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2018 World Cup


DanTheHorn

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USMNT being out will suck but hey it is almost here. Mexico will get its' ass kicked in its' first game versus Germany on June 17th. Still looking forward to it getting started.

Favorite has to be Germany. Can Putin put in the fix?Already did for group selection.

Edited by DanTheHorn
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I think Brazil and France are my favorites. Gabriel Jesus in at the #9 might be the first time Brazil has had a real out and out threat at striker since the 2002 cup. They’re world class pretty much everywhere on the pitch. France probably has the most complete team from top to bottom in the cup. They’ll be the favorites in 2022 for sure, with how many class players will be at their peak for that cup. Germany will be good but I think they lose out in the semis. Argentina is who I pick for my other semi-final team. 

Belgium will be their typical dark horse self. Semi-final level talent but Roberto Martinez isn’t a good enough manager to make me pick them to go past the quarters. 

Edited by Biscuits And Groovy
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Germany have injury concerns with Neuer & Reus hurt, as well as striker concerns. Spain should be strong.  Brazil & Argentina should go far.  Chile & Columbia could make some trouble, and France & Belgium have the talent to go deep.  It’s going to be another great World Cup.  

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Don’t see anyway Germany can do it again. They don’t have the goal scorers without Reus and no real striker. 

If Brazil was smart they would find a way to get Firmino, Neymar, Coutinho, and Jesus on the field at the same time. I think they are the favorites.

France, like Brazil, has almost no weak points at all. Just class at every position.

Belgium, Argentina, and Spain are all stacked as well. 

Should be a really interesting tournament with plenty of the traditional powers being very strong. Personally I’ll be rooting for Egypt and the Mo Salah show.

Edited by hobbes2702
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50 minutes ago, Big Horn said:

Germany have injury concerns with Neuer & Reus hurt, as well as striker concerns. Spain should be strong.  Brazil & Argentina should go far.  Chile & Columbia could make some trouble, and France & Belgium have the talent to go deep.  It’s going to be another great World Cup.  

🤔

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I think the top 3 are clearly Germany, Spain, and Brazil (in no particular order).  I’d put France in a solid 4th with Argentina and Belgium as 5a and 5b.  Hard to see anyone besides those 6 making the semi finals.  Should be a good time, and I put a little money on both Argentina and Belgium at 8-1 when we were in Vegas in January.

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11 hours ago, hobbes2702 said:

Don’t see anyway Germany can do it again. They don’t have the goal scorers without Reus and no real striker. 

If Brazil was smart they would find a way to get Firmino, Neymar, Coutinho, and Jesus on the field at the same time. I think they are the favorites.

France, like Brazil, has almost no weak points at all. Just class at every position.

Belgium, Argentina, and Spain are all stacked as well. 

Should be a really interesting tournament with plenty of the traditional powers being very strong. Personally I’ll be rooting for Egypt and the Mo Salah show.

Pending injury updates closer to the cup, I have Brazil winning over Spain in the final with the top 4 being Brazil, Spain, Germany, and Portugal.  France, like Belgium, has a ridiculous amount of talent, but I just don't trust them.  They've had a lot of games lately against teams with inferior talent where they just don't seem to have the effort and cohesion to really control the game.  I have Portugal eliminating them in the quarters. 

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les blues are my favorite, but i still can't believe they blew that shit in 2016 against fucking portugal.

brasil's lineup sure looks nice.  deutschland uber alles is getting up there in age across the board.

portugal, spain, argentina always a legitimate threat in addition.

this world cup will be interesting for off-the-field storylines i suspect.

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18 hours ago, hobbes2702 said:

Don’t see anyway Germany can do it again. They don’t have the goal scorers without Reus and no real striker.

LOL. Timo Werner, Lars Stindl, Sandro Wagner and Mario Gómez are real strikers.

1JGNmS2.jpg

And no goal scorer without... Reus?? He wasn't even on the 2014 world championship squad and played none of the 2018 WC qualifiers. Germany finished both campaigns as the record goal-scoring team. The 43 goals in 10 qualifiers set a new UEFA qualifying record. Same with the 2017 Confed Cup: 1. Germany (12), 2. Portugal (9)

Besides, Thomas Müller has scored 10 goals in two World Cups (2010 /5, 2014 /5), more than L. Messi (5) and C. Ronaldo (3) combined.

Goal scoring should be the least of our problems.

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10 hours ago, texasdago said:
 

Chile, eh?

Yeah, as an Italian, F this World Cup.  I'll cheer for Argentina... closest thing to Italy and Higuain and Dybala are Juventini.  

Otherwise, WC with no Italy, Netherlands, US, Chile... sheesh.

As a fellow Italian fuck Gian Piero Ventura. Fucking treasonous bitch. Always a shit manager and should have never been given the job. Italy had one of the most complete squads too and with competent management could have been expected to be at least a quarterfinalist team. 

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5 hours ago, Netzer said:

LOL. Timo Werner, Lars Stindl, Sandro Wagner and Mario Gómez are real strikers.

1JGNmS2.jpg

And no goal scorer without... Reus?? He wasn't even on the 2014 world championship squad and played none of the 2018 WC qualifiers. Germany finished both campaigns as the record goal-scoring team. The 43 goals in 10 qualifiers set a new UEFA qualifying record. Same with the 2017 Confed Cup: 1. Germany (12), 2. Portugal (9)

Besides, Thomas Müller has scored 10 goals in two World Cups (2010 /5, 2014 /5), more than L. Messi (5) and C. Ronaldo (3) combined.

Goal scoring should be the least of our problems.

Timo Werner is 22. Gomez and Wagner are target men playing for a team that doesn’t play with true wingers. Unless they play Müller up front the goals won’t come easily against the elites. 

Germany obviously is still a contender. They have the best midfielder in the world, they have gobs of creativity everywhere but they lack an elite #9. 

 

Edited by hobbes2702
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2 hours ago, hobbes2702 said:

Timo Werner is 22. Gomez and Wagner are target men playing for a team that doesn’t play with true wingers. Unless they play Müller up front the goals won’t come easily against the elites. 

Germany obviously is still a contender. They have the best midfielder in the world, they have gobs of creativity everywhere but they lack an elite #9. 

 

Nonsense. Mario Götze was 22 years old when he scored the 2014 World Cup winner. Werner and Goretzka were 21 and 22, respectively, as 2017 Confed Cup's top scorers. Age has nothing to do with it. Besides, 22 is old enough. This isn't college.

Germany doesn't play true wingers? Draxler, Sané, Brandt and Reus, among others, are wingers.

Scoring won't come easy against the elites? No shit. That's why they're the elites, including Germany. The team doesn't rely on one or two scorers. 42 goals in the 2018 WC qualification campaign were scored by 21 different players. Not many teams are able to share the ball that way.

A lack of scoring is not among the current concerns for the world's number one goal-scoring team of the last international tournaments.

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On 3/30/2018 at 4:47 AM, Big Horn said:

Germany have injury concerns with Neuer & Reus hurt, as well as striker concerns. Spain should be strong.  Brazil & Argentina should go far.  Chile & Columbia could make some trouble, and France & Belgium have the talent to go deep.  It’s going to be another great World Cup.  

I dunno, Columbia struggled mightily with Dartmouth, who themselves got pummeled by Chile in the Ivy League Final Four semis. Although I could see them beating a team like Germany, if Klinsmann doesn't get Vettel back in time. Without him, the Germans clearly lack speed over the wings since Rosberg's retirement. For the Lions, much will depend on whether LeBron's recovery from Tommy John surgery will impact his goal production. Maybe Foles could come off the bench, although he's probably one of the weaker climbers in the peloton.

9yA4ODI.jpg

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On 3/30/2018 at 7:59 PM, Biscuits And Groovy said:

As a fellow Italian fuck Gian Piero Ventura. Fucking treasonous bitch. Always a shit manager and should have never been given the job. Italy had one of the most complete squads too and with competent management could have been expected to be at least a quarterfinalist team. 

Look, and they avoiding players like Balotelli which, yeah, he's an idiot but at least he can score.  Did he even play Belotti?  WTF.  So frustrating.  

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On 3/29/2018 at 9:47 PM, Big Horn said:

Germany have injury concerns with Neuer & Reus hurt, as well as striker concerns. Spain should be strong.  Brazil & Argentina should go far.  Chile & Columbia could make some trouble, and France & Belgium have the talent to go deep.  It’s going to be another great World Cup.  

Chile already made the noise it is going to make.

https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/south-american-champs-chile-missed-out-on-the-world-cup-for-unbelievable-reasons/

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On 3/29/2018 at 10:00 PM, hobbes2702 said:

Don’t see anyway Germany can do it again. They don’t have the goal scorers without Reus and no real striker. 

If Brazil was smart they would find a way to get Firmino, Neymar, Coutinho, and Jesus on the field at the same time. I think they are the favorites.

France, like Brazil, has almost no weak points at all. Just class at every position.

Belgium, Argentina, and Spain are all stacked as well. 

Should be a really interesting tournament with plenty of the traditional powers being very strong. Personally I’ll be rooting for Egypt and the Mo Salah show.

I have money on Egypt at 125/1, so I’ll be rooting for them as well. Other than that, go France, and go Arsenal players.

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16 hours ago, hornimal said:

anyone working on the panini world cup album? with a lot of my favorites not qualifying this might be the most thrilling wc experience for me.

Yeah, filling out Egypt and Saudi Arabia is not as much fun as Italy and the Netherlands

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8 hours ago, travelingtexan said:

hopefully liverpool play real but I dont see them beating either team

You dont see them beating sevilla/bayern or roma......ok 

You can say you dont want them to win but anyone that cant see how they could isnt paying attention

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8 hours ago, Bone3421 said:

You dont see them beating sevilla/bayern or roma......ok 

You can say you dont want them to win but anyone that cant see how they could isnt paying attention

either you misread or I mistated. I am a bayern fan, pulling for liverpool, as long as they are not playing bayern

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Hypothetical depth chart for Germany. 

This is unreal: https://www.bundesliga.com/en/news/Bundesliga/how-germany-could-look-at-the-2018-world-cup-in-russia-447224.jsp

As a general gripe, anyone wearing a Dortmund jersey other than Reus or Dahoud deserves a big question mark over his head, but based on overall reputation and not just current form, this is still pretty solid.

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