***Official 2018 FIFA World Cup thread*** | Page 52 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

***Official 2018 FIFA World Cup thread***

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Most goals scored at the World Cup per club’s players:

Spurs: 12
PSG: 12
Barcelona: 9
Manchester United: 9
Juventus: 8
Atlético Madrid: 8
Real Madrid: 6
Liverpool: 6
Chelsea: 5
Manchester City: 5
Villarreal: 4
Zenit: 3
Besiktas: 3
Sunderland: 2
Bayern Munich: 0

Bayern is going through the biggest hangover in club soccer I have seen in a long time. Since the heartbreaking loss to Real in the Champions league semi . . . .they all have fell apart. That loss, losing to Frankfurt in the German Cup, poor performances in the pre Cup friendlies and then the disaster World Cup itself.

Possibly fatigue but they better get their **** together.
They are not being challenged in the Bundesliga.
 
Young player of the tournament: Mbappe. With A World Cup in his pocket already he has a monkey off his back that Messi/Ronaldo will likely never get off. He has an epic chance to challenge their legacy.

Goalkeeper of the tournament: Courtois. I don’t like the guy much, but his performance vs. Brazil was pure quality.

Player of the tournament: Eden Hazard for me. My guess is they give it to Pogba or Modric.

Pretty accurate prediction . . . Hazard finished a close 2nd to Modric. Don’t agree but It really was between those 2. Griezman finished third which was a joke really. Can name 9 midfield/attacking players I would of taken over him, including 3 on his own team (Mbappe, Pogba and Konte), Lukaku, De Bruyne, Perisic, Coutinho, Trippier and Cheryshev

The other 2 categories were spot on.
 
Here is a great question for the final:
what was the first World Cup you remember and/or watched? Where were you?

I only recently became interested in soccer the more my daughter has played and became interested in herself. When she switched from midfielder to goalkeeper we started watching Bayern and Germany because of Neuer.

I would have participated more in these conversations, but while I feel I understand the game, my knowledge of the players themselves is fairly limited. I enjoyed this tournament immensely.

As far as first World Cup Final...2006, I was working at IMG at the time and they played the game in the cafe for all of the athletes and campers. Watching the games with a large number of French and Italian kids and adults made watching the game far more exciting.
 
I only recently became interested in soccer the more my daughter has played and became interested in herself. When she switched from midfielder to goalkeeper we started watching Bayern and Germany because of Neuer.

I would have participated more in these conversations, but while I feel I understand the game, my knowledge of the players themselves is fairly limited. I enjoyed this tournament immensely.

As far as first World Cup Final...2006, I was working at IMG at the time and they played the game in the cafe for all of the athletes and campers. Watching the games with a large number of French and Italian kids and adults made watching the game far more exciting.

Not sure I ever told my 2006 World Cup story but here it goes.

I flew into Düsseldorf with my dad just before the start of the knockout rounds. I mean it was just insane the energy in that country for the tournament.

So I have family deep in the woods in Bavaria and we decided to drive from the Düsseldorf/Cologne area to the middle of these Woods, east of Frankfurt . . . .the same day as the Germany-Argentina quarterfinal.

I got familiar with the word “stau” that trip lol

So we were delayed and the game is about to start and we just get to the Woods and we find the most German little house with a tiny small bar area. We found out this was not a restaurant, but the man and wife invited us to sit on their porch and watch the game on this tiny Tv with ok reception and served us their cold beer for free LOL . . .amazing. I want to say Argentina scored first and it was 1-0.

So halftime hits and we thank the couple and we haul butt to my families house, which we weren’t 100% sure where it was lol (keep in mind I had a cell phone but no coverage and no gps and no data)

We get to the city and my aunt notices us (small town they know people who aren’t normally there) and points to her house on top the hill where there was more cold beer and a much bigger TV. Germany tied it up 1-1 and they went to extra time.

At that time we were told to hurry down the hill to the big restaurant and bar where an uncle had rented the place out and I get handed a huge Weiss beer and have prime seating for the rest of stoppage time and PKs.

Germany wins and literally the whole place went bananas and People got in their cars and start blowing there horns and driving around for the next 2 hours with the German flags up.

So then I meet this beautiful German girl and she knows I am not from there but she liked me and wanted to buy me and my cousin dinner and beers all night LOL. We ended up not spending any money all day (I bought nearly 100 euros of gas earlier and never got charged on my visa card either) and were as drunk and full as maybe I have ever been. She invited friends and it was just a good night out, I usually push hard to hit something like that but the vibe was right and she was married but wanted a night out and soft touches as her husband was “an asshole” lol so I gave her that. I ****ed up tho . . .she bought us a shot of Jaeger late and I was throwing up in the morning as I has so much beer in me to mix that **** in.

Made it home around 4 am and Then my dad and family decide to wake up at 7 a.m. to drive to Kreuzburg to drink morning beer with the monks LOL. I was sooo done and got made fun of in the process.

But it was just an epic 24 hours, one that will stick with me forever.

As a follow up, I Went back last year to Germany for the first time since 2006 and went back to that same German town and that same uncle had a 60th Birthday party that was Bayern themed as he is head of the Bayern fan club in that area.

I drunk them ALL under the table and even mixed a shot in (Schnapps not Jaeger bleh) . . .They wanted to get me drunk again but I was ready :) . . . Did not run into the girl tho lol

Good times
 
So with WC finished the next disaster WC is in the making.
Pretty much everybody agrees that Qatar (and Russia as well) won the bid through bribery. This country is unfit to host a WC in every way. They had not one single stadium. All the stadiums and infrastructure has to build from nothing. While Qatar has the money it is being accused of slave labor and several thousand slave workers from other countries have died or severly injured. They are underpaid, no insurance and have their passports taken away. What is even worse is that it will be the first WC played in winter.

One of the reasons the WC was played in summer was the fact that pretty much all professional leagues finish their seasons in April/May and the new season starts in August/September. Most leagues have only a short winter break. But the temperatures in Qatar in summer are brutal and it is a health risk to players and fans. The plan is to have the WC in November/December which screws with leagues, Europan cup games and national cup games. It also eliminates any kind of public outdoor viewing in the northern hemisphere where the most rabid fans are located.

FIFA boss Infantino (who I view as corrupt as Blatter before him) wants to bring Saudi Arabia as co host in. Infantino is good buddy with Mohammed bin Salman from the Saudi royal family. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are not on speaking terms and Qatar would never agree to a host sharing. To accomplish that Infantino wants to blow the WC to 48 teams already for the 2022 WC (initially it was planned for 2026) and force Qatar into that deal or outright quit.

The back story on that is that Infantino wants to sell the WC to private investors which he favors Saudi Arabian investirs for. The talk is that he is looking at 25 billion. Pocket change for the Saudis.

Since Qatar is probably running into trouble as is I would just pull the WC away from that region and have a European country or North America (instead of 2026) host it. They all have stadiums and infrastructure ready to go.
 
Croatia was the clearly better team. The ref really flipped the game with an ill advised free kick and a very weak PK. This is not a call you make in a WC final.
Well, finally got the chance to view the game, and I agree, the best team did not win today. It was amazing to me to see how thoroughly the Croatian midfield (Modric, Rakitic, Rebic and Perisic on the wings) dominated. I knew they were talented and athletic, but thought they would meet their match against France - not so, not even close. Having said that, full marks to France - they were opportunistic and they held the fort when they needed to. And they were lucky.

One other thing that amazes me sometimes is just how MLS and EPL-centric I am. I guess that's because that's all I see on TV. But the entire Croatian team (save Lovren) plays in other leagues, and when you get to see how they play, it's a huge eye-opener. I'm like "who's this Perisic guy?", "who's this Vrsajko guy?" - they are really good. I guess football lives outside North America and the UK too? ;)
 
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