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Spain never looked like losing except they lost 1 game. They're by far the most boring winners ever and they had a golden generation.
On the other hand, no matter who the players are, Germany will step up their game for the world cup. 2002 final, 2006 semis with very average, if not poor, squads by their standards, 2010 with the world cup winning squad but they were so young, yet reached 3rd place.
The Germans are the favourites.
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"best national team on this side of the millennium"
haha... Ronaldos (even fat and with knee screwed) and cia beg to differ. that Germany has 1 title when Neymar was Karate'd in the back and not even a foul was called, they weren't even the same team that won the Confederations Cup. They DREW with Ghana. Also with Algeria and Argentina (in normal time). Please...
Also from the start they played a team of 10 man (Portugal), then only beat USA 1-0? Yeah...
Shits and giggles and GOLD OLYMPIC MEDALS a part... jk I've nothing more to say, just wanted to remember the GOLD OYLMPIC MEDAL of a national team that didn't need 2 NATIONAL TEAMS to win multiple world cups in their history. :O
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Norway28669 Posts
What team looked better than Germany in 2014? What team has looked better than Germany for the duration 2014 - 2018? (this obviously includes 2014)? What team looked better going through qualifications? For me the answer is 'no team' to all three questions.
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Brazil looked better going through qualifications, they stomped South America which is a much greater achievement than winning a European qualifier. It's not that Germany was inferior, it's just that European groups are not worth mentionning. I agree with you for the rest.
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I actually feel that France has been on par with Germany the last 4 years. And 2018 WC Germany squad IS weaker than 2014. They lost Lahm (one of the best if not best fullback in the 21st century), Klose (top scorer of WCs) and Schweinsteiger who literally pushed himself to his limits to lead Germany to WC win. Schweinsteiger's loss could be very felt if the games dont go Germany's way. But they are still favourites for this WC imo
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51485 Posts
Since 2014; France better than Germany as proven in Euros Spain are the best in the world right now for me Brazil are defo better than 2014 now as well
Germany have not improved vastly and imo gone backwards since 2014.
On June 04 2018 00:02 nojok wrote: Spain never looked like losing except they lost 1 game. They're by far the most boring winners ever and they had a golden generation.
On the other hand, no matter who the players are, Germany will step up their game for the world cup. 2002 final, 2006 semis with very average, if not poor, squads by their standards, 2010 with the world cup winning squad but they were so young, yet reached 3rd place.
The Germans are the favourites. Yeah i said about that loss, it was with 10men to Switzerland in groups, but whilst they were boring, it was the height of tika taka which i hate, but they dominated with it. Was lowest scoring world cup that as well so all the 1-0s wins not to bad.
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On June 03 2018 22:48 N1E wrote:Show nested quote +funny how you essentially fail to acknowledge THE SEVERE SEVEN TO ONE TROUNCING OF BRAZIL, WHICH WAS PROBABLY THE MOST EMBARRASSING LOSS OF ANY SELF-PROCLAIMED TOP FOOTBALLING NATION OF THE PAST 50 YEARS funny how you fail to see I actually mentioned it, but let me copy-paste it: "...plus their game against a clueless Felipao side who spent years building a team around Neymar (who was hunted during the tourney, allowed by FIFA referees), and screwed up with his couple days of preparation, didn't really help in Euro Cup huh?" Embarassing is talking when you don't have anything close to 5 world cups, 4 confederations cups, 6 olympic medals and the best player(s) in history. Embarassing is winning 1-0 with a made-up penalty in final *winks at 1990*. Show nested quote +Italy is always aweful in friendlies but often goes very far in tournaments to name on example. Not a very good example right now, fellow dutch.  Indeed but couldn't think of another example haha.
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Norway28669 Posts
I get that. Germany's group was so easy that it's hard to compare it to Brazil's - Brazil had lots of hard games, went 12-5-1. Germany didn't have any hard games, went 10-0-0. Can't really compare the two, fair enough to consider Brazil's run more impressive.
However even with Germany's easy group, 10-0-0 is still a rarity in modern football. Since 1982, there are only two teams to ever go through the uefa qualification with a 10-0-0 score - Spain in 2010 and Germany in 2018. And to show the depth of the German team, they had twenty-one different goal scorers going through the qualification. I watched a couple of their games and thought they looked really good, anyway. But like if people want to argue that this German team is less good than in 2014, meh, be my guest. They're still the best team of the past 5 years, reigning champions, and pretty much tied with Brazil for bookmaker favorite.
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They are good, not denying that. But obviously the 7-1 and for me the impressive Neuer performances which for me he pioneered especially in World Cups, and should've been rewarded with the Adidas/Golden Ball, are their highlights. Neuer in particular gave them so much confidence, they might have struggled even more against Algeria if it wasn't for his, by then, unpredictable and dominant style.
That one score is for the generations, not the team itself or all the performances. At least not yet (if ever).
They're still the best team of the past 5 years, reigning champions, and pretty much tied with Brazil for bookmaker favorite. Why Portugal reached the final and won the Euro Cup final (Cristiano-less) then? But yea, maybe the team that just lost to Austria is the best team...
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On June 03 2018 22:36 nojok wrote:Show nested quote +On June 03 2018 22:29 mahrgell wrote: And the entire point of the squad comparison with 2014 wasnt that this is a dream team. It isnt. But it wasnt in 2014 either. Germany doesnt field dream teams. Never did. But quality wise I really dont see any reason to assume this team to be weaker than 2014. Will they work that well together again? Thats to be seen. There are a handful of teams with very similar quality. As in 2014.
The thing is that lining up 5 or 6 players from the same club is very very helpful. Juve, Barca, Bayern were the last 3 world champions... Of course they will have a better teamwork than the teams having players who barely played together.
ermm pretty sure 2006 WC was around Calcio so hardly if any of the starters in the Italian Squad were from Juve..+ Show Spoiler +(although I dont think Calcio had anything to do with it. Juve had alot of foreign players in the starting slots who were either near washed up anyway or booked it out after the demotion.) the only ones that come to mind were stalwards like Del Piero and Buffon.
Then again Italy's success is precisely because the way they play never required a super high level of understanding in offense.
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On June 04 2018 02:18 Pandemona wrote:Yeah they had Pirlo, the best defense the world has ever seen, a world class amazing top 5 keeper of all time. Then godlike Del Piero to bang them in xD I loved that Italian side 
Pirlo played for Milan back then.
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Norway28669 Posts
the best team of the past 5 years doesn't mean they were unbeatable during this period or even the best team during every week/month of this 5 year period, it means they produced the best overall results / played the best (whichever metric you prefer) during this period. That's how I mean it anyway. To make it relatable, I have the impression that you think Brazil is 'the best country in football of all time', right? (I do, with Germany a fairly close second.) It's not like they've won every single world cup, they've just had the best overall performance. Similarly, the past 5 years Germany won one world cup, lost in semi in one european championship, are 17-1-2 in other qualification matches. Easily won the confederation cup with b squad (not against the best other teams though).
Portugal won the EC, but were eliminated in group stages in 2014 (behind Germany and USA). France got second in the EC, lost RO8 to Germany in the WC. WC qualification they went 7-2-1 in a tougher group than Germany had (one draw home vs luxembourg though), didn't have to qualify for the EC. Completely honest assessment - result wise a bit worse than Germany, but performance wise I think they are on the level and I think it's fair if you think they've played slightly better overall - imo they're less consistent and have less squad depth tho. Brazil, while they've breezed through a tough WC qualification, lost to germany in the WC, lost copa america 2015 against paraguay in RO8, lost group stage copa america 2016 behind Peru and Equador..
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51485 Posts
On June 04 2018 02:19 Rebs wrote:Show nested quote +On June 04 2018 02:18 Pandemona wrote:Yeah they had Pirlo, the best defense the world has ever seen, a world class amazing top 5 keeper of all time. Then godlike Del Piero to bang them in xD I loved that Italian side  Pirlo played for Milan back then. Sorry was just responding to the Italian godlike team, i don't know who they all played for. I would assumed most came from Milan/Inter due to they were the best early 00s and late 90s weren't they?
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On June 04 2018 02:22 Pandemona wrote:Show nested quote +On June 04 2018 02:19 Rebs wrote:On June 04 2018 02:18 Pandemona wrote:Yeah they had Pirlo, the best defense the world has ever seen, a world class amazing top 5 keeper of all time. Then godlike Del Piero to bang them in xD I loved that Italian side  Pirlo played for Milan back then. Sorry was just responding to the Italian godlike team, i don't know who they all played for. I would assumed most came from Milan/Inter due to they were the best early 00s and late 90s weren't they?
Err no Juve was up there, but the better Italian players were sprinkled around. Milan. Roma, Inter, Juve. thing is all of these teams attracted enough star talent back then to have a healthy set of foreigners in their starting lineups. The italian teams literally played the exact same way
Pretty sure the most boring champions league tie Ive ever seen was Inter vs Milan innnn 2003 I think ?
The english papers were hilarious back then "Impending Dreaded snorefest, Inter play Milan in Milan"
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On June 04 2018 02:26 Rebs wrote:Show nested quote +On June 04 2018 02:22 Pandemona wrote:On June 04 2018 02:19 Rebs wrote:On June 04 2018 02:18 Pandemona wrote:Yeah they had Pirlo, the best defense the world has ever seen, a world class amazing top 5 keeper of all time. Then godlike Del Piero to bang them in xD I loved that Italian side  Pirlo played for Milan back then. Sorry was just responding to the Italian godlike team, i don't know who they all played for. I would assumed most came from Milan/Inter due to they were the best early 00s and late 90s weren't they? Err no Juve was up there, but the better Italian players were sprinkled around. Milan. Roma, Inter, Juve. thing is all of these teams attracted enough star talent back then to have a healthy set of foreigners in their starting lineups. The italian teams literally played the exact same way Pretty sure the most boring champions league tie Ive ever seen was Inter vs Milan innnn 2003 I think ? The english papers were hilarious back then "Impending Dreaded snorefest, Inter play Milan in Milan" The English have been hilarious about MU those last two seasons too. The British humour is great to describe a terrible game of football.
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51485 Posts
Yeah it was 0-0 120 minutes, like 3 shots in whole game and went to penalties it was crazy. Can't even say good defending because neither side wanted to attack lol.
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Then I write and write and remember I was once censored because free opinions weren't allowed. Anyways, I'm looking forward to see how FIFA will cheat next to sell their sponsors and their fake favorites. VAR drama will be huge if their referees aren't still not trained well enough to favour some without looking like their are favouring.
If that paragraph(s) still bother me I'll answer everything in parts later, because my opinion is lenghty and disagree with yours heavily, because no, Brazil is still much above Germany (they aren't close) in football, who I don't consider better than Italians as well, or maybe even Argentines. Yea, you beat a 10 man Portugal, then destroyed the greats Ghana, USA, Algeria, Ribery-less France, Neymar-less Brazil, Tevez/etc-less Argentina. Actually not you, you are not german lol...
By the way Algeria and Cameroon (African champions) didn't qualify in the heavily manipulated African Qualifiers... maybe they would even if cheated, if they had 14 spots and could walk over the likes of Faroe Islands.
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On June 04 2018 04:38 N1E wrote: By the way Algeria and Cameroon (African champions) didn't qualify in the heavily manipulated African Qualifiers... maybe they would even if cheated, if they had 14 spots and could walk over the likes of Faroe Islands. Come on, millions of French are also Algerian and follow the team closely, I've not seen any complaints about rigged games despite very educated comments on the team... Cameroon also does not have a bright generation atm.
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On June 04 2018 04:38 N1E wrote: Then I write and write and remember I was once censored because free opinions weren't allowed. Anyways, I'm looking forward to see how FIFA will cheat next to sell their sponsors and their fake favorites. VAR drama will be huge if their referees aren't still not trained well enough to favour some without looking like their are favouring.
If that paragraph(s) still bother me I'll answer everything in parts later, because my opinion is lenghty and disagree with yours heavily, because no, Brazil is still much above Germany (they aren't close) in football, who I don't consider better than Italians as well, or maybe even Argentines. Yea, you beat a 10 man Portugal, then destroyed the greats Ghana, USA, Algeria, Ribery-less France, Neymar-less Brazil, Tevez/etc-less Argentina. Actually not you, you are not german lol...
By the way Algeria and Cameroon (African champions) didn't qualify in the heavily manipulated African Qualifiers... maybe they would even if cheated, if they had 14 spots and could walk over the likes of Faroe Islands. LiquidDrone is saying that german are the best team of the the last 5 years. You say that Brazil is the best football nation ever.
These two claims do NOT contradict each other, even if you say they do. And neither is the fact that germany had some helpful circumstances in 2014 a contradiction to them being the best team of the last 5 years.
If you want to disprove the statement "german are the best team of the last 5 years", then you should come up with saying, "team X was better than germany over the last 5 years".
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