Roaridon

@Muneeb_08 @gooptimeeeee Argentina did not need extra time to beat Egypt.

@gooptimeeeee Messi couldn't even beat Cabo Verde, Egypt, and Switzerland in 90 minutes?

Ok, Ronaldo and Portugal were actually decent against Spain They switched off for a second in the 91st minute which cost them the game, otherwise Ronaldo really had a solid game considering he is 41 My only regret is that he is never lucky enough to face teams like Cabo Verde, Egypt, and Australia in KOs like Messi

@WembyCentral @LightlyTired To be fair, no one really cares much about regular season matchups between great players in the NBA and a lot of great NBA players never meet in the playoffs (Jordan and Hakeem or LeBron and Kobe, for instance). Meeting in the Champions League is like meeting in the playoffs.

@LightlyTired I’m not saying it’s bad because they lack competition. I’m saying it’s bad when two guys who are competing for a “best in the world” title never get to face off.

I can’t stand how this sport is set up. All the best players are spread out among 50 different leagues and they barely ever get to face off. What do you mean Messi and Harry Kane have only played each other three times EVER in a full decade? That’s so ass

@WembyCentral Yeah, the main source of drama for a Bayern fan is usually going to be the Champions League—which they can win but rarely do. The Bundesliga is sometimes close, but yeah it’s usually not. If you want to watch high-scoring matches, though, they’ll certainly give you that.

@Roaridon1 Don’t they win their league like 14 out of every 15 years tho that’s boring

What soccer club should I support if I like to watch goals get scored? Win or lose I can’t stand a 0-0

@kreyme8 It’s not that making the World Cup SFs was a bad result for Belgium’s golden generation. It was pretty good! It’s that that wasn’t the only tournament that generation played and they otherwise did worse than that. The overall picture was a bit disappointing.

I hate that the FIFA commentators this World Cup keep saying Belgium’s golden generation fell short in previous tournaments. It’s just bad commentary. I didn’t know that Belgium finishing third — THIRD! — in 2018 is a bad result for that nation.

@someballfacts To add more, France’s two penalties in the 2022 WC final were certainly refereeing decisions that went against Messi. They weren’t clearly bad calls, but there’s subjectivity in the rules and neither of them actually had to be given.

@someballfacts Refereeing decisions are really impactful in football, and a lot of mistakes are made and there’s a lot of subjectivity involved. Every player has been both the beneficiary and victim of bad or borderline decisions.

Has a major refereeing decision EVER been made against Messi?

@SunilMUFC052 @culerboii And that’s not even mentioning that the biggest risk of the draw sticking you with a Round of 32 match against 2nd place in a group with two traditionally good teams is that there’s a serious chance of facing the better one of those teams (i.e. Spain) in the Round of 32.

@SunilMUFC052 @culerboii It just didn’t work out that way—just like France getting Germany (ranked #10 in pre-tournament Elo rating) in the Round of 16 didn’t work out.

France have faced Senegal, Iraq, Norway B team, Sweden & Paraguay but it's Argentina who always gets easy teams. Sure.

@SunilMUFC052 @culerboii Argentina was drawn to get Uruguay in the Round of 32. Being drawn as a group winner that gets the runner up of a group (rather than 3rd place) from a group that has two traditionally good teams is *really* not the deliberately easy draw you’re suggesting.

@culerboii France were deliberately drawn to get Germany and Netherlands in the round of 16, they all finished top of their group, they bottled it that’s a different thing. Fifa planned to eliminate 2 footballing powerhouses by R16. Less competition for messi.

@Mr_Nobody_745 @UTDTrey They got dominated by Portugal in the last World Cup, but otherwise they’ve genuinely gone toe to toe with the world’s elite teams in recent years—either beating them or losing on penalties.

@Mr_Nobody_745 @UTDTrey Maybe. Probably would depend on how well they think they match up with each team tactically. Let’s remember that in the last two Euros, Switzerland defeated France and Italy and only lost to England and Spain on penalties. And they just beat a 2000+ elo Colombia team.

I know Messi won his group but how can you say the toughest team you play before you get to a WORLD CUP SEMI FINAL is fucking Switzerland This luck is insane bro

@UTDTrey More generally, not having to face a super elite team before the SFs is actually pretty common. It’s true of one or two SF teams pretty much every WC. To take just one of many examples, 2006 Italy’s road to the SFs went through Australia and Ukraine.

@UTDTrey Switzerland actually have a higher elo rating than Morocco, and neither Belgium nor Norway are much above them. Only Spain having to face Portugal was a meaningfully higher elo opponent than Switzerland for one of the four favorites. eloratings.net