Re: The flop thread

[Peccadillo]

England doesn't come into it - Everyone was well aware that England may not qualify to R16.. and they didn't.

Italy was a surprise for me though, I thought they would ease past this group. They have such a strong midfield, and typically solid defence (although not much depth). With that squad Italy really should have progressed. Prandelli was right to stand down.

Spain were in a genuinely tough group, tougher than Group D. As much as Australia gained global respect, ultimately they lost all 3 games as they were expected to. Leaving it between Chile (nuff said, they've been immense) and Netherlands who have surprised everybody and frankly if Robben repeats the performance he put on for the 5-1 for every knock out stage, they are a top four team.

At the same time, for the champions to lose 5-1, then lose so definitively to Chile.. The convincing manner in which Spain flopped means they take the cake for me.

[Robespierre]

No shooting on target  in 180' against Costa Rica and Uruguay (we best football in group? Group D is the flop group of WC . Costa Rica was 1st  just because it was the only who tried sometimes to play football ..) is much worse than conceding goals to Arjen Robben and RVP , no doubts.

Anyway , it was not difficult to imagine Italy knocked out at group stage, on GL for example there was ppl to say England would have knocked out Italy....
While noone imagined Spain knocked out at group , also because the Netherlands was not highly rated ( and infact t is the worst Netherlands of last years on paper)

[Peccadillo]

Who said England would knock out Italy? You will need to provide quotes because that's a first for me.

Wiser people than me did foresee a struggle for Spain though. They always had to beat the Netherlands and Chile to guarantee qualification.. that isn't easy, even for world champs.

The manner in which they failed to qualify makes me agree they are the biggest flop.. but if they got edged out by Chile and finished on 4 pts or something., it wouldn't be quite so embarrassing.

[BarcaLearning]

Spain is by far.

Italy after 2010 flop who would have thought another big flop, so 2 WCs out in groups stage after their 2006 win...just goes to show I sitll dont really think they won it convincingly.

Every thought Italy has the know how and experience to get through even if tey are not impressive....just goes to show that these things are not a myth, but are actual combination of the team qualitie to make it happen, seems like Italy just dont have that anymore.

England flop as usual though I think its fair to say or is that considered flop still?

Japan flopped.

Croatia flopped would it be fair to say?

[zigra]

Italy and England both flopped hard. There's just NO excuse to finish behind effing Costa Rica. It's ridiculous really how anyone can act as if that's something that just happens from time to time. It's Costa Rica!
Spain an obvious flop. At least they had two decent opponents but it's still a huge flop.

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