00:01if you're not a team that's budgeting to go really deep in this tournament if you're if
00:06every game past the groups is like an experience for you you don't really need to worry too much
00:11about oh well i don't want to burn players out here because we've got a quarter final to think
00:15about you're just thinking about that immediate game i think you'll see that second maybe third
00:19tier of teams who are good who can give anybody a bloody nose on a day but i'm not really
00:23been
00:23talking about favorites i think they might just turn up and be like do you know what if these
00:27teams aren't going to work really really hard if they're trying to save themselves for the last
00:31stages what if we just what if we just get out of them and i think you might get a
00:35lot of surprises
00:35are you going to say japan no i was actually going to say ecuador they can see yeah another good
00:40example five i think they can see the five goals in uh south american qualifying in 18 games finished
00:46second in that just only behind argentina obviously kaisado they've got that real solid goal and they're
00:52a team who work hard off the ball typically obviously keep a lot of clean sheets going
00:57back to your point about defenses do well in in world cups and i just wonder if they might be
01:01a
01:02team they're in the group with germany whether whether they come up against germany and i think
01:05it's the third group game germany could already be through might even rotate a few players
01:09and you get exactly that where ecuador throw everything on that game and not actually go and
01:13win it that conversely i think with the expanded nature of the the format and again no disrespect to
01:18some of these nations but there's countries in this tournament that would never have dreamed of
01:21qualifying for a world cup and the disparity in quality and playing experience and whatever
01:26is as big as it's ever been so i think you will get some absolute pastings in this world cup
01:31you
01:31will get think pieces of like this is ridiculous why are teams like this even turning up but at the
01:34same time i think you're probably going to see more big upsets that's another massive variable though
01:41the elongated size of the tournament the fact there's an extra round and also the strangest of
01:45the first stage which i do wonder how much that will actually influence tactics as well because
01:49i think there is adam's kind of touched on there there is a possibility for some managers to be
01:56thinking well let's keep our powder dry a bit let's keep some of our best approaches until it gets
02:02serious and then you suddenly get caught now obviously some of this is softened by the fact you
02:08know what is it of the 12 groups eight third place teams get true i mean that is a farce
02:13but anyway
02:14um another discussion um but you would not be saying that if ireland had qualified
02:19i look you know i i would i i would take uh i would have a personal view and a
02:26professional view
02:27you would have snatched you would have snatched a hand off for a third for a decent third place
02:30finish in the group
02:31you
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