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The World Cup is dead, long live the World Cup. Let's talk about the best and worst moments of the tournament by giving out our own personal TRP awards! Here are mine, arranged in some kind of order, but if you can think up new categories that didn't occur to me just include them. Match of the tournament: The final, for me. There were some great matches but the final was something else. I just wish France had got their act together earlier so there weren't 70 minutes of sedate football before the 50 minutes of insanity. Player of the tournament: Messi. Other players make a strong claim but Messi was central to the team that won it and deservedly won the Golden Ball imo. Best player in the World Cup at 35 is quite an accomplishment. Goal of the tournament: There are some real contenders here. Richarlison's scissor kick against Serbia comes to mind, as does Salem Aldawsiri's goal for Saudi Arabia against Argentina. But I'm going to go with Mbappe's volley in the final, because it was both very high quality and pulled off at a very important moment as Mbappe did everything he could to drag his team back into the match. Assist of the tournament: Messi could have won this one as well with his mazy dribble to set up Alvarez against Croatia, but without a doubt it's Son Heung-Min drawing in seven Portuguese defenders before somehow finding Hwang Hee-chan to score the winner in the 91st minute and send South Korea through to the knockouts. Save of the tournament: Emi Martinez, in the 124th minute of the World Cup final, sticking out a foot to keep Argentina alive. Goalkeeper of the tournament: Goalkeepers always get shafted when picking the player of the tournament so they should have their own category. Livakovic and Bounou could both go here as instrumental parts of their semifinalist teams, but in the end it's Emi Martinez. Argentina won the tournament in large part because of his heroics in two penalty shootouts, and if not for his immense save in the last minute of extra time against France they wouldn't have even had a shot at it. Team of the tournament: Without a doubt, Morocco. They'll be disappointed to only have finished fourth after looking so good in their semifinal against France, but being the first African team to reach the last four and knocking out Spain and Portugal along the way is a huge accomplishment in and of itself. They were a great team throughout and never once looked like their upsets were flukes. They belonged at the top. Biggest letdown: On a personal level, Canada, but on a tournament level, perennial dark horses Belgium. Yes, they were in the group of death, but for all the hype their golden generation signed off with the quietest of whimpers. Biggest fraud: Off the pitch, the state of Qatar and everything about their murderous, corrupt organization of this tournament. On the pitch, Cristiano Ronaldo setting the dubious record of becoming the first player to score in five World Cups by diving for a penalty against Ghana and then not scoring again for the rest of the tournament while he tried to steal other players' goals, fell out with his teammates, got sacked from his club, got benched for a player who scored a hat trick in his first match, and then watched Messi win the trophy. Best moment:  Funniest moment: Infantino's bizarre speech proclaiming that today he feels a gay Arab woman migrant worker. Best pundit: Honorary mention to Grant Wahl (RIP) but it's David Squires.
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Dec 20, 2022 14:58
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 12:58 |
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+1 for all of these, I think. Wicked World Cup
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Dec 20, 2022 16:17
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Hard to argue with the OP. I might give the goal of the tournament to Richarlison's goal against South Korea because I love a silky team goal. South Korea's goal against Portugal was mentioned as assist of the tournament so I'm happy to leave that there. Goalkeeper should go to Emi Martinez but let's give a big honorable mention to Biggest frauds on the pitch go to Cristiano Ronaldo because, lol at your entire career collapsing in a month, and the Qatari referee who looked like he won a contest (because he did) to referee in the World Cup.
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Dec 20, 2022 17:14
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There were a lot of good goals this tourney. Richarlison as mentioned, the Alvarez solo goal vs Croatia, the Netherlands free kick, the Japan guy keeping the ball in by a millimeter, Aboubakar's not-offside chip, the whole Argie counter attack on the Di Maria goal Great World Cup aside from the whole Qatar tbing
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Dec 20, 2022 19:29
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Team of the tournament is England, for bringing it home. The fair play trophy, that is.
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Dec 20, 2022 19:54
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Nissin Cup Nudist posted:There were a lot of good goals this tourney. Richarlison as mentioned, the Alvarez solo goal vs Croatia, the Netherlands free kick, the Japan guy keeping the ball in by a millimeter, Aboubakar's not-offside chip, the whole Argie counter attack on the Di Maria goal The Netherlands free kick and Alvarez's goal are definitely up there too. Couldn't believe watching Alvarez just keep going and going and going.
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Dec 21, 2022 02:44
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Match of the tournament: Yep, absolutely can't go past the final. Honourable mention to the group stage third match insanity particularly in group E and G where within 20 minutes all four teams were potentially going through or going home. And the Dutch comeback against Argentina. Player of the tournament: For me it's Griezmann, especially considering he's in a different role and doesn't play much club football thanks to the weird situation between Barca/Atletico. I don't think France get anywhere near the final without him, though it's a shame he had zero impact on that game Goal of the tournament: Prefer Richarlison's goal vs South Korea (triple header, juggle, juggle, one-two-three-tap in) over the scissor kick one, though it's a close run thing. Honourable mentions to Mbappe's volley in the final, Chavez freekick vs Saudi Arabia, Aboubakar's lob, and (biased) Leckie's twisting run and weaker foot nutmeg finish to put Australia up vs Denmark. Assist of the tournament: Hard to disagree with Son vs Portugal! Save of the tournament: Yup, Martinez in the 124th minute of the final. A microsecond slower reaction or a millimetre different movement and France are world champions Goalkeeper of the tournament: Absolutely Martinez. He was immense in almost every match Argentina played Team of the tournament: 100% Morocco. Again in my biased opinion Australia made a pretty good showing - lowest ranked team in a strong group (France, Denmark, Tunisia), came away with two wins, two clean sheets, and our only two losses of the tournament were against both eventual finalists. Biggest letdown: Ronaldo. This year he's stunk up the joint at Old Trafford and failed miserably against shitters from Cyprus and Moldova, so it's hardly surprising he was garbage here too. But after such an incredible career you still kind of expect him to turn up on the biggest stages, even just to score pens and soft tap-ins. But he couldn't even manage that. Belgium I kinda thought were going to suck, though I was genuinely surprised at how terrible Denmark were Biggest fraud: FIFA, imo. After all their dick swinging at previous world cups (FIFA jails in South Africa, strong-arming the Brazilian govt into allowing beer sales etc), just meekly surrendering to all the Qatari's bullshit was actually pretty surprising. Best moment: The Moroccan guy dancing on the pitch with his mum. Honourable mention to Aboubakar's happiest ever red card Funniest moment: Triple treat of crying Neymar, Suarez and Ronaldo. Honourable mention to Spain requiring 3000 touches to score two goals while the Dutch Peter Crouch scored two goals in six touches. Also the Spanish players complaining after their exit that Morocco didn't want to play football and just lived for the counter-attack Best pundit: I was really enjoying Max Rushden (host of Guardian's Football Weekly podcast) doing a daily instagram story with his wife, predicting scores for the day's matches. She has zero interest in or awareness of football, and generally got closer than Max did. Honourable mention to David Squires who is both incredible and incredibly consistent. And a big TRP thumbs up to refman, who's posting name I have since forgotten. Your ref writeups were great. Adding a category of Worst Pundit: because on Australian TV we had former great Harry Kewell doing colour commentary and he was loving terrible. His insight was TRP-shitposting level, with unironic comments like "they won't have wanted to concede that goal" or "he needs to run a bit faster to keep up with Mbappe there". Martin Tyler was also pretty bad, with most of his commentary sounding like he's just reading a fact sheet about the teams and players Do we need a vote for TRP post of the tournament? Hard to beat the "Lowtax has a great shots on target record" line imo
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Dec 21, 2022 04:11
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webmeister posted:Do we need a vote for TRP post of the tournament? Hard to beat the "Lowtax has a great shots on target record" line imo Wouldn’t even know what to suggest other than this.
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Dec 21, 2022 05:30
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Gigi Galli posted:Wouldn’t even know what to suggest other than this. Yep, absolutely post of the tournament.
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Dec 21, 2022 05:43
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the absolute peak posting spree was brazil v croatia, i havent had a lol like that since the 7-1 edit: for the same reason, i have to nominate the dutch free kick vs argentina as goal of the tournament
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Dec 21, 2022 05:46
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Statistically I think Martinez ended up being one of the worst keepers in the tournament, which roughly mirrors how he is for Villa. Of course he was immense at pens, and that’s all that mattered I guess.
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Dec 21, 2022 06:10
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Eau de MacGowan posted:edit: for the same reason, i have to nominate the dutch free kick vs argentina as goal of the tournament This is mine as well, very rarely do I react to a goal like they do on adverts but that one had me full on yelling at the tv. Just the sheer van gaal-esque balls of doing a training ground free kick with the last kick of the game to send it to pens. Think you could make a case for mbappe to be player of the tournament since he won the golden boot, dug France out a few times and kept them in the final. Mac Allister was busy in every game for Argentina and is presumably fielding calls from every club in Europe this week but on balance it probably does have to be Messi In terms of biggest let down I reckon Brazil could be in with a shout. They had a fantastic set of players, breezed past the groups and south korea and just immediately crumbled at the first team to give them a proper challenge. We knew Belgium were old as bones, Ronaldo had been bad for a while and Germany are having a rebuild but I really thought Brazil were gonna challenge Morocco team of the tournament, no further notes. Best moment is a tie between Japan beating Germany, Saudi beating Argentina or Uruguay going out in the groups. Best pundit is Ally Mccoist because he manages to be the guy who enjoys watching the games he commentates on and loves a good goal but can also articulate why he likes it as opposed to say Robbie savage who does similar but just grates. Thought shearer was alright but have been thinking that more and more recently since someone's told him he's allowed to have opinions. Worst pundit probably souness but that's just cause he's a joyless moaning bastard
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Dec 21, 2022 10:21
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I can't really fault the picks in the OP. I think Spain - Japan and Germany - Costa Rica are in with a shout for best match of the tournament just because of those 5 glorious minutes when Japan and Costa Rica were in the knockout spots. In the end it has to be the final though. I was fully expecting something way more boring than what we got.
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Dec 21, 2022 11:16
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Goal of the tournament is Hakimi's panenka to knock Spain out imo
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Dec 21, 2022 11:29
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Agreed with the OP, biggest letdown though is probably Brazil. Germany were poo poo but they're sort of between generations and nobody expected much from them.
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Dec 21, 2022 12:34
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Vegetable posted:Statistically I think Martinez ended up being one of the worst keepers in the tournament, which roughly mirrors how he is for Villa. Of course he was immense at pens, and that’s all that mattered I guess. There was also uh, you know, the save at 124’
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Dec 21, 2022 16:05
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Agree with the OP with the already-raised exception of the Richarlison goal. Happy to concede Mbappe's was a bigger moment, but don't think it was a better piece of football. Would submit a further award for Best Quixotic Quest (happy to take Spurs-related naming suggestions here) for abuse culture's punishing streak in each knocked-out team's thread.
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Dec 23, 2022 12:18
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That Son assist was incredibly sick. Was a good tournament overall for star players (except for fraud Ronald)
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Jan 7, 2023 23:11
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I miss the world cup so I read this thread to reminisce and think of Dibu doing obscene gestures at the French
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Jan 13, 2023 01:58
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Whoever suggested moving it to winter should get an award. They should do a winter world cup at least every other one imo i enjoyed it much more than in the summer and the quality of games was higher
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Jan 13, 2023 06:44
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African AIDS cum posted:Whoever suggested moving it to winter should get an award. They should do a winter world cup at least every other one imo i enjoyed it much more than in the summer and the quality of games was higher
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Jan 13, 2023 07:41
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Vegetable posted:I don’t know how much that had to do with the climate I never mentioned the climate
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Jan 13, 2023 22:25
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Speaking of awards, and since I can't think of any other place to put this, FIFA also awarded some teams for what they did at the World Cup...namely fines and home game fan restrictions.quote:The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has sanctioned the Mexican Football Association with a fine of CHF 100,000 and one match in a FIFA competition to be played behind closed doors by its men’s national team (suspended for a probationary period) for breaches of article 13 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code (Discrimination) in light of chants by Mexican supporters during the Mexico v. Poland and Saudi Arabia v. Mexico FIFA World Cup™ matches. I'm shocked Mexico would do such a thing  quote:The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has opened proceedings against the Argentinian Football Association due to potential breaches of articles 11 (Offensive behaviour and violations of the principles of fair play) and 12 (Misconduct of players and officials) of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, as well as of article 44 of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ Regulations in conjunction with the Media and Marketing Regulations for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, during the Argentina v. France FIFA World Cup™ final. I can't be bothered to read those articles, but I'm guessing one of them covers this:
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Jan 14, 2023 01:43
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Surprised Ecuador haven’t been hit with a lifetime ban for their fans chanting “tenemos cerveza” during matches
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Jan 14, 2023 03:31
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 12:58 |
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webmeister posted:Surprised Ecuador haven’t been hit with a lifetime ban for their fans chanting “tenemos cerveza” during matches 
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Jan 14, 2023 07:30
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