2018 FIFA World Cup Megathread

[Yaana Noore]

Also, congratulations to Japan! I'll admit that I had already written them off but they played superbly and totally deserved the victory - especially after Falcao's dive to win the FK Colombia scored from.

Must be nice to watch massive underdogs win (and deserve it) huh San Regada?

[Starblaydia]

Japan only won because of Sanchez (who will be shot upon arrival back in Colombia if we lose) put us down to 10 men.

Let's not encourage the possibilities of Colombian defenders being murdered again for a single World Cup moment, shall we?

[The Archregimancy]

It's not like Japan has a highly realistic chance against Poland or Senegal anyway. Japan only won because of Sanchez (who will be shot upon arrival back in Colombia if we lose)

Let's perhaps not joke about that; some of us remember the 1994 World Cup.

[Yaana Noore]

It's not like Japan has a highly realistic chance against Poland or Senegal anyway. Japan only won because of Sanchez (who will be shot upon arrival back in Colombia if we lose) put us down to 10 men. Colombia can and hopefully will force a tie with Poland and see off Senegal for 4 points and still go through.

Classy and gracious in defeat I see.

Also FIFA will now be having an additional man looking at the VAR it seems after the Harry Kane incident. So a guy looks at the guy looking at VAR who looks at the ref. Good news.

[Starblaydia]

Also FIFA will now be having an additional man looking at the VAR it seems after the Harry Kane incident. So a guy looks at the guy looking at VAR who looks at the ref. Good news.

FIFA only change their procedures after something incredibly blatant happens to England (Lampard over-the-line vs Germany, Kane's 2 penalty shouts) because just imagine the outcry if that had happened in an important match to a nation people actually liked.

[San Regada]

It's not like Japan has a highly realistic chance against Poland or Senegal anyway. Japan only won because of Sanchez (who will be shot upon arrival back in Colombia if we lose)

Let's perhaps not joke about that; some of us remember the 1994 World Cup.

Japan only won because of Sanchez (who will be shot upon arrival back in Colombia if we lose) put us down to 10 men.

Let's not encourage the possibilities of Colombian defenders being murdered again for a single World Cup moment, shall we?

Where do you see me encouraging an assassination of another Colombian footballer? Not encouraging a thing. We are a nation that takes our national pride very serious, and being represented at the World Cup is a serious occasion. Naturally, there will be those very angry at Sanchez's colossal and catastrophic blunder which most likely altered the mindset of Colombian players and essentially gave Japan the game. Both sides did play good, yes, and I am not taking away anything from the fact that Japan was ultimately the better side, but if Sanchez did not put us down to 10 men so early I don't think we would have lost. I also find it highly hypocritical that we can joke about Sterling getting shot for his trash performance but I cant joke about Sanchez being shot because I'm Colombian - because I'm fairly fucking sure we aren't the only country that's had footballers shot/murdered - so don't even try and use that double standard on me.

[Riemstagrad]

Putin is the VAR.
Wait until his evil plan comes together.

[San Regada]

Must be nice to watch massive underdogs win (and deserve it) huh San Regada?

Japan by no means is a massive underdog. Panama is a massive underdog. Costa Rica is a massive underdog. Meanwhile, sure they are in a rough group, but Japan is one of the best national teams in Asia (though an iffy qualifying run questions this). I'm fairly sure the Eternal Anglo wouldn't be happy if the three lions got beat by Panama, so whats your point? All you've done so far in this thread is draw me out for supporting my country above others (a logical thing to do, is it not?) and supporting some underdogs against bigger teams and I'm getting fucking sick of it.

[Nettunia]

Japan is one of the best asian teams sure, but that doesn't say much considering all asian teams are terrible.

[San Regada]

Japan is one of the best asian teams sure, but that doesn't say much considering all asian teams are terrible.

Saying all Asian (AFC) teams are a bit of a stretch. Australia is not that bad.

[Nettunia]

Maybe it wasn't that bad when it had Kewell. Now mediocre would be a compliment...either way I wasn't even considering Oceania teams.

[The Archregimancy]

Let's perhaps not joke about that; some of us remember the 1994 World Cup.

Let's not encourage the possibilities of Colombian defenders being murdered again for a single World Cup moment, shall we?

Where do you see me encouraging an assassination of another Colombian footballer? Not encouraging a thing. We are a nation that takes our national pride very serious, and being represented at the World Cup is a serious occasion. Naturally, there will be those very angry at Sanchez's colossal and catastrophic blunder which most likely altered the mindset of Colombian players and essentially gave Japan the game. Both sides did play good, yes, and I am not taking away anything from the fact that Japan was ultimately the better side, but if Sanchez did not put us down to 10 men so early I don't think we would have lost. I also find it highly hypocritical that we can joke about Sterling getting shot for his trash performance but I cant joke about Sanchez being shot because I'm Colombian - because I'm fairly fucking sure we aren't the only country that's had footballers shot/murdered - so don't even try and use that double standard on me.

I'd strongly suggest that you calm down.

I'd also strongly suggest that you stop leaping to the worst possible conclusion before you respond to posts. You're regularly putting 2+2 together and coming up with 7. It's unhelpful.

For the record, I personally made no post suggesting you were encouraging anything. I've also made no joke about shooting Sterling; I missed those posts, and likely would have commented negatively if I'd seen them. I also consider your nationality to be irrelevant. And Colombia certainly isn't the only country that's had footballers shot and murdered.

Colombia is, however, the only country that's had a footballer shot and murdered immediately after returning home for a mistake they've made in a World Cup first round match. That's deeply and profoundly unfortunate; but what happened to Andres Escobar goes some way towards explaining why the 'joke' isn't funny, and wouldn't be funny regardless of who was making the 'joke'. It has absolutely nothing to do with you being a Colombian.

[San Regada]

Where do you see me encouraging an assassination of another Colombian footballer? Not encouraging a thing. We are a nation that takes our national pride very serious, and being represented at the World Cup is a serious occasion. Naturally, there will be those very angry at Sanchez's colossal and catastrophic blunder which most likely altered the mindset of Colombian players and essentially gave Japan the game. Both sides did play good, yes, and I am not taking away anything from the fact that Japan was ultimately the better side, but if Sanchez did not put us down to 10 men so early I don't think we would have lost. I also find it highly hypocritical that we can joke about Sterling getting shot for his trash performance but I cant joke about Sanchez being shot because I'm Colombian - because I'm fairly fucking sure we aren't the only country that's had footballers shot/murdered - so don't even try and use that double standard on me.

I'd strongly suggest that you calm down.

I'd also strongly suggest that you stop leaping to the worst possible conclusion before you respond to posts. You're regularly putting 2+2 together and coming up with 7. It's unhelpful.

For the record, I personally made no post suggesting you were encouraging anything. I've also made no joke about shooting Sterling; I missed those posts, and likely would have commented negatively if I'd seen them. I also consider your nationality to be irrelevant. And Colombia certainly isn't the only country that's had footballers shot and murdered.

Colombia is, however, the only country that's had a footballer shot and murdered immediately after returning home for a mistake they've made in a World Cup first round match. That's deeply and profoundly unfortunate; but what happened to Andres Escobar goes some way towards explaining why the 'joke' isn't funny, and wouldn't be funny regardless of who was making the 'joke'. It has absolutely nothing to do with you being a Colombian.

Calm down? It's pretty fucking hard to calm down if you're getting fucking singled out the time for doing fuck all, and saying calm down sure as fuck doesn't fucking help. If 'strongly suggesting' that I should calm down is supposed to be some subtle mod threat, it's not working. Dont. Fucking. Try. It. Pretty fucking sure I'm 'regularly' [citation needed] putting 2+2 together and coming up with 4, I don't know where you're getting fucking 7 from, but its pretty fucking unhelpful to assume I am leaping to conclusions when I am pretty fucking obviously reacting to stuff that's already been said and implied. Furthermore, I never did accuse you of joking about shooting Sterling, so where did you get that shitty and false conclusion from? Did you even bother to read what I said properly?

Either way, Poland is playing Senegal now, and I don't really give a fuck about this whole thing anymore. The toxicity and belligerency being directed at me from the get-go pissed me off. Now I suggest we watch - and talk - about football in peace or this is going to get pretty bloody vile, and none one is going to like that, myself included. This is the World Cup megathread after all, no?

[Esternial]

Well my prediction for the Columbia vs. Japan match was nowhere near accurate.

[Kohr]

Senegal's winning at the half, and they've been playing well so far. As a supporter of chaos, I think the idea of them pulling off the win is a tantalizing one.

[San Regada]

Senegal's winning at the half, and they've been playing well so far. As a supporter of chaos, I think the idea of them pulling off the win is a tantalizing one.

Poland isn't playing strong right now but they aren't exactly playing weak right now. I wouldn't put an equaliser past them yet.

Senegal did get lucky with that OG. They had a chance to go 2 up but the header was poor. That could come back to bite them.

Either way, Senegal winning would be really nice from an upset point of view. Another big team oof'd. Not so good for me, however.

[San Regada]

Jesus christ Szczęsny, what are you doing? At this point, it will take something really special for Poland to come back. Senegal with a well deserved lead.

[Kohr]

That's another for the West Africans, and a great one at that.

[Yaana Noore]

Also FIFA will now be having an additional man looking at the VAR it seems after the Harry Kane incident. So a guy looks at the guy looking at VAR who looks at the ref. Good news.

FIFA only change their procedures after something incredibly blatant happens to England (Lampard over-the-line vs Germany, Kane's 2 penalty shouts) because just imagine the outcry if that had happened in an important match to a nation people actually liked.

They didn't really care when Lampard got robbed (I'm still annoyed about that, we would have come from 2-0 down against Germany and who knows what could have happened from there? We only lost 4-1 because we conceded two goals on the counter). Prior to Euro 2012 Blatter and Platini kept saying there was no need for goal-line technology, until Ukraine had a goal not given against England and lost 1-0 which just about crossed the line before Terry cleared it. The goal was offside anyway so justice was in fact done, but it was this goal which made Platini change his mind as we benefited from it.

Must be nice to watch massive underdogs win (and deserve it) huh San Regada?

Japan by no means is a massive underdog. Panama is a massive underdog. Costa Rica is a massive underdog. Meanwhile, sure they are in a rough group, but Japan is one of the best national teams in Asia (though an iffy qualifying run questions this). I'm fairly sure the Eternal Anglo wouldn't be happy if the three lions got beat by Panama, so whats your point? All you've done so far in this thread is draw me out for supporting my country above others (a logical thing to do, is it not?) and supporting some underdogs against bigger teams and I'm getting fucking sick of it.

**Damage control klaxon**
I like how you mention the the two teams that have been in England's group, you really are obsessed. Colombia are better than England and Japan are probably slightly better or the same level as Tunisia. So this is an upset by an underdog. Is calling Japan one of the best teams in Asia even a meaningful title? Who are they competing with, Saudi Arabia? Korea? Australia? Iran? That confederation is weak as piss, weaker than Africa for sure, which has a much harder qualifying system.
You can't even refer to England without letting your seething bitterness slip through, calling them shitty Three Lions or the Eternal Anglo. Anyone who has this small-time mentality and obsession with a team that isn't even the one they support, willing them to fail at every opportunity is an easy target for ridicule as it's just so childish and I find it funny.
Fair play to Japan though, they're a poor side and I was writing them off but they had a game plan and executed it perfectly. It's an upset.

Onto Poland-Senegal wtf is going on with that second goal?
Not surprising this. Poland are nowhere near as good as their FIFA ranking suggests and Senegal are probably the strongest African side. Best of luck to Alfred N'Diaye repping the mighty Wolves. Watch out for Cheikh N'Doye (aka N'Donkey), plays like he has a block of cement tied to each boot and has a style of play which screams Carlton Palmer crossed with Emile Heskey. Woeful excuse for a 'footballer' at Birmingham this season.

[Yaana Noore]

Moussa Konate is on too! I saw him play in person a few times at the 2012 Olympics for the Senegal team and he was ace, knew he had the potential to play in one of the top European leagues when I first saw him.

[The Blaatschapen]

Look, I can't moderate a thread I'm participating in, but - just one poster to others - do we think we could tone down some of the personal insults that are flying around right now?

A bit of fun banter's unavoidable in a World Cup thread; coming up with euphemistic ways of calling other people stupid is neither clever nor funny.

Oooooh. Idea for the next big football thread. Arch creates it and has permission to moderate it. But only in the form of yellow and red cards.

If a player disagrees then it's referred to a specially created VAR (Vetoing Arch Referee) who has to be someone who has never been on NSG, knows nothing about football, and doesn't speak any English.

My mom actually qualifies for that position

[San Regada]

Great header! I wonder if Poland could pull this back now... it would certainly be a major plot twist. They only need one more spell of luck.

[San Regada]

Well my prediction for the Columbia vs. Japan match was nowhere near accurate.

A heads up... It's Colombia, not Columbia.

[Yaana Noore]

VAR checks for a potential penalty and correctly decided it is not. Then has a look at whether the Polish goal is offside but again correctly decides it is not. Great use of it.

[Forsher]

10 pages since I last had internet? Mad.

Anyone know if there's a site recording expected goals for world cup matches?