EPTFootball (Soccer) Thread - Page 144
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GTR
51693 Posts
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mAKiTO
Colombia4177 Posts
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DropBear
Australia4436 Posts
Breakdown of nations making it through to the knockouts by confederation: AFRICA - 9 of 10 through Algeria, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, DR Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa Tunisia ASIA - 2 of 8 through Australia, Japan (Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Uzbekistan EUROPE - 13 of 16 through Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland Czechia, Scotland, Turkiye NORTH AMERICA - 3 of 6 through Canada, Mexico, USA Curacao, Haiti, Panama OCEANIA - 0 of 1 through New Zealand SOUTH AMERICA - 5 of 6 through Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay Uruguay Europe and South America confederations are performing strongly as usual, but imo Africa should now be in the conversation for heavyweight confederation status too. Would not be surprised to see another African semi-finalist. Asian nations performed very poorly overall and predict no Asian nation makes it to ro16. NA performed roughly as I expected, with about half making the cut, and I predict no NA nation makes the ro8. Oceania also performed as expected and are a waste of a slot. | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland27405 Posts
Are Iran the unluckiest side in World Cup history? - BBC | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland27405 Posts
On June 28 2026 21:25 DropBear wrote: Finally we're down to 32, the real world cup begins! Breakdown of nations making it through to the knockouts by confederation: AFRICA - 9 of 10 through Algeria, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, DR Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa Tunisia ASIA - 2 of 8 through Australia, Japan (Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Uzbekistan EUROPE - 13 of 16 through Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland Czechia, Scotland, Turkiye NORTH AMERICA - 3 of 6 through Canada, Mexico, USA Curacao, Haiti, Panama OCEANIA - 0 of 1 through New Zealand SOUTH AMERICA - 5 of 6 through Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay Uruguay Europe and South America confederations are performing strongly as usual, but imo Africa should now be in the conversation for heavyweight confederation status too. Would not be surprised to see another African semi-finalist. Asian nations performed very poorly overall and predict no Asian nation makes it to ro16. NA performed roughly as I expected, with about half making the cut, and I predict no NA nation makes the ro8. Oceania also performed as expected and are a waste of a slot. I think New Zealand far from disgraced themselves, and have done before. Worthy of a slot for me, although I think the worry is what happens when we have a New Zealand generation that doesn’t have the quality of personnel this does. A lot of African sides qualified, but few qualified all that well. Morocco passed the Ro8 potential eye test for me, Senegal looked good in patches, Ivory Coast the same, the rest look very limited who can maybe grind a knockout win out, but I’m not sure they can do that in multiple rounds. NA I think you’re sleeping a bit on the USA, they’ve looked genuinely a good side, plus home advantage. Good generation and Pochettino has seemingly got them playing as more than the sum of their parts. Mexico always get to the Ro16 seemingly and also never beyond, and I haven’t seen a huge amount of evidence that they’ll break this pattern. Asia have been very underwhelming but Japan look like a proper side, it’s a shame they don’t have Mitoma and a few others as they’d have an even better shot at going deep, but it still wouldn’t surprise me if they did. But there’s not much quality elsewhere in that confederation this edition. South America versus Europe I think Europe has shown it’s the stronger, as per the last few editions. I think the top Europeans are clearly better, outside of Argentina/Brazil, and the next tier down the Europeans are about a 50/50 shot versus South America, if not better. Any of say, Norway, Switzerland, Croatia, even a Sweden I think have a good shot versus any non Brazil/Argentina out of South America Note - I’m just looking at the sides as I see them, and not how the brackets are set, which will have a big influence on proceedings but which I haven’t perused much yet. | ||
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evilfatsh1t
Australia8927 Posts
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DropBear
Australia4436 Posts
On June 28 2026 22:28 evilfatsh1t wrote: why is australia in the asia category instead of oceania Because we are part of the AFC and went through Asian qualifiers On June 28 2026 22:12 WombaT wrote: A lot of African sides qualified, but few qualified all that well. Morocco passed the Ro8 potential eye test for me, Senegal looked good in patches, Ivory Coast the same, the rest look very limited who can maybe grind a knockout win out, but I’m not sure they can do that in multiple rounds. NA I think you’re sleeping a bit on the USA, they’ve looked genuinely a good side, plus home advantage. Good generation and Pochettino has seemingly got them playing as more than the sum of their parts. Mexico always get to the Ro16 seemingly and also never beyond, and I haven’t seen a huge amount of evidence that they’ll break this pattern. Asia have been very underwhelming but Japan look like a proper side, it’s a shame they don’t have Mitoma and a few others as they’d have an even better shot at going deep, but it still wouldn’t surprise me if they did. But there’s not much quality elsewhere in that confederation this edition. Note - I’m just looking at the sides as I see them, and not how the brackets are set, which will have a big influence on proceedings but which I haven’t perused much yet. For an NA team to get to Ro8: - USA have to beat B&H first (possible) then either Belgium or Senegal in ro16 and I don't think they beat either. - Canada can beat South Africa but would then have the winner of Netherlands/Morocco, not happening - Mexico have the roughest draw of the 3, first Ecuador then likely England in ro16 For an Asian team to make ro16: - Japan have Brazil - Australia have Egypt I love New Zealand and was hoping they'd do well, but this is the best team in their history and they were not competitive. They qualified from OFC with 29 goals for and 1 goal against. | ||
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KobraKay
Portugal4386 Posts
On June 28 2026 10:31 GTR wrote: country of portugal are probably begging for ronaldo to do an acl or something because at this rate he's never going to get subbed off half the country is absolutely blind and the rest are too scared to say anything different because they will be flamed and harassed. Imagine a scenario where he scored 2 goals against a bunch of friends and family team (sorry Uzbek friends, im exagerating to make a point) and already people wrote "Ronaldo shutting up half the world!!!!"...."haters got a taste of what it feels like to doubt the goat"...ffs any ball that got to him yesterday was directly a wasted pass that resulted in a counter from colombia. If i was gonçalo ramos right now i'd go to the beach as there is zero chance he will get a game this WC, specially as long as our NT coach is in negotiations to be the next manager in Ronaldo's saudi team. Colombia is a good side, dont take me wrong and i think they will do some damage still this WC; but that is a team that we should beat 8/10 and not end the game with our GK and 2 CBs being our best players on the pitch. I'd love to hear an argument in favour of ronaldo right now, because otherwise we are playing with 10 (actually 9.5 if we count the coach's fetish player, Neto). On the bright side, i dont think i've been so "invested" in football discussion since Porto last won an Europa league and i stopped caring as much...but its painful seeing a good generation of players being wasted and this blind cronaldo fanboyism coming back. | ||
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sharkie
Austria18752 Posts
On June 28 2026 23:00 KobraKay wrote: half the country is absolutely blind and the rest are too scared to say anything different because they will be flamed and harassed. Imagine a scenario where he scored 2 goals against a bunch of friends and family team (sorry Uzbek friends, im exagerating to make a point) and already people wrote "Ronaldo shutting up half the world!!!!"...."haters got a taste of what it feels like to doubt the goat"...ffs any ball that got to him yesterday was directly a wasted pass that resulted in a counter from colombia. If i was gonçalo ramos right now i'd go to the beach as there is zero chance he will get a game this WC, specially as long as our NT coach is in negotiations to be the next manager in Ronaldo's saudi team. Colombia is a good side, dont take me wrong and i think they will do some damage still this WC; but that is a team that we should beat 8/10 and not end the game with our GK and 2 CBs being our best players on the pitch. I'd love to hear an argument in favour of ronaldo right now, because otherwise we are playing with 10 (actually 9.5 if we count the coach's fetish player, Neto). On the bright side, i dont think i've been so "invested" in football discussion since Porto last won an Europa league and i stopped caring as much...but its painful seeing a good generation of players being wasted and this blind cronaldo fanboyism coming back. Why do you think Portugal should beat Colombia 8/10? Colombia is one of the top sides. With or without Ronaldo Portugal - Colombia is 50-50 for me. Also what does it mean to waste a good generation? Portugal haven't won anything pre-Ronaldo. It's impossible to say to if they are going to win something after him.Portugal has always been one of those close but no cigar sides | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland27405 Posts
On June 28 2026 23:13 sharkie wrote: Why do you think Portugal should beat Colombia 8/10? Colombia is one of the top sides. With or without Ronaldo Portugal - Colombia is 50-50 for me. Also what does it mean to waste a good generation? Portugal haven't won anything pre-Ronaldo. It's impossible to say to if they are going to win something after him.Portugal has always been one of those close but no cigar sides Portugal’s squad is ridiculous, they’re effectively playing with 10 every game to placate Ronaldo. I mean France have even more talent, Spain are both fearsome and have an established pattern of play which boosts them, but there’s few squads better than Portugal’s overall A midfield of 2 who won the CL and the Prem player of the year, probably the best left back in the world in Nuno Mendes, and plenty of quality elsewhere It just seems they’re wasting it playing with 10 men every game they have to play somebody decent What’s more this isn’t really new, we saw this 4 years ago. Sometimes you’ll see the star player stick around a tournament too long, but usually it’s touch and go and a ‘surprise’ of sorts. This isn’t a new issue with Ronaldo and Portugal at major international tournaments | ||
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evilfatsh1t
Australia8927 Posts
On June 28 2026 22:48 DropBear wrote: Because we are part of the AFC and went through Asian qualifiers. yeah but why? | ||
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haitike
Spain2744 Posts
Australia won matches in the Oceania qualifiers and tournaments too easily and believed that the region's low level of competition was detrimental to their development, so they switched confederations to Asia. Also before the World Cup expanded to 48 teams, the OFC champion wasn't guaranteed a place at the tournament. Instead, the winner of the OFC qualifier had to qualify through an intercontinental playoff against a team from another confederation. So switchting confederations made it easier to qualify for Australia (I think they qualified for Worldcup all the times since they switched from OFC to AFC). | ||
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gTank
Austria2667 Posts
Dunno how the other games in that group went but I have never seen so many bad passes in a row from both team in a long time. | ||
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Acrofales
Spain18446 Posts
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KobraKay
Portugal4386 Posts
On June 28 2026 23:13 sharkie wrote: Why do you think Portugal should beat Colombia 8/10? Colombia is one of the top sides. With or without Ronaldo Portugal - Colombia is 50-50 for me. Also what does it mean to waste a good generation? Portugal haven't won anything pre-Ronaldo. It's impossible to say to if they are going to win something after him.Portugal has always been one of those close but no cigar sides Yes we did. We had to injury Ronaldo to win an Euro. We never had such a talented group of players in our history, much better than that 2016 team and a step above the 2004 one, and that is why this is wasteful. The last couple of decades we always had most if not all of our best players in big teams but now we have them in the best teams and actually being decisive and not just a few of them. Not even going to comment on that 50/50 as that is just lack of knowledge. And yes the problem is not just Ronaldo that is the only part i agree with. He was benched in Qatar for good reason but the coach was then fired after that WC (he was not great but still better than Martínez). | ||
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Harris1st
Germany7410 Posts
On June 28 2026 23:00 KobraKay wrote: half the country is absolutely blind and the rest are too scared to say anything different because they will be flamed and harassed. Imagine a scenario where he scored 2 goals against a bunch of friends and family team (sorry Uzbek friends, im exagerating to make a point) and already people wrote "Ronaldo shutting up half the world!!!!"...."haters got a taste of what it feels like to doubt the goat"...ffs any ball that got to him yesterday was directly a wasted pass that resulted in a counter from colombia. If i was gonçalo ramos right now i'd go to the beach as there is zero chance he will get a game this WC, specially as long as our NT coach is in negotiations to be the next manager in Ronaldo's saudi team. Colombia is a good side, dont take me wrong and i think they will do some damage still this WC; but that is a team that we should beat 8/10 and not end the game with our GK and 2 CBs being our best players on the pitch. I'd love to hear an argument in favour of ronaldo right now, because otherwise we are playing with 10 (actually 9.5 if we count the coach's fetish player, Neto). On the bright side, i dont think i've been so "invested" in football discussion since Porto last won an Europa league and i stopped caring as much...but its painful seeing a good generation of players being wasted and this blind cronaldo fanboyism coming back. I feel you. I think we may have the same problem with our goalie. Both goals conceded against Ecuador were pretty soft and someone younger would have had at least one... But Nagelsmann and Neuer are best buds so here we are. I think USA can make a deep run. Bosinia should be possible and to be honest, both Belgium and Senegal didn't look too hot. | ||
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sharkie
Austria18752 Posts
On June 29 2026 06:32 KobraKay wrote: Yes we did. We had to injury Ronaldo to win an Euro. We never had such a talented group of players in our history, much better than that 2016 team and a step above the 2004 one, and that is why this is wasteful. The last couple of decades we always had most if not all of our best players in big teams but now we have them in the best teams and actually being decisive and not just a few of them. Not even going to comment on that 50/50 as that is just lack of knowledge. And yes the problem is not just Ronaldo that is the only part i agree with. He was benched in Qatar for good reason but the coach was then fired after that WC (he was not great but still better than Martínez). How far does Colombia have to go in this WC for you to apologise for saying that my 50-50 is lack of knowledge? | ||
Poopi
France13021 Posts
On June 29 2026 19:42 sharkie wrote: How far does Colombia have to go in this WC for you to apologise for saying that my 50-50 is lack of knowledge? Yeah thinking that Portugal vs Columbia is 8/10 for Portugal is just delusional bias tbh, I consider France a top 2 or top 3 team this world cup (ahead of Portugal with or without CR7), and it’s like 65-70% for France vs Columbia imo (which is already plenty favorite) Only way to be 8/10 vs Columbia would be to have referee advantage like Argentinfantino  | ||
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gTank
Austria2667 Posts
On June 29 2026 20:18 Poopi wrote: Yeah thinking that Portugal vs Columbia is 8/10 for Portugal is just delusional bias tbh, I consider France a top 2 or top 3 team this world cup (ahead of Portugal with or without CR7), and it’s like 65-70% for France vs Columbia imo (which is already plenty favorite) Only way to be 8/10 vs Columbia would be to have referee advantage like Argentinfantino Thankfully I am not the only one that sees the Argentina bias of the refs this WC :D Or the last one too. For me its like 60/40 in portugals favor but KO games have their own rules, wouldnt surprise me if Colombia makes it. | ||
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Slydie
2007 Posts
I said the game could be a trap for Brazil, organized and efficient teams can be their Kryptonite. Edit: all the crosses paid off eventually. Good game! | ||
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