2018 FIFA World Cup Megathread

[Idzequitch]

My social media are all full of memes making fun of Neymar and his seeming ability to be injured by the touch of a feather.

[Val Halla]

France vs Croatia in the final IMO

[Starblaydia]

France vs Croatia in the final IMO

Head agrees, heart says France-England.

If we can beat Colombia tonight, then none of Sweden, Switzerland or Russia hold any fear for us. Croatia is probably the best team remaining in our half of the draw, but by that point it's a World Cup Semi-Final and anything can happen.

[Soviet-mongol]

https://twitter.com/KevinRothrock/statu ... 4823948288



Some team are indeed not diverse enough which is shamefull but it is still to harsh what the journalist of Meduza wrote on his twitter. The Russian team has a Brazilian in their rank afterall.

[Yaana Noore]

(Image)

Some team are indeed not diverse enough which is shamefull but it is still to harsh what the journalist of Meduza wrote on his twitter. The Russian team has a Brazilian in their rank afterall.

There's no such thing as 'diverse enough' or 'not diverse enough' in a football team, the best players are the best players and you like to think that they are there on merit. Or at least, the manager has chosen what he believes to be the best team regardless of race. The Russian team is pretty diverse anyway. Cherchesov the coach is of Ossetian descent as is Gabulov and Dzagoev. Granat is part Ukrainian and also Jewish. Dzyuba has a Ukrainian father. Cheryshev lived in Spain from the age of 6 so is eligible for them. Samedov is Azerbaijani and used to be a Muslim. Kuzyayev is a Tatar. The previous coach, Slutsky, was also Jewish, and without looking further into it I think some of the squad are partly Belarusian. Kudryashov comes from Siberia so it's not just a selection of Moscow-based players. So it's decently diverse, that tweet just seems to be intentionally provocative. More diverse than a lot of non-European sides.
I don't like Mario Fernandes' presence in their squad though, he's not Russian - he's Brazilian. He was not born in Russia, has no Russian parents/grandparents, and did not grow up there. He even has a cap for Brazil. It's just like the Diego Costa switching to Spain situation and strikes me as mercenary, with them wanting to play international football for anyone.

I remember when people were clamouring for Adnan Januzaj, born in Belgium and of Albanian and Kosovan descent, to play for England. It was quite ridiculous and we only wanted him to play for us as he looked like he would be a world-beater. Thankfully the Home Nations have an agreement to not just pick anyone who just played a few years of football in the country instead of an attachment to it so we don't get that silliness. Instead of playing for England he scores against us to beat us, full circle.

EDIT: Looked into it more and recently called-up players by the Russian team include Dzhanayev (Ossetian), Neustädter (Born in Ukraine to a Russian mother, and a Kyrgyz-born Kazakhstani father of German descent), Rausch (Born in Russian to German parents), Dzhikiya (Georgian), Nabiullin (Tatar), Shvets (Ukrainian-born, Ukrainian father, Georgian mother), Ozdoyev (Ingush), Mitrishev (Chechen). Pretty diverse.

[Starblaydia]

I remember when people were clamouring for Adnan Januzaj, born in Belgium and of Albanian and Kosovan descent, to play for England. It was quite ridiculous and we only wanted him to play for us as he looked like he would be a world-beater. Thankfully the Home Nations have an agreement to not just pick anyone who just played a few years of football in the country instead of an attachment to it so we don't get that silliness. Instead of playing for England he scores against us to beat us, full circle.

The France 98 squad was full of players who should likely have competed for other nations - Henry, Karembeu, Zidane, Lizarazu, Lama, etc. Who were drawn from across the French-speaking world - only a few of them were acruakly born in France.

John Barnes could quite easily have played for Jamaica, too, and Owen Hargreaves could have played for any number of countries, while the Januzaj thing was mostly some journalist who had done their research and realised he was almost eligible to play for England, rather than any intention on the part of the player or the Football Association.

Also, Belgium Reserves beating England Reserves to almost accidentally go through to the tougher side of a knockout round only barely counts, surely.

[The Archregimancy]

You have far too high standards for World Cup knock out games.

I want every knock-out stage match to be like Brazil-Italy '82.

That's surely not too much to ask.

I just want to point out that Belgium and Japan clearly read my posts in this thread.


That said, I have a niggling feeling that watching Socrates's decomposing corpse play would offer more footballing excitement than Sweden-Switzerland this afternoon; but since I'm currently sitting in Dublin airport, I'll likely miss the first half anyway.

[Yaana Noore]

I remember when people were clamouring for Adnan Januzaj, born in Belgium and of Albanian and Kosovan descent, to play for England. It was quite ridiculous and we only wanted him to play for us as he looked like he would be a world-beater. Thankfully the Home Nations have an agreement to not just pick anyone who just played a few years of football in the country instead of an attachment to it so we don't get that silliness. Instead of playing for England he scores against us to beat us, full circle.

The France 98 squad was full of players who should likely have competed for other nations - Henry, Karembeu, Zidane, Lizarazu, Lama, etc. Who were drawn from across the French-speaking world - only a few of them were acruakly born in France.

John Barnes could quite easily have played for Jamaica, too, and Owen Hargreaves could have played for any number of countries, while the Januzaj thing was mostly some journalist who had done their research and realised he was almost eligible to play for England, rather than any intention on the part of the player or the Football Association.

Also, Belgium Reserves beating England Reserves to almost accidentally go through to the tougher side of a knockout round only barely counts, surely.

I wasn't arguing that he should not just because of where he was born, just that Januzaj had little attachment to England. As I say with Mario Fernandes - he wasn't born there, had no parents/grandparents from there, nor was he raised there. All that Januzaj had done was move to England to play football for Man United - so I don't see why this should make him eligible. Incidentally these requirements are pretty similar to what the home nations use.

The players you list for France 98 are either French-born or French-raised though, which I have no problem with. My argument was that people who move to a country for footballing reasons shouldn't magically become eligible for the country. Henry born in France and grew up there, Karembau born in a French oversea territory, Zidane is from the Marseille banlieue, Lizarazu is French-Basque and born in France, Lama born in France and raised in Guyana.

John Barnes was born in Jamaica yes but moved to England at the age of 12. Sterling also born in Jamaica but he moved to England as a child for non-footballing reasons - which is enough, IMO, to make them eligible for that country. Hargreaves was born in Canada but his dad was English so again, eligible. They are not like the Januzaj situation, which was a really big thing after he came onto the scene with that brace against Sunderland. Was covered massively in the papers, on the radio, lots of media coverage and his dad started to tease that he could play for England and Hodgson said that they were looking at him. Southgate talked about the possibility of calling him up as under-21 coach too. It was big enough for Wilshere to talk about it and get some criticism for saying it was silly that you could rock up to a country and play football for a few years there then suddenly become eligible. Which was my point.

[Risottia]

Standard European self-deprecation. The only Europeans who love themselves are the French.

If there were a God, they'd have made the French an island.

France IS an island. All those pesky unFrench Eurasians are just denying France its own espace vital.

[Gim]

Brazil and Croatia in the Finals. Maybe.

[Risottia]

I want every knock-out stage match to be like Brazil-Italy '82.

That's surely not too much to ask.

I just want to point out that Belgium and Japan clearly read my posts in this thread.


That said, I have a niggling feeling that watching Socrates's decomposing corpse play would offer more footballing excitement than Sweden-Switzerland this afternoon; but since I'm currently sitting in Dublin airport, I'll likely miss the first half anyway.

May I suggest you to pay a visit at the Dublin airport's pub? It's called "the Angel's share". I was there last week. Fairly decent whiskEy sour.

[Riemstagrad]

On Friday Belgium will do a 8raz1l !

[San Regada]

Just about ready to watch Colombia get absolute annihilated* by England later. In the mean time... I have no idea who will win (Switzerland or Sweden). I would like to bet on the Swiss but Sweden's amazing performance against Mexico makes them a force to be reckoned with, baring in mind that the Swiss essentially scraped through their group games. This should be a good one.

*I'm not even being ironic, the Senegal game has slowly but surely knocked the faith out of me.

Edit: Eh, my faith is back. I think we can do it, we just need to play right.

[Yaana Noore]

As I'll be going out to watch the England match I'll get my predictions in now.

I'm not expecting that thrilling a match between Switzerland and Sweden, I'm thinking it will be 2-1, or 1-1 and decided AET or on penalties. They're similar sides and a bit of quality will see who edges it. I'm leaning Sweden as I like them more, and Shaquiri is immensely hit and miss and Xhaka has already had his 1 good game in 40. I'm a fan of Janne Andersson also, so Sweden to win narrowly. It's going to be cagey, not much free-flowing attacking football and both sides will be too scared to lose to go all-out and attack when they are two sides of similar standard.

As I type this the lineups are announced and I'm seeing that the rubbish Seferovic is out which should help the Swiss attack. They're actually starting John Djourou though, dear Lord! Sweden are surely going to score in this match now. Maybe even a penalty with that numpty at the back.

For England I'll go 2-1 to Colombia. England will conceded a limp goal from some poor defending in the first-half, equalise midway through and then concede soon after to get sent home. Big nose is going nowhere unfortunately so we're stuck with him regardless of the result, so I just have to hope we put in a good performance. Don't think we will, we're terrible in open play. Not creative enough in midfield, too slow with the ball, not enough runs off the ball to create space. Add in an over-reliance on full-backs and set-pieces to score and we have a Southgate team. Might get a bet on us to lose now actually to soften the blow of going out.

Praying that Danny Rose is both fit and plays. I might have mentioned this already but I detest Ashley Young. Problem is if Rose isn't fit then he is not going to be that much better and we are weak down one side going forwards in a system where it is quite important (Ryan Bertrand!). Sterling has not scored for England for 999 days now, really needs to up his game. I wouldn't start him but think he will. I'd have Loftus-Cheek over Alli too even if the latter is fit, but have no idea which one Southgate will go for. Colombia aren't as good as in 2014 but they're still a strong side. People will laugh at him but Cuadrado is still a dangerous player despite how bad he was at Chelsea. Same goes for Falcao of course. It's a strong centre-back pairing for Colombia, Mina is pretty good and Davinson Sanchez is quality, top potential and is why Spurs are happy to let Alderweireld go. James Rodriguez may or may not start but they will still be dangerous, and he will make a fantastic impact player if he is on the bench. Lastly Wolves are being linked to Juan Quintero so I'm going to keep an eye on him, bit far-fetched that we could sign him but I have said that about a lot of our signings.

[The Blaatschapen]

If there were a God, they'd have made the French an island.

France IS an island. All those pesky unFrench Eurasians are just denying France its own espace vital.

Ile de France

[Nimzonia]

Might get a bet on us to lose now actually to soften the blow of going out.

This always seemed like a reasonable strategy to me. How much would you pay for England to get into the next round? Bet that amount. Win-Win.

When I used to care about test cricket, I'd bet on England getting whitewashed or losing from a winning position, and made a decent amount of money.

[Shofercia]

(Image)
https://twitter.com/KevinRothrock/statu ... 4823948288



Some team are indeed not diverse enough which is shamefull but it is still to harsh what the journalist of Meduza wrote on his twitter. The Russian team has a Brazilian in their rank afterall.

Kevin Rothrock continues to be a moron. If Fernandez was black, we'd love him just as much as we do right now. Our greatest, and most beloved speed skater is Victor Ahn, and he ain't white. Well, maybe in Rothrock's tiny brain he is. Also, isn't it curious how Rothrock only tweeted that after Samedov's, hopefully minor, injury?

I'll say one thing, it's great the Rothrock isn't a referee, such blindness would've been catastrophic.

[Risottia]

France IS an island. All those pesky unFrench Eurasians are just denying France its own espace vital.

Ile de France

Tout le monde regarde a est la France.

Seriously, too bad the final isn't on July 14th. I was hoping to I could head off to France and watch the French as they exploded in an orgy of drunken nationalistic sex at winning the World Cup on Bastille Day.

[San Regada]

Own goals and deflections galore this World Cup.

[Shofercia]

On the bright side, Albanians playing for Switzerland can now make as many Albanian Eagle hand gestures as they want: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep9Vzb6R_58

[Fartsniffage]

Fucking Sterling is starting again. Is he Southgates love child or something?

[HC Eredivisie]

Apparently Colombia has never beat England in five previous matches and the last time Colombia didn't score in a WC match was against England twenty years ago. So I'm going to say England wins and the cup finally goes home. Besides, it's three lions against some divine canaries, a cock or some red devils caught with their pants down.

[Yaana Noore]

Fucking Sterling is starting again. Is he Southgates love child or something?

Roy was just as persistent with him and never rewarded, has to be last chance saloon for Sterling now. 40 caps, 2 goals that came in 2015 against San Marino and Estonia.

Sterling, Alli, and... Ashley Young. FFS, might put a second bet on us to lose now.

[San Regada]

James Rodriguez isn't fit enough to start. There goes my confidence levels for Colombia to win.

Not exactly but its a massive blow + after that performance against Senegal...

[MERIZoC]

I want every knock-out stage match to be like Brazil-Italy '82.

That's surely not too much to ask.

I just want to point out that Belgium and Japan clearly read my posts in this thread.


That said, I have a niggling feeling that watching Socrates's decomposing corpse play would offer more footballing excitement than Sweden-Switzerland this afternoon; but since I'm currently sitting in Dublin airport, I'll likely miss the first half anyway.

He was a good player, Arg