Yeah seemed like a bad miss by the ref. Pen seemed clear
Thatās standard, though. Refs never really want to give the second unless they have no choice.
This is me too. I think of languages as āEnglish,ā and everything else is ānot-Englishā
Team of the tournament so far:
Croatian GK
Hakimi - Martinez (hard to pick which Arg CB) - Gvardiol- Davies (I really just canāt find a LB I think has been good. Maybe Acuna?)
Modric- Bellingham - Amrabat
Saka Messi Mbappe
Honorable mentions: Giroud, Neymar, Gakpo, Juranovic
I donāt watch much club or international soccer but yeah that Saka guy seemed good
If weāre including guys eliminated in the quarters, canāt really leave off Bruno Fernandes.
Who do you take out in midfield though? I think its harder to leave off Neymar.
I think Livakovic, Modric, Messi, Mbappe are 100% super locks.
Amrabat, Hakimi, an Argentine CB (theyāve all been great!) have to be there.
You can take Jude out I guess for Neymar or Bruno but it seems harsh.
Also, guys like Reus in 2014, Benzema this cycle if they win should get to celebrate as much as the dudes on the end of the bench
He was great today, but I donāt remember him doing that great in the prior games. I remember him being kind of bad against the US.
The whole England team was actively not trying vs the USA.
They were playing for a draw and not getting men forward
True, but the performance he had is still the performance he had. If youāre making an All Star team, then what he did in that game counts towards the evaluation. Why he played that way is not particularly important. Youāre not putting together a team based on potential, youāre putting it together based on how they actually played in the tournament in question.
Youāre looking at it the wrong way for that game.
That game England was playing for a draw. Their goal was not to concede, give up high quality chances or get countered. So that game Saka was playing more of an auxiliary RB than RW. Youāre just trying to tuck in a proper defensive shape, not win the game.
Take Mbappe today. Heās maybe the best player in Europe so you donāt mind him not playing any defense. But you also have Giroud, so you now canāt press opponents or stop their defensive line from passing the ball amongst themselves.
Then with Mbappe not tracking back, you either leave a hole in that area or have another player move over to cover it but that might create holes elsewhere. France largely have Rabiot fill this, but it either didnāt work as Saka found joy, or left Henderson free.
Now, because Mbappe is so good you donāt mind this. But, if Argentina win it will likely be because Messi and Di Maria find joy in this space. When they almost won in 2018 that is what happened for ~30 minutes.
So itās important to be aware of the tactics of a team and players. Should we take anything away from Mbappe because he provides no defensive effort? No, itās just the tactical game plan of the team.
The same was true for England not attacking the USA, playing for a draw and knowing that if they kept a compact shape and men behind the ball the USA would struggle to create anything.
Saka had 3 goals and is 21, while providing world class ball progression.
There are like ~10 wingers in world football good at bringing the ball up the pitch and giving decent to world class end product. When you look at a team like Liverpool, they use their full backs to progress the ball so Mane (now Diaz/jota) and Salah can stay higher up the pitch and not use energy on ball progression. Very, very few teams ask their wingers to defend, progress the ball and score. The list of guys good at all 3 is like, 5? This is what made Di Maria so amazing the last decade, he was the best mix of all of this.
Iām not doubting that Saka can do this, Iām just saying that he didnāt in that game. It sounds like we agree that this is what Saka did do
So, my question is could a typical WC RW have done what Saka did about as well as he did it in that game. Iām sure you both know more and watched it more closely, so if you say no, Iāll take your word for it. But if the answer is yes, then it is by definition not a great performance. It was appropriate for the game, of course and there were good reasons for doing it, but that doesnāt change the fact that what he did in that game was nothing special.
Iām saying if a coach says āhey, sit back, donāt dribble/make risky passes because it risks turnoversā you donāt say they played a bad game because they followed instructions. Their performance vs England was different than today because that was the game plan, not that they didnāt attempt those things because they just didnāt feel like it.
For the same way you donāt say Mbappe had a bad game because he didnāt track back vs Saka and offer defensive protection.
Conceive of not saying
Yeah, I get all of that and I agree with all of that.
Hereās another way to look at it. Imagine Saka had played all 5 games like that because each opponent just happened to require that game plan. If that happened, no one would be thinking he belonged on the team of the tournament.
So if he plays one game like that, then it has to hurt his case a little. Thatās all Iām saying.
āA la maisonā is fine, in fact in 2018 there was a popular song that was called āramenez la coupe Ć la maisonā (bring the cup back home). It had a few lines dedicated to each of the most popular players. (I didnāt think it was a particularly good song but Iām no the target audienceā¦my kids seemed to like it)
Thanks. I was hoping you would show up. Donāt see you around much these days.
lol England