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Re: Arise...Sir Paul Pogba
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:15 pm
by danfo driver
Re: Arise...Sir Paul Pogba
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:17 pm
by danfo driver
Re: Arise...Sir Paul Pogba
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:18 pm
by danfo driver
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:20 pm
by cic old boy
Best striker in the world
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:23 pm
by tfco
Defensive Work - Part 2 from the WSJ
5 games sweet o
DNA no good o
Moscow
In the moments before France’s first knockout game of the 2018 World Cup, Paul Pogba stood before his teammates in the center of the locker room and delivered the rallying cry that would propel the squad through the rest of the tournament.
“I don’t want to go home,” Pogba said. “I want to keep eating pasta for two more weeks.”
For a player that has long been criticized for his lack of tactical discipline, on a team long considered more of a collection of individuals than a cohesive unit, Pogba’s statement was a sign that this French team was ready to embrace whatever it took to fulfill its potential at this tournament, right down to the daily menu of bland pasta that fueled their run to the final.
This selflessness characterized France’s 2018 World Cup triumph. Despite a roster stacked with sublime individual talents, manager Didier Deschamps was determined to turn Les Bleus into a hard-working, no-frills outfit. Almost every player was asked to suppress his attacking instincts in service of the greater good.
Striker Antoine Griezmann was told to drop back on defense. Teenage forward Kylian Mbappe was shunted out to the wing. Olivier Giroud, the center-forward, was instructed to post up like an NBA big man, dishing the ball to teammates instead of focusing on scoring goals.
But no one embodied France’s team ethic more than Pogba. The outrageously gifted 25-year-old midfielder is capable of playing more or less any outfield position—and probably of performing pretty well in goal, too
Except his versatility has sometimes been his undoing. Four years ago, Pogba was heavily criticized for freelancing as France crashed out of the 2014 World Cup in a quarterfinal loss to Germany.
Here, Pogba didn’t merely accept his defensive responsibilities, he embraced them, attempting a team-high seven tackles in the final against Croatia, according to sports analysis firm Instat.
“He has grown in the team,” Deschamps said about Pogba’s new role. “He’s a very expressive player. He knows what he has to do, and what he does on the pitch can only increase his own legitimacy inside the group.”
This maturation cast one of the world’s most creative players into an odd role for much of this tournament. Pogba frequently found himself sitting deeper than ever before—including where he plays at Manchester United under defensive-minded manager Jose Mourinho.
Against Belgium, he was given the uncomfortable task of going up against Marouane Fellaini, a 6-feet-4 matchup nightmare. Pogba emerged as a defensive linchpin, helping shutdown what had been the most dangerous attack at the World Cup.
“You can’t have guys who don’t sacrifice themselves for the group anymore,” former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. “It’s the dominance of the team bloc.”
But a player as multifaceted as Pogba wasn’t going to spend the entire tournament in the shadows. In the final, he showed that his newfound willingness to help on defense didn’t have to diminish his dynamic playmaking.
Pogba both started and finished the move that led to France’s third goal, setting Mbappé free down the right with a pinpoint cross field pass from deep in his own half. Sixteen seconds later, he emerged at the top of the Croatia box to curl in a left-footed shot that effectively sealed the game for France.
No French player completed more passes against Croatia than Pogba either. And he did this after absorbing a team-high 17 fouls throughout the tournament.
What makes Pogba’s transformation all the more surprising is how the last two years have gone for him at club level. In 2016, Manchester United paid $130 million to sign Pogba from Juventus, making him the most expensive player in the world at the time. The world’s most versatile player suddenly became the most scrutinized. And in a rigid Mourinho system, there were questions over whether Pogba might ever fully harness his outsize talent
All of which has made his shouldering of so much responsibility for France such a surprise. It even extended off the pitch, where he took on the role of protective older brother, chiding reporters for criticizing Griezmann.
“I told you guys,” he said after the Uruguay victory in the quarterfinals. “Don’t touch Grizou.”
Both sides of Pogba surfaced in the aftermath of France’s rain-drenched celebration. When the team stormed into Deschamps’s press conference singing and dancing, Pogba took it one step further. He hopped on top of the table in tribute to his sodden manager.
When it all calmed down, and the team returned to the locker room, Pogba stayed behind. He tidied up the table he had been dancing on moments earlier. And even offered an apology to the dumbstruck crowd of reporters.
“Sorry, sorry,” he said. “Is everything OK?”
Then he went right back to singing.
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:33 pm
by cic old boy
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:37 pm
by cic old boy
No be by force oh!
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 10:21 pm
by Rogermilla
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 10:25 pm
by GREENWHITEGREEN
Paul Pogba’s Brilliant Pass Was The Best Play Of The World Cup Final
It was even better than the goal the France star scored seconds later.
headshot
By Travis Waldron
Source
The plays we remember from World Cups throughout history tend to fit neatly into specific categories. They are astounding goals or miraculous saves, moments of controversy or displays of unfettered brilliance or madness. They are Bergkamp’s strike against Argentina or Gordon Banks’ “save that stopped the world” against Brazil; they are the Hand of God or the head of Zidane.
This World Cup had plenty of those. But one of the moments I will remember most vividly from the 2018 World Cup was a pass, delivered by the right foot of France’s Paul Pogba in the 59th minute of the World Cup final.
Pogba wound up finishing the play with a beautiful curling shot ultimately that salted away France’s 4-2 victory over Croatia. But as sumptuous as his goal was, the pass was even better.
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 10:26 pm
by GREENWHITEGREEN
There is Pogba, some 65 yards from goal when the ball winds up at his feet. He is surrounded by defenders, and France, at this point, does not seem dangerous. But then Pogba cracks a half-volleyed screamer up the middle of the pitch, angling it perfectly past a defender and into the path of Kylian Mbappé. What makes the pass truly amazing is that Pogba had defenders closing in both in front and behind him. There’s no space to settle the ball and make a safer pass. There’s even less time to conceive and execute an outlet pass like this. But he does it anyway.
The pass was perfectly struck and perfectly weighted, and it put France on the attack mere seconds after they’d been crowded into their own defensive half. It was the sort of moment — like Romelu Lukaku’s run against Japan that ended with a daring dummy — that can only be fully appreciated on replay, from different angles and vantage points and speeds. It was gorgeous. It was sublime.
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 10:29 pm
by GREENWHITEGREEN
There aren’t many players who possess Pogba’s talent; there are fewer still who can make that pass even once, much less over and over and over again. He has: It was Pogba who played the knifing ball that led to France’s first goal of the tournament against Australia; it was Pogba who routinely gathered the ball in his own half of the field and launched waves of French counterattacks by picking the right pass to split entire defenses. It’s nearly impossible to say that a single player made manager Didier Deschamps’ defense-first, counterattacking system work in Russia. And yet, it’s hard to imagine Deschamps’ master plan working this well had Pogba not been at the center of it.
Last week, I wrote about the coded language so many in the media use when it comes to discussing black athletes, and black soccer players with African backgrounds in particular. The subject, then, was Lukaku, the Belgian striker whose brilliance is so often reduced to his size, athleticism and physicality — at the expense of the intelligence demonstrated by that run against Japan.
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 10:30 pm
by GREENWHITEGREEN
I could have just as easily chosen Pogba, who, coincidentally, is Lukaku’s club teammate at Manchester United. Pogba, who was born in the banlieues of Paris to Guinean parents, was a much-heralded prospect at United before he moved to Juventus, in Italy, in 2012. There, Pogba was a key part of a team that reached the Champions League final and the sort of box-to-box midfielder who could change a match all by himself, even if he was still coming into his own. The sheer price of his move back to England in summer 2016 — for a then-European transfer record of more than €105 million — set a new standard. It was no longer enough for Pogba to be good. He had to be the best player in the world, or at least one of them.
Pogba instead spent most of the last two seasons, and this one especially, battling notoriously prickly United manager Jose Mourinho over what exactly he is supposed to be doing. He is a fluid player stuck in a rigid system. Few have ever doubted Pogba’s physical skills, but among the European pundit class, everything from his commitment to the game to his intelligence has been questioned repeatedly. There is always something wrong with how Pogba approaches soccer, no matter Mourinho’s track record of alienating superstars; no matter that Pogba’s 10 assists last season ranked him fifth in the Premier League even though he missed nearly two months to injury.
Both for United and for France, Pogba is described, most often, as “an enigma.” He has been criticized for “spending more time on his dress style” and “the colors in his hair” than on the sport, and for not “understanding” how to play the game. He’s been lambasted, even, for making The Dab his signature celebration. Before the World Cup, Pogba was “a big problem (who) just doesn’t contribute enough to be regarded as a world class player,” retired player and broadcaster Eamon Dunphy said.
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 10:31 pm
by GREENWHITEGREEN
And even when the pundits try to praise the Frenchman, they often slip back into their familiar codes. Ahead of the World Cup final, former Scottish player and manager Graeme Souness ― one of Pogba’s fiercest and most unrelenting critics ― said that he had “most definitely” warmed to Pogba during this World Cup. But he couldn’t resist another barb. “He’s indisciplined and that’s the kindest word I can say about him,” Souness said. Even those trying to praise Pogba’s work turn his hairstyle into a metaphor.
Much like Lukaku, who addressed his critics and their codes in a piece for The Players’ Tribune before the World Cup, Pogba is aware of the constant opprobrium he faces.
“I went from the biggest transfer in the world to the most criticized player in the world,” he said after France’s opening victory over Australia. “The critics are always here.”
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 10:31 pm
by GREENWHITEGREEN
But there is no way to criticize Pogba’s play at this World Cup, and especially in Sunday’s final. The pass, meanwhile, exposes the folly of the code. The pass is a perfect mixture of Pogba’s athleticism and intelligence ― he had a split second to identify the open space ahead of Mbappé, and a split second to exploit it. A touch less intelligence, a drop less athleticism, and it doesn’t work. It doesn’t come close to working. He probably doesn’t even try it.
In the biggest match of his career, Pogba did it all. He led France in total passes and passes completed. He led France in tackles. He was dispossessed just once. He was the best player on a pitch full of world-class talent. It was a remarkable performance, and he gave us a moment to remember it by. But it wasn’t the goal, as good as it was, because nothing Pogba did in Russia was better than that pass.
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:13 pm
by danfo driver
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:14 pm
by danfo driver
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:15 pm
by danfo driver
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:18 pm
by juventuss
Sooo happy for Pogba... Dude endured soo much yabbis But at the end, he is a champion. Immense player.
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:59 pm
by benteke
GREENWHITEGREEN wrote:But there is no way to criticize Pogba’s play at this World Cup, and especially in Sunday’s final. The pass, meanwhile, exposes the folly of the code. The pass is a perfect mixture of Pogba’s athleticism and intelligence ― he had a split second to identify the open space ahead of Mbappé, and a split second to exploit it. A touch less intelligence, a drop less athleticism, and it doesn’t work. It doesn’t come close to working. He probably doesn’t even try it.
In the biggest match of his career, Pogba did it all. He led France in total passes and passes completed. He led France in tackles. He was dispossessed just once. He was the best player on a pitch full of world-class talent. It was a remarkable performance, and he gave us a moment to remember it by. But it wasn’t the goal, as good as it was, because nothing Pogba did in Russia was better than that pass.
Absolutely brilliant, that pass was the business.
I am glad it worked out for Pogba, he has done it at the highest level and nobody can take that away from him
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:45 am
by kalani JR
Some people have the BLACKEST of hearts.
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 1:26 am
by danfo driver
kalani JR wrote:Some people have the BLACKEST of hearts.
My brother. Na so we see am o! Their souls will burn to ashes in the deepest pit of hell! That's a given!
Re: Paul Labile Pogba - WORLD CHAMPION
Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 3:09 am
by Bigpokey24
Pogba is the best midfielder in world football
