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Use this topic to talk about everything, in order to avoid clogging the other threads..

Congratulations to Argentina (and yeah, the whole team, not just one player). Martinez may be an absolute jerk and the opposite of a fair sportsman but his penalty saves and the reflex against Kolo Muani were crucial on their way to the title.
Feel sorry for France though although it was pretty clear that they would lose in penalties: Not just because Lloris is even worse in saving penalties than anyone else (except for Ulreich maybe) but also because they simply didn't have any secure PK takers apart from Mbappé and Kolo Muani. And no need to cry for Mbappé: He already has proved why he's the best striker in the world, too bad that some of his team mates let him down today.
And since the nonsense will come up now: Where was the "GOAT" after di Maria's substitution and again in the last ten minutes?

There are good winners and there are South Americans
And even with Argentina winning it his statement isn't wrong: Most recent WC winners still have been European and if you seriously compare the level of your "competitions" with Europe, then you should ask yourself why all Argentine/Brazil players with a bit of skill end up playing in Europe and not in some competion like Brasileirão where you only find some young talents, many mediocre and old finished players. Same goes for NT competitions btw, you simply have more strong teams in Europe atm.

That statement of Mbappé is spot on.

People want to shut Mbappe's mouth? Well, another non-UEFA team has to win the next WC or win the Club World Cups.

Since the best non-UEFA national teams have many, if not mostly, players who are signed for European teams, I think the Club World Cup would be a bigger proof.

Is there really anything to shut? I could understand people ranting/hating on Kylian's statement if France had been out in the group stage but he brought his country to a second WC final and yet again shined through the whole competion.
And a question for our South American users: Do you really think that the general level of your NTs is currently better than in the first half of the 2010s for example? Back then you had Uruguay, Chile and Colombia with fantastic generations and Paraguay/Peru were good for surprises as well (even Venezuela at some point). I can only speak for myself but back then competition seemed a lot higher than at the last Copa.


Edit:



No other proof needed.

Clubs and NT are totally different discussions. I dont get why it was bring after Mbappe statement.

Brazil and Argentina are still the same in modern football. The ones who fight against Italy, Germany, France, Spain, England and Netherlands. To be one of the favourites or not, depends on the generation.

Same happens with others nations. Depends on good generations, sometimes happen they have a good performance, as Portugal, Belgium, Chile and so on. It is cyclical, as the generations. Nothing changed in modern football.

The Qatari guy near him looked anything but happy.

BTW, El Dibu Martínez always on my team.

Messi really lives rent-free in some minds eh

https://www.sportbible.com/football/wor ... 4-20221219

Who would have guessed that Agüero's character is even worse than his heart condition?
First he celebrates with full kit (similar to Terry in 2012 UCL/2013 EL finals but JT at least contributed something to those titles) and acts as if he was world champion (although he is nothing more than a mascot who wouldn't be there if he wasn't Messi's best friend) and then he has nothing better to do than insult a 20 year old afterwards? Sportsmanship in Argentine style, vol. 528.

Nomination of the best players of the 2022 FIFA World Cup:

Best Goalkeeper: Emiliano MARTÍNEZ > Dominik LIVAKOVIĆ = BONO > Wojciech SZCZĘSNY > Hugo LLORIS > Andries NOPPERT
Best Stopper: Joško GVARDIOL > Romain SAÏSS > Nicolás OTAMENDI > Raphaël VARANE
Best Side Stopper: Thiago SILVA > Cristian ROMERO > Kalidou KOULIBALY > Dayot UPAMECANO > PEPE
Best Right Back: Achraf HAKIMI > Nahuel MOLINA > Josip JURANOVIĆ = MILITÃO > Denzel DUMFRIES > Kyle WALKER > Jules KOUNDÉ
Best Left Back: Marcos ACUÑA > Noussair MAZRAOUI > Nicolás TAGLIAFICO = Raphaël GUERREIRO > Théo HERNANDEZ > Borna SOSA
Best No.6: Sofyan AMRABAT > Enzo FERNÁNDEZ > CASEMIRO > Aurélien TCHOUAMÉNI = Frenkie DE JONG > Marcelo BROZOVIĆ = Declan RICE = Tyler ADAMS
Best No.8: Rodrigo DE PAUL = Azzedine OUNAHI > Jude BELLINGHAM > Adrien RABIOT = Mateo KOVAČIĆ = Lucas PAQUETÁ
Best No.10: Antoine GRIEZMANN = Bruno FERNANDES > Luka MODRIĆ > NEYMAR > Daichi KAMADA
Best Left Winger: Kylian MBAPPÉ > VINÍCIUS > Ángel DI MARÍA = Ivan PERIŠIĆ > Phil FODEN > Sofiane BOUFAL > João FÉLIX > Ismaïla SARR
Best Right Winger: Julián ÁLVAREZ > Hakim ZIYECH > Ousmane DEMBÉLÉ = Bukayo SAKA > Bernardo SILVA > Mario PAŠALIĆ > Memphis DEPAY
Best No.9: Lionel MESSI > Cody GAKPO > Youssef EN-NESYRI > Olivier GIROUD = Harry KANE = Álvaro MORATA > Gonçalo RAMOS > Andrej KRAMARIĆ > RICHARLISON > Cristiano RONALDO > Mitchell DUKE
Best Coach: Walid REGRAGUI > Lionel SCALONI > Didier DESCHAMPS > Zlatko DALIĆ > Hajime MORIYASU > TITE > Fernando SANTOS > Aliou CISSÉ

Selection process: First there was the need of wrapping the names up. I came across a relevant poll at gazzetta.gr (greek sports site) and decided to include only the names mentioned there. I think their options were objective enough, concerning how far a team went or how unexpected it was and of course not skipping some star players. Then the comparison was based on player ratings by football-ratings.blogspot.com. In order to find a balance between performance (how much a player was rated) and the length of it (how many games a player was rated): I sorted the players according to their average on the one hand and according to their sum on the other hand. Every player receives points corresponding to both sorts and the total will define the final order. I'll give an example to make it quick: Concerning the stopper position there are 4 players. The sort according to average is: Gvardiol > Saiss > Varane > Otamendi. Gvardiol gets 4 points, Saiss 3, Varane 2, Otamendi 1. The sort accroding to sum is: Gvardiol > Otamendi > Saiss > Varane. Gvardiol gets 4, Otamendi 3, Saiss 2, Varane 1. So the classification is: Gvardiol 8 (4+4) > Saiss 5 (3+2) > Otamendi 4 (1+3) > Varane 3 (2+1). I found it as a pretty simple, reliable and quick way to evaluate the players. Here's an excel image with the ratings (hope I didn't miss anything):

So here's my Team of the Tournament: 4-3-3 [C REGRAGUI]: GK E. MARTÍNEZ CB GVARDIOL CB THIAGO SILVA RB HAKIMI LB M. ACUÑA DMF S. AMRABAT CMF R. DE PAUL AMF GRIEZMANN RWF J. ÁLVAREZ LWF MBAPPÉ CF MESSI ( OUNAHI and B. FERNANDES missing because their team finished lower, same goes for the order of the other players above)

Di Maria who played most of this WC on the right side ends up at left wingers while Alvarez (who was Argentina's No. 9 for most of the games) is voted as best right winger (was he clearly wasn't, especially not compared to Ziyech or Saka). Not even mentioning Acuna as best LB of this WC while he actually wasn't even the best LB of his NT..
And the most hilarious thing: How can Ronaldo - after his abysmal performances at this WC - be in this list? Even Niklas Füllkrug had a better WC than Ronaldo but I guess some sites/newspapers will include Ronaldo/Messi in those rankings even after they've retired for years

Anyway, if I had to select a best XI for that competition: Livakovic - Hakimi, Saiss, Upamecano, Guerreiro - Amrabat - Bellingham, Modric - Di Maria, Messi, Mbappé.

I think their purpose was to make a list with plenty of names and as less controversial as it gets. That's why they splitted the three muchachos and chose a preferable position for each. Some choices like Cristiano are a bit of a stretch, of course, but it wasn't like he was too irrelevant of a presence. Or maybe they wanted to reward some 'leaders'/star players for the value of participation. I don't disagree with you, but I don't find it that bad either. Acuna hadn't any superior performance, but numbers say he was at least consistent all the way to glory. Personally I appreciated his effort. Concerning your XI: My alternative to Emi Martinez would be only Szczesny. Modric and Bellingham weren't too far of making the XI, so that's sensible. Di Maria missed the KOs and unfortunately his sensational final performance couldn't be weighed in a different way by my side. Don't forget to submit your choices to the website, if you want.

Emi Martinez wasn't that good this tournament and he only deserves credit for the final (even then, he should have saved Mbappe's second goal) and the shootout against the Dutch. To put it in statistical context, not including penalty shootouts, he faced 15 shots and only saved 7 of them, conceding 8 goals. Livakovic on the other hand faced 32 shots and saved 25 of them, conceding 7. Even in the shootouts Livakovic saved 4 penalties compared to Martinez's 3. The only way Martinez deserved the golden glove is if you completely ignore everything before the final.