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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cgrEA6eQ_g History. "We Don't Talk About Those Years" This is TRP, not D&D, so we're not here to talk about about those years. We're talking about those years, the ones that saw in-fighting, accusations of racism, and, bizzarely, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.* A cringe thing that emerged from this row was the nickname "bling-bling gang," which included Mesut Özil, İlkay Gündoğan, and Jerome Boateng, three extravagant footballers of color. I'm sure their race had nothing to do with the nickname. They just like shiny things! *OK, a little D&D: Turkish-German relations are, putting it mildly, really really tricky. There is a lot of anti-Turkish sentiment, particularly among those on the political far-right that are starting to gain prominence again. Özil and Gündoğan taking pictures with Erdoğan had political implications that went beyond football, caused a real stir, etc., but they were really put in a tight spot. OK, D&D over. Heading into WC 2018, Die Nationalmannschaft were defending Weltmeister, having reached the quarterfinals every year since 1982.* In fact, Germany are arguably the most successful national team, having won four titles, four second-place finishes, and four third-place finishes in 19 Cups. *FIFA considers only those teams managed by the Deutscher Fussball-Bund to be "German": Germany under Nazi rule (1933-1945), West Germany (1949-1990), and modern-day, reunified Germany (since 1990). Sorry, Joachim Streich  In WC 2018 qualifying, Germany (ranked #1) dominated, going 10-0 and outscoring opponents 43-4 (sorry San Marino). Once the team landed in Russia, however, the wheels came off: an uninspired 0-1 loss to Mexico, a "holy poo poo, we might actually lose to Sweden" that turned into a heart-stopping 2-1 win, and a 0-2 loss to South Korea where both goals were conceded in stoppage time. Bottom of the table, Group F. Euro 2020 was marginally better, but still a far cry from their champion form of the 1970s and 1980s. To say that this is a side that has a lot to prove is the understatement of the year. The Squad. "Flick's Picks" Coach: Hansi Flick. Took over for Joachim Löw in 2021. Was head coach of FC Bayern München from 2019-2021, where his teams won a lot of matches because he's a great coach. And the club is loaded and buys all the best players. But I'm sure it's because he's a great coach. Flick has been throwing out a lot of 4-2-3-1 lately, so my predicted starting XI are based on that. Goalkeepers: Manuel Neuer (Bayern München, captain) Marc-André ter Stegen (Barcelona) Kevin Trapp (Eintracht Frankfurt) Neuer is one of the best goalkeepers of all time, and this will be his 4th - and likely last - World Cup. If something disasterous happens and one of the other two have to hit the pitch, I hope it's ter Stegen who has the best nickname a German keeper could have ("The Berlin Wall"). Defenders: Armel Bella-Kotchap (Southampton) Matthias Ginter (SC Freiburg) Christian Günter (SC Freiburg) Thilo Kehrer (West Ham United) Lukas Klostermann (RB Leipzig) David Raum (RB Leipzig) Antonio Rüdiger (Real Madrid) Nico Schlotterbeck (Borussia Dortmund) Niklas Süle (Borussia Dortmund) Rüdiger was one of my favorite (only?!) players to watch at WC 2018 and I think he slides into center back. Raum (24) and Schlotterbeck (22) are young and untested, but are likely to start. The last spot could go to "true" center back Süle, or they could slot Jonas Hofmann (later) into the back-right and be a more attacking defender. I don't like that against the likes of Spain and Japan, but I guess we'll see. Mats Hummels (hurt) and Jerome Boateng (old and sucks) are out, making the back line a bit of a question mark. Midfielders: Julian Brandt (Borussia Dortmund) Serge Gnabry (Bayern München) Mario  (Eintracht Frankfurt)Leon Goretzka (Bayern München) İlkay Gündoğan (Man City) Jonas Hofmann (Borossuia Mönchengladbach) Joshua Kimmich (Bayern München) Thomas Müller (Bayern München) Jamal Musiala (Bayern München) Leroy Sané (Bayern München) I told you that Bayern (Buyern?) buys all the best players! Outside of Neuer (also Bayern), this is the biggest strength of the side. The most exciting name here is Musiala: he is 19 and a dynamic playmaker at Bayern. He might be an attacking substitute if we are down late, but I would really like to see what he can do for a full 90. Check out this highlight reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PYsxyo_buQ Kimmich and Gündoğan are sure to feature in the back of the midfield. If Süle starts on the back line, I think Hofmann slides up to right winger; I like him there better anyway. Sané got shafted 4 years ago by Löw, and I think he starts now as an attacking mid. The last selection is tough. I like Gnabry over Götze and Müller: Götze cemented his place in German football history when his goal denied Messi and Argentina a WC title in 2014, but was left off the squad in 2018. Müller is second-oldest (to Neuer), and has clearly lost a step; still, he plays a solid, smart attacking style and could be substituted for a fresh, young striker later in matches. I dunno, let's see what's up front. Strikers Karim Adeyemi (Borussia Dortmund) Niclas Fullkrug (Werder Bremen) Kai Havertz (Chelsea) Youssoufa Moukoko (Borussia Dortmund) In my mind, this is our biggest weakness. 34 caps, 30 for Havertz. Havertz is tall (6'4"), and started in 2018 but was clearly outmatched at age 19. He's not a prolific goal scorer (3 in 12 games at Chelsea, 8 in 29 last year), so I will have the antacids handy if I see his name on game day. The other interesting name here is Moukoko: he's 17 (nearly 18) and was a bit of a surprise call-up. I haven't seen him play, but I'm reading that he's quick, and he played beside Haaland at Dortmund for 2 years, so maybe he's learned some things. The big loss here is Timo Werner, who has a ligament tear and is out for the season. I would have felt much more comfortable with Werner up top and Havertz as a substitute, but them's the breaks. cunningham's XI. "Finger is Nowhere Near the Pulse." Neuer Raum, Rudiger, Schlotterbeck, Süle Kimmich, Gündoğan Sané, Hofmann, Gnabry (or Musiala) Havertz (or Muller) Group, Fixtures, and Outlook. Germany (ranked #12) are in Group E, along with Spain (7), Japan (23), and Costa Rica (31). 23 November 16:00 AST (08:00 EST) v. Japan 27 November 22:00 AST (14:00 EST) v. Spain 1 December 22:00 AST (14:00 EST) v. Costa Rica We will know in the first 45 minutes how far Germany will go. If we play our disciplined, control the midfield style possession game, I think we will advance out of the group stage and win a match or two in the knockouts. If we are timid or over-aggressive, we will struggle again to get out of the group. Still, 3 points from Costa Rica should be a given, and then it's a matter of holding our own with Japan and Spain. We should be able to take a W over Japan, but Spain will be a challenge. I'll be aggressive and say we finish second, behind Spain and above Japan, Costa Rica. If we finish second, we will have a tough draw with likely Belgium. That might mean another early exit, but at least face would be saved.
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Nov 14, 2022 02:03
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That’s a pretty obscure slate of defenders for the German national team. But their group looks easy so they’ll at least make it into the knockout stages I think.
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Nov 14, 2022 04:35
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wait, goetze's going? I thought he had some kind of terrible degnerative condition with his nervous system or something
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Nov 14, 2022 06:13
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Eau de MacGowan posted:wait, goetze's going? I thought he had some kind of terrible degnerative condition with his nervous system or something He did but since having a break and leaving Germany to PSV for a bit has helped his career.
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Nov 14, 2022 07:20
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If this squad is Flick's Picks then Löw's squad was Picks Eats
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Nov 14, 2022 07:48
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Eau de MacGowan posted:wait, goetze's going? I thought he had some kind of terrible degnerative condition with his nervous system or something lilbeefer posted:If this squad is Flick's Picks then Löw's squad was Picks Eats
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Nov 14, 2022 12:44
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Is there any remnant of east-west tension or regionalism in the German squad? For example, is there a clique with all the Bayern boys and Havertz is left out? Is Müller more likeable in the original German? What is your favorite Rüdiger shithousery moment? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4va0NHgvJ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHhYLqUNKnA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcDNcz6Tpbw https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/antonio-rudiger-paul-pogba-bite-24327965.amp https://mobile.twitter.com/talkSPORT/status/1431676695610859520 Follow up question: who is the best German player right now and why is it Rudiger? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouDqn51Hrt0
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Nov 14, 2022 13:46
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Neuer getting clowned on for the second South Korea goal was and continues to be a thing of beauty. There are four German players in line or behind him https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKjV2SQfKrw
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Nov 15, 2022 02:22
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loved the closeup of yogi love sniffing his stinky fingers ftw
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Nov 15, 2022 02:28
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I like Havertz quite a bit, think even though he is not an all-out striker he's probably better up front than Werner. Werner looks out of place a lot in the national team. Ideally there'd be some proper striker for Havertz to play together with but I could see a partnership with Sane + Havertz upfront working well tbh. The rest of the strikers are a bunch of inexperienced players to bring on in the last 10 minutes of extra time as a fresh pair of legs so let's hope we don't see injuries in that department lmao Defense is looking fairly solid and I think we might see a back four of Raum, Ruediger, Suele, Kehrer that hopefully gets switched up to a back five occasionally. Midfield has lots of potential as usual but not great at controlling space defensively with the main pairing so we'll concede some silly goals here and there. Let's hope the forwards can find the goal more often that not. Overall 8/10 Bundesadler, not amazing but could see a semifinal with a bit of defensive luck.
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Nov 15, 2022 11:02
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I don't think there ever was much regional tension in the squad, there was some animosity between certain clubs and their players in the past, but that got less and less with the 90s. Müller was never likeable, the Bayern München stans will tell you differently, it certainly helped that he's better at hiding his dives than Robben was. I always found that Rüdiger's performance lackluster when he player for the german team. No idea if he just didn't mesh with the players around him, but he never seemed to be able to follow up the performances he had at his clubs. As such the best player is "Lücke" Füllkrug, who won't play a single minute and is only there because the press and public annoyed Flick for the past months to take him along until he finally caved. Else he'd have never taken someone from Bremen along for the ride. We are totally going to go out in the group stage again.
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Nov 16, 2022 09:25
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Yeah the reluctance of national team coaches to bring players that haven't spent ten years already in the DFB system really sucks. But bringing someone without any international matches also sucks. Sure would have been nice if the WC was at the end of the season and not in loving November so new players could have some friendlies! Going out in the group stage is way pessimistic IMO it would need some real big fuckups for that.
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Nov 16, 2022 10:47
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Yeah, this isn't our strongest team we've had, but I think we get out of the group stage without too much worry. If we dont show up against football powerhouse Oman today, I might get concerned. Speaking of, they are playing right now and this is the lineup: Neuer Raum, Ginter, Kehrer, Klostermann Goretzka, Gundogan Sane, Havertz, Hofmann Moukoko Posting from work, so I can't tell if this is a WC preview or resting the starters (likely both). No score 30 minutes in.
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Nov 16, 2022 18:41
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Barely eeking out a win against Oman is not exactly the best sign. Though I guess sometimes failing at the last test before the tournament is also taken as a good sign.
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Nov 16, 2022 20:10
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I think the only real advantage over the other top teams this German side has is the Bayern cohesion. Bayern looks awesome right now, Flick knows all of those guys, and while everyone else is throwing together random players, Germany can basically operate as a mid-season club team. So imagine my surprise when Flick appears to not be doing that. Just don't understand why we wouldn't see Kimmich-Goretzka Gnabry-Musiala-Sane as the midfield. Gundogan has an argument over Goretzka, but I think stylistically he is much more similar to Kimmich, and I think the team needs Goretzka's physicality. All of these players are in great form and arguably the most talented players. I just feel like I'm missing something as to why Flick wouldn't do this. Havertz is even big enough and unselfish enough to play a sort of elevated Chupo-Moting game with hold up and linking play for the midfield runners.
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Nov 17, 2022 18:20
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I think we might see Gnabry, Musiala, and Sane together in some games. I definitely wouldn't take the Oman game as any kind of indication of what the squad will look like. Would you have Havertz as striker infront of that midfield then? Edit: Ah didn't see you already answered that. Yeah I think that is a sensible choice but we'll have to see if Flick wants to shoehorn players in in some other ways
elbkaida fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Nov 17, 2022 |
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Nov 17, 2022 18:30
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Not sure the best place to ask this, maybe in the German language thread, but as an American in Ami-land, what's the best way to watch ZDF or ARD, or any German TV channels carrying the games?
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Nov 20, 2022 00:33
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zenguitarman posted:Not sure the best place to ask this, maybe in the German language thread, but as an American in Ami-land, what's the best way to watch ZDF or ARD, or any German TV channels carrying the games? You 100% need a German IP, I just tried it with the free version of ProtonVPN and a Dutch server and couldn't even see the normal program of ARD or ZDF. Google tells me that ExpressVPN has a 30 day trial that "should" be working for the Öffentlich Rechtliche but haven't tested it myself. If that doesn't work, NordVPN is probably your best bet.
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Nov 20, 2022 10:22
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zenguitarman posted:Not sure the best place to ask this, maybe in the German language thread, but as an American in Ami-land, what's the best way to watch ZDF or ARD, or any German TV channels carrying the games? A handful of the games are only on a subscription streaming platform called MagentaTV which is some mega bullshit in my opinion and they shan't receive a single cent from me. I realize this isn't what you asked at all, but i did come to this forum specifically to gripe about it, so
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Nov 20, 2022 12:35
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Can definitely recommend not giving money to companies profiting from this farce of a world cup. Luckily there are alternatives like Mittelwellenradio or the Internet
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Nov 20, 2022 12:51
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Expect streams to go up on Twitter, if it stays functional that is, given the entire Twitter copyright/content moderation team have gone
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Nov 20, 2022 13:16
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NinpoEspiritoSanto posted:Expect streams to go up on Twitter, if it stays functional that is, given the entire Twitter copyright/content moderation team have gone This is indeed the case: https://twitter.com/chadloder/status/1594139381727916033?s=46&t=z0vl0Ee1b-vm3262E_VrfQ
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Nov 20, 2022 13:45
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elbkaida posted:Can definitely recommend not giving money to companies profiting from this farce of a world cup. Luckily there are alternatives like Mittelwellenradio or the Internet Yeah this is where I'm at, too. VPN might make me feel the least dirty. Thanks for the suggestions.
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Nov 20, 2022 14:11
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If you're going down the VPN route you can always watch matches on iPlayer
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Nov 20, 2022 14:13
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https://twitter.com/DFB_Team_EN/status/1594967126183448584
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Nov 22, 2022 09:27
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What a lovely timing, poor guy. Hope he gets to play at least some match this world cup. Wonder if we'll see Guendogan pushed up or some kind of Mueller/Havertz pairing
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Nov 23, 2022 09:12
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Japan is going to win
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Nov 23, 2022 09:14
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That rots that Sane is hurt; I expected them to start Müller, and Flick does not disappoint (from Guardian): The teams Germany: Neuer, Sule, Rudiger, Schlotterbeck, Raum, Kimmich, Gundogan, Gnabry, Muller, Musiala, Havertz. Subs: Ginter, Kehrer, Goretzka, Fullkrug, Gotze, Trapp, Klostermann, Brandt, Hofmann, Sane, Gunter, ter Stegen, Adeyemi, Kotchap, Moukoko. Japan: Gonda, Sakai, Itakura, Yoshida, Nagatomo, Tanaka, Endo, Junya Ito, Kamada, Kubo, Maeda. Subs: Kawashima, Yamane, Taniguchi, Shibasaki, Doan, Mitoma, Minamino, Morita, Tomiyasu, Asano, Machino, Ueda, Schmidt, Soma, Hiroki Ito. Excited to see what Musiala can do. Would not be surprised to see Müller subbed off at halftime for Hofmann.
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Nov 23, 2022 13:50
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E: nothing to see here
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Nov 23, 2022 16:18
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Ouch, lads
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Nov 23, 2022 16:38
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The two years towards the next Euro, which is in Germany, are going to be hilarious.
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Nov 23, 2022 16:41
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lagidnam posted:The two years towards the next Euro, which is in Germany, are going to be hilarious.
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Nov 23, 2022 17:20
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It was a bold move for Flick to tell the entire back line to hit the showers after 60 minutes, but Hansi's a bold man. Rüdiger clowning around made those late goals all the more frustrating. Say what you will about Boateng, at least he would have steamrollered Doan before he could get behind him. Havertz played the role of Man Who Is Constantly Offside brilliantly, I thought. Raum sacrificing his backside for a penalty shows how much he loves his country. Musiala will be special if/when he figures out how to finish. We really need the Ticos to manage a point against Spain, but :checks scores: they are currently down 2 not a half hour in, so new plan! Germany winds up 3rd in Group E on goal differential. Somebody fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Nov 23, 2022 |
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Nov 23, 2022 17:29
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kanji flick
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Nov 23, 2022 18:42
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Hello, please kill me. I'm extremely frustrated. What's next? Will Kimmich stop being a baby and move to RB, let Goretzka start in midfield. Put Sane in. But seriously Spain is gonna body us. I have to get used to living in a world where every single game is a huge concern.
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Nov 23, 2022 22:28
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This feels like a 2018 rerun, change the channel Marge
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Nov 27, 2022 21:28
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the werder bremen guy is good despite being bad if that makes sense
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Nov 27, 2022 23:23
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tbp posted:the werder bremen guy is good despite being bad if that makes sense I think there’s something in teams being paralysed because they’re tactically over complicated, so sometimes just loving twatting the ball as hard as you can cuts through a lot of it?
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Nov 27, 2022 23:53
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Total Meatlove posted:I think there’s something in teams being paralysed because they’re tactically over complicated, so sometimes just loving twatting the ball as hard as you can cuts through a lot of it? i think this is directionally accurate yeah. i was honestly thinking earlier today it's a bit surprising more national teams dont just bring along a few physical beasts, speed seems so dominant because the passing and pressing just isn't as good either
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Nov 28, 2022 01:13
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tbp posted:i think this is directionally accurate yeah. i was honestly thinking earlier today it's a bit surprising more national teams dont just bring along a few physical beasts, speed seems so dominant because the passing and pressing just isn't as good either International football has been below top flight league/champions league football for a long time now as far as technical ability and speed of play goes imo
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Nov 28, 2022 01:15
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