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Half of it was, the other half was on the field. You can't be on the field. Now of course it's petty to call that consistently. But we are in the VAR era so a foul throw leading to a goal should not count in my opinion.

Thanks for watching and leaving your opinion. I will say I'm not sure I understand your objections but I'm happy to discuss them further if you feel like clarifying you take.

@ This argument is always put back on the players with….they get paid so well they should be able to work as hard as we tell them to… but what they get compensated isn’t a part of the argument. It could be a part of the solution but the argument is about how many games they play within a time frame and if they can physically do it. Players have always been pushed to their limit and have been saying for a long time that’s it’s too much but the owners don’t care because they stand the reap the greatest rewards and they aren’t the ones putting in the work on the field. As modern football has shifted ever more toward athleticism it’s reaching a breaking point but pointing to a few from the past who were able to withstand it and saying these guys get paid so they should be able to do it as well is a bad argument. The players need to get together and put their foot down and if reducing their compensation is part of the solution then it becomes a part of the conversation.

Thanks for responding. I prefer to have an exchange on this because we all have slightly different opinions and it's interesting to hear where others are coming from. With regards to the money, there are a few basic things. If players want to play fewer games, they should be able to outline that in their contracts. For instance ("please don't play me in the League Cup or FA Cup, only League and Champions League"). I think there should be no issue with this if it's what players and clubs can compromise. I agree with you this could be "part of the solution." How much players are paid doesn't really matter to me, I really don't care. But A LOT of the public finds it absurd that players are essentially complaining about having to work a lot of hours when they are paid so much to do what looks like the best job on the planet. It just doesn't go over well, and fair enough. Sports are a different type of industry where the workers (players) are paid enormously based on their role, than workers in any other industry. It's unique. In most companies, the CEOS make orders of magnitude more income than their workforce. Not so much in football where the largest amount of money spent is on player salaries and agent fees. Owning a club is more of a money drain than giant financial gain, unless of course you own Man Utd or Real Madrid. My point about players from prior eras was just to illustrate that top players in past decades played as many games as top players do now. It's a rare few and has always been. To play that many games, you have to go deep in cups and continental competitions as well as playing for an International team who also go deep in tournaments. This is a tiny percentage of professionals so when you said I "cherry picked" players from past decades, you were right. But that's because you have to in order find any player from any decade who plays 60+ games a season. I think a big danger is players doing 10 month seasons and having only a 3 week break. That's not feasible for their whole careers. So the Club World Cup is probably very unwelcome to these players and I totally get that. My issue with all this is we are being told constantly "there are way too many games being added" when that's not really true, at least not as extreme as media are making it sound. It gaslights the public into two camps: one who says "shut up and play, you're paid enough" and the other who says "the rich just want to use others for wealth". These two takes are both off the mark in my view. As usual, the truth is somewhere in between.

I really appreciate that. Thank you and welcome aboard.

@@campfirefootball 🔥

LOL Yeah they really did not help me out with their performance today. At least it's fodder for video about the Clasico.

@@campfirefootball fair enough, guess we can be optimistic after all

Thank you for this comment. I love it. You are absolutely right. Develop a relationship with the ball. Love the ball. It's stunning how often players and parents will ask what their kid can do to get better when the answer is right in front of them. TIME WITH THE BALL. Some people are surprised when, as a coach, you tell them "official team training should be a small percentage of the time you spend practicing." When you talk about Pilates, wobble board, yoga, that brings to mind the complaints I hear from parents about the quality of pitches, saying bumpy grass fields are dangerous and ruins the soccer. I'm sure you see the irony.

Thank you very much!

Trent defended really well. I've never bought the narrative that he "can't defend". Reece is a high quality defender when fit, something we haven't seen in a long time. Either way they are excellent players, but Trent deserves props for his performance.

Well I wish him the best either way. He's a real talent and could get lost in the mix of the French National Team pool. I'm a Lille fan and my mom's family is from there so it's great to see a kid from the North of France breaking into the top level.

Very true. It's also a show of the lack of depth.

My JV High School team could have robbed them of possession. That was a travesty.

Great points. I also do not see Dest as part of a back 3. NO WAY. Wing back makes way more sense. But will Poch ask him to go into midfield? Or maybe push up the line like Robinson? So many more questions when everyone is fit. I wondered about Weah myself. I like him, but where does he fit? And will Poch find a place for him? Thank you very much for the comment. You posed a solid thought.

Glad you enjoyed the video! I appreciate your encouragement. Hopefully the channel continues to grow. If you ever have requests for things to talk about, I'm always open to hear what people are interested in.

Glad you enjoyed it

I totally agree.

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I guess we saw that against Mexico.

It's taking some time to get this plane flying, but in time... Thank you for the support. Shouts out!!!

@@campfirefootball slow and steady my man, slow and steady 👑

He very well might. If France don't call him up soon and Morocco offer him a spot, who knows?

I understand the red, but I still think after a review a referee who sees all angles would be likely to change it to yellow. We can’t know. But even the Premier League have struck off the 3 game ban and said it was “wrongful dismissal”.

Maddison said it wasn’t a red card. The 3 game ban has been overturned because the FA agree it shouldn’t have been a red card. Intent is not part of the law. It’s a yellow for a cynical foul, but not dangerous foul play.

Well intent has nothing to do with it. And even if it did, he clearly meant to just bring him down instead of put his studs through the leg.

Thanks BRO!

Thank you for watching and commenting. I really appreciate it. The "quality of play" argument feels very ambiguous to me. People say the Euros were low quality because everyone was tired. I would argue tactics and the fact that international football and club football are so different have more to do with this. I actually don't think the level of quality has dropped in recent years and I don't think there is data to say otherwise. Just a perception that may be misguided or misleading. Next, if you listen to the vast majority of pro athletes across all sports, they all say they are rarely at 100% throughout their careers. There is always something to deal with, which is normal. Next, if someone is tired and their level drops, you should be able to rotate someone else in who is fresh and can provide a comparable level. There are outliers of course, the absolute best players will always be harder to replace. But the general standard of play should not go down the toilet if a few players are not fully fit. It's a very interesting topic. The reason I made this video is that it's not as cut and dry as "they play too many games, so football quality is dropping." That feels reductive. But I may be wrong. Either way, thanks for dropping in!

Some people travel a lot for their jobs and miss out on time with their families. Most of those people don't make 150 Grand a week.

I have nothing against Rodri. As a matter of fact I love him as a player. Seems like a good dude too. His comments were just timely to talk about this issue. And as I point out in the video, players were playing 60+ games back in the 60s and 70s, when there weren’t substitutes. In addition, none of this should make people so angry. But it does. That’s why my perspective is that the media is gaslighting everyone into thinking this a brand new problem created by greedy FIFA. It’s just not that simple.

@@campfirefootball it kinda is players back then weren’t as fit as players now and being fit requires constant work in training and in the gym and when you play train and gym every 3 days it’s a problem in the 70s parents used to tell us they did some super human feat but that isn’t the case for our generation we aren’t as strong as their physical myths You also forgot to add resting time players then had longer holidays than today

​@@TheofficialGodofwar This is why comparing different eras is difficult. It serves as a barometer to an extent, but does not explain everything. Today, the recovery methods and tech is so advanced compared to 40 years ago. Cryo chambers and things like that. But it's really only the highest level Elite players who have all of those bells and whistles. They are the only ones who play so many games, but the technology and science has improved heavily, giving them more care that helps them recover quicker. Overall this is an interesting topic. That's why I wanted to talk about it. And again, I appreciate your feedback.

Glad you enjoyed it

I totally agree with you. And you are right to point out that matches and minutes played can tell a very different story. And that's how the stats are sometimes skewed to make a point. That's why the players I chose to highlight were obvious consistent starters. And yeah, GKs....smh.

Great point.

You make some good points here. And look, I understand that there are loads of caveats for players, managers, clubs etc. That's why this isn't an easy problem to solve. But there are options. The reality is everything comes with risk. The idea that players' bodies should be in tip top shape once they retire instead of some having lifelong issues due to injury, is not reasonable. That's part of the price you pay as a pro athlete. As for TalkSport and Gab Marcotti, I agree with you that they say a lot of "braindead" stuff. But they are also listened to by so many people that it helps to understand what a large percentage of fans think. Thanks for the comment. I hope you enjoyed the video.

Yeah it really doesn't look good does it...

I had to crank this video out.

Maybe. He had a knee injury, that happened in a very weird way.

Very very interesting. You have to be the first person I've ever heard talk about that age group. And I believe you are correct, they also need development. Basically, until a player is 25-27, you can't be certain how far they can go. College soccer overall is decent at best for development, but there are individual institutions who do really good work. Just not enough. The NAIA, due to not having to abide by NCAA rules, could become talent factories and some are, but so few are well enough funded or organized to be consistent.

You wont be found unless you go to fc dallas, nycfc, and germany at 15 years old lol.

Thank you for the personal insight. Obviously one of the differences between England and the US is that unless you play the sport, you likely don't know how to play without somebody coaching you, especially in the single digit age groups. But your view to let them just play as opposed to conditioning them to your voice is well assessed. I've seen both and it's quite astounding to watch the difference. Some kids are just paralyzed by the parents who don't even know it. They ask, "why does my kid seem to overthink the game?" As they sream the whole time. I'm like, "ummmm, possibly shut your mouth for 1 of the 2 halves of the match and assess the difference." As I said in the video, it happens everywhere. It's not football, it's life and parenting. Meaning it's commonplace. But who ends up rising to the top is a whole other anomaly.

The pathway can be circuitous. Matt Turner went to Fairfield U, in CT, which is not a top program. Then he went to USL, MLS, then USMNT and PL. Is he great, maybe not, but he has made a career and started in goal for his country at a World Cup, and went through the US University Soccer system. So it is a pipeline, it doesn't need to be a major supplier of talent, but it can provide some kind of platform for the late bloomers or those who were just missed, which is common.

deport all illegals. we don't want them in our country, or our sports.

I think you are talking about FIFA Street. AMAZING GAME!!! Probably the best FIFA game EA ever made. As for the culture of the game in the US, I think it's getting stronger. When I was growing up, white kids didn't play pick up. Now they do. The high school players I coach go out to the fields or tennis courts to have fun with a ball. Younger kids play at the park, the parents bring them and hang out, but let them play on their own. The kids know who the big players are, they watch games, they are big fans of certain European clubs, they copy celebrations and skills. This is new, probably due to social media. From my perspective, the coaching is a major issue, but one time will likely fix as well. In 20 years, most parents will have played soccer, many at a decent level and will be more equipped to coach kids than a lot of the parents right now. We'll see, in time....

@@DEAJRMA ROAD TRIP!

@@campfirefootball hahaha can you imagine the Uber sitch bro I’m so excited for this shitshow

@@DEAJRMA It makes me wish I had gone to Qatar. The whole tournament being held in one city may never happen again in our lifetimes. I'm from Denver so it's a bummer we didn't get a host bid. What it means is I plan to get my camper ready to drive around and see some games.

@@campfirefootballwell if you come to any matches in Atlanta all drinks on me 🍻

@@campfirefootball if you come to any matches in Atlanta all drinks on me 🍻

Thank you. Im glad you enjoyed it. So James signed for Rayo. Szczesny retired. We’ll see about the rest. The recession is definitely under way. Hopefully there isn’t a collapse

That's disappointing. I'm not even making controversial content on culture war or political stuff so I don't see why the channel would be Shadowbanned. Maybe I'm just not making enough stuff. I'll try to make more content. Much love for the support though. Thank you.

I understand your pessimism but I don't think it will be that bad. Of course, I thought that last season too. So we'll see.

@@campfirefootball it will be that bad this season...the defense says it all