World Cup 2018

I love this picture of the Croatian government's latest cabinet meeting.



Nearly all the government ministers have the replica shirt. Awesome!

Incredible for Croatia - out of all the participants, only Uruguay and Iceland have smaller populations to draw on (figures from wikipedia rounded to nearest million below) - and their population is considerably less than that of Scotland. When you think of all the good players Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia have had over the last 25 years, who knows what Yugoslavia might have achieved had the country stayed intact.

Brazil 209
Nigeria 193
Russia 147
Japan 126
Mexico 125
Egypt 97
Germany 83
Iran 82
France 67
England 53
S. Korea 52
Colombia 50
Spain 47
Argentina 44
Poland 38
Morocco 35
Saudi Arabia 33
Peru 32
Australia 25
Senegal 16
Tunisia 11
Belgium 11
Portugal 10
Sweden 10
Switzerland 8
Serbia 7
Denmark 6
Costa Rica 5
Panama 4
Croatia 4
Uruguay 3.5
Iceland 0.35

I would say that fourth place seems a little anticlimactic after all that has happened

I don't think it's an anticlimax. Despite losing to Belgium again, this is still the furthest England have got in a World Cup for 28 years.

pityful performance yesterday hope for some more heart when they play Spain in Sept

Spain?

According to BBC Web site England's next home game is a friendly against Switzerland on 11 September

And then on 15th November against USA

no mention of Spain

(15-07-2018 00:36 )7 stars of the orient Wrote:  I don't think it's an anticlimax. Despite losing to Belgium again, this is still the furthest England have got in a World Cup for 28 years.

Agreed but you must agree there are still some areas in the team that still need fine tuning

(15-07-2018 06:16 )babelover48 Wrote:  According to BBC Web site England's next home game is a friendly against Switzerland on 11 September

And then on 15th November against USA

no mention of Spain

England's fixtures for the rest of this year:

8 Sep - Spain (home) UEFA Nations League
11 Sep - Switzerland (home) Friendly
12 Oct - Croatia (away) UEFA Nations League
15 Oct - Spain (away) UEFA Nations League
15 Nov - USA (home) Friendly
18 Nov - Croatia (home) UEFA Nations League

ok thanks
maybe the BBC are anti League of Nations lol

I think Southgate, The FA and England did a lot of good things in the build-up to and in the execution of this tournament. They are focusing on team, not individuals. They are developing their own style and philosophy and not mimicking Spain or Germany or whatever "system" is in fashion. They are promoting youth and producing lots more professionally trained coaches through the football centre at Burton.

They broke the mythology around the penalty shoot-out and we are coming out of a major tournament with confidence instead of despondency. Let's not get ahead of ourselves -- there is still a lot to do. We only faced two genuinely world class sides in this tournament and we lost three games to both of them. But I get the sense that there is a foundation to build on.

(14-07-2018 07:49 )milfspotter Wrote:  Incredible for Croatia - out of all the participants, only Uruguay and Iceland have smaller populations to draw on (figures from wikipedia rounded to nearest million below) - and their population is considerably less than that of Scotland.

I also think that the population argument -- which I've heard a lot since Wednesday -- is a bit of a red herring.

If having the largest potential talent pool should equate to success on the pitch, then China, USA, Russia and India should be fixtures at these tournaments, and they aren't.

The opposite is also true. Small countries that dedicate a disproportionate share of state funding to a single sport tend to outperform in that area. Think of Lithuania and basketball; Jamaica and athletics; Hungary and waterpolo; Canada and ice hockey; etc.

How a country marshals and manages its total 'pool' of athletic talent largely depends on the relative investment in that sport and that will make a difference, irrespective of the total amount invested. The USA probably invests as much in "soccer" as any other country, but that is peanuts compared to what it invests in The Big Four: American Football, Baseball, Basketball and Ice Hockey. So football will inevitably attract the second-tier of American athletic talent.

Well, I think that's how it works, anyway...