They shouldn't really include the 3rd/4th playoff. It shouldn't really even exist. What player from Belgium or England will be remotely interested in it?

i don’t know about players and their feelings (depends i guess), but i’ve seen plenty great 3rd place matches and im not missing this one.

this pairing could have been the final— my money is on belgium (well, imaginary money).

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as for the fantasquad, it allows for 2 dates to switch things around and fewer transfers needed

one can even use max bench boost and have everyone play.

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eta: and back to reality, golden boot chances! lukaku? kane?

For fantasy purposes, the game for 3rd place is a good one.

I'd get make sure of having a goalkeeper for saturday and one for sunday, in case the first one doesn't come back with a clean sheet.
I had forgotten about Trippier captaining my team. I spent the late stages of the semi wishing for Rakitic to score, as I thought I had finally named him as captain.


Croatia winning would be very good considering their tournament.
The French side had a poor start in the group stages. I'd be glad France wins, mind, but, well...


This said, paying attention to the local media, sports journalists keep on regretting the French ain't a nation that responds to football. No real signs of joy everywhere.
I'm not a crowd people so I watched the game in my apartment, not in a pub or wherever.

I've heard a honk here and there, nothing more. I live in the fringes of a 8000 people town.
I have colleagues from the Netherlands who confirm the French can't seem to care less.


Besides "we" have already won one. And lost another one.
Not sure what I'm trying to say.

A workmate of mine is French-Algerian, brought up in Marseille. He was saying within his community football is massive but that generally French people prefer rugby. No idea how true that is.

That could be true around Marseille. Rugby teams are from the southern part of the country, mainly.

People around me either prefer football or dismiss it completely. None really cares about rugby, except for my bro'.
He doesn't like football, considers it too messy.
Regarding Marseille, it is the French football team that has the biggest support (as showed in the Europa League semis when the crowd really did something for the players).
The team I support by going to the stadium twice a season, Rennes, never achieved much, has hardly been on the brink of relegation, I'm always amazed at how boisterous the opponent supporters are (especially when they travel from far away).
I'd like to go to Crystal Palace to see what it's like, or was it Fulham?
Anyway, sausages are great before the game, as 3 foreign teams will discover, since Rennes will play the Europa League. I'll try to catch one of those games to feel the difference.

The French would have minced England in the final, so losing at this stage is a blessing in disguise

yes

you got any predictions for france vs. croatia?

sure france are heavy favorites but i have the hunch (or the false hope?) that croatia could surprise...

Matuidi's fitness is important, but they can just throw world class players in his place if he cant play.

I fancy Griezmann to terrorise Croatias defence in any case.

Kante looks like he's just got off the plane.

Varane has been the most impressive central defender of the tournament

And if all else fails, they have the legend Hugo Lloris

So, in summary, Croatia will win and i will be massively depressed

If Ngolo Kante doesnt get a World Cup winners medal I will cry a bit inside, because he is the man.

see, plenty of competitiveness left for a third place match

belgium going all in per their lineup

england i dont know the new subs

whoever has meunier in their fantasquad is making a mint right now

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right before the goal i was about to post: belgium making kane run all over.

but now things shifted a bit england more forward kane has company

am i dreaming or are england doing a “spain”right now passing the ball around and trying to control possession instead of running running running?

and they seem fairly competent at it too

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at halftime englands attack completely neutralized no matter what they try

and the belgian counters...

England's disappointing, apart from Stones for Lukaku and Loftus-Cheel early on.


And, er, I have Meunier in my fantasquad...

haha you criminal—congrats on your fine choice

rashford in. “more speed” they’re saying. we’ll see...

not sure removing lukaku was the smart play for belgium...

without a forward route belgium too pressured in the back—much more dangerously than before he left

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well. hazard finally

the dembele substitution seems to be working

ofc i had the exiting dude on my fantasquad (3pts)

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fucking fox announcers just talking about tomorrow’s game

someone needs to stuff a rag in their pieholes

SHUT UP MEOLA

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guus hiddink called this precise score. wondering if he gambles.

so, i wonder how much little pulisic regrets having declared for the usa instead of croatia

and if he curses klinsmanns name for having sold him the idea

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

you wonder about Pulisic?? How about Kalinic!!!!!



about my fantasy team: I had picked Stones as a captain yesterday, he scored 0 points. Times two still makes zero points :) Don't know who to pick as captain now for the final so I chose Perisic. I first wanted to pick either Varane or Pavard, but if the Croats do score then they will suffer most points wise. There are six French in my team and only two Croats (him and the goalie)


And I also took out Lukaku, instead of Debruyne amongst others. Paid off well for me at least I think.

hahahaha i was not aware of kalinic’s news but thank you

i captained courtois, who scored 7 -> 14, i will attempt no heroics and keep him there

not sure who to sub in and out. i get the gut feeling that some croatians will get carded and if things don’t go well for them we might be talking reds and anti-points

Belgium is having a party this afternoon on the market square of Brussels

 

wow im a genius of the fantagame. i put in mandzukic for lovren, he scores own goal.

next thing lovren will score a brace

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and now kante gets a yellow. i am pure gold

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good job perisic!

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dis game...

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great first half.

Really shaky French side.
The free kick that lead to the opener shouldn't have been awarded.
Let's hope the blues get to play better for a better final (Croatia will win it if things go on this way).

nzonzi for kante seems to have reduced the shakiness and freed up the attack

they still did not do great as a team but individually griezmann mbappe pogba well....

a little sad for croatia they gave it all and as a team were better just unlucky and lacking the finishers france had

There's only one umbrella in Moscow...

france champion in the world cup and in our fantasy league ha ha ha... bertrand kicked all our asses

i’m croatia cuz i got 2nd but never quit xD

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now, who owes who a beer

So well done Bertrand and Symbols, up the top there in FF. Built up a nice lead on the rest of us.

English fans picked Peresic as the best player in the final, I think I agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44799975

Taking Kante off after 55 minutes would normally be shocking, but on this occasion it was a great decision. I'm delighted Kante has a world cup winners medal but its disappointing he didnt have a vintage performance in the final. Still, he'll be around for a good while anyway.

I watched the final but wasn't really concentrating on it. I'd invested so much emotion into England that, when they went out, I just felt drained and in need of a break. I didn't watch any of England v Belgium. I just couldn't face it.

figured as much when your posting here paused

must have been quite a blow, but if you look back clinically (things are dawning on me as i review the whole cup) it all makes perfect sense, if you think, since getting jammed up against tunisia.

looking forward to the euro 2020 and beyond, france and belgium the clear superpowers; and france might rule for a generation because their team is so young.

croatia the revelation but i think due to age maybe at their peak here and downhill forward. don’t really know who comes after (pulisic not one of them lol) so i feel unable to predict.

sure croatia played great, but again retrospectively they had a difficult road in the easiest bracket and so 2nd place is right.

france knocked all the hard rivals with ease— they even shut down the mighty belgium. well-deserved cup. i think the reason we never saw a great display from them was simply because nobody was enough of a challenge to make them really suffer. were they ever against the ropes? i can’t recall a single instance. they’re in a league of their own almost.

Yeah, France winning feels right. They improved as they progressed. Belgium were probably the team I most enjoyed watching but by the final France looked the most complete.

England will get better and I'm sure they'll be serious contenders going into upcoming tournaments. Especially if they can find a playmaker from somewhere - the one area we really fall down in.

So the transfer window rolls on for Liverpool (and seemingly no one else).

Now forgive me whilst I go on a rant here. So the big thing right now is how they've broken the record for a goalkeeper at £67 million for Alisson. They also broke the record for a defender (£75 million for Van Dijk) last season. My question is why?

Firstly, Alisson. That's some serious money to spend on a keeper. I watched Roma a few times last year and fair play, he's a decent keeper. However, was anyone else after him? Rumours were Chelsea, but that's it. Why allow yourself to get trumped into paying that much for him? To my eyes Oblak is just as good a keeper. Would he have cost less? For sure. I guess Roma were just wanting the extra money to make the bargain Salah hurt less. Liverpool got suckered in and paid the first number they got told.

Now Van Dijk. This one was and still is even more baffling. £75 million. £75 MILLION!! Insane. However, you gotta ask yourself "is he in the top 20 defenders out there?" At a push. Then you think how many other great defenders are there out there they could have tried for? Umtiti is one. Hummels is another, Boateng is there. Koulibaly definitely, but I don't think they'd have got him.

Umtiti had a release clause for, what was it, £50 million last summer? Definitely a better player than Van Dijk. Again, no one else was pestering for Van Dijk! Liverpool wet themselves and threw whatever money they had at a pretty decent defender. For that money you'd want someone next level.

Honestly, I don't get it. I don't get why they threw all that money on two reasonable players when much better were available and probably cheaper. Will they win the league this year? (Our year, la!) probably not given how great City were. You'd be a fool to think Guardiola will let the team rest on their laurels this year. Will they win a trophy? Hopefully not. Question is if they win the FA cup next year could they honestly say all that money was worth it?

so glad you brought back this thread

i was starting to look at the trump thread again, like a dog returning to his vomit

ha!

so: transfers? i have no idea

generalized inflation i assume? maybe some chinese club wanted them. we’ve had these discussions before.

me, i gotta get my football supply sorted for the year. hoping to catch some prem games as well as bundesliga and champions and who knows what else.

Yup I made that mistake myself. Made the bigger mistake of actually posting on there too.



This is my point. From what it sounds like no one else was after them. And even if there were. So what. Better players out there to try for. I can't talk cos Everton are doing a stand up job of spunking silly money on even more average players than Liverpool have done. Don't even know why I'm letting myself get sucked into a shit season.



Aye. Reckon you'll try and have a look at more premier league games this season?

yes. so many good players in the prem it’s impossible for me to ignore any longer

i’ll still keep an eye on bundesliga cuz it’s such a great feeder league :D

but seriously, it’s getting out of hand. and chelsea dumped conte? who the fuck dumps conte?

He would've actually cost more. I'm sure I read about Liverpool originally wanting him before they even looked at Alisson but Atletico whacked an insane release clause on him, so they dropped it. So if Oblak proved too expensive, and assuming MU wouldn't sell DeGea to Liverpool in a million years (or that DeGea would even want to go there) and ditto Chelsea with Courtois (whose move to Real looks increasingly like a done deal) the options at that grade soon start to run out. And sticking with Mignolet or Karius was never an option.

Either way, it all makes the 7m that West Ham just paid for Fabianski look like the bargain of the summer.

i know most people here are not ‘mericans, but i’ll think outloud a bit and say: i think sling blue with dvr should give me the best bang for the buck for $30/mo which will include the nbc and fox sports (prem + bundesliga + champions).

then there’s “fubo” for $40 which presumably has *everything*...


hmmmm...

That's not bad at all! Here sky sports are charging £28 a month. However, they lost Champions league to BT sport a few seasons back, and this year they just lost la liga to some god knows what channel. So all they have now is just premier league.

They boast about having the most premier league games.over BT. Which to be fair is fuck load. They also have Gary Neville's punditry on Monday night games.
However, BT have bundesligsa, serie a, ligue 1, and the Portuguese league which probably boasts 12 viewers per game. Actually no idea why football people haven't switched to BT in their droves. But you have to deal with Robbie Savage commentary. Which I'm sure is sausage to.you but.youve heard enough people on here moan about him

Anyway! Join us premier league geeks and you can despair in watching West Ham and Everton.

Yeah, for $30 a mo that's pretty good.

Have to say, though, I hate the move towards subscription for things like the CL. It's surely only a matter of time before it happens to the WC, too.

Isn't there a rule where certain things have to be available on terrestrial tv like Wimbledon, World Cup etc?