My World Cup 2018 Tournament with Argentina (FIFA 16 MW+mods)

[El Pajaro]

To honor the greatest football game ever made and the greatest mod ever made (ModdingWay FIFA 16) I decided to make a Internet tournament report of a World Cup 2018 tournament with my favorite team, Argentina.

I will make a report of each match and post videos and statistics of them.

@Ciais has managed to improve the vanilla FIFA 16 gameplay tremendously with 1.01 EXE version and new Gameplayzer mod + sliders. This changes the whole game to more "simulation-like" and you actually see a lot of fouls and free kicks (that you don't usually see in football games that are mainly designed to be arcade fun for online players).

Skill Level: Legendary
Halfs: 15 minutes

These are the slider and cl.ini settings I'm going to use (after excessive testing I found them to be the most realistic).

https://www.evo-web.co.uk/threads/fifa-16-news-discussion-thread.75194/page-185#post-3369869

Other teams in Group D are Iceland, Croatia and Nigeria. Argentina will play these teams in that particular order.

Next:

Argentina-Iceland

 

[El Pajaro]

Lineups

Eduardo Salvio's shot has just gone past Iceland goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson.

Messi feeling reliefed after the game.

Final score:

Match facts:

Highlights:

 

[Chris Davies]

Beautiful goal!

 

[El Pajaro]

Thanks. I don't think I've ever scored with Salvio before.

My favorite D-man Fazio also had a great chance to put a header in later in the game.

Croatia will be much tougher opponent.

 

[El Pajaro]

Salvio's injury turned out to be less serious as previously thought. He will probably be healthy for the final group stage match against Nigeria.

 

[El Pajaro]

 

[Ciais]

Hope you swap Caballero with Armani against Croatia. Just sayin'

IMHO, Sampaoli has to be one of the stupidest national team coaches together with Domenech or Ventura. He didn't call Romero up because,

officially

, he was still injured.

 

[El Pajaro]

Actually I will. It will be more realistic that way.

I agree. Sampaoli was a joke. His picks to the squad was even bigger joke. Mascherano was way past his prime, Rojo had been total shite in his club, we all know Higuain's track record in major tournaments, etc. Sabella was a great coach, Bilardo was a great coach. They built their team with "defense first" approach. 1 WC, 3 WC finals with that approach.

 

[Ciais]

Bilardo had a great team to work with, especially in 1986. In 1990 many of those players had retired from the NT, and their replacements weren't up to par.

Good luck with your WC, friend

 

[El Pajaro]

Yeah but people tend to forget that 1990 team had the most brick wall defense in the entire World Cup history. Simon, Serrizuela, Olarticoechea, Batista, Ruggeri, Monzon. Even classic PES 2013 World Cup mod acknowledges that

It wasn't pretty to watch but damn they were tough. 2014 was very well organized bu and it was sad to compare that to World Cup 2018 defense.

 

[Ciais]

The 1990 World Cup was arguably the most boring due to the overly passive mentality of pretty much all teams, not just Argentina.
Having a defensive brick wall isn't a bad thing per se (on the contrary), the problem was that teams also did a lot of time wasting, constantly passing the ball back to the GK, who could still pick it up with his hands (I mean, look at Group F!)

That's the main reason 3 points per win were agreed upon, and back passing to the GK was banned.

 

[El Pajaro]

Argentina had made some changes to the lineup. Pavon replaced injured Salvio and Marcos Rojo replaced colossal Federico Fazio in order to bring some speed to the defense.

It's crowded in Willy Caballero's goal during Croatia's corner kick.

Highlights:

Argentina 1-0 goal (Messi '59)


Croatia 1-1 goal (Perisic '83)

 

[Ciais]

Damn! Unlucky! Thankfully you won against Iceland

PS: You didn't play Armani in the end

 

[El Pajaro]

No I didn't. Maybe I could blame Caballero for that Croatia header goal and replace him to the next match (as in the real tournament) haha.

 

[Ciais]

Ahahahah, at least the goal you conceded was legit. The one he conceded IRL, well... wasn't

 

[El Pajaro]

More results. Only real shocker so far has been Marocco's 1-0 win over Portugal in the previous day. That shattered Christiano Ronaldo's World Cup dream and Portugal is eliminated.

Sweden's win over Germany can be considered a surprise too.

Standings.

Group F is very interesting as Sweden, Germany and Mexico are battling to advance. Sweden and Mexico will play eachother and Germany plays against Korean Republic.

 

[Ciais]

Sweden's win over Germany can be considered a surprise too.

Considering how Germany fared in the real tournament, I'd say that's a pretty much realistic result

 

[El Pajaro]

Argentina had changed goalkeeper Caballero to Franco Armani. They played with 4-4-2 diamond formation, with Gonzalo Higuain making his World Cup debut.

Federico Fazio is late as Nigerian forward Odion Ighalo puts a header behind Argentine goalkeeper Franco Armani at '75.

 

[Ciais]

Nooooooo!

Luckily Iceland drew, so I guess you advanced based on goal difference, yes?

But France... Damn. Beware of Pavard!

 

[El Pajaro]

Yes. Iceland and Croatia played 0-0. Had Iceland won, I would have been eliminated.

 

[El Pajaro]

Rest of the games

Final standings (Group A and B were already decided)

Top scorers after the group stage

Second round

 

[Ciais]

Brazil vs Germany! Will they be able to have their vengeance after their 7-1 loss 4 years earlier?

Ok, let me get one thing clear: I'm Italian, so naturally I hate France. Still, they deserved to win this year, as they were a monstrous squad.
Please, do me a favor. Be like Greece at Euro 2004. Beat France. Be the pirate ship

 

[El Pajaro]

Haha yes. I'll try 5-4-1 defensive formation and counterattacking tactics with Higuain as a lone forward, Messi behind him. Aguero can sit the next game as he has been sh*te.

 

[El Pajaro]

I gotta say I've never had so much fun and excitement when playing a sports game. Almost like the real World Cup.

Can't wait to play the next game. Tomorrow I don't have time as Sunday is always a busy day for me. I'll play the first 2nd round game in Monday.

 

[Ciais]

Take your time, buddy

 

[El Pajaro]

Argentina are looking to put their tricky World Cup start behind them against 1998 winners France in the last 16 on Saturday.

A narrow win with minnows Iceland, uninspiring defensive 1-1 tie with Croatia left the 2014 finalists with 4 points, thus even a 0-1 loss against Nigeria after disastrous performance couldn't stop Argentina going to the second round, with better goal difference than Nigeria.

They went through with only two goals scored in three games.

Heavily criticized Argentina coach Jorge Sampaoli is now looking forward to playing 1998 winners France in the last-16. France is a huge favorite to win the World Cup as they finished their group with full 9 points and a crushing 9-1 goal difference.

"We are going to play against a team with great individual players," Sampaoli said. "They are among the very best contenders and we will need to be very consistent to come out on top of a very difficult match."

After Argentina's loss against Nigeria, Sampaoli headed to the dressing room without celebrating alongside his players.

 

[El Pajaro]

Argentina had decided very defensive 5-4-1 formation with Gonzalo Higuain as a lone striker. Gabriel Mercado started instead of Federico Fazio.

France went to the game with different approach and they completely dominated the game for the first half.

France players during their national anthem.

Second round results:

Highlights:

 

[Ciais]

Yes! And great goals too -- not Giroud's one, didn't even watch that one

You kept your promise. Good

Germany won against Brazil again. Croatia lost to Peru! And Sweden to Serbia

Ooh, the first 2 quarter-finals are as rivalry-filled as you can get!

The battle of the Rio de la Plata is next

 

[El Pajaro]

Thanks. Croatia losing to Peru was the real shocker.

 

[El Pajaro]

Argentina haven't started all guns blazing as some would have expected. After a series of uninspiring lucky wins and disastrous losses (Nigeria), they would hope to bring their talent to the forefront, especially the deadly attacking duo of Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani.

La Albiceleste have one of the best strike forces in the world and the midfield also looks good on the paper with the likes of Dybala, Banega and Di Maria. Di Maria’s form was a cause of worry after a mixed season, but his performance against France was exceptional.

Arguably the best player in the world, Lionel Messi, has only scored one goal so far.

The blend of (quality) youth and (quality) experience is darn near ideal with Uruguay. Cavani, Suarez and Godin are still close enough to their primes. And the next generation has emerged just in time for Russia, in almost every position of need. So Uruguay has the dynamic, clinical frontmen; it has a central defensive marshal, but also a 23-year-old physical specimen, Gimenez, beside him. And unlike Argentina, their group stage was phenomenal. All pieces are there for Uruguay to advance to the final four.