noikeee

Ah, a list of people who are all thereabouts my age pointing out how they're finished, how cheerful to read.

Emi Martinez; Theo Hernandez, Saiss, Gvardiol, Hakimi; Amrabat, MacAllister, Griezmann; Mbappe, Julian Alvarez, Messi

In this thread, people who don't understand what a ranking is

Bronze ball had to have been Griezmann

On the pitch I think it was probably the most entertaining international tournament all the way back since Euro 2000 or so. Tons of drama, some of the star players have really turned up (both Messi and Mbappe not only did well through the whole tournament but then go on to score multiple in the final itself - amazing), there was a healthy upsets vs favourites ratio, and there was positive football all the way across the board with very few teams trying to park the bus, even those that played defensively like Morocco did so with quality whenever they were on the ball. Just a really positive tournament in footballing terms, unfortunately a bit overshadowed by the wider political context, and the rather uneasy feeling of watching football unfold in venues where people probably lost their lives in anonimity, building the whole thing for our entertainment.

It's going to be 1-0, Tchouameni header in a corner that deflects off Molina's arse onto the post and in.

Last time he was on one of these like today, he fumbled a goal. Technically not an owngoal, though.

A really catastrophically* timed injury with Deschamps deciding not to call him up and Benzema responding with a sassy post on Instagram.

The Spanish press is claiming this is a possibility I'd call him up if fit and put him on the bench. Imagining bringing in the Ballon d'Or out of your subs bench late in the second half or in extra time

A more immediate concern for me will be get Cartagena rolling. I suspect I may not be able to bring in any interesting Peruvian talent for a season or two as we are completely out of cash, so for now according to my assistant manager this is our strongest 11 Starting with my Leyton Orient 4-3-3 for now, this might change of course. I have loaded a very lightweight database/leagues setup to try to speed up the game and plan to be IR'ing games unless they are of extreme importance. Since this is a long term type of career, of course. The 4 tiers of Spanish football are active to see if Cartagena B go up to an active division - they start in tier 5...

The Peruvian national team at the start of the game: Seems to me like the team is still barely hanging on to the 2 old stars Guerrero and Farfan, to the 30yo Carrillo to a lesser extent, and that of the new generation the real superstar is Tapia with Flores and Vilca as supporting cast. Decent, but a long way behind the likes of Brazil and Argentina.

The Peruvian football federation knew it was time to act. Peru have underperfomed historically compared to other South American nations. A nation with 10 times the population of Uruguay, and 3/4rs of Argentina, it is yet to go further in the World Cup than the quarter-final presences of 1970 and 1978. Its trophy list consists of 2 Copa Americas, won in 1939 and 1975, and nothing else since. Of course, there are probably wide socio-economical reasons for this, but why look at that when we can just paper over the cracks with the Football Manager editor, eh? So it was time for a change. A series of protocols have been reached, including an agreement with the Spanish side FC Cartagena, currently in La Liga Smartbank the 2nd tier of Spanish football, to have a series of promising Peruvian teenagers coming through their youth ranks, shipped over from Lima and the surrounding areas. A document has been signed that commits Cartagena to do this for the coming decades, and to improve their youth training facilities as soon as possible to help these kids reach their potential. Cartagena will also be actively trying to promote Peruvian football as much as possible by hiring promising Peruvian players that have not yet reached the club. In essence, the club will become the springboard for Peruvian football, and put the needs of Peruvian football above its own success. For this, a young, little known Peruvian manager has been installed... Another wild protocol has been reached with the European Union so that Peruvian footballers can be considered as EU in most European leagues, moving freely to the highest possible ranks of football. Editor changes: - Cartagena the city has been duplicated to a new "Cartagena" in Peru, assigned to Cartagena the club, so that the club can produce Peruvian regens. I also changed this city to have the highest possible population and highest possible attraction number, in the hopes it will produce good regens - I have added club vision ongoing goals to the club, such as develop youth players, hire players under 23, hire Peruvian players, develop the best youth system. I may have gone slightly overboard with this... - Peru was added to the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) - I have added a modded Peruvian league (downloaded) - I have added a modded World Cup format and a modded Copa America format (downloaded). This means Concacaf and Conmebol are now joint in both WC qualification and the Copa America, which might make things a bit more interesting. Right, the goal as explained above is to use the club as a platform for all things Peru. Eventually I want to manage the national team as well, whenever that becomes available, but there's time for that. For now we have to take Cartagena from the 2nd tier to becoming a powerhouse of Spanish football.. whilst developing the kids I already have and will start coming in.. whilst upgrading the facilities to something a bit nicer... So let's look at what I have now at the start of the game.. First team is all about a 40yo striker... ehhh okay. Our first few Peruvians show up in the B team squad.. not too impressive... let's go down to the U19s... Now this is starting to get a bit more interesting... maybe there's one or two outside options for future national team players, if not quite big star potential just yet... Right, it's time to actually start to play the game.. just one more thing, let's keep an eye on the FIFA rankings of Peru to have a decent idea of the team's baseline right now... 28th. Could be worse, but it's not great...

Because he's unblocked several matches out of nothing on his own

I can't see past Messi and Mbappe. Both have been immense and are their teams biggest stars

I want Argentina but have voted France. They seem to be on the exact same note they were on two years ago. Simultaneously unimpressive yet somehow inevitable through their talent, which is a very weird combo. It's kinda like Zidane's Real Madrid.

Whether it's imported footballers or not, whether it's sustainable or not, I see an improved standard across *all* African teams, they are more competitive, better organised than in the past, and I'd argue more than any other confederation are starting to deserve more places in the World Cup, as a few of the teams that don't make it are pretty strong. There's this lot of 10 teams or so at the forefront of African football that are all pretty even with one another, and the qualification format is a bit ridiculous with everyone having to clear a two legged playoff. Not that I want a 48 team World Cup just to make it happen because I don't. But I think a 6th African side would be stronger than the next Concacaf side or the next Asian side.

This is a problem without solution, unless there's massive social-economic progress in the continent (which by the way IS progressing, but still has a long way to go), so that their economies and by attachment their footballing leagues and facilities, become attractive and competitive. I'm just amazed that you managed to find such a ridiculously negative, sour angle to this.

As opposed to all the other competitive African teams with a core of players from African leagues Like, for example.....?

One thing that seems to have been slightly lost in all the Ronaldo talk and all other talking points is this is the first ever African side to reach a semi final. It would've been Ghana in 2010 if not for Suárez, no other team has been this close for a while. An amazing achievement by an actually pretty talented generation of Moroccan players.

Netherlands go out complaining about a pro Argentine ref, Portugal go out with the players complaining the ref was pro Morocco to help Argentina, and England go out complaining about a pro French ref in the same match they get two pens. Perhaps we're all more similar than we like to think... How about looking at how all three teams underperformed to various degrees, hey?

Is he's going to Saudi Arabia there's no coming back from that. He'll just lose tons of competitive rhythm

He was planning to play Euro 2024 but not sure he or anyone else saw such a sharp decline coming this season I think it's over

I'll have to defend Ronaldo on this one, and I don't even like him that much Bloke is clearly going through some tough times - I think somethings a bit off with him emotionally - and he knows the cameras will all be on him. It's also the end of pretty much the last dream of his career. I can't blame him for wanting a private moment. The perfect thing to do is stay on the pitch, thank the fans, support your teammates etc, but in moments of high emotions it's okay not to act perfectly

We lost our heads a bit but I think the problem was strategy not attitude. We saw them frustrate Spain for 120 minutes so instead of doing what we did vs Switzerland and playing patiently through the middle, we decided to bypass them together with direct balls and long flank variations. This didn't work at all the first 45 minutes so we just gave them a 45 mins advantage. The rest is luck of the dice, we concede as they exploit one of our weaknesses (keeper is bad at commanding the area), second half we went a bit desperate all out attack but the chances were there and could've scored. Biggest factor was the bad starting game plan in my opinion, was the difference between getting control of the match and letting it slip into chaos as it did. We also never looked convincing defensively all tournament long, even against Switzerland. People got a bit too carried away with just one match where everything went perfect. Also today wasn't THAT bad, sometimes **** happens and the opposition has their own value, too.

Good game Morocco. Well executed plan, shut us off in the first half, got the goal, fair enough. It hurts seeing this clearly talented generation drop out like this, when we had a great chance of going far, but that's football.