Wtf was that all about?
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- Thread starter Frogfish
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John Terry wants a picture taken with it.
Hopefully angry Salah and happy Mane will be the best combination.
If Egypt had won it, I am sure his agent would have sent out a series of tweets with Salah lifting the trophy and "not so subtly" reminding LFC fans and owners that Salah has not received a contract offer he is happy with. So because of that, I am happy Mane won it.
Indeed. Like a mirror image of Mo's in Madrid. 🙂
Yep that's how I felt. That and the fact Egypt play anti-football (4 goals during the whole competition - WTF). Sorry for Mo. but it would have been devastating for Mane to miss that penalty during the game and then lose the penalty shootout. Happy for him and Senegal that he/they won it.
What did you expect? It would be like England losing in the Euro final. No-one is going to be all smiles after losing but that was a lot more affectionate than another poster would have us believe.
I bet Mane was telling him ... don't you dare two-time me with that Diaz cunt whilst I'm in Senegal. You just better not.
WTF have people not seen the clip? He had his arm around Mane whilst clearly in distress.
BTW this tournament epitomised why Africa don't have more World Cup slots. Would you really want to watch more of that? The highest world ranked team in Africa is Senegal at 18th (however they work that out). Though with the WC expansion they'll get more slots now along with all the other dross around the world.
I think talent-wise Africa has a lot to offer – take this Senegal team comprising of players from LFC, Chelsea, Napoli, Bayern, PSG, AC Milan, Leicester, Marseille, Villareal etc – it would be a match for all but a few European or South American teams. I think the big problem for a lot of African teams is coaching and the huge gap in quality between domestic and European-based players, but overall their talent pool keeps deepening and there is now more of a variety of top-quality players – modern full-backs, playmakers, ball-playing CBs, even a few decent GKs (traditionally a weak spot). If they are going to expand the WC, I would rather watch Burkina Faso than Slovenia or Finland.
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Well yes I agree - but that's why Senegal are the top ranked African team. But that aside you are cherry picking, you can't pick out a few names and say that's representative. In front of goal most of those teams were just abysmal which greatly contributed to the lack of spectacle. Potentially though maybe playing on better pitches (at the WC) would improve the overall standard.
The issue isn't the top few that make the WC - they add a lot of interest and I'm always rooting for them - it's the next level down that don't. But that's the fare we're going to be force-fed from now on as FIFA pad their coffers.
It was nice to see an African coach win the tournament, especially a Rastafarian guy with dreadlocks – expanding the accepted look for a head coach forever!
BTW the 3rd place play-off game was crazy: Cameroon were down 0:3 with 20 minutes to go, but managed to equalize (have to say, poor goalkeeping helped) and won on penalties. Aboubakar finished as the top scorer of the tournament with 8 goals; I didn't realize until now that's the striker we faced with Porto the previous time.
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Some of the goalkeeping was hilarious - but nice to see Cameroon get 3rd as hosts. Sorry for BF though, small nation that needs some positive vibes.
The players are there - and always have been.
THe issue is if they're good, they're going abroad to work in the better infrastructures of Belgium, Holland, France etc ...
Which weakens the local level dramatically and doesn't really make it that worthwhile for govts to invest in their sports infrastructure.
Yes, exactly. Hopefully some of the windfall profits the game is making will find a way to trickle down there and create conditions for new talent to develop locally – I think what we're seeing is just a tip of the iceberg in terms of how much actual talent is there.
Nope - the local govts will not be able to invest for many reasons (debt, prioritization, corruption etc), and FIFA aren't that interested in investing in footy in Africa (the SA world cup caused more damage to SA than help imo).
Just realised it's his first managerial job and has been in the post since 2015
Yeah but the showpiece events like the World Cup or the Olympics are almost always a drain on the hosting country – what they need is not huge new stadiums, but just a bit of money for facilities and coaching at the grass-roots level. Consistency is key. BTW I just looked it up and Mane only moved to Europe at 19 and Keita at 17, which is already later than I thought. Until age 19 Mane played at a 1000-capacity stadium for a club called Generation Foot, which also produced the likes of Papiss Cisse and Ismaila Sarr.
Salah
Haha big smile over here.
You are assuming they were 19 & 17 😉
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