ARG/SUI
- Thread starter greenbean.sixpack
- Start date
Ha ha. Funny observationDoes Argentina have more white players than Switzerland?
Apparently Switzerland recruited players from African nations through some qualification.
Argentina doesn’t believe in mixing ethnicities. I wonder where that thinking came from?
Argentina doesn’t believe in mixing ethnicities. I wonder where that thinking came from?
Never been to Arg, but I understand they had a fair amount of Caucasian blood from confederates, nazis and other Europeans.
Massive riots in Switzerland…
My opinion on that is FIFA publishing a world ranking before the World Cup even begins is kind of like a preseason college football Top 25….it really doesn’t mean anything. The data used to assemble the rankings is so antiquated that it’s pretty much irrelevant beyond the Top 4-6 teams (just like with college football).
Prime example - USA being ranked #15 and Cape Verde being ranked #64. Cape Verde would have absolutely named the score in a knockout round game against the US, and based on hindsight everyone now knows it.
Another example of the arbitrary nature of this “statistic” - Argentina would have played #11 Colombia last night, if they hadn’t been beaten by #14 Switzerland. So it’s basically punishing them for having to play the team that beat the higher ranked team. I just don’t think there’s any difference between Argentina’s win over Switzerland and England’s win over Mexico.
Worked at a Dow plant in Argentina. Guys in the plant all went by nicknames.
Flaco, he was neither skinny or fat. They explained it had to do with his long face.
Chino, was mot Chinese, but his eyes were squinty.
El negro, nope, he was not.
It went on and on. Never once found a German restaurant or even German influenced cooking. Italian and spanish influenced, hell yes.
Flaco, he was neither skinny or fat. They explained it had to do with his long face.
Chino, was mot Chinese, but his eyes were squinty.
El negro, nope, he was not.
It went on and on. Never once found a German restaurant or even German influenced cooking. Italian and spanish influenced, hell yes.
Did a little research to confirm what I thought I knew.
Colonized by the Spaniards way back in the 1500’s. Pretty turbulent history all the way up to today. A lot of European immigrants throughout its history. Mostly Spanish and Italian, so tracks with your experience.
8th largest country by land mass in the world (surprised me). 33rd in population with 46 million.
Buenos Aires is a very European feeling city from what I’ve seen.
They have.
It still feels to me like the 4 best teams are left. It’s been a great tournament.
First time ever the to 4 ranked teams have all made the semi finals.
France has arguably had an easier path.
Morocco was a pretty legit opponent, but Sweden and Paraguay were total cupcakes.
Argentina played 2 pretty solid teams in Switzerland and Egypt, and a 3rd game against Cape Verde who is very clearly a lot better than their current FIFA ranking indicates….as evidenced not only by the Argentina performance but also by the draws against Spain and Uruguay.
Spain has also definitely had the most difficult path with Belgium, Portugal, and Austria, plus the same Cape Verde team and Uruguay also being in their group play bracket.
England’s path hasn’t been too terrible, they caught a big break with the Norway upset of Brazil and got a cupcake match against DR Congo. Dealing with Mexico at Azteca was obviously a huge challenge though.
Why call DR Congo a cupcake match?
They drew with Portugal, lost 1-0 to Columbia on a late goal, beat Uzbekistan and had England on the ropes 1-0 for the majority of their knockout game until Harry Kane decided to Harry Kane them with two late goals.
Seems like a team that played pretty well.
Lived in Buenos Aires almost 6 months… few quick facts… they are much more European than other latin American countries. Very strong Italian influence. If you go out to the bars or wherever, expect to see Europeans from all over. Different areas of the city look like major European cities.
Argentinians are very friendly and I met some of the coolest people ever while there. They don’t mind Americans for the most part, they’re cool to us. They hate England with a fiery passion. Should make for an interesting semi finals matchup.
They are certainly far more of a cupcake than Cape Verde, Egypt, or Switzerland. I don’t see how that’s debatable.
You can say Argentina hasn’t had to face a really elite squad yet, and that’s accurate. But they’ve played 3 really solid teams with none being gimmes, and no one else but Spain can say that.
I simply wouldn’t characterize Congo as a cupcake at all. I highly doubt any of the 4 teams they played would either.
That was my only point.
A team that’s very competitive with everyone they play, including scaring the **** out of one of the 4 teams left with a chance to win it, ain’t a cupcake.
I like the term agree to disagree, but y’all are just willfully wrong on this one.
Carry on my wayward sons…
I get a WC "roundup" email everyday from The Athletic that's been a fun read, especially for someone like me that knows nothing about soccer but hasn't missed a minute of the WC. One of the topics today was about the top 4 teams making it to the finals that I thought was interesting. Any thoughts on their take?
| The big story of this World Cup was the addition of more teams and another round of games that could trip up the favorites — so how are we left with the literal top four teams, according to FIFA? First, this is not how World Cups tend to go. Not at all, actually: |
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Why this time? Combination of things:
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