the net forcing the goaly to make more stops than the team with less possession.

Soccer at its's finest ....

Good Game Belgium!

@support Belgium, you're going to love this. Are you watching the post match analysis on TF1? They're crediting Thierry Henry for Belgium's success again. It's "grâce à lui" that Belgium has come this far and are now punching above their weight. ?

SB runner. wrote:

Will Giroud fire for France? He has been very quiet in this tourney.

It's a 50/50 , but I do feel he will score tomorrow.

I also think Mbappe will score as well.

Hopefully that will be enough!!

Croatia is no joke with their very dangerous and skilled players!

Yeah, their tactic was anti-football. I think Courtois and Eden Hazard know more about football than the both of us, and they have my same sentiments on France playing anti football.

"I wouldn't say that France was better than us. They defended in their own half the entire time, we shouldn't have been surprised, they've done that all tournament. It's a shame.”

Hazard added: “I prefer to lose with this Belgium than win with that France. They didn’t come to play football.”

So the Belgium team saw the same thing that I saw.

We agree to disagree. When 9 players sit in their own half defending and not tying to get on possession, that’s not soccer to me. Any team can build a wall and just stay there, looking to capitalize off mistakes or take it to Penalties.

Why do you think brasilians give their team s h i t if they don’t win a certain way? If Brasil were to win by Parking the bus, there would be all hell to pay.

Hopefully France comes to play football tomorrow.

El Keniano wrote:

@support Belgium, you're going to love this. Are you watching the post match analysis on TF1? They're crediting Thierry Henry for Belgium's success again. It's "grâce à lui" that Belgium has come this far and are now punching above their weight. ?

I see they've forced Courtois to walk back his post match comments. LOL.

Hazard and Courtois were bitter that they just lost a World Cup semi.

France didn't park the bus, but they did frustrate Belgium and their comments were a reaction to that frustration.

France played good football and deserved to win what was a close match.

No offence, but you've been following the sport less than a year, yes?

If you're talking about winning so far you're France did the same thing all tournament .

I'm fine to agree to disagree but first your mention stats that are meaningless and now you ignore the ones that tell the full story.

Hazard added: “I prefer to lose with this Belgium than win with that France. They didn’t come to play football.”

I'm pretty sure in the French team any player would say "that they would rather win with this France than lose with that Belgium"... so your point here is meaningless.

They lost of course they are pissed. The next Day I think Meunier "I could be wrong" said French played more intelligently.

So , this is not about who knows more about football but rather matter of facts .

Brazilians are giving their team shiit now....What's the difference. Pretty sure they would rather have them in Final now.

Maybe they couldn't beat Belgium because Belgium use the same tactic than France did once they lead. Allowing Brazil to have the majority of possesion but not allowing them to score "Park the bus " ... LOL.

France "Parked the buss" the entire tournament as you said.....Funny, Neither Argentina nor Uruguay thought so!!...

Of course it will be a good game tomorrow .... I have no doubt!!

Peace

El Keniano wrote:

El Keniano wrote:

@support Belgium, you're going to love this. Are you watching the post match analysis on TF1? They're crediting Thierry Henry for Belgium's success again. It's "grâce à lui" that Belgium has come this far and are now punching above their weight. ?

I see they've forced Courtois to walk back his post match comments. LOL.

Amazing how winning changes your perspective...

That's my point. I stated that France did not park the bus against Argentina or Uruguay, but chose to sit in the Box like Iceland against Belgium. Iceland has an excuse. They don't have any great offensive players, so they have to play that way. France is one of the best offensive teams in the tourney, with pogba, mbappe, greizman, etc ,but they chose to go against the way they play football?

It was a coward tactic. I just don't understand that type of soccer, and I never will.

When Mourinho was the coach of Chelsea back in 2004-2005, and he brought chelsea its first EPL title, and then did it again the following year, it was great. However, there would be times, a lot of them, especially during the CL, where chelsea would just sit back and not get on the ball. It was frustrating to watch, and that is when Chelsea got the label of playing anti-football or being bus parkers. It took years for us to shake that label. But then Carlo Ancelotti came, implemented a 4-4-2 diamond attacking system, and chelsea scored more goals in the EPL then any team in EPL history( I think man city broke the record last season). It was incredible attacking football, something Chelsea fans had not seen in a long, long time, because we were used to winning games 1-0, 2-0. or 2-1 under Mourinho. So when Mourinho came back again some years ago to coach Chelsea, and even though we won the EPL under him, it was still the same counter attacking football by mourinho, and the following year Chelsea sucked. And Mourinho got sacked again. ....

Now mourinho is coaching Manchester United, and their style of football sucks, and the fans hate it. They are used to seeing attacking football under Sir Alex. Even with great attacking players like Sanchez, Lukaku, Pogba, Mata, and Rashford, mourinho chooses his anti-football tactic. I guarantee you he will be sacked in the next year or so.

My point is once you play the beautiful game, and you have the players to play that game, you can't play anti-football. Which is why it made no sense for France to shift to that tactic, when they have great offensive players. They were scared to play Belgium in their normal manner Yes, they won. They are in the finals. No doubt about that. But the way they played that game, and lack of sportsmanship, are not well respected in the eyes of some football fans.

And again, not an attack on YOU, but we agree to disagree.

May the best team win tomorrow.

Give me strength.

It's all good! no harms done here... It's just a game after all right? :)

I'll agree France is relying more on its defense than in the past despite their dangerous offensive players but I that is mostly based on the teams they face which is smart.

Also, the fact that they are willing to adopt this tactic now is a sign that they are confident about their defense, which was very average in the past and highly criticized even just recently.

Now it feels like a more complete team, which is what was missing for this team to succeed at the highest level despite their quality players.

I don't see the " Anti-football" you see, .Courtois doesn't see it that way anymore either by the way..

Hard for me to believe Fans don't get excited about watching this French Offense so far.

May the best team win....(and may France win either way ...LOL )

El Keniano wrote:

@support Belgium, you're going to love this. Are you watching the post match analysis on TF1? They're crediting Thierry Henry for Belgium's success again. It's "grâce à lui" that Belgium has come this far and are now punching above their weight. ?

So predictable. That's exactly why I didn't watch TF1. Watched it on the RTBF.

I wonder if TF1 talks as much about the French assistant coach #3 as they talk about Th. Henry since it's all thanks to the assistant coach #3 when a team wins according to them...

I think we can be proud of our team. Still a little bit frustrating when you loose to a team that you feel wasn't that very superior to us (not to mention that France is the very last team we want to loose against as Belgian). They played a very nice football, were fair-play, did every game to win (including those 2 games against England eventhough it would maybe have been better to loose the 1st one), I hope the world appreciated it. Belgium did and we're having a big party this afternoon at the Grand Place in Brussels to welcome our players back from Russia.

I really want Croatia to win but I think it will be for the French. They're good, have talented players and will play against a team that has had 1 less rest day and had to play way longer games.

I hope I'll be able to watch the Final, but I'm afraid I'll miss the first minutes as I'm going to a cobblestone road to cheer up the Belgians at the Tour de France.

Have a nice day and enjoy the Final !