2022 Football World Cup

CrazyMatt

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I hate that this is being held in the human rights abusing country of Qatar, yes im going to start the thread with that.

The November timeslot is interesting, personally I like that its running for the most part alongside the Rugby League World Cup and the 20/20 World Cup (as much as I hate the 20/20 format). No shortage of great sport to watch in November then.

Although I dont like how its interrupted the domestic seasons, but blood oil money talks (well, screams in cruel pain but whatever) so we’ve got to adapt to what the Qatari’s want.

Lets go through the groups (listed in order of my predicted finish)

Group A

Holland
Senegal
Ecuador
Qatar

Holland should top this group but I dont think they’ll do it too easily. Senegal and Ecuador should provide stiff competition and Qatar should finish bottom, but could surprise, they are playing at home and are the Asian Cup holders after all. Toss a coin between Senegal and Ecuador for second spot but I give the edge to Senegal as I feel they have a little bit more attacking quality.

Group B

England
USA
Wales
Iran

England have been handed a somewhat straight forward group, but after their recent form I question if there is such a thing for England these days. Far be it for me to give England any kind of advice but Southgate needs to dump that back 5 and back his attacking talent in a 4-3-3. Use two of White, Stones, Tomori, Maguire or Dier as a CB pairing (I’d go White and Stones or Dier). Use Bellingham and Rice as your pivot with maybe Mount in front of them as a 10. Then you’ve got Saka, Grealish, Sancho, Sterling and Rashford as your wide options to sit either side of Kane. Anyway Wales could finish second here but after seeing their form in the Nations League, I give the slight edge to the Yanks to surprisingly finish in second.

Group C

Argentina
Poland
Saudi Arabia
Mexico

This one should be straight forward. Argentina to top the group with three wins, both the Saudis and Mexico are a shout for second, especially the Saudis purely because of where the tournament is being played, but Poland are looking quite decent this time around so they should get the second spot.

Group D

France
Denmark
Tunisia
Australia

France to top the group easily unless Denmark catch them by surprise like they did in the Nations League. Tunisia and Australia should offer token resistance to them and at least give somewhat a good account of themselves. The Danes are rightful heavy favourites for second spot, I fear what Eriksen will do to Australia’s midfield if he carries his Man United form over to the national team. It hurts me to put Australia last but realistically we wont land a shot against France, we’d have to catch Denmark on a proper off day and I think the Australian public is in for a rude realisation about how good Tunisia are. I give Tunisia a shot to upset the Danes, but realistically, it should be a straight forward group for France and Denmark.

Group E

Germany
Spain
Japan
Costa Rica

The only interesting thing about this group is who will finish top between Germany and Spain. I always find it hard to bet against the Germans so I went with them, but really, either Germany and Spain could easily win the whole tournament. It sucks a bit for Japan because they are bloody good, theyre football program is only getting better and better, but they’ve been lumbered with a bludger of a group for them, they should offer a bit of resistance but ultimately they shouldnt break into the top 2. Costa Rica are cannon fodder of this group.

Group F

Belgium
Croatia
Morocco
Canada

Similar deal with this group, Belgium and Croatia fighting for top spot. Morroco should offer a bit of resistance and Canada are cannon fodder.

Group G

Brazil
Serbia
Switzerland
Cameroon

Holy **** this one was tough to predict, all three of those teams are legitimate chances to grab second behind Brazil. After looking at the squads though, Serbia just look that bit extra classy, especially the midfield.

Group H

Portugal
Uruguay
Ghana
South Korea

The top two of this group looks fairly straight forward, but the question is which one will be first, which one will be second?

Predictions:

Winner: Brazil (Really wide open field this year, I mulled over this one for ages, I went with Brazil because I like the balance of their squad. France, Argentina and Germany are the other three I was mulling over)

Surprise packets: Denmark or Serbia. (Both I feel are massive chances of going on a run and shocking the world, I just couldnt split them).

Golden Boot: Neymar. (Laugh if you want but he’s started the year with PSG in fantastic scoring touch, he’s also Brazil’s penalty taker, and I also believe Brazil go all the way to the final this year so for me, it makes the most sense for it to be him. Mbappe should get closest to him though. An outside roughie is Alexander Mitrovic from Serbia. He’s in decent touch for Fulham and Serbia is very capable in making a deep run this year, so who knows? It could be him. As for Harry Kane, I think he’s hamstrung by Southgate’s negative tactics).

What do you guys think?
 
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HaroldBishop

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@CrazyMatt agree with your first paragraph. Interesting isn't it how golfers joining the LIV are being slammed but it's ok for a soccer World Cup to be go ahead in a place like Qatar.
 
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No different to China and the whole teinenmen square massacre. The world was outraged but we then went on to give them the Olympics… The most powerful thing in the world is the almighty dollar. It will trump religion and human rights atrocities.
 

CrazyMatt

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My Australian 26 man World Cup Squad:

Goalkeepers:
Matty Ryan (c)
Mitch Langarak
Andrew Redmayne

Defenders:
Harry Souttar (big question marks about his fitness, if not fit, Bailey Wright gets the spot)
Kye Rowles
Thomas Deng
Trent Sainsbury
Aziz Behich
Jason Davidson
Fran Karacic
Nathanial Atkinson

Midfielders:
Aiden Hrustic
Jackson Irvine
Cam Devlin
Aaron Mooy
Tom Rogic
Connor Metcalf
Dennis Generau

Forwards:
Adam Taggart
Awer Mabil
Riley McGree (can also slot into midfield)
Martin Boyle
Mitchell Duke
Jason Cummings
Garang Kuol
Craig Goodwin

Formation: 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3
GK: Ryan (Langarak, Redmayne)
RB: Karacic (Atkinson)
LB: Davidson (Behich)
CB: Souttar (Deng)
CB: Rowles (Sainsbury)
CDM: Devlin (Metcalf, Generau)
CDM or CM: Irvine (Mooy, McGree)
CAM or CM: Hrustic (Rogic, McGree)
RW: McGree (Boyle, Kuol)
LW: Mabil (Goodwin, Kuol)
ST: Taggart (Duke, Cummings) (I picked three striker options just in case we needed to go two up front)

Very unlucky to miss out: Callum Elder, Bayley Wright, Milos Degenek, Jamie Maclaren (seems to be preferred by Arnie but I dont think he’s delivered enough in a Roos shirt to justify a spot).

EDIT: Apparently we’re allowed 26 players not 23. So i’ve added 3. I also removed Joel King and picked Behich because King hasnt been playing regularly for his club.
 
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Flanno

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Hurry up World Cup so this terrible PL season can pause
 

CrazyMatt

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Harry Souttar is set to finally make his return for Stoke City in their reserves team. This is big news for the Socceroos, he makes a massive difference considering we’re likely to be sitting deep without the ball a lot.
 

Gards

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Aussies only chance is to get a win against Tunisia and fight like heck to snatch a draw with Denmark and hope other results and F/A goes their way - it was enough in 2006

No Tim Cahill these days though... we just can't get the goals to beat good teams anymore and it's not like our defense is at a high enough level to rely on to grind out a game. We barely scraped by in qualifying in Asia against far inferior teams to what are in the world cup.

Quite a few very good teams missed out on qualification actually - Italy, Peru ect.
 

CrazyMatt

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Aussies only chance is to get a win against Tunisia and fight like heck to snatch a draw with Denmark and hope other results and F/A goes their way - it was enough in 2006

No Tim Cahill these days though... we just can't get the goals to beat good teams anymore and it's not like our defense is at a high enough level to rely on to grind out a game. We barely scraped by in qualifying in Asia against far inferior teams to what are in the world cup.

Quite a few very good teams missed out on qualification actually - Italy, Peru ect.
I really dont think we get near either of them tbh unless we’re lucky against Tunisia, I think the Australian football community is in for a rude awakening about how good Tunisia actually are. The Danes have been a bit of a mixed bag in the Nations League but they played France off the park in their last game. I shudder to think what Christian Erikson could do to our defence and midfield.
 

bort

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Australia no realistic chance to win soccer World Cup.

Maybe we should just play other regional teams in smaller competitions instead, maybe the top 1 or 2 get promoted to play on World Cup to keep some incentive.
 

HaroldBishop

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Australia no realistic chance to win soccer World Cup.

Maybe we should just play other regional teams in smaller competitions instead, maybe the top 1 or 2 get promoted to play on World Cup to keep some incentive.
Well they probably won't get flogged 10-0, either.
 

Shortfin Mako

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For sure, but I think there was 5 goals scored only twice in the entire tournament. Way to many blowouts in the RL WC.
Soccer allows you to pass the ball around and waste time after you reach 4-0 in order to conserve energy. Surely this makes it a boring spectacle however you do not win a tournament by scoring 10 goals against a lesser team.

P.S. Bayern Munich might be the exception to the rule as I see them trying to score as many goals as possible if they have the opportunity. I remember them beating Barcelona 8-0 a few years ago.
 

CrazyMatt

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Paul Pogba is out of the world cup and Raphael Varane is in a little bit of doubt. France might only beat us 4-0 instead of 6-0. 👍👍👍
 
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