It Could Get A Bit Messi In Here - The Football Thread.

Looks like Giroud is set to come to LAFC this summer.
Being a fan of a consistently good but not great MLS team with a cheap owner in a large but not highly desirable to wealthy athletes city is starting to get annoying. Investing into the youth club and not spending significant money on DPs seems smart until Man City is about to sign our best prospect and the club will see minimal benefits.

Guess my squad!!! /s
 
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Being a fan of a consistently good but not great MLS team with a cheap owner in a large but not highly desirable to wealthy athletes city is starting to get annoying. Investing into the youth club and not spending significant money on DPs seems smart until Man City is about to sign our best prospect and the club will see minimal benefits.

Guess my squad!!! /s

I don’t normally feel empathy for any team that plays in Philadelphia, but I understand what you’re saying.
 
I don’t normally feel empathy for any team that plays in Philadelphia, but I understand what you’re saying.
Good thing the Union don't play in Philadelphia but in Chester. The unfortunate petri dish to all America's blights as well as the false promises to resolve them. An arena under the bridge as a symbol of revitalization doing no actual good to the surrounding community. Because the cheap owner got more than $80M of public funds to build there.

stepping off soapbox
 
Who’s the fav in A? Germany and Switzerland or Scotland?

Germany by a mile. The Swiss are usually a decent group stage team but always get knocked out the very next round, often on penalties. Scotland are as good a team as they’ve had for years but equally have never got out of a group in a major tournament.

B is the only group where you can’t identify clear favourites.
 
Germany by a mile. The Swiss are usually a decent group stage team but always get knocked out the very next round, often on penalties. Scotland are as good a team as they’ve had for years but equally have never got out of a group in a major tournament.

B is the only group where you can’t identify clear favourites.
I solely based the Germany thing off the 2022 World Cup....Granted they had a tougher group with Spain Japan and Costa Rica but they didn't make it out
World rankings are just plain irrelevant.
I pretty much said that
 
I solely based the Germany thing off the 2022 World Cup....Granted they had a tougher group with Spain Japan and Costa Rica but they didn't make it out

I pretty much said that

Ah yeah I’m just looking at that group and it’s hard to see them choking again. It’s probably the weakest group in the tournament.

I think Germany are very unlikely to win it. I’d have France as favourites, with England close behind and Spain and Portugal just behind them. Germany, Belgium and Italy would probably in the next group down from that for me.
 
Ah yeah I’m just looking at that group and it’s hard to see them choking again. It’s probably the weakest group in the tournament.

I think Germany are very unlikely to win it. I’d have France as favourites, with England close behind and Spain and Portugal just behind them. Germany, Belgium and Italy would probably in the next group down from that for me.
Yeah it's really hard to predict for anyone other than France. So many teams that are usually strong (England, Italy, Croatia, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany) are either on the decline, going through a transitional period, or trying to figure out how they play best. France is the obvious pick just because they've done well recently and have the best quality players overall.
 
Yeah it's really hard to predict for anyone other than France. So many teams that are usually strong (England, Italy, Croatia, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany) are either on the decline, going through a transitional period, or trying to figure out how they play best. France is the obvious pick just because they've done well recently and have the best quality players overall.

The frightening thing for France is the defence. They must have 7 or 8 international quality centre halves in an era when they aren’t as an abundant as they were in the past. And Mbappe can win any tight game in an instant.

I think I’d put England behind them and above the rest because the squad is so strong and there are a lot of players either breaking through or at a nice age. Rice, Mainoo, Bellingham behind Saka Kane and Foden looks tasty. It’s the defence that would worry me with them and why I’d put them behind France.
 
The frightening thing for France is the defence. They must have 7 or 8 international quality centre halves in an era when they aren’t as an abundant as they were in the past. And Mbappe can win any tight game in an instant.

I think I’d put England behind them and above the rest because the squad is so strong and there are a lot of players either breaking through or at a nice age. Rice, Mainoo, Bellingham behind Saka Kane and Foden looks tasty. It’s the defence that would worry me with them and why I’d put them behind France.
England is gonna England. Southgate is gonna Southgate. They could win the whole thing, or they could easily lose to Denmark in the first knockout game on Penalties. Too hard to predict what team shows up.
 
Germany by a mile. The Swiss are usually a decent group stage team but always get knocked out the very next round, often on penalties. Scotland are as good a team as they’ve had for years but equally have never got out of a group in a major tournament.

B is the only group where you can’t identify clear favourites.
switzerland is usually the team that has one surprise win in the knock-out stages in them ( often on penalties) . usually not go much farther but they are normally not an easy match-up, so i could see italy or spain struggling against them
 
England is gonna England. Southgate is gonna Southgate. They could win the whole thing, or they could easily lose to Denmark in the first knockout game on Penalties. Too hard to predict what team shows up.

Yeah there is that but they’ve been a lot more consistent with Southgate that under previous managers where it’s a list of quarter final defeats. It’s been semi, finalist, quarters. It’s also the deepest squad I ever remember for them. But that defence isn’t the best.
 
switzerland is usually the team that has one surprise win in the knock-out stages in them ( often on penalties) . usually not go much farther but they are normally not an easy match-up, so i could see italy or spain struggling against them
LOL I actually almost said England losing to Switzerland on penalties in my comment just above yours. I think that could easily happen. The Swiss shocked everyone knocking out France last time.
 
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