OlympicsFan

It might be closer to reality to call it an european derby. 7 of the 11 players who started for Morocco yesterday were born in Europe.

The following statistic is summing up how crazy football can be: https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/zgutfy/just_before_the_quarter_finals_big_chances Morocco only created 3 big chances in their first 4 matches (but went on to make the semifinal), Belgium on the other hand created 8 big chances in only 3 matches (and got eliminated during group stage). This tournament shows that defense wins tournaments. Teams like Germany or Belgium had tons of chances, but noone who was able to convert them. On the other hand teams like Croatia or Morocco barely had any chances, but those teams were great at converting them and also played great defense.

Great to see that our algerian friend is so happy about Morocco doing great, considering that Algeria and Morocco arent necessarily known as best friends ...

No, but i heard him ...

7 players out of the moroccon starting 11 weren't even born in Morocco ...

So now Oceania is the only continent that never made a semifinal. I don't really see Australia changing that anytime soon, but who knows ... I was sure that both Brazil and Portugal would advance. Crazy that we almost had a semifinal with only one european team. This tournaments shows how important mentality is at national team level. Morocco/Croatia with a bunch of horrible/mediocre players both beat a top 4 team.

Very weird final in women's foil. It was 6-7 and when i looked again 1 minute later it suddenly was 6-15. I hope that Ebert didn't get injured. Still a very good result for someone of her age (finishing 2nd in a competition full of grandmas).

I think Argentina has by far the most fans in Qatar. They also seem to be more enthusiastic about this cup than pretty much anyone else, so in a way they would be the most fitting champion. Too bad that it is pretty much impossible to cheer for this team. I would prefer England or Morocco to win the cup. I hope that none out of France/Argentina/Portugal wins the cup, but the odds of that happening are almost nonexistant.

Colin Heathcock now competing for the US is a massive punch in the face for german fencing. He currently is the biggest talent in men's fencing and possibly the biggest talent Germany ever produced on the men's side. He realistically could medal in Paris. I will wait with my final judgement until i found out why he switched nationalities, but what is the point of investing tons of money in young athletes if they then just switch nationalities first chance they get without paying back their "debt"?

I think it also wouldn't have been atypical for Brazil to underestimate a team like Croatia. Borna Sosa and Filip Stanisic are probably happy now that they decided to play for Croatia (instead of Germany).

5th world cup in a row where Brazil was eliminated by a european team (2006 by France, 2010 by the Netherlands, 2014 by Germany, 2018 by Belgium and 2022 by Croatia). I am surprised by this result, but i guess Brazil was a better opponent for Croatia than France for example. Croatia is playing a kind of football (very physical) that can frustrate Brazil to a point where they lose the plot. I think Argentina would be the better suited opponent for them in the next round, but now that they eliminated Brazil, they have every right to think that they can beat Argentina/Netherlands. I guess not many people thought that we could actually have a rematch of the 2018 final.

Two things many people probably don't remember: 1) She almost singlehandedly carried the german relay to a silver medal at the 2009 cross-country skiing world championships while still being 18 years old (and she also won a silver medal in the cross-country relay at the 2010 olympics). 2) At the 2013 cross-country skiing world championships she finished 4th in the 10 km freestyle race, only 0.5 seconds behind bronze, only a week after competing at the biathlon world championships. To me the biggest what-if isn't what she could have done in biathlon, but what she could have done in cross-country skiing if she would have fully focused on it. I think if she would have been norwegian, she would have focused on cross-country skiing and could have become one of the best athletes of her generation.

Maybe she focused on shooting a bit too much.

Agreed, much worse than last week. Even Hermann wasn't super quick. Frühwirt has to be gone, Hettich or Grotian should replace her.

I think Neuner and Disl as well.

Impressive work by legendary german coach Rico Groß to turn Lampic into a world beater so quickly.

Solid take ...

Convincing win for Scattolo from Italy (Born 2003). I think she has the quality to finish Top 10-15 in the Senior IBU Cup with Good shooting. Hard to imagine that the Italian IBU Cup Team is Too Strong for her to make the Team. Hopefully she will get a chance soon. Andexer from Austria and Zorc from Slovenia also with promising skiing times. Only the top 2 were within a minute, so that isn’t a good sign for the overall depth (with France/Norway/Russia missing).

He isnt the Main reason. I think they have pretty much the Same Problem as Germany (or More the other way round). They just don’t Produce enough World class players anymore (mainly defenders + True strikers) and Stick to an outdated System. I think Germany has More Quality than them, so you could say that they at least got closer to their Potential than Germany. I think best case for them would have Been to reach the quarterfinal. I think with a Better Coach they could have beaten Croatia (After winning their group) or Morocco (After Finishing second in their group), But Even with the best possible Coach they would have Been a clear Underdog against Portugal/Brazil (since they have clearly less individual Talent).

No, But still a decent ranking and pretty much what i Said a while ago. The Top 6 in the ranking are the 6 strongest Teams on Paper of we exclude Germany and it was obvious that Germany wouldnt Play a role at this tournament. My Top 8 of the remaining Teams would be: France Brazil Portugal England Netherlands Argentina Croatia Morocco

But no Norway or France (or Russia) + many of the best talents are Competing in Senior IBU Cup instead. Those Things will have to be Kept in mind when Looking at the results.

They have by far the best depth of all nations. Not sure if we have ever seen something like this, maybe Brazil had a comparable depth some decades ago. If we assume that Benzema would normally be in their starting team, then this would be their 2nd/3rd team: Maignan L. Hernandez Fofana Saliba Pavard Camavinga Kante Coman Nkunku Diaby Giroud Areola Mendy Kimpembe Konate Kalulu Pogba Ndombele Saint-Maximin Fekir Rutter Kolo Muani Digne, Disasi, Ndicka, Soumare, Kamara, Lemar, Thuram, Simakan, Badiashile, Koné, Guendouzi, Kalimuendo, Lacazette, Gouiri, Ekitiké, Bamba, Aouar, Mukiele, Lukeba, M. Dembele, Cherki, Ikoné, Martial, Cho, Gusto, Tolisso, Lenglet, Gourna-Douath ... I think their 3rd best team would still be at least on par with any other team except Portugal/Brazil/England.

I said some days ago that this would be necessary for Portugal to do if they want to maximize their chances. The team as a whole works better without him and especially against teams like France or Brazil you probably you can't afford to play 10 vs. 11 on defense.

Crazy that Portugal now has so many strikers who are (almost) elite. Some years ago they had no serious striker and even Germany had better attackers. Nowadays Germany has noone and would kill for one out of Ramos/Silva/Leao.

Doesn't look good for Switzerland. So far everything went pretty much according to plan, only Morocco was a bit surprising (although i already stated some days ago that Spain is clearly overrated, they have only 1 or 2 world class players nowadays). It is almost shocking that the teams with the most quality (France, England, Brazil, Portugal) are looking the best so far. I think in the past this often wasn't the case. Too bad that France and England meet so early, both had the quality to reach the final.