don't know much about football huh? Possession Croatia 66% France 34% Shots Croatia 14 France 7 Corners Croatia 6 France 2 similar stats with Belgium over France...only stats france won was the final score, Belguim and Croatia were both better.
in this game, yes agreed...best french(algerian) player of any time Zidane, he's also my favourite player of all time regardless of country, he was a complete footballer.
the foul on Griezmann wasn't a foul, he slipped before the contact and was going down but for the referee to make that call was difficult he didn't have VAR helping him on that...the handball, yeah I agree that was an error with VAR! it needs to be deliberate and it wasn't ...
So what? To win in a football match you need to score a goal, not to possess a ball. France didn't give Croatia a single chance in this match.
Too clean - I was hoping the Russian Ultras and English hooligans would get into a brawl but alas it was not to be. All joking aside, Russia did a fine job of hosting the Cup.
I thought Croatia was the better team for much of the match - especially the first half - but they made too many mistakes. In a game like that the team that makes the most mistakes usually loses and to France's credit they made Croatia pay for their mistakes. Nevertheless, Croatia had a great run and France was a worthy champion.
Who can forget Zidane's final against Brazil in '98? ( It's hard to believe that was 20 years ago ) I can still remember the crowd going berserk when the French players hoisted the trophy. It's fun to see the home team win in front of its fans...
I've no criticism of France they're full value for the win. As for Croatia's errors, well that's partially dictated by the score. Being behind in the score forces at team to press and take risks, 2-1 or 4-2 a loss is still a loss in one match final. France has an excellent side and being ahead in the score they could afford to play a safer game, they're very capable of punishing their opponent for the risks they needed to take to get back into the game. Had Croatia scored first it would have been a totally different scenario and required France into taking pressing and taking risks, final outcome could've been entirely different.
and who can forget his Cup losing headbutt in the 2006, a brilliant player's temporary moment of insanity!
extremely difficult to repeat no country has done that since Brazil '58-'62...even harder to do today with many countries closing the technical and tactical gap between them and the big fish...just ask Germany... one unlucky match in the group stage can be the end of the best side...it'll be interesting to see how smaller groups in the first stage of next WC will effect strategy.
I agree. Mandzukic's own-goal early in the game was a terrible break for Croatia. After the Croats got the equalizer I joked to my wife how Croatia was doing all the scoring for both teams, but then France got in on the action and the rest is history. Gawd, that was awful...
Wow - I was wondering when was the last time someone repeated. I presume Pele was on one or both of those teams... Yup, and then there's injuries and God knows what else, like France's epic debacle in 2010. So, they're going to smaller groups in 2022? I saw that FIFA was thinking of expanding to 48 teams in 2022 instead of 2026 but I haven't heard anything definite about that...
that's what I've been reading too, FIFA is moving up the timeline....from what I understand 16 groups of 3, two teams advance from each group so getting a result in the first match group stage is crucial...as it is now with 4 teams the strategy was play for a draw in the 1st match, a win if possible, but do not lose!..with a loss going into the next match against an opponent (who has won or a draw in their 1st game) knows the losing side needs to attack/press, so play a more conservative defend and counter game ...I expect this will be even more crucial with three team groups, losing a 1st match in a three team group stage will be nearly as fatal as the knockout round... great thing about an expanded format more great teams will be in the cup(Italy, Netherlands, USA were squeezed out this time) as each conference will get more entrants...I believe North/Central america will get 6 spots, 3 more minnows will get in promoting the game in more countries...my home (Canada) may finally qualify even it's only to be sent home after the first stage...
If that prevents another England-Belgium debacle I'm all for it. I'm not necessarily against round-robin play but there can't be room for teams throwing games like there was in this Cup. Had England made it to the final instead of Croatia it probably would have wrecked the entire tournament for me...
eeew I hadn't thought of that... three team group stage would do a lot to eliminate throwing a game, throw the game in the group stage and they would likely find themselves going home...
Ozil quits German national team July 24, 2018 at 4:51 am Reactions from Turkey and around the world poured in after footballer Mesut Ozil announced his retirement from the German national team, citing “discrimination and racism”, Turkish-origin Ozil has been under fire in Germany since May when he posted a photo with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Germany’s shocking group-stage elimination at the 2018 World Cup in Russia sparked more criticism of the 29-year-old footballer. Ozil announced on Sunday evening “with a heavy heart and after much consideration” that he will no longer be playing for Germany at the international level, “while I have this feeling of racism and disrespect”. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180724-reactions-pour-in-after-ozil-quits-german-national-team/ ---- How sad. I'm sure he played his best and is not to be blamed for Germany getting eliminated. It is a fact, from what I hear and read, that a lot of Germans don't like the Turks. To have himself photographed with Erdogan was probably seen by the Germans as him still being loyal to Turkey. It is silly to condemn him for that while he is a top player in the German National Team... sports is sports, leave politics and racism out of it! Did he do the right thing? I think so, I would have done the same.
i don't know about Ozil's situation but sports are not separate from politics or racism, intolerable behavior cannot be ignored because sports are on some idealistic pedestal...
Yes, but I find, if the Germans hired him, knowing he was from Turkey, they should not indulge in slandering him --> Ozil also slammed German Football Association (DFB) President Reinhard Grindel for mistreatment and pursuing a political agenda, soon after he was criticized by politicians and media for meeting with Erdogan. Because I am from Germany, I expect better behavior from my fellow compatriots. Anyway, are you ready to host the 2026 FIFA Games together with Mexico and Canada? I heard it will be bigger than this last one in Russia. About 80 games will be played, of which the US will host 60 and Canada and Mexico 10 each.
Im in canada, and yes there's no problems getting ready 2026... we can wish there is no politics involved in sport but there is, it's unavoidable...I won't address Ozil's situation but in general governments and athletes do get involved in politics and they need to held accountable... russia was involved at a state level at cheating, russia should have been held accountable and lost the WC as host(bribing FIFA officials) as should Qatar and the countries whose officials accepted the bribes...countries that oppress or occupy other countries should be excluded, Russia-crimea, China-tibet, Israel-palistine, just as S Africa was excluded for apartheid...players that support racism or extreme politics should be excluded as well, I don't want any nazi's or racists representing any team I support...being soft on such behavior only encourages more of the same...
The Öziul case is more complicated than that. Özil isn't from Turkey, he was born in Germany, socialized in Germany, went to school in Germany and started playing football in Germany. His parents were born in Turkey, but came to Germany as toddlers. As unfortunate as this whole thing is, Özil started this chaos by posing with Turkish president Erdogan during his election campaign in May. Why is this important? There have been enormous tensions between Turkey and Germany for the last two years with Erdogan insulting pretty much everything and everybody German, arresting around a dozen German journalists without any charge, not allowing German MoPs to visit a NATO airbase in Turkey (which according NATO rules must be allowed), insisting to have Turkish politicians campaigning in Germany, etc.Özil was criticized quite a bit for posing with Erdogan. Footballer Gündogan, also in the pic, published an explanation and apologized a few days later (bad idea, shouldn't have done it, should have kept out of politics), no big deal. Footballer Emre Can, also German-Turkish, didn't follow Erdogan's invitation for posing with him and said, "No, thanks." Özil didn't handle it cleverly and simply didn't explain himself in any way. This caused more criticism in some media outlets. For two and a half months he kept completely quiet despite him knowing that it would further escalate the situation. Özil was never criticized racially or discriminated against from anybody in the German FA or any officials. After Germany's awful performance in Russia, Oliver Bierhoff, one of the key officials of the German FA, gave two really stupid interviews in which he said that, in hindsight, maybe it would have been better to take Özil out of the team for the WC games, the turmoil around Özil was probably too much. This was interpreted by some media outlets as "Bierhoff blames Özil for Germany's poor performance", which is definitely not true. Bierhoff's interviews were stupid nonetheless. But Özil wasn't made a scapegoat for the team's performance; some media simply interpreted it that way. Via Twitter Özil explained that the pic had nothing to do with politics. This is either horribly naive or horribly dumb. Even now, after ten weeks, he still says he did everything right and there is nothing people could criticize him for. On top of that, he claims he was disciminated against and is only German when the team wins, but an immigrant when they lose. The team lost in the past and he was never criticized or discriminated against by officials for a defeat. Many years ago, he was indeed discriminated against, but by Turkish football fans in Germany who considered him a traitor when he started playing for Germany instead of Turkey. He was also verbally attacked by some extreme right wing idiots who cannot live with the fact that the German team has players that are not "blonde and blue-eyed." Here, the German FA should have handled it better, IMO, they didn't really stand up firmly enough. Crisis handling by the GFA was amateur-ish, but Özil's accusations are largely unfounded or simply not true.
had I the talent that Ozil does I never would've posed with any politician trying to improve his stature by having a picture with me...I despise politicians even the ones I vote for... Ozil is mature enough to have known hanging with Erdogan would've been controversial, I've lost track of how many athletes have declined to meet with trump...as a born German national he should've stayed away and accepted being german...
Thank you for explaining the situation a little further. I love watching big soccer games, but am otherwise quite naive. The "blonde and blue-eyed" players have become rare nowadays. At least Germany didn't have as many black players as France did. But Germany losing against unknown little Korea was disappointing. Still, I am happy for the Koreans, it made their day. Here is Oezil playing... And here is a video showing the controversial meeting with Erdogan... https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...7423BF0E833047FAABC77423BF0E83304&FORM=WRVORC
Germany was the world champion because of Miroslav Klose who has retired. Klose was the top scorer of all time for Germany and he was as good as Ronald. The current national team doesn't have a decent striker, which was why Germany failed to score a goal against South Korea. Fernando Torres also retired from the Spanish national team and he's currently playing in Japan. I think Torres should have played for Spain in Russia.
