How would you rate this World Cup?

[Eco]

2 hours ago, ASF said:

Given it a 9/10, based on entertainment solely. Best WC since France 1998.

But, like Toni said, there wasn't any legendary moment, one that you will still talk about 20 years from now.

I think this has a great shout...

[Asura]

The best one in my lifetime and I have been watching world cups and euros since 2002.

[Mel81x+]

Gave it an 8. Its high on entertainment I'll give it that because when you go start watching these and 'expect' things to happen and they don't it generates a different kind of buzz and excitement. I think the drama of teams that didn't qualify, teams that should have done well but didn't and then finally the way the groups started panning out were all very good. VAR has a long way to go but it did do some things right at this tournament and in the next four years its going to be far more solid and decisive than it was this time around. 

But the best WC I have ever watched? Not really. I credit that one to Italia 90, way too much madness and excitement at that one for me to not love.

[Stan]

Few of the funnier bits from the world cup. 

That Batshuayi clip will NEVER get old

 

[Faithcore]

14 hours ago, The Palace Fan said:

Your viewpoint is skewed by that hissy fit you had and stopped posting.

It's obvious that you don't know me at all. Otherwise you'd know that my absent was nothing but a (questionable) joke.

I used the time to actually pay attention to the matches

 

[True Blue]

I'd give it a solid 9, one of the best i've seen. It had goals, it had excitement everything i could wish for. Also every single game apart from one had goals. Overall the organisation was sublime apart from the final, no riots no problems that were heavily expected. 

[Harry]

7-10.

No goals even close to the best 5 of the previous world cup. 

Missing the Dutch and Italian sides. 

The wining team played in a dull and conservative way that is exactly what you wish to see fail yet it paid off. 

But...

Croatia won the respect of the world with an astonishing performance. 

England had a great run and won a shootout. 

Some memorable appearances for Japan, Russia, uruguay, Mexico, Senegal. 

It was heading for a better score but has ended up a 7...!

[Stan]

11 minutes ago, Harry said:

7-10.

No goals even close to the best 5 of the previous world cup. 

Missing the Dutch and Italian sides. 

The wining team played in a dull and conservative way that is exactly what you wish to see fail yet it paid off. 

But...

Croatia won the respect of the world with an astonishing performance. 

England had a great run and won a shootout. 

Some memorable appearances for Japan, Russia, uruguay, Mexico, Senegal. 

It was heading for a better score but has ended up a 7...!

Do you not think the goals by Pavard, Nacho or Quaresma matched any from 2014?!

Also, France weren't dull against Argentina or Croatia. They turned the style on when it ultimately mattered. Portugal in Euro 2016 were dull. 

[Eco]

49 minutes ago, Harry said:

7-10.

No goals even close to the best 5 of the previous world cup. 

Missing the Dutch and Italian sides. 

The wining team played in a dull and conservative way that is exactly what you wish to see fail yet it paid off. 

But...

Croatia won the respect of the world with an astonishing performance. 

England had a great run and won a shootout. 

Some memorable appearances for Japan, Russia, uruguay, Mexico, Senegal. 

It was heading for a better score but has ended up a 7...!

I cant only assume you are referring to the Mexicans beating last place Germany? 

And the goals in this were great. Ronaldo vs Spain, Pavard vs Argentina just to name a few. 

[Dave]

4 hours ago, Faithcore said:

It's obvious that you don't know me at all. Otherwise you'd know that my absent was nothing but a (questionable) joke.

I used the time to actually pay attention to the matches

 

I was being light hearted mate.

[Guest]

I have a lot of thoughts on this World Cup, in terms of predictions and my experience with it overall. 

I want to start off by saying that this was the World Cup I was most looking forward to in my whole life, only because I finally got to see my home country participate. Even Canada couldn't play in it in my life, so this was the first time I've been able to support a team in this tournament and it was my preferred choice. Even if things didn't exactly go to plan, winning in this tournament for a team like us is such a good feeling. Especially given I didn't expect to qualify until 2022. Halfway through the qualifiers I had given up hope and we got this far. I hope we can continue with it. I really do hope we go to the next World Cup even if I do think the next one won't be any good due to the circumstances FIFA has put it in.

Now as for the actual tournament, I thought it was very entertaining, but low on quality. All the strong sides looked average except for France and/or Belgium. There was an easier side of the draw and overall it was one of the lowest quality World Cups in my lifetime. That doesn't mean it was bad though, I highly enjoyed it because quality is not everything. Its not like it entirely lacked it either, but it wasn't all there. Off the top of my head the only high quality games were Brazil - Belgium and Spain - Portugal. I guess I'll give a few positives and a few gripes I had with the tournament.

On a bright note, it was very entertaining as I already mentioned and even though I don't rate this French outfit as much as the previous 2 champions, its hard to look past them when debating "deserved champions". They were very much that. What ifs are pointless in this situations to what the final would have been. While a bit unconvincing, France did the job and were very good defensively. Not sure what more you could ask for. Another bright note is how well Russia handed the hosting. At least for the time, before I suspect it may take a toll. On the pitch, there was no sign of favouring to Russia from the referees like a few of the past world cups and they deserved to get as far as they did. Not many off the pitch issues overall, certainly not compared to what happened in the Euro's with the Brits or the Russians themselves in 2016, and then the whole issue with the Chileans in 2014, as well as some local Brazilians. I might be wrong on that little bit as I do live under a rock sometimes, but I didn't hear any issues. I also thought it was a very different world cup. The Netherlands and Italy not qualifying was a breath of fresh air for a neutral like me, proving that the most historic nations don't have shoe ins and that with belief and some quality, many nations can qualify.

I had only 2 gripes with the tournament. Obviously one being the quality which was lower than usual, and the second being the overall refereeing. In World Cup's, we can never expect perfect referees especially given that they give a chance to world referees, and without trying to discriminate but some nations don't have good referees just like some nations don't have talented footballers. I think the USA is a big culprit of this. Same with a few South American referees like Wilmar Roldan. However, I don't quite remember the refereeing being this shocking in the last 2 world cups. My big problem was with VAR though. I think its on the right path as it had an excellent start, but it gradually got worse as the tournament went on and eventually resorted to what it was in the confederations cup again from last year. Too much time wasted and some wrong decisions which you could always debate but it's going to create a ton of controversy in some people's minds and that's not a good thing given the idea was to remove controversy. It lacks a lot of consistency, and while its on the right path, I'm still anti VAR. This tournament has made me turn my head a little bit at the start, but I still prefer the whole "human instinct" aspect personally.

Lastly, I wanted to issue an apology to Croatia who I gave a ton of stick in the tournament, and while I stand by they looked poor in early stages despite some of their results, I thought they got better as the tournament went on. I thought they wouldn't click, but they finally did in this tournament (somewhat) and played like the team they have instead of a bunch of underachievers that they have been in the past few years. They had to take advantage of this chance in what might be the last tournament for a possible "golden generation" if you want to consider it over the 98 team. Even if they had an easy route to the final, the fact is they made history by taking advantage and showing the others that they do have a good mentality and I think that led them in this tournament, as I still don't exactly see a great game plan there. Either way, I was wrong and they are a very decent side who deserved to get as far as they did.

I'll give the tournament a 7 out of 10.

[Honey Honey]

6. 

No great teams and the tournament won by a sort of upper mid table style Premier League team 

[Eco]

15 minutes ago, Harvsky said:

6. 

No great teams and the tournament won by a sort of upper mid table style Premier League team 

I'm not sure why people keep saying, 'no great teams'? Belgium were great, France even more so. Croatia showed to have one of the most creative MF's since I can remember. 

If you don't look at the names of the countries, I think you'd be surprised by the quality, but since it didn't come from Argentina, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, or Spain, we just assume it didn't have quality teams. 

[Honey Honey]

49 minutes ago, Eco said:

I'm not sure why people keep saying, 'no great teams'? Belgium were great, France even more so. Croatia showed to have one of the most creative MF's since I can remember. 

If you don't look at the names of the countries, I think you'd be surprised by the quality, but since it didn't come from Argentina, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, or Spain, we just assume it didn't have quality teams. 

France were not one of the greats of football for me I'm afraid. They were the best setup at the tournament but no greats to be remembered. Their center forward had 1 shot on target all tournament. Their primary tactic was defend and they got great fortune in the final. As I said they look like one of those upper mid table Premier League teams who has built a solid defensive foundation to challenge the top 6 but aren't playing like a true top side.

Croatia and Belgium had very good spells in games but that's not many teams. 

I think it is quite sad actually that what is considered the ultimate standard of football (wrongly) was won by a side who had as bad a first half as France did in the final. 2-1 up at half time with 1 shot on target and 34% possession against Croatia. No great team at all.

 

[RandoEFC+]

The World Cup this time wasn't about who can be the absolute best team from Day One to the Final. No World Cup I've ever watched has been like that and no World Cup we see in our lifetimes will ever be like that either. I can't speak for previous years when I wasn't around but I imagine most "great teams" that won World Cups and are looked back on as legendary sides were probably actually class for 2-3 games and actually just effective and functional for the other 4-5 (I.e. most) fixtures. I could be wrong if we're going back to the times when the domestic season wasn't quite as full on as it is now.

The margins at the top of football are narrow, it is totally unrealistic to rock up to an international tournament where the players in many teams have played 40-50 domestic games and barely had any rest between the end of the season and travelling to the tournament and expect them to be playing world class football all the way through the Group Stage and Knockouts. The way to win a tournament now is to survive the first five matches with 1-0 and 2-0 wins then turn it on in the Semi finals.

Maybe I'm misreading what people mean by a great side. It's still possible to see them these days like the Spanish side with Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol etc. This French side aren't quite in that league but that's because teams like that come around very very rarely.

For me, like I said above, if I take my football snobbery hat off and enjoy the drama, as a neutral in most games, this was a great World Cup. There was drama every few days which is what you want to see, and when the teams aren't that great it turns the spotlight onto great individuals to make the difference in a tight game (Ronaldo v Spain, Kane v Tunisia, Mbappe v Argentina etc). I'll remember several individual moments of brilliance from this World Cup, it was class.

[Dr. Gonzo]

This World Cup was the one I've enjoyed the most since France '98. So I've given it a 9. Would have given it a 10 if Croatia won, because that would be a new winner... and clearly, that's fucking rare. But this was a fun World Cup, lots of unexpected moments.

[Harry]

6 hours ago, Stan said:

Do you not think the goals by Pavard, Nacho or Quaresma matched any from 2014?!

Also, France weren't dull against Argentina or Croatia. They turned the style on when it ultimately mattered. Portugal in Euro 2016 were dull. 

 Portugal were underdogs though. This was like watching mourinho take over Barcelona and win the champions league playing in a safe way that totally suppressed the players capabilities. Not quite that bad. But just a bit disappointing given the talent. 

Think van persies diving header, james chest and volley on the turn, cahills left foot volley of a long pass. All of those were superior imo.

[Harry]

6 hours ago, Eco said:

I cant only assume you are referring to the Mexicans beating last place Germany? 

And the goals in this were great. Ronaldo vs Spain, Pavard vs Argentina just to name a few. 

 yeah definitely beating Germany was their surprise. 

They were good goals but not as good as the cream from 2014.

 

[The Liquidator]

Poor