I haven't fully followed this world cup besides highlights and watching the more important and bigger clashes but one thing I don't understand is just how is everyone so prolific with their scoring. By everyone, I mean the elite guys.

Mbappe is doing mbappe things which was expected in world cup.

Dembele has scored a hattrick and has overall scored 4 goals.

Messi has outscored all his other prior world cup campaign and even his 2022 world cup in terms of goals.

Haaland is scoring like he's in man City.

Kane is still scoring like he's in flow state.

Even vini, who had one of the most laughed about national resume in terms of goals had 4 goals, which are "elite".

Even cr7 even tho at 3 goals, if he survives spain and manages to score 1-2 goals will be his personal best world cup campaign in terms of goals.

So what exactly has changed? Where previously 7 goals was like the the entire tournament worth of goals and only 1-2 and maybe 3 players could at max be in contention and now, 5-6 players are absolutely on berserk mode.

Is the skill gap too high(which doesn't seem to be the case cuz of countries like cape verde) or what exactly?

Or am I just tripping?

Neymar plays for a Brazil team which was better than Messis Argentina up to 2021 and Ronaldos Portugal up until 2022. Brazil are also a much BIGGER football nation than the others and Neymar has 0 trophies for them whilst Ronaldo won a EUROS for much smaller PORTUGAL. Messi meanwhile ended Argentinas trophy drought yet both Messi + Ronaldo both received much more criticism for their international career low points whilst Neymar has always got off scot free.

This is a hot take, but Brazil National Team will never be good until they can learn how to actually play as a team. You see players like Vini, Rodrygo, Rayan, Cunha, Neymar, and more succeeding at their own clubs in the UCL, but every single year since 2006, they fall short of expectations somewhere and their team falls apart. This is not something a specific player or formation can fix, but I think it's a mentality thing.

I'd like to hear the thoughts.

7 goals in his first world cup whilst playing for a weak team and has scored in his last 14+ international games whilst Messi scored 0 in his ballon dor winning prime at the 2010 world cup. Not to mention Messi only scoring 6 in a weak French league in his first season at Psg whilst Haaland scored 35+ in his first season at City in the hardesr league in the world.

1. PSG: 
2. Bayern Munich: Ismael Saibari, Nathaniel Brown, Noel Aseko 
3. Barcelona: Anthony Gordon
4. Real Madrid: Ibrahima Konaté, Marc Cucurella, Denzel Dumfries, Bernardo Silva
5. Manchester City: Elliot Anderson, Mathys Detourbet
6. Arsenal: Piero Hincapie
7. Inter Milan: Aleksander Stankovic, Manuel Akanji
8. Dortmund: Joane Gadou, Kuau Prates, Justin Lerma   
9. Atletico Madrid: Alejandro Grimaldo
10. Liverpool: Jeremy Jacquet, Victor Munoz

edit: Apologies, I wasn't clear in the OP. I'm asking about all of the UCL favorites, not just PSG.

If you want to win a game, who would you rather have in your team?

UCL Ronaldo or World Cup Mbappe?

In any position, LW, ST, whatever.

.

Paraguay was shit housing the entire game with France, imagine if one of their south american league players managed to hurt and injury Mbappe, that could be horrible for Real Madrid. Given how they've been very openly critical of UEFA I'm surprised they're not speaking against this.

This doesn't apply to just Madrid's top player, but it can happen to all of the players still in the World Cup. Will Arsenal fans be happy if Gabriel gets hurt due to the referees allowing murder ball? How will Barcelona fans react if Yamal returns with a serious injury?

IK it's the wrong sub but bare with me.

This might be the single worst performance of ANY professional referee I've ever seen in life. Some of the tackles from Paraguay are bordering on UFC levels and not a SINGLE card shown yet. This is shambolic, thoughts??

This post contains content not supported on old Reddit. Click here to view the full post

Every Prem fans treated this guy like he was Iniesta or something because he broke the assist record and had a good 2nd half of the season. All eyes was on him as Portugal began their WC campaign, but he is nowhere to be seen. He's even making Neves and Vitinha look average now cuz they just can't function with him in the team.

"I approached him, and before I could even say much, he immediately hugged me and said: 'Well done. You’re a great goalkeeper. Your people must be very proud of you.' Hearing that from someone like Leo meant so much to me."

"I thanked him and replied: 'Thank you, Leo. You’re the best.' Then I asked for his match shirt; he smiled and said: 'Of course. I’ll give it to you in the tunnel.' I’ll remember a moment like this for the rest of my life." ❤️🇨🇻🇦🇷

Truly the beauty of football and the humility of two extraordinary individuals! ✨🤝

So Gordon just moved to Barcelona for €80m and people are already calling him overrated.But let's actually look at what he did in the Champions League last season,10 goals in the competition only the second englishman ever to hit double figures in a single campaign, after Harry Kane four goals in one half against Qarabag, something even Messi and Ronaldo never did outscored Harry Kane and Erling Haaland in Europe and what's the reaction? "he only scored 6 in the Premier League."yeah, but the Premier League isn't the Champions League, is it?Now he's at the biggest club in the world and everyone's waiting to see if he's legit the expectations? huge the pressure is even bigger.If his European form is real, Barca fans are gonna love him. If he flops? It's gonna be loud either way, it's gonna be entertaining to watch.Who's got a take on this?

He was once on the top of the world now he is a free agent.

Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Paris Saint Germain, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona, and Atlético Madrid.
So English teams can’t be drawn against other English teams and Spanish teams can’t be drawn against other Spanish teams. That means Barcelona will most likely have to face at least one English team and either Bayern or PSG.
Manchester City vs Real Madrid is already “locked in” by UEFA, and UEFA is pushing for PSG vs Barcelona. What is the advantage of being in Pot 1 or Pot 2 if teams still have to face clubs from all the pots? Shouldn’t Pot 1 teams get a bigger advantage?
And using the past five seasons results to decide the pots isn’t fair in my opinion. I think they should take into account both last seasons league performance and the last five seasons of European performance

a few questions from a new football fan:

context:
im new to football. i’ve been around it a lot, but never really got invested until this year when my boyfriend and i have been watching every world cup game, and i want to continue watching after the world cup. i looked up the best leagues to watch and found out about premier league and champions league. from my understanding, they run simultaneously and take the better part of the year. i see the main games for the 2026/27 season of premier begin aug 21, 2026 and for champions it begins sept 8, 2026. i see they run about 9-11 months. i’ve watched a handful of videos to understand how they work too and i think the system is really cool. i plan to keep up it after the world cup because i’ve really become interested. i see

questions:
-am i correct about the start dates?
-what’s your favorite way to watch games?
-are the start dates the same every year?
-how did you choose a team that you support? (i think the chelsea FC kit is the prettiest by far LOL but i wanna learn more about the teams before i choose one i like the best)
-what do you wish you understood before getting invested?

I heard many ppl say he should win a ballondor and he's better than yamal and dembele (the current ballondor holder)and it's mostly coming down to his status with the young kids (like the only logical ppl who say that are ppl who aren't older than 8). Don't get me wrong olise is surely amongst the top 5-7 itw rn but because he is edgy doesn't make him the bitw

.

Why do players if they reach age 30+ suddenly have worse shooting and passing and less risk taking? Like Im not talking about the body declining just overall football ability not pace or agility or balance which obviously will be worse after 30..

If you see Ronaldo or De Bruyne playing now they can't shoot rockets like they use too and they miss alot more also especially De Bruyne seem to have lost alot of vision in his game and he doesn't look dangerous anymore . When in his prime everytime he was on the ball he seemed to make killer passes even without needing his pace..

Maybe its just me and im not talking about Messi he is anomaly..