**The World Cup 2018 Official Thread**

[egg]

anyone wanna take on my bet in betting exchange?

yeah, how do you do that?

 

[Rell Lauren]

Game is going to be closer than I'd like it to be. Croatia is going to be physical early like they were with England. If the refs get control of the game unlike the England match, I don't think it'll throw France off of their game too much.

 

[---]

cant lie...

that looks like the place to be

Wait is this true?

 

[LiveFromLondon]

I'm still trying to figure out this whole league of nations thing like whats the point? Are teams for sure going to take it seriously?

Meant to replace friendlies which arent really competitive, thats what i think anyway as it has been touted before

 

[TobiOT]

Deschamps loves Giroud like Roberto Martinez, Moyes & LVG love Fellaini

 

[---]

History and culture are a huuuge part in this. France is a very centralized country, meaning there's Paris (the capital) and the rest of the country. For decades, we have had decentralizing policies so regions and departments could hold more weight but the truth is it's still heavily centralized towards Paris and the "presidential" government. Obviously, we are not a monarchy but that is the feeling you'll get if you're French or living here.

The INF and the academies are in the same vain. But that's not only for football, we have regional/club academies for tennis, rugby, track and field etc. And the all the best young players are detected from those academies and go to the national academy (usually in Paris suburbs obviously). For example, we have the INSEP where our best tennismen (Tsonga, Monfils, Gasquet...), basketball players (Parker, Turiaf, Fournier), athletes (Perec, Diagana, Arron) were trained before turning pro. I believe that when they turn pro, they get to redistribute some of their gains to the country in their first pro years but I'm not sure.

That is administratively speaking. Now France's colonialism past also plays a huge role. The post WWI migrations (Polish, Italian, Spanish mostly), post WWI migrations (North Africans mostly), 70s (Carribeans, West-Africans, Portuguese) make France a huge melting pot in its biggest cities. There are no specific waves since the 80s but the migration fluxes mostly come from Africa. On average, France is less multicultural than the US (there a thousands of villages or small towns which see little to no diversity) but if you simply look at its top 20 cities, it's very diverse.

If you take a look at the history of the French NT, you'll basically see that after one or two generations, the NT starts to be filled with the children of the migration wave :
In the 50s (the first great French generation), you had several players of Spanish (Fontaine), Polish (Kopa) and Italian (Piantoni) descent.
In the 80s (the second one), Italians (Platini is the best example) or Spanish (Fernandez and Amoros are the most known of that era) descent and that's when you started seeng the first great black players (Tigana, Trésor)
The late 90s/mid 2000s (is the third one) where the the Black Blanc Beur thing came. Players from several descents : Arab (Zidane, Lamouchi), Armenian (Djorkaeff, Boghossian), Spanish (Lizarazu, Pires) Carribeans (Thuram, Karembeu), African (Dessailly, Diomède) etc.
So now we are at the 4th generation and we have far more players from African descent reflecting the migration flux since 30-40 years ago.

It is important to say that the players are not immigrants. They are French by law, simply they are of foreign descent like many that allow them to carry several cultures with them. So if you want to replicate the French model, you'll have to follow the same dynamics and also be able to have some centralization in this.

Repped this is an unbelievable answer. Are you involved in sports in france?

 

[JayGatsby]

Wait is this true?

i heard its fake still...good look!

 

[hashmander]

i wonder what racist chants croatia's fans have in store for france.

 

[egg]

anyone wanna take on my bet in betting exchange?

Are you supporting Croatia? Coli cash is useless right?

 

[Max B]

I’m hoping for a shocker just like the euros. France seems abit over confident but I don’t blame them.

Hopefully modric plays the game of his life and mandzukic seems to pop in goals in big games

 

[LiveFromLondon]

French academy that does this well, there was their 87 (born in 1987)generation they thought would do what these guys are doing but they were quite dismal

Ben Arfa, Nasri, Benzema, Valbuena, Diaby et tal boy shoulda had next

 

[---]

I honestly don't see France winning this. What I saw in the last game shows me that when Croatia midfield get a hold of the game they won't let go. I love pogba but he disappears from games a lot. Modric is quietly the golden ball player of the world cup to me. Also Crotia are going to rough up France and they are more than comfortable going behind. This will be a very tight game.

 

[phillycavsfan]

Starting Kante and Matuidi has me thinking that France has got this.

 

[DStyles]

Every 20 years since zil first won, a new country wins it



I want to see Croatia win it. fukk it they deserve it just as much as France.

 

[JayGatsby]

Starting Kante and Matuidi has me thinking that France has got this.

Im glad Matuidi is fit,he's a key component

dude look like he saw death during the last game

girouds hold up play is key i feel, he may not be scoring but he is bringing others into play