World Cup: National Team threads #2

[luiginb]

Watching Austria-Norway now and expecting to see a lot of goals.

I saw it coming haha, Haaland hits the post within 5 minutes, than Arnautovic hits a sweet shot for his 38th (!) NT goal, and then Austria misses another couple chances. Full tilt football so far.

 

[luiginb]

Inside an hour Austria are 3-1 up and deservedly so, winning the game comfortably in midfield.

5-1 inside 70 minutes. Haaland isn't seeing any finals with this Norwegian defence.

 

[cgf]

Can't wait to see how tommorrow's match goes. If the Stiller-Pavlovic double pivot is ready, almost everything would be falling into place for us to be serious threats in 2026. I'd still have my reservations about Tah-Rüdiger when we have Schlotterbeck (& Chabot), but we'd still have one hell of a starting 11:

Havertz
Wirtz - Undav - Musiala
Pavlovic - Stiller
Mittelstädt - Tah - Rüdiger - Kimmich
ter Stegen​

...with a ton of quality depth for the front 4; Füllkrug, Kleindienst, Moukoko, Burkardt, Beier, Adeyemi, Gruda, Wanner, Sane, Gnabry, Führich, Brandt, Werner, Leweling, Schade, Brunner, Darvich, Weiper, Moerstedt.

Some strong alternatives at CB; Schlotterbeck, Chabot, Thiaw, Anton...good depth at LB; Raum, Gosens, Rothe, Netz, Kabar...and solid depth behind MAtS; Bauman, Ortega, Nübel. Though the depth on the right side of defense & the double pivot is a lot iffier.

 

[Corto]

I never understand how Croatia do so well, they're always garbage when we play them.

Who is "you"? Scotland?

We do have that ability to play down (or up) to the level of the competition.

And without explosive scorers that we had in the past (Suker, Boksic, Eduardo, even Mandzukic to a point), we don't really blow "inferior" teams apart... One goal games are basically something we've been subscribed too for ages now.
But in most cases, the team controls the game through the midfield and the "1 goal" is hopefully in our favor.

 

[bluesfan94]

It's a matter of :
1/ asking for missing a NT game as a captain to heal his injury
2/ play in the next CL game
3/ start in the next Liga game
4/ start a propaganda because people are questioning him about him getting a special program to get back to full form at Real
5/ instead of getting that program, he goes 3 fulls days in Sweden, parties and goes full Pol Pot by forbidding anyone to have a cell phone in that club.

If you think it's all about needing a day off, you're mistaken.

Think there was a little more to Pol Pot than not letting someone use a cell phone.

 

[Evilo]

Think there was a little more to Pol Pot than not letting someone use a cell phone.

Oh really?
News to me.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1845813098680046045

Look at that, a rape was commited in Mbappe's hotel. Police are investigating and are refusing to say if Mbappe's name was involved.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Police refusing to talk about what I presume is an open investigation. Evilo take a break man

 

[Evilo]

Police refusing to talk about what I presume is an open investigation. Evilo take a break man

From what?
Clearly, if Mbappe had been more professionnal, shit like this wouldn't happen. There's a chance he has nothing to do with this, but again, he shouldn't be in this situation.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

You’re insinuating he was involved…

jealous ex girlfriend vibes.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Mbappe spurning PSG/Ligue 1 has completely broken Evilo's brain. Holy moly.

 

[Evilo]

People can't read here.
I've criticized Mbappe for months, way before he left L1. And I said a LONG time ago he would leave this summer which I was more than fine with.

And yes I'm implying there was a rape in Mbappe's hotel while he was there and now the press is all over it. If he had been training like he said he would, none of that would have happenned.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

And it was obvious months/years before he left that Mbappe didn't give a damn about the club and the league.

Unless the guy's actually involved, the press won't be all over it and it'll be a total non-issue outside of whack jobs on twitter and tabloids.

 

[Incubajerks]

It was Mbappè who put Christ on the cross.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Mbappe isn’t a choir boy and I personally hopes he fails at Madrid (he isn’t playing like a star) but this witch hunt is sad

 

[bluesfan94]

Oh really?
News to me.

Given that you said he went - and I'm going to quote you here - "full Pol Pot by forbidding anyone to have a cell phone in that club," it seems like it very well might be news to you.

That's okay, I'm happy to educate the less worldly among us.

 

[Evilo]

And it was obvious months/years before he left that Mbappe didn't give a damn about the club and the league.

Unless the guy's actually involved, the press won't be all over it and it'll be a total non-issue outside of whack jobs on twitter and tabloids.

And now he doesn't give a damn about the NT and Real.
See the trend?

Given that you said he went - and I'm going to quote you here - "full Pol Pot by forbidding anyone to have a cell phone in that club," it seems like it very well might be news to you.

That's okay, I'm happy to educate the less worldly among us.

Lol you think you can school me on Pol Pot over a joke I made?
My oh my are you limited...

 

[luiginb]

Just when you thought Deschamps couldn't get more clueless he goes and starts Guendouzi in a number 10 position for France....

Leweling denied his first goal for the NT for reasons I can't really grasp as I was watching the play on a screen without any sound. What happened there?

 

[cgf]

Just when you thought Deschamps couldn't get more clueless he goes and starts Guendouzi....

Leweling denied his first goal for the NT for reasons I can't really grasp as I was watching the play on a screen without any sound. What happened there?

Gnabry was offsides when Kimmich played the ball and the Dutch touch didn’t constitute control of the ball before Gnabry took it.

Really happy with the way this back 6 is looking. If they can hold up against top attackers & ter Stegen gets fit for 2026, this team could add a 5th star to the logo…

 

[luiginb]

lol defending by Saliba

but Faes is truly a meme player

 

[Brunkmeister]

Nanasi in form. Should be a lock by now.

 

[cgf]

We’ve really ceded control since Flo came off for Andrich. I’d like to see Undav & Burkardt brought on for Kleindienst & one of Stiller / Pavlovic / Gnabry / Leweling.

Things have been better since Nagelsmann sent out new instructions for the midfielders, but the front 3 is still missing a little oomph.

 

[cgf]

Third time is the charm as Leweling finally gets his first goal to open the scoring in this one

Now let’s get Joni on the board as well!

 

[cgf]

lol why play a through ball for Pavlovic? He was not winning that sprint even if van de Ven had fallen over

 

[koyvoo]

Tchouameni yikes

 

[cgf]

Big save Baumann on a real rocket from Malen