(06-18-2018 08:11 AM)aTxTIGER Wrote:  

(06-17-2018 06:28 PM)Loco Bearcat Wrote:  

(06-17-2018 03:03 PM)aTxTIGER Wrote:  Europe is 5-1-4 so far with a +9 goal differential. Only loss was Germany.

European teams do well in European world Cups however most of the European teams are playing dull defensive futbol, except for Spain and Portugal who play a flowing Latin style. Germany play good attacking futbol however they were vulnerable to Mexico counterattack. In the 2010 and 2014 World Cups only 6 of 13 European teams advanced to the group stage where as South America was 5 for 5 in 2010 and 5 of 6 in 2014.

I know. I was just pointing it out. A European nation has won every European World Cup since Sweden '58. 6 in a row.

TBF, most teams in the world cup have played a dull style. The games havent been played at a high level. Really only Spain and Portugal have played at a high level and honestly they were still playing a couple notches below their best. The game was exciting but lots of errors from both sides.

Peru and Denmark had a go at it to but I dont think anyone can say that game was played at a high level. It was just exciting.

Other than that:

Russia game was rigged.
France, Argentina, and Germany were full of talent without the ability to breakdown packed defenses on the day.
The Croatia/Nigeria game was just awful. Iran/Morocco was a smidge better
Brazil was fine. The ref ruined that game allowing the persistent fouling on Neymar.

There was a very good article I read over the weekend about how increased media money is making International competitions less "fun to watch" because they're more competitive (ie. less teams with a higher concentration of talent due to the increased development capacity of the middle tier of federations), and it's going to get much, much worse with the 48 team model.