World Cup 2018

Aye, indeed. You should get some tapes of your commentary in to them.

stillmanjunior wrote:Czech Republic v Holland in Euro 2000 is often described as one of the best games.

That's the one I was trying to think of. I think overall the Euros tend to be stronger than the World Cup in the early stages. The latter having become ever more bloated.

The last Euros was horrendous. A terrible format which doesn’t work. The 16 team one was brilliant.

Take that back - the last Euros were the most amazing tournament ever, indeed, the most amazing summer ever.

stillmanjunior wrote:The last Euros was horrendous. A terrible format which doesn’t work. The 16 team one was brilliant.

Junior, I would have agreed with you about Lawro a couple of years ago. But compared with the BT and ITV summarisers, I'm quite enjoying his style these days. He's certainly the best of the media scousers.

Here's a little present from the BBC for England fans as they enter dreamland again....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44515740

comrade powell wrote:Junior, I would have agreed with you about Lawro a couple of years ago. But compared with the BT and ITV summarisers, I'm quite enjoying his style these days. He's certainly the best of the media scousers.

I could be up past midnight listing his flaws. The bloke clearly doesn’t do an ounce of research on who he is watching as his knowledge of players on the continent is non existent, he just tries to hide it with what he thinks is a humorous comment. I don’t expect him to know the ins and outs of everyone, but just some sort of insight would be nice, tell me something I might not have thought about.

He also gives the impression that he doesn’t want to be there. Just a bit of enthusiasm, please. No need to go overboard, but realise that you’re trying to keep people watching. Snide quotes and moaning will drive them away, be interested if they could produce figures for people that changed the audio during the France game.

You’re right in saying that the quality of BT and ITV summarisers is rather limited, but only two make me turn the sound off - Lawrenson and Savage. I wonder if BT have reacted to criticism about Owen because I’m sure he didn’t summarise on many games last season.

You're correct about Owen on BT. The only problem was who they replaced him with - possibly the only person who is more boring and doesn't know when to shut up.

And here's something to listen out for tomorrow morning! Robbie Savage is doing 30 minutes every day on the R5 breakfast show. Tomorrow's guests to celebrate our victory over Tunisia are Owen and Flintoff. My idea of Room 101....

Don't get me started on the old boy pundit network. What makes the TV companies think that because someone has played football they can provide any insight to the rest of us I don't know. It is an enduring mystery. 

But I think people are prepared to listen to well known people even when they have nothing to say. Although some can say nothing in unlimited ways.

comrade powell wrote:Here's a little present from the BBC for England fans as they enter dreamland again....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44515740

Given the underwhelming build up to the WC by the media and especially the BBC that really is embarrassing.

But did they make up for it today! Some of the radio build up was nauseating.

BenE wrote:Don't get me started on the old boy pundit network. What makes the TV companies think that because someone has played football they can provide any insight to the rest of us I don't know. It is an enduring mystery. 

You're not the only one who thinks that...

https://www.theguardian.com/football/shortcuts/2018/jun/18/eni-aluko-alex-scott-stars-world-cup-commentary

England 2-1 Tunisia

What we learnt...
1) Kane had better not get injured
2) Rashford for Raheem
3) There are no easy games for England (except perhaps Panama)

4 Blatant corruption in evidence. I do not accept that 7 officials saw nothing in Kane being thrown to the ground.

The Evra moment made me squirm. I’ve actually barely seen Scott on BBC yet. It’s poor that it’s taken this long for female pundits to be involved, and it’s finally being rectified. Ali (forget her surname) was one of the better commentators on the Ashes and apparently Vicki Sparkes will be given a game on the BBC.

As for England - in response to your points, Sterling just doesn’t seem to do it in these games. Barring the opener against Italy in 2014 he has disappointed. Reminds me a bit of John Barnes - an exciting, excellent player at club level, but hasn’t hit the heights for the international side in the majority of games.

Should have been out of sight at half time. Never easy playing against effefively a back nine in the second half, and horrible to watch. I’m actually not sure which side is worse out of Panama and Tunisia, took two excellent finishes to help Belgium. Massively important win and if they fail to get out of the group now it’d be a travesty.

Some players do not replicate their club form at international level and I put it down purely to bottle. They seize up when they get on the biggest stage. It doesn't matter how often they play they will never get over that inner fear.
And yet there are lesser players that will do the business purely because they aren't fazed.

Tunisia were certainly a team of two halves. Going forward before the break they looked quite useful but their defending wouldn't have looked out of place in the Western League. They tightened up in the second half as England ran out of ideas but could hardly combine when going forward. Goal difference could well decide which half of the draw England are in so they need to target a four goal margin against Panama.

Going by some of the early results, it might not matter which half they end up in!

Yes, agree re Tunisia. When they said ‘Spain found them hard to break down recently’ I burst out laughing. In the first half they were all over the place. Second half they were content for a point and made life very difficult. Took off their attacking threat which meant they had nothing going forward. Just as well as I still panic at times with England’s defending.

Unfortunately with Stones you are always going to get one cock up a game. I do not like Walker at centre back either. Trippier did well but Walker is far superior at wing back, is less likely to have a mistake punished out there, and we have decent centre back cover in the squad too.

5) If FIFA's rankings really make Tunisia the strongest team in Africa, then you have to question why the continent are allocated 5 places at the finals. Of course we know the reason why, but the likes of Holland, Italy and Chile must have watched that performance with some bitterness. Here's hoping for something a lot better from Senegal today.

I had a quick glance over the process of qualifying for other continents. Which would you claim have the most difficult route? The South American one looks tough.

Helluva read
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/romelu-lukaku-ive-got-some-things-to-say

stillmanjunior wrote:I had a quick glance over the process of qualifying for other continents. Which would you claim have the most difficult route? The South American one looks tough.

Definitely South America - just one group of 10, so 18 qualifying matches. And 5th placed Peru had 2 play offs with NZ. Some of those venues are at high altitude - La Paz, Bogota etc - and must be tortuous for teams like Argentina who a few years back lost 6-0 to Bolivia. Chile are ranked in the world top 10 but are not at the WC.

Asia has long routes as well with intercontinental play offs - like Peru, Australia had to play 18 qualifiers plus facing Honduras who had fought through several stages of qualifying.

Meanwhile in Africa, just 8 games for those 5 qualifiers. The 54 nations were paired off in a 2 legged play off. The winners organised in small groups with the winners going to Rusia. For example, Egypt played off with Mauritania (presently ranked 175th) way back in 2015 then in 12 months had a mini league with Uganda, Ghana and Congo.

Still, it's ht in Moscow and Senegal are leading a very disappointing Poland.

Well played Senegal! The Poles looked like they had underestimated them - they could well qualify from this group as neither Japan or Colombia looked special.