u/Rik_Ringers

Greetings all.

I'm a belgian and i wanted to share some information about the discussion in Belgium a how we should play against the USA. I'm not here to troll, i know better than to enter a lions den just to poke it heh, its more meant as food for discussion.

in general it is recognized that the USA has a quite athletic team, and that hence it would be best for us to bring in a squad with younger legs, atleast in the first 60 minutes. We might perceive that as the game goes past minute 60 that American legs among the starting 11 will tire a bit, and this would be a good moment to bring in more veteran players with fresh legs like KDB, Doku and Lukaku. Contrary to previous tourney's our B squad has proven to be of fairly similar quality than the typical starting squad which is very nice, we have "depth" so to speak. It was also the B squad that managed to turn the tide against Senegal. In contrast we might presume that the B squad of the USA isn't as strong as its starting 11.

Gert verheyen, a former football player and analist for Belgian Sporza gave his formation for the US. Notable are replacements that bring in more young legs, Ngoy (22yo) in and Arthur Theate (26yo) out as Ngoy is a significantly more pacey defender than Theate. Vanaken (33yo) out of the midfield and replaced by Raskin (25yo) , Mathias Fernando Pardo in (21yo) instead of a underperforming Charles de ketelaere (25yo) as Pardo is a very fast striker which could be usefull to a US team that presses and hence leaves space in the back.

source:
https://voetbalfocus.be/verheyen-rode-duivels-vs-wk-2026-garcia/

Among belgian fans, voices are also made for a younger team, to then put in the more veteran players at later minutes. Arguments are made that neither Doku or Vanaken should start, the former more on recent performances and the latter more on age.

Would you get if either or both Vanaken and Doku start on the bench? 43% yes, 26% yes to Doku, 14% yes to Vanaken, 17% both should play. 1396 votes so far.

From my own impression, i think we should put even youngers legs in for the first 60 minutes aswell to beat the US press. In midfield i might put KDB and Vanaken on the bench and go for a trio of Raskin (25yo), Onana as a Ball winning midfielders (24yo) and Youri Tielemans (29yo) on the number 10 position. This seems fairly acceptable by current Belgian mood as KDB hasn't been performing too well for Belgium this touney. KDB would later replace likely Raskin but possibly Onana depending on how the match goes. Onana in that sense could act as a sort of pacy physical ball winning midfielder that is fast enough to lend defensive support to the flanks, whereas Raskin is more a type of dynamic midfielder.

In the defense i support putting in Ngoy, Maxime De Cuyper (25yo) has been solid on right back position, i don't think we can afford to play a 34yo Thomas Meunier on the right back position but perhaps sub him in in later minutes as he did well as a sub against Senegal but otherwise hasn't been to convincing, putting a 30yo Thimoty Castagne in there is not ideal but he has been in good form for Belgium and i guess he's the best option we have.

Up front, besides Pardo which i wholly support having as starting striker to be subbed in by minute 50 something by Lukaku, i would start Lukebakio (29yo) an Trossard (31yo), Trossard has been in great form for us this tourney and hasn't lost much in pace, Lukebakio is a fast technical lad which i think spells some trouble for the US. Likely that we also sub in Doku (24yo) for one of the 2 early in the second half.

Tactically speaking, the idea would be to lean into the early athletic game of the US with pace and physicallity, pushing the game to a high tempo that drains juice from the USA starting 11. From minute 60 or so we should play a more technical control game with Doku and Lukaku beating more tired defenders or weaker subs on physicallity, pace and technicallity while a fresh legged KDB supports them and launches some distance strikes at the goal.

I started this thread as a way of discussion for US fans about their own strategy, trying to bring this is a sportive mindset with respect to your team. My assesment of potential weaknesses in the US squad are merely my own, they are not meant to instill concern amongs US fans. What i do think though is that when i read a lot of comments here that "Belgium is washed" that this might severely underestimate the quality and pacyness of our bench and its usefullness as a starting 11.

Is het niet een beetje raar dat de naam "The Netherlands" gebruikt wordt op het WK? Het is gelijk dat je Schotland op het WK zou hebben en dat je Engeland dan "het verenigd koningkrijk" noemt. Des te meer dat Curacao ook op het WK zit, Nederlands is niet hetzelfde als "the netherlands" in dat aspect maar de anglosfeer is te lui of Nederland zijn eigen vertaling te geven.

Als een zuidelijke nederlander ben ik van mening dat ze jullie team gewoon Oranje zouden moeten noemen, zowel om consequent te zijn alsook het te noemen zoals jullie het toch al noemen.

There is a lot of discussion nowadays on the inpact of automation, robots and AI. Will we soon all be withought job? The debate is difficult when it pertains to actual number of jobs available, there is often a degree by which technological advancement creates new jobs too.

But i want to discuss the matter in a way which is more transparent imho, and puts the finger better on the wound of the dangers that are to come.

Our system is based on scarcity, but arguable for thousands of years that scarcity was mainly labor.
In the past there were plenty of resources that were un-exploited, there simply did not exist the labor to use it all for economic purposes. However, it is exactly that which constitutes the economic paradigm shift of these times.

When its easy to make robots, its easy to keep expandinging production capacity as long as you have the resources available for it. The greatest economic growth in that way could perhaps be achieved by inventing self replicating robots in a future scenario. But the thing is, earths capacity to provide resources is limited by what it can offer and what we can exploit at any given technological level. What therefore happened is that we have exchausted much of the cheap sources of resources, and for many resources we ave come to the point that we need to get them in ever more difficult ways and at that especially expensive ways.

The result is a general sharp increase in the price of resources and consequently inflation.

That raises the crucial question on the structural level of capitalism. Capitalist distrubution of value depends on labor participation, but why would the owners of scarce resources want to share as much scarce resources as before to workers if automation costs less?

The likely result is a gradual crushing of the lower and middle classes in society trough inflation. You might feel it that inflation is already significant, but then i would argue "you have seen nothing yet".

Withought more equitable control of resources, the achievement of humanity to develop robotics, (the merrit of generations of workers that were promised more wealth trough economic development) will be fully exploited by the owners of resources, against those who dont, against the sons and daughters of the workers the system exploited, against the promises of the better economic future the capitalist system dangled as a carrot before their eyes.

One can immagine how it will go for space. Housing and rent prices will push the lower and middle classes to less and less space for the same money, while the rich can overpower them for their own preffered land use taking more space as they go. Less social housing projects, more golf courses, things like that.

Feel free to comment in any way you like, as long as its within the rules of the sub.

trillions of dollars, over decades, thats the kind of subsidies the Oil industry is getting in the US. It feels like a racket, why arnt those companies subject to market mechanics like anyone else? And all justified under "providing jobs"

When the corona crisis hit, the US oil industry took a deep dive, huge amounts of invested capital was lost, or basicly taxpayer money. Huge investments were made in capital goods, and when the demand fell those wells typically had to be "spiked", because you cant just shut down a well under pressure. So where you first invested trilliosn to build up the wells, now you also had to pay to close them.

But the US oil industry rebounded from the crisis, how else thanks to very generous subsidies to the sector, all on the cost of the US taxpayer.

You would think "the chickens would come to roost" for the US taxpayer when the industry became profitable again at prices over 100$ a barrel, but its not that after all those subsidies the American taxpayer will get his fuel at a reduced price. Oh no!!! Fork it over now! The US oil industry is going to get fat profits this year, its going to render some great bonusses for the people on top.

How is this not just ... criminal? The US likes to portray itself as capitalist and a free market, but to be fair there is a whole army of companies that suck on goverment tits and an army of pliable politicians to serve them at the expense of the taxpayer. Its corrupt AF, imho, these people are on the constant lookout to introduce new rent yielding mechanics. I hould have become an oil barron too and let american taxpayers slave while i sit on my fat ass acting as if i'm a genius economists because i wear a suit.

As to enviromental costs, externalise it to the poppulation! let the oil industry destroy half a state like lousiana, its ok as long as its black people that suffer mos? Heck out there they might cherish that opportunity?

Feel free to give your own thoughts.

As was playing yesterday with my A20, i got caught on a advanced position i wanted to challenge by another A20 that was reinforced by An AMX ELC that tried to move in for the kill.

Hang on, an AMX ELC that tries somethign funny on an A20, i have to say that it seemed like a stupid idea from his part to me since im so used to hunting and ramming the snot out of AMX's with the A20. It's fun to ram AMX with an A20, they cant run afterall and while the A20 is light it has a lot more ramming tonnage than a AMX ELC, so whenever that AMX gets into a position thats a bit too advanced for his own good its punish time.

So what i did was charge out of my position, endure the inevitable fire the A20 and perhaps the AMX ELC would get on me, it wouldnt do to outright kill me, and then just ram te snot out of the AMX, for fun, taking atleast him with me. He was actually on a ledge near the sea, hilly position too, there was so much slope to it that as i rammed him and pushed him over we both launched trough the sky i was doing in excess of 75kmph launching him forth. I did get my kill, and i thought it utlitarian enough to trade my life to oust a full hp AMX ELC too. it was FUN, and im sure it was not what he had expected to happen.

This is a thread for the trill seekers among you, that dont mind to much about the dying? Ever succesfully threw your 50 ton heavy from a bridge to land on top of a troughpassign light, just to kill him fancy? This is the place to leave usch anecdotes. Mind you in a not so un-recent game i manged to drive over the roofs of two tanks next to eachother as they were camping near a ledge, killed one outright shot the other but i didnt die so that doesnt count. A condition for the anecdotes is that you must have died aswell and it was kinda stupid. A honerable succesfull suicide attack for a 1 on 1 trade of lives ticks the condition of being fun and stupid enough in itself, and i salute it!

I admit, as a A20 player i like to move into the enemies rear, even outright ride trough their formations at times to saw confusion and chaos, dodging like a madman at 70 to 80 kmph, i rarely ever slow down in this tank. Nothing more fun than driving trough a defended passage just passing the tanks there faster than they can train their gun on you and leave then behind to then go hunt the arties stumbling in their presence like a fox into a henhouse. SURPRIIIISE! It's risky and tricky but also adrenaline inducing and i love it when i pull it off. Only last time i did it i beautifully turbo'd trough the enemy line hurting confused players as for atleast a minute or 2 (kinda helpfull for the team) i went only to turn a corner and run right into a KV2. He didnt even have to derp, A20 cant ram KV2 trust me. I take it though over accidently going that extra 10kmph to fast in a turn to land sideways for arty to shoot at, it has happened before as well.