Other Games - 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup Edition (+ warm-up matches): Villa-watch

[Hillbilly]

Talking of All Whites, Iran v NZ is a decent match.

[Toronto Villa]

What a fun game this is. A lovely NZ goal there puts them 2-1 up

[Hillbilly]

2-2. It can't keep on like this?

[Dogtanian]

2-2. It can't keep on like this?

It bloody can! Forever.

[Garyth]

2-2. It can't keep on like this?

Excellent game, both teams with dodgy defence = lots of opportunities.

My kiwi heart is a little disappointed we couldn't hold on, but have to remember how low our hopes were coming into the tournament.

[PeterWithesShin]

Hundreds of Iranian flags were flying. The most visible were the pre-revolutionary flags bearing the Lion and Sun emblem.

For many Iranian-Americans, the flag has become a symbol of opposition to the regime in Tehran. Fifa has banned it inside stadiums as a political symbol.

But it was flying inside nonetheless and emblazoned on t-shirts.

There were thousands of Iranian flags in the stands. From a distance they looked identical. Up close, they told a different story.

Some carried the official flag of the Islamic Republic. Others displayed the Lion and Sun. All were dressed in Iran's colours.

This is what the footballers were up against: Iran versus Iran.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cvgj1v4pnvyo

[Dave]

Over the last 12-14 years I've always felt like Belgium have 7 or 8 quality players with a sprinkling of Nacer Chadli.

They've had either a good defence or a good attack for about 20 years but there was only a very brief period where they had both and they wasted it with Roberto fucking Martinez.

I've always thought this is a bit unfair.

The wasted opportunity was 2016 under Wilmots - Alderweireld, Vermaelen and Verthongen at their best, Nainggolan playing like he was one of the best midfielders in Europe at the time, Dembélé, Lukaku, Mertens and Hazard having the best time of their careers, De Bruyne off a great first season with Man City, Witsel and Benteke at the perfect age. Only to shit the bed against a plucky but not-great Wales in the quarter-final.

Then in 2018 under Martinez, a good squad turned up and played really well. But they were already weaker than 2016 - the defenders now the wrong side of thirty, Hazard and Lukaku already getting slower and the squad being padded with the also-rans that became more numerous in the years that followed (Thorgan Hazard, Dendoncker, Januzaj, Boyata, Chadli etc).

Even then, they did (I would argue, relative to expectations - they were sixth favourites before it started) better than par. Really good all the way to the semi and losing by the odd goal to the best team in the tournament who comfortably won the final. I don't buy that being the third best officially, and clearly the second best in reality was a waste.

That's the very brief period that you talk about when they were great, the squad goes downhill quickly in 2021 / 2022 / 2024.

[paul_e]

Over the last 12-14 years I've always felt like Belgium have 7 or 8 quality players with a sprinkling of Nacer Chadli.

They've had either a good defence or a good attack for about 20 years but there was only a very brief period where they had both and they wasted it with Roberto fucking Martinez.

I've always thought this is a bit unfair.

The wasted opportunity was 2016 under Wilmots - Alderweireld, Vermaelen and Verthongen at their best, Nainggolan playing like he was one of the best midfielders in Europe at the time, Dembélé, Lukaku, Mertens and Hazard having the best time of their careers, De Bruyne off a great first season with Man City, Witsel and Benteke at the perfect age. Only to shit the bed against a plucky but not-great Wales in the quarter-final.

Then in 2018 under Martinez, a good squad turned up and played really well. But they were already weaker than 2016 - the defenders now the wrong side of thirty, Hazard and Lukaku already getting slower and the squad being padded with the also-rans that became more numerous in the years that followed (Thorgan Hazard, Dendoncker, Januzaj, Boyata, Chadli etc).

Even then, they did (I would argue, relative to expectations - they were sixth favourites before it started) better than par. Really good all the way to the semi and losing by the odd goal to the best team in the tournament who comfortably won the final. I don't buy that being the third best officially, and clearly the second best in reality was a waste.

That's the very brief period that you talk about when they were great, the squad goes downhill quickly in 2021 / 2022 / 2024.

In all honestly I thought Martinez was there for 2016 as well and I was blaming that on him. In that case they wasted it on a couple of pretty poor managers who set them up very poorly.

[UK Redsox]

Getting pissed off by the 'x players from the top five leagues in Europe' bollox

eg the commentator saying that Cabo Verde have no players from such leagues, then mentioning later on that one of the team plays for Benfica

Playing for Benfica is a whole lot more impressive than playing for SV Elversberg or Le Mans

[cdbearsfan]

The evidence so far seems to suggest that it's actually Motherwell who are by far the greatest team the world has ever seen.

[ADVILLAFAN]

Tbh, Wolves players are doing quite well so far.

Apparently they have a Norwegian player too.

[Dave]

Over the last 12-14 years I've always felt like Belgium have 7 or 8 quality players with a sprinkling of Nacer Chadli.

They've had either a good defence or a good attack for about 20 years but there was only a very brief period where they had both and they wasted it with Roberto fucking Martinez.

I've always thought this is a bit unfair.

The wasted opportunity was 2016 under Wilmots - Alderweireld, Vermaelen and Verthongen at their best, Nainggolan playing like he was one of the best midfielders in Europe at the time, Dembélé, Lukaku, Mertens and Hazard having the best time of their careers, De Bruyne off a great first season with Man City, Witsel and Benteke at the perfect age. Only to shit the bed against a plucky but not-great Wales in the quarter-final.

Then in 2018 under Martinez, a good squad turned up and played really well. But they were already weaker than 2016 - the defenders now the wrong side of thirty, Hazard and Lukaku already getting slower and the squad being padded with the also-rans that became more numerous in the years that followed (Thorgan Hazard, Dendoncker, Januzaj, Boyata, Chadli etc).

Even then, they did (I would argue, relative to expectations - they were sixth favourites before it started) better than par. Really good all the way to the semi and losing by the odd goal to the best team in the tournament who comfortably won the final. I don't buy that being the third best officially, and clearly the second best in reality was a waste.

That's the very brief period that you talk about when they were great, the squad goes downhill quickly in 2021 / 2022 / 2024.

In all honestly I thought Martinez was there for 2016 as well and I was blaming that on him. In that case they wasted it on a couple of pretty poor managers who set them up very poorly.

But I don't agree that he did set them up poorly in 2018, they played better than anyone else at the tournament apart from the eventual winners, who they narrowly lost to. Which was better than anyone expected them to do.

Is there no middle ground between a tournament being seen as a complete success or a complete failure?

[cdbearsfan]

2022 would definitely be complete failure, though. They went out in the groups. So overall, he did well, okay, badly in his three tournaments. So his average was much worse than Southgate, who is apparently the Worst Thing Ever according to all the weirdos on here.

[UK Redsox]

Southgate took a great group of players and managed to win bugger all. Therefore, he was a top manager in my book

[Dave]

2022 would definitely be complete failure, though. They went out in the groups. So overall, he did well, okay, badly in his three tournaments. So his average was much worse than Southgate, who is apparently the Worst Thing Ever according to all the weirdos on here.

Undoubtedly. Proper fucked it. And definitely worse than Southgate overall (whose tenure, as you and I both know could be ranked as anywhere on the scale from "fair" to "excellent", but no lower than that).

But that's a different argument to the one that is normally thrown at him about "wasting Belgium's greatest generation". Which he didn't. He did really well with that bunch when they were good, then was pretty shit when that same generation couldn't run anymore. Which is probably on him too for relying on them for too long, but I'm not sure many would blame him for not retiring Verthongen and Alderweireld in their mid-thirties when you've only got Wout Faes coming in behind them.

Per my original post, Wilmots wasted Belgium's greatest generation at the time when they were at their peak. Martinez did a perfectly adequate job with them as they started to decline.