As a dutchman living in Spain for the last 20+ years it will be clear what final I hope for. Having said that, by pure quality the other teams should be slight favourites, but surely hope they lose out on their respective negativity (France) and apparent ineptitude (England).
football thread No11
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EnglishEdward
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So; it is Spain v England in Berlin this Sunday.
I've not seen any of the Spain games; so I won't hazard a projection.
I've not seen any of the Spain games; so I won't hazard a projection.
EgonSpengler
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Spain v England certainly seems to be the better matchup this weekend. Hard to imagine Argentina v Colombia will be super-competitive, unless it's just a grind-fest that ends 0-0 or something. Not that Brazil should have been given a police escort to the final - they still had to actually earn it, and they didn't - but an in-form Brazil vs an in-form Argentina was certainly the ideal matchup. Hopefully Spain and England don't just play not to lose.
thetrooper
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EnglishEdward
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Sadly I will have to drive off to collect my wife
from work, so I will miss the last fifteen minutes.
from work, so I will miss the last fifteen minutes.
thetrooper
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Feels strange saying this; I’m not going to watch the game. Football has become too boring.
PPQ_Purple
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It kind of has. With the exception of a few games, most of them involving the Spanish this cup was really just a snooze fest. Teams were more worried about not letting the other team score than with actually scoring them self. And overall it just felt like they were trying to tire each other out rather than fighting. What ever happened to the old way of playing that we saw back before Barcelona decided to commit suicide? You know, the "let them score 5 we'll just have to score 6" mentality.
It's like these sports teams forgot that their purpose is first and foremost to entertain.
Bonyduck Campersang
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The purpose first and foremost is to win, that's the sole incentive. No one gets awards for being entertaining
PPQ_Purple
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Teams that are not entertaining do not attract big audiences that buy tickets to their games. They do not attract big TV audiences to watch their games. They do not sell merchandise.
Admittedly that is a bit less relevant with national teams than it is with sports teams in general.
Bonyduck Campersang
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Teams are given greater share of the total league earnings the higher they finish, so they are directly incentivised to win. A team that plays entertaining football but ends up 5th will earn less than a team that plays boringly but finishes in the top 3.
It is true that boring games result in fewer viewers, and resultantly lead to loss in revenue, but that is something that the governing bodies try to rectify by tweaking the rules now and then. The modern game now favours attackers more than it did in the time of Pelé or Maradona. Penalties have been imposed for time wasting. Offside and handball rules have been arguably made more lenient (the controversies arise from the interpretative nature of the rules, resulting in inconsistent decisions).
But in the end teams play to win, not to give a show.
PPQ_Purple
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Which is the substance of my original complaint. Modern sports in general have simply lost their way when they forgot that the purpose of sports is to entertain.
Bonyduck Campersang
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Middling, but at least they tried
Bonyduck Campersang
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Here's the perplexing new UCL schedule for 24/25
Champions League draw: Who will top sides face in league phase?
Following the draw for the new-look league phase of the Champions League, BBC Sport runs you through all the top teams will face.
www.bbc.com
thetrooper
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Haaland with 8 hattricks in 69 games. Insane stats.
thetrooper
Misanthrope
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Can’t buy a goal for our national squad though 
Your trollcraft has resulted most jinxful.Can’t buy a goal for our national squad though
Bonyduck Campersang
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Serie A looking competitive 5 games in
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