World Cup 2018

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ray245
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World Cup 2018

Post by ray245 »

There's probably far less interest in the forum due to US not qualifying for the current world cup, but it's been quite a good tournament so far. With all the major teams underperforming, this really is a world cup that is up for grabs.

It's crazy to see Germany ending up in such a mess even though they have one of the best teams on paper, apart from France and Belgium.
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by Crazedwraith »

In England we got out of the group stage by beating two nobody teams. So now of course people think we are actually going to do well.

Happens every time we don't fail amazingly horribly.
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by Captain Seafort »

Crazedwraith wrote: 2018-06-25 02:59amIn England we got out of the group stage by beating two nobody teams. So now of course people think we are actually going to do well.

Happens every time we don't fail amazingly horribly.
To be fair, that happens so rarely that it might be justified, and "doing well" by English standards means reaching the quarters.

Besides, this time round the "nobody teams" seem to include Germany, Brazil and Argentina.
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by Crazedwraith »

Defending champions, Germany are out! It's a topsy turvy world.
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by wautd »

Yeah... this WC makes it hard to predict which team will become champion.
Based on the first selection, Germany didn't deserve to go through though. Kinda happy for Sweden to go through, they deserved more with their match against Germany.
I'll be rooting for Belgium (offcouse me being belgian) who'll have their first real test against a strong England tonight. Although I don't expect a good match when people are saying it would be tactically better to loose this one.

PS. Hats of to Iceland. A population pool of 300000 people going to the World Cup twice in a row? Impressive to say the least.
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by Captain Seafort »

wautd wrote: 2018-06-28 10:10ama strong England
The fact that that phrase can be used without a very long string of these -> :lol: or these -> :P sums up this world cup.
PS. Hats of to Iceland. A population pool of 300000 people going to the World Cup twice in a row? Impressive to say the least.
This is Iceland's first world cup - you're thinking about the Euros.
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by wautd »

Captain Seafort wrote: 2018-06-28 04:25pm
wautd wrote: 2018-06-28 10:10ama strong England
The fact that that phrase can be used without a very long string of these -> :lol: or these -> :P sums up this world cup.
Yeah well, they played some very decent first two matches and they were better at not wanting to win the 3rd game :wink:
PS. Hats of to Iceland. A population pool of 300000 people going to the World Cup twice in a row? Impressive to say the least.
This is Iceland's first world cup - you're thinking about the Euros.
Oh right, indeed
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by Captain Seafort »

Well, this tournament has just gone from weird to off the fucking chart.

England have won a penalty shoot out. Expect the collapse of the universe shortly.
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by Crazedwraith »

Captain Seafort wrote: 2018-07-03 04:56pm England have won a penalty shoot out. Expect the collapse of the universe shortly.
I was going to be dick. But well done to them, I guess, they've now got further than the last what is it twelve years and done better than when the team had big names in it.
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by EnterpriseSovereign »

Yeah, good thing we didn't bring Rooney along this time. I hadn't heard of (Harry) Kane until this tournament but he's now the leading goalscorer in the tournament. All the more impressive since the other greats in the tournament (like Ronaldo and Messi) didn't do enough to put their respective teams through and were eliminated.

Looks like Southgate's decision to field a B-squad playing against Belgium (who did the same) actually paid off. Not for the last 16 games though, Japan gave Belgium a really hard time and they only just managed to win. Watching England playing vs Colombia was pure torture, the last England game I actually enjoyed was the 6-1 curb-stomp we gave Panama in the group stage.

Sweden next, and we're under no illusions that it's gonna be a difficult game. If we do win, we're guaranteed two more games no matter what since there's the 3rd place playoff. On the other hand, the alternative would have been playing Brazil in a rematch of 2002, but they're Belgium's problem now! :twisted:
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by EnterpriseSovereign »

I never thought I'd be saying this, but Belgium just sent Brazil home! :o :lol:
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by Vendetta »

So, Russia's run has ended in another penalty shootout. Given that they were ranked 70th in the world before the competition and so should have been destined to exit in the group stages I think they can hold their heads up high this year.
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by EnterpriseSovereign »

As can England, I still can't quite believe we managed to send Sweden home 2-0, and in normal time too! Far less brutal than the Colombia game- just reaching the semi finals (Sweden had done so four times to our two) is the best we've done in a generation. Wherever we finish now we can say it's been a success! :mrgreen:
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by Vendetta »

Yeah. And call it wishful thinking but Croatia have been run ragged by two knockout games that both went to 120 minutes. They were definitely feeling it at the end of the game with Russia.
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by ray245 »

We might get a England-France final at this rate.
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by wautd »

I think Belgium has a good chance against France. If we can beat France, then the World Cup should be ours
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by EnterpriseSovereign »

It will be interesting to see whether we play France or Belgium after Croatia, and if it's the Saturday or Sunday game we're in. :wink:

Only now that we're in the last four can we really get excited about the result. I think Southgate's job for the next couple of years is safe whatever happens next! :mrgreen:
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by wautd »

Sad to see that the anti-football team won yesterday
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by Vendetta »

Well shit.

Good first half for England, but then they fell to shit and Croatia found their legs.
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by Captain Seafort »

Look on the bright side - for an hour, England were leading a World Cup semi-final for the first time in 52 years.
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by Vendetta »

Yep.

And now we can't lose to France, who would have been insufferable about it.
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by Gandalf »

As someone from Australia, the lack of insufferable England fans is a definite bonus. :P
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by ray245 »

Gandalf wrote: 2018-07-11 05:06pm As someone from Australia, the lack of insufferable England fans is a definite bonus. :P
But it would have been so much fun if England lost to France in the final of all the countries.
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by Crazedwraith »

Oh man, football is just that lovely unifying thing where everyone lets you know how much they hate your country :lol:
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Re: World Cup 2018

Post by Gandalf »

ray245 wrote: 2018-07-11 05:23pm
Gandalf wrote: 2018-07-11 05:06pm As someone from Australia, the lack of insufferable England fans is a definite bonus. :P
But it would have been so much fun if England lost to France in the final of all the countries.
Nah, because then it's a lot of "We would have won if..." scenarios.
"Oh no, oh yeah, tell me how can it be so fair
That we dying younger hiding from the police man over there
Just for breathing in the air they wanna leave me in the chair
Electric shocking body rocking beat streeting me to death"

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"I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."
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