Iceland wins

England barely showed up to this game at all, not a good finish by them at all. Congrats to Belgium.

Oh. Angelique Kerber just won. Congratulations.
Wrong thread, I know.

This was a historical success for Belgium as it's the first time ever they reached bronze medal at fifa's world cup. Congrats!

As I said before, today was obvious again that England is an unpolished gem, just give them a few years of experience and a bit more confidence and they can win anything. @Carnifex, they missed a lot and on top of that their passes were too shy. But the quality is still there underneath, just waiting to be awoken. Can't find any info a team this new was ever able to get among the best 4. A huge respect from me.
Sure, Belgium was better and deserved to win.

The match was great to watch thus here's hope I see these two playing again against each other at Euro in couple of years. In finals or not, doesn't matter, I bet it won't lack of excitment.

Tomorrow's match however… Uggh. Can't predict anything, whatever happens happens, but seriously have to hope it won't be 0:0 after extra time. And that's not because I hate shootouts but because it'll mean the game was killed for the sakes of victory. Football is supposed to be a spectacle for the audience, not some empty statistics.
May the best side win.

I was rooting for Belgium today. They're a great team and I'm glad they got their best position in World Cups.

Now tomorrow's match promise to be a real great one

If Croatia puts enough pressure on, or better yet scores first, tomorrow's game will be one for the ages. Should they let France score first, well, then it will likely turn into a shoddy affair. I'll be watching and cheering for the little tiny country that could, and hopefully, will.

This is it. Go Croatia!

I thought south america was suppose to rule soccer ? What happened to shake things up so it is now just the Europeans ?

Originally Posted by you
I thought south america was suppose to rule soccer ? What happened to shake things up so it is now just the Europeans ?

South America has really never ruled Soccer, Europe has always been a heavy contender. More European teams have won the World Cup than South American ones, I believe Brazil holds the crown with most wins though.

Before this years World Cup 13 out if the top 20 teams on the FIFA world ranking were European, South America had 6. The 20th one was Mexico.

And…curtain. I can't see Croatia turning 4-1 around. Congratulations France for the gold, and congratulations Croatia for the well earned silver medals.

Rather than give raw numbers like 13 and 6 you should give percentage relative to the number of countries designated geography with soccer teams… I'll start by mentioning that there are only 12 countries in south America so it would be hard press for them to hold 13 of the top 20 top teams. Not sure how many of those 12 have teams.

Originally Posted by TomRon
South America has really never ruled Soccer, Europe has always been a heavy contender. More European teams have won the World Cup than South American ones, I believe Brazil holds the crown with most wins though.

Before this years World Cup 13 out if the top 20 teams on the FIFA world ranking were European, South America had 6. The 20th one was Mexico.

Originally Posted by you
Rather than give raw numbers like 13 and 6 you should give percentage relative to the number of countries designated geography with soccer teams… I'll start by mentioning that there are only 12 countries in south America so it would be hard press for them to hold 13 of the top 20 top teams. Not sure how many of those 12 have teams.

You are of course right, I was mainly referring to the point no countries on the other continents have teams in the top 20. I could give loads of statistics to prove my point but I was kind of busy watching the game.

Look at the Semi-Finals in the World Cup from 90 and forward, that should give a pretty good indication.

And all countries in South America has teams as far as I'm aware of, Costa Rica and Panama both made it to the World Cup and are two of the smallest ones right?

EDIT: Just to be clear, my main point is that Europe and South America has always both had really good football teams, I was questioning the point about South America ruling soccer, not the fact that they're great at it. Geography seems to have heavily influenced the winner of the world cup many times over the years, only once has an European team won on South American soil (Germany in Brazil 2014) and only once has a South American nation won on European soil (Brazil in Sweden 1958).

Congratulations France for the 2nd FIFA World Cup won.
And also, congratulations Croatia for the well earned Silver medal. Both teams have very good players, the Final match was disputed by the 2 best teams of this Cup, IMHO.

France had more luck than Croatia. Until the 3:1 Croatia played better football than France. Both goalkeepers played not very well.
Congrats for an entertaining final to both teams.

Originally Posted by you
Rather than give raw numbers like 13 and 6 you should give percentage relative to the number of countries designated geography with soccer teams… I'll start by mentioning that there are only 12 countries in south America so it would be hard press for them to hold 13 of the top 20 top teams. Not sure how many of those 12 have teams.

Well, actually for a long time World cup was not seeded as now.
Before the Second War only 13 countries were invited: 7 South American, 4 Europeans, and 2 North Americans, probably for the fun of having them around fetching the ball. From there until 1978 it was 16 counties, nearly same number of SA and Europeans + few others.
Those were the time when most South American won quite a chunk of their medals. They only won it 3 times since.

Congratulations to France on their second World Cup, and of course, congratulations to Croatia on their silver medal. Unfortunately, I didn't watch the match, but I'll definitely have to watch highlights. I love matches with a lot of goals and what a final this must have been.

I had a feeling France was going to win from the beginning because I was rooting against them . They are fun to watch but not as fun as watching Belgium.

Wish the title of this thread was true and Iceland won it all. Would have been the greatest sports story of all time.

Hastar, I too agreed the only 2018 World Cup thread we have here has a misleading name

Before the match commenced, I was certain the outcome would be determined by penalty shots. Man, was I wrong!

Congrats to both teams, they were the top two of the tournament, in my opinion. I was pulling for Croatia, but alas, it wasn't to be. Maybe next time!

Did iceland actually have a chance or does everyone just wish they won because they like the underdog ? Also did Russia cheat ? I mean there were a lot of complaints that they messed with the doping tests but was anything actually confirmed ?

Originally Posted by you
Did iceland actually have a chance or does everyone just wish they won because they like the underdog ? Also did Russia cheat ? I mean there were a lot of complaints that they messed with the doping tests but was anything actually confirmed ?

As far as I'm aware of nothing was confirmed, I suspect the scandals with Russian athletes these last couple of years made many suspicious when Russia performed so well. On the other hand, it's common for the host nation to perform "above their level" in the World Cup, so I certainly hope the team was clean and will choose to believe they were unless we get some confirmation that proves otherwise.

All in all it was a great tournament, with many matches where the underdogs won, lots of beautiful goals, and a worthy winner in the end. Congratulations to France but even more so to Croatia that performed so admirable although they're one of the smallest countries to participate.

The end of the World Cup is like finishing a good book, satisfying but still leaving a hollow feeling behind…oh well, only two years until the next European Championship.

EDIT: Regarding Iceland, I don't think many people expected them to actually win the World Cup, but it's always fun with small countries that manages to win through good tactics and strong team efforts. Iceland is the smallest country to ever participate in the world cup, and that a nation with only 300k inhabitants manages to even qualify to the World cup is a success story. Per capita they have to be the greatest football nation on earth?