Iran reminded me of some of Wales determined displays. Loved the atmosphere. The England game was flat and boring in comparison.Perhaps the english can learn a thing or two from the Iranian support.

The one thing about this World Cup is that so far there has not been a consistently good team. Any one from about 9 for me.

Brazil were superb at the start of their game, and so were England. Spain and Portugal were good but Spain were woeful last night. If Ronaldo gets a knock..........The Argies and Germany were awful. I suppose in the second half Belgium were quite good but their opposition wasn't up to much.

If I was the manager of say, Belgium, England, France, Uruguay, Mexico, Croatia, Serbia, Denmark or even Russia I would be having a quiet word with my team and tell them they could do this. The most open World Cup in a long time. Early days I know but intriguing so far.

I'm going to look for the odds of a France v England final. Should be quite long I would have thought.

Disagree about Spain. Thought they were superb. Never changed their game plan of short passing and movement even though the pub team opposition gave them no space to work in. I can't see Portugal having either the individual or collective skill or patience to play against that kind of 'anti-football'.

excessbee wrote:Disagree about Spain. Thought they were superb. Never changed their game plan of short passing and movement even though the pub team opposition gave them no space to work in. I can't see Portugal having either the individual or collective skill or patience to play against that kind of 'anti-football'.

Think we will have to agree to differ on that one a very luck Costa goal I thought. Iran did have an 8 man defence at times, but as the commentator mentioned, the likes of Barcelona play against teams like this most weeks and there were a few Barca players there least night.

Up until the goal I thought that Iran would hold them and if that guy hadn't snatched at the ball later he could have scored a belter from 18 yards. As for that header miss from 3 yards, well....However, if is a big word I know. One thing for sure, this is not the Spain team of a few years ago.

excessbee wrote:Disagree about Spain. Thought they were superb. Never changed their game plan of short passing and movement even though the pub team opposition gave them no space to work in. I can't see Portugal having either the individual or collective skill or patience to play against that kind of 'anti-football'.

Pub team is harsh. Iran are not good enough to play "Tiki Taka" v Spain so they kept it tight for 75 minutes and then tried to smash and grab a goal late on.

I think they call it tactics?

Everyman played for the shirt, 100% effort all round.

Baladabadi wrote:

excessbee wrote:Disagree about Spain. Thought they were superb. Never changed their game plan of short passing and movement even though the pub team opposition gave them no space to work in. I can't see Portugal having either the individual or collective skill or patience to play against that kind of 'anti-football'.

Pub team is harsh. Iran are not good enough to play "Tiki Taka" v Spain so they kept it tight for 75 minutes and then tried to smash and grab a goal late on.

I think they call it tactics?

Everyman played for the shirt, 100% effort all round.

I agree, and that 'pub team' were the ones who created the two best chances of the match.
Whilst Spains pretty passing was evident, their penetration was poor and defensively i thought they were a shambles.

Exile 1976 wrote:

Baladabadi wrote:

excessbee wrote:Disagree about Spain. Thought they were superb. Never changed their game plan of short passing and movement even though the pub team opposition gave them no space to work in. I can't see Portugal having either the individual or collective skill or patience to play against that kind of 'anti-football'.

Pub team is harsh. Iran are not good enough to play "Tiki Taka" v Spain so they kept it tight for 75 minutes and then tried to smash and grab a goal late on.

I think they call it tactics?

Everyman played for the shirt, 100% effort all round.

I agree, and that 'pub team' were the ones who created the two best chances of the match.
Whilst Spains pretty passing was evident, their penetration was poor and defensively i thought they were a shambles.

Spain goal took a double deflection, so they were lucky to get the result.

Arg. V Cro. dreadful ref

......and a worse keeper

Argentina are piss poor. I'm not just saying that because they're fecking my acca up either.

Exile 1976 wrote:Argentina are piss poor. I'm not just saying that because they're fecking my acca up either.

There’s been some utter filth in this game - I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it
Pissed off that I won’t see much more of Messi and Aguero though. Modric has been very good tonight hasn’t he?

excessbee wrote:Disagree about Spain. Thought they were superb. Never changed their game plan of short passing and movement even though the pub team opposition gave them no space to work in. I can't see Portugal having either the individual or collective skill or patience to play against that kind of 'anti-football'.

Only my opinion.

That Spanish not changing their game when it clearly wasn't working to me is a sign of weakness. Great sides know that whilst 'total' football is great to watch sometimes you have to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in.

I hate saying this but the side who have impressed me most from the opening game was England. Played some lovely stuff in the first half, had no luck but somehow found a way late on to get a win.

Croatia looking good tonight, very good in fact. Far too good for Argentina. Luca Modric is some player. Lionel who?

lowandhard wrote:

Exile 1976 wrote:Argentina are piss poor. I'm not just saying that because they're fecking my acca up either.

There’s been some utter filth in this game - I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it
Pissed off that I won’t see much more of Messi and Aguero though. Modric has been very good tonight hasn’t he?

Modric ran the show. Messi didn't get a look in.

Exile 1976 wrote:

lowandhard wrote:

Exile 1976 wrote:Argentina are piss poor. I'm not just saying that because they're fecking my acca up either.

There’s been some utter filth in this game - I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it
Pissed off that I won’t see much more of Messi and Aguero though. Modric has been very good tonight hasn’t he?

Modric ran the show. Messi didn't get a look in.

Argentina were abysmal !! Far too much distance between them which meant longer passes which were more often than not intercepted too easily . Croatia never gave them a minute on the ball and kept pressing right to final whistle .
I can see them going a long way in the competition and fully deserved the win tonight in a really dirty , niggly game .