The Daily Merengue is a place where you can feel free to d all things football. Do not be alarmed by the overt RMCF bias. It’s in the name! Shoutout to the mods who do a fantastic job, Ezek, Valyrian Steel, Kung_Fu_Zizou, Juninho, NeRObutBlanco and yours truly, Felipejack.
Spain advance to the WC final!
Spain put a good performance and won convincingly against France, definitely one the top favorites. It was interesting to see how France could barely create and even shot on Spain’s goal, despite their surprisingly attacking power
with Mbappe, Olise, Dembele, Barcola. They had good attacking sequences early on, but they struggled a lot after Spain first goal.
While watching the game, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d seen this before — in our very own Real Madrid. A team full of world-class talent, but against a clearly superior tactical side, its individual brilliance was completely neutralized, and the coach appeared to run out of solutions.
Mbappe talked to the press about what went wrong for France:
I think we didn’t play our game, technically and tactically. When you don’t do what you’re supposed to do in a World Cup semi-final, you don’t win.
Spain stayed true to their game plan. If we are honest, we did not have what it takes to go to the final. From the very start, we went into the press with 3 against 2. We messed up there. Against Spain we should have pressed 1v1.
And even when we recovered the ball, our ball touches and our movements were not worthy.
England vs Argentina
So, today we will know the other finalist and I am definitely supporting England on this one. I definitely don’t want Argentina to win back to back World Cups, while Brazil lost for the very first European they faced on knockouts since 2002.
An interesting tactical comment:
Day 2
Mou’s coaching staff
A couple of things are worth mentioning. Former Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira has returned to the club, following reports that Mourinho wanted a former Madrid player on his coaching staff. Meanwhile, after conflicting reports, Pintus remained at the club and is listed as a physical coach alongside Antonio Dias, who joined the club as part of Mourinho’s coaching staff. However, there has been a change in the goalkeeping department, with Nuno Santos replacing Luis Llopis as goalkeeping coach. Llopis apparently remains at the club in another, as yet undisclosed, role.
Pintus is already with the players in trainning sessions:
Emirates set to update its logo
Victor Valdepeñas joins Fiorentina
He joined the Italian club for €8M transfer fee, but Real Madrid still have 50% his rights and also a future buy back clause.
