Neymar’s social media obsession and ‘overrated’ Brazil’s dancing criticised after World Cup exit…

‘Overrated’ Brazil’s World Cup exit proves they should have practiced penalties over dancing. Also: whoever wins France vs England will win the whole thing.

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Bye, bye Brazil
Dancing is part of Brazil’s culture. So is getting knocked out of World Cups as soon as they meet strong European opposition.
Matthew, Belfast

Brazil dancing out of the World Cup
A lot of headlines were generated by the Brazil team dancing at the World Cup after scoring, especially after the South Korea match. Some ratified it as a cultural affair, some labeled it as unnecessarily flamboyant and disrespectful, some enjoyed the show put on, while others didn’t know what to make of it.

Personally, I had no qualms with the issue, but then, when compared with their counterparts Portugal who beat a Switzerland team 6-1 and celebrated with sheer joy, and nothing choreographed or planned beforehand, it tells you a different story of the mentality of both teams. One thing about celebrations like these is that it gives the critics and neutrals stick to beat them with if anything goes wrong. The critics will give their verdict, and the neutrals will say it’s karma.

During the whole saga earlier in the season with Vinicius Jnr, it was hard not to side with him, in that his dancing after scoring was an expression of himself, not something to show off with, but it’s hard to find sympathy for this Brazil team, as if they’re completely focused on proving the wrong points to the critics. Winning is more important than dancing, giving others joy is more important than having joy. They mixed up their priorities in expressing their culture rather in striving to win games through sheer single-mindedness, and their coach got caught up in the whole affair. Emotions can only take you so far, mentality is all that counts.

They also danced on the coach on their way to the Croatia match, now they’re out of the World Cup, in tears, crying at the end. The Brazilian team of a few years past have been dogged by fragility and misplaced priorities, said to be embodied by some of their biggest names. You speak of boys who fought tooth and nail to reach their greatest heights, then become blinded at the top and seem to forget what brought them there in the first place. Hunger, fight, and desire. You can be cool and sexy after you’ve done the job, but never lose sight of why you’re here. Not to dance, but to make your country proud, not by showing off the dance culture, but by fighting your hearts out. We recognize the samba, but it’s been dead for a long time. Give us back our Brazil, a team of superstars not prone to hysteria.
Iyanu Tokede, Lagos Nigeria.

Dance now
Brazil can dance all they want now. Despite having beaten no teams of any real stature or pedigree, they were arrogant and complacent.

Instead it was the attitude, application and no little talent that carried the day for Croatia.

There’s a lesson there for the Brazilian Pogba and more importantly, for those younger teammates who may seek to imitate or emulate him.

One well taken chance across 120 minutes of abject anonymity does not constitute a world class player, even if the near orgasmic punditry says otherwise.

Having secured one Instagram post in the game, Neymar clearly sought another social media moment by hanging back and waiting for glory, to take the fifth and hopefully winning penalty rather than stepping up to keep his country in the tournament.

As I’ve said previously, it’s like shearing a pig, more noise than wool.
Eoin (take a bow Croatia) Ireland

Brazil = Overrated
Brazil were overrated, as they seem to be at every single tournament.

Deservedly beaten by the first good team they meet.

Goodbye in Portuguese.
Si

Gareth is the one
Ahead of Saturday’s game I think it’s important to be realistic. This is a very good French side. If we remove our rose tinted, myopic glasses for a moment, the reality is that there would be more French players in a combined 11 than English. So we go into the match as underdogs, a reason for hope in my view, but still with a decent chance of progressing with a prevailing wind and the attendance of lady luck.

Before all that I want to state that regardless of the result tomorrow, I think many English fans just don’t realise how lucky we are to have Southgate. I still see many people in the mailbox and the real world saying that he’s rubbish but as a 50 year old England fan, I’ve never seen us perform to the sustained levels that Southgate produces at tournaments and we’ve certainly never been this consistent before. Semi-finalists in the last 2 tournaments and one win away (admittedly against one of the favourites) from a third! And of course, one of the semi-finals led to a final where we lost on penalties – standard! If we get past France, who knows where this year’s journey will end?

Everyone will argue about this player and that, this formation and the other, substitutes and tactics but the maths don’t lie and the reality is that most of us who write into the mailbox think that we know better but have never managed anything like the quality of players he does in the highest pressure role there is.

He knows how to deliver tournament performances and it’s been the best ride as an English fan in my lifetime. He deals with so much crap from the media whose only job is to sell papers/clicks. I see that today the headlines are emerging that White left the camp due to a fallout with the coaches. Not great but from a results and performance perspective, what possible good can come from the media releasing that story the day before the game?

I thought it was a terrible appointment at the time but am happy to admit I clearly knew sweet FA. He’s been brilliant. I hope more than anything that he gets the trophy he deserves but regardless of what happens on Saturday, for me Clive, he’s been the best England manager in my lifetime.
Adam (I don’t care if you don’t agree) England

Commentators
Dear commentators (and especially Johnathan Pearce), the more you spend your job saying “IS THIS THE MOMENT??” or other pre-arranged soundbites to try and have your ‘They think it’s all over’ moment, the more I want it to be a dour 0-0 full of terrible scuffs and Sunday-league hoofing.

Please stop it. Just show some authentic excitement and slightly flub your words in the moment and you’ll add way more to ‘the moment’ than something you’ve clearly rehearsed multiple times pre-match.
Al LFC, Notts

Argentina vs Netherlands also happened
That was the best free kick I have ever seen. If ever a free kick deserved to extend a game it was the Dutch one in last night’s game. So unexpected, so cheeky, I couldn’t believe the balls or the poise to not launch the free kick at the goal hoping for the best. Shame they couldn’t beat that idiot Martinez in PKs. That little shimmy after the save is the most cringe I’ve felt for a keeper since Pickford and his time wasting or Ramsdale just being himself.

In any case, winner of France vs England to win the thing. Morocco winning it would be hell of a story though.
Nik (bitter? Yea a little…but ‘regular’ football resumes soon) Munich

Keepers
I don’t think anything can tell you how much the position of goalkeeper has changed over the years than watching Szczeny and Emi (and Al-Owais) arguably be the best three keepers this tourney. These are not sweeper keepers (trust me, I know, that’s why my club formerly employed two of the former three but is now currently starting/investing in Ramsdale who is being kept out of his national side by PIckford’s “English track-record”) but in a knockout tournament – particularly in these cagier, latter stages – someone is going to have to save those shots on target. And those penalties. Would you rather have Kahn’s reactions in the moment or Van Der Sar’s visionary organization/sweeping if you could only pick one?
MAW, LA Gooner (Or you could just pick Neuer)

F365 = Lazy
It’s fun reading people blame f365 for profiting while preaching. I need some better links to all this going on because the only articles coming up on my feed are media watch and mailbox because everyone is collectively losing their shit over the world cup. Get back to work you lazy f365 writers! Find me some juicy Premier league news!
Simon the scrooge, LFC

Why the US doesn’t produce strikers
So, following the US exit to the Netherlands, my friends and I, like many American fans, were discussing our lack of strikers and I see an email from a fellow Yank asking “where is our Haaland/Mbappe?” and I think the answer is pretty simple…he’s playing basketball. Despite baseball’s ceremonial position as our national pastime, and the name based rivalry with American Football (That “It’s called Soccer” campaign is just massively, massively stupid), it’s really basketball that dominates the cutlure, particularly youth culture.

We can get shrimps like Pulisic cause he doesn’t really fit into the other sports, but our tall guys (of all ethnic backgrounds) are all aiming for/being pushed to the NBA.

20ish years ago, the US decided to really push its marketing towards the “Suburban soccer kid” and at the time that was the right market…they were all playing the game and simply had no outlet to watch it. Now, between much wider coverage, the prevalence of FIFA (the video game), and yes our WC performances means we no longer have to focus exclusively on that market, but by continuing to do so they are alienating a wider fanbase by being SO OFF-PUTTINGLY DORKY.

And worse, the USMNT hierarchy has no motivation to redirect their focus…the suburban kids have the money, and we have a free ride to the next World Cup.
Josh, Arsenal, Quincy MA

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