Any of you guys post at Bigsoccer.com? Might be the only site I frequent as much as this one. Although probably not as much for about 5 years.....
no, perhaps I should... I only come here to spew my nonsense... perhaps one day, when I'm long gone, my greatness will be realized.
It's a good site. Some very knowledgeable people, some not so much, and some crazies.... You can probably guess the name I post under there!
I actually think it's a bit of a blessing that the US didn't make it to the WC. I mean it's in Russia and all.... last time we had this much hostility with Russia, there were Olympic boycotts.
Nice run of games by England at the U17 World Cup. Today's win vs Brazil. Back to back hat tricks now by Brewster, the LFC prospect. I thought the extra days rest for England really helped them at the end of the first half. Because it looked like Brazil was coming on after they had tied the game 1-1. But they hit that 35 minute mark or so, and all of a sudden it was one way action going the opposite direction. Some of that carried into the second half, but when England went up 3-1, it was pretty much over so it wasn't as noticeable that Brazil were just drained. Not to make any excuses for them. England was well deserved to be moving on. Haven't seen the other semi result yet... I'm assuming Spain will get thru and it'll be a rematch of the Euro thriller from earlier in the summer that went to penalties (we all know how that ended don't we?)...
32 teams are set for Russia 2018. No Italy.. no USA... no Ireland. I do wonder how the ratings will do for Fox next summer here in the US. Well I know I'll be watching... anyway, the pots were announced this week... Pot 1: Russia (hosts) (65) Germany (1) Brazil (2) Portugal (3) Argentina (4) Belgium (5) Poland (6) France (7) Pot 2: Spain (8) Peru (10) Switzerland (11) England (12) Colombia (13) Mexico (16) Uruguay (17) Croatia (18) Pot 3 Denmark (19) Iceland (21) Costa Rica (22) Sweden (25) Tunisia (28) Egypt (30) Senegal (32) Iran (34) Pot 4 Serbia (38) Nigeria (41) Australia (43) Japan (44) Morocco (48) Panama (49) South Korea (62) Saudi Arabia (63) If I'm England I'm looking to avoid... well, I'm looking to avoid penalties at all costs ... but besides that... I'd want Russia or Poland out of the first pot. Avoid Denmark and Iceland (maybe Senegal as well) out of that third pot. And Serbia out of the 4th pot. Potential group of deaths... Spain and any of the teams out of the first pot not named Russia or Poland, plus Denmark/Iceland/Senegal.. and of course Serbia... so Brazil/Spain/Senegal/Serbia... that's my G.O.D. Pick... remember you can't have more than one team from the same federation in the same group (except UEFA where its no more than two). England snowflake group... Poland/England/Iran/Panama.
Reflecting back on the group selection that occurred last week. Belgium, Panama, Tunisia and England. ****, I'll take that! Even England should be able to qualify out of that group. Here's the rest of the groups: A (by far the weakest group, Russia lucked out) Russia Saudi Arabia Egypt Uruguay B (Spain and Portugal lucked out really) Portugal Spain Morocco Iran C (Potential Group of Death, I wouldn't be surprised to see France not make it out actually) France Australia Peru (they could surprise) Denmark (they could also surprise) D (Decent group, any two teams could advance) Argentina Iceland Croatia Nigeria E (Potential Group of Death as well, could Brazil fail to advance?) Brazil Switzerland Costa Rica Serbia F (the real Group of Death and keep in mind that E plays F first / second in round of 16... so could see Brazil vs Germany in the round of 16) Germany Mexico (they have to be wondering what they did to deserve such treatment) Sweden South Korea G (easy) Belgium Panama Tunisia England H (Other than group A, there isn't another group I would mind facing more than this in the round of 16) Poland Senegal Colombia Japan
England always thinks it has it easy when it draws a CONCACAF team, but history disagrees. I warned an old English teammate of mine about Costa Rica in the tropics last World Cup, but he laughed at me...
Well I have freely admitted that anything is possible with England and the WC. As you noted though, the games were played in the Amazon... not a good thing for the British I have a feeling that with the more "traditional" weather expected in Russia, England should play better. if it were in Brazil again, I wouldn't expect England to make it out of the group. Tunisia and Panama would! Hey at least we qualified... ehem. The Eye-ties, Stars and Stripes, and the Paddys will have a tournament in the US next summer I hear.
Ross will have them playing in that stadium during the world cup. I mean they don't have anything else to do....
Late to the party....wonder why? Que sera sera. Our team and organization needed this shock to the system. We've been regressing for too long. Anyway, best site for highlights is www.ourmatch.net, thought I'd share.
Well, we're just over a week away from the World Cup starting in Russia. Expectations? Predictions? Looking back at the groups, I do think France, Brazil and Germany have difficult groups but those three are likely the favorites. Germany, did watch them in a friendly vs Austria and they didn't play well at all. Losing to the Austrians. France looks very impressive (will be a nice test for the young US lads this week). I have to think they are the deepest team in the competition. Can the D hold up I suppose is the key question? A France/Brazil final would be a thrill ride. I'm expecting the aforementioned three teams in the semis... now the fourth team could be a surprise... or it could just be Spain or Portugal. Or maybe Argentina. Those are the clear elite six teams in this. Very bearish on England this time... Probably the lowest expectations for them in quite a while for me... who knows, they'll probably go on and win it.
Sort of stumbling into this world cup. Haven't followed international football for a while. No clue what to expect apart from the usual: Talented Brazilians and Argentineans Efficient Germans Under-achieving English Aggressive Spanish And several underdogs advancing I'm hoping the Japanese can do well again and build on previous success and experience. Was a real treat to see them play last time around.
US, Mexico and Canada awarded the 2026 WC following a vote today. WC will increase to 48 teams then, and the joint bid includes 10 stadiums in the US, and 3 each in Canada/Mexico. Final to be at MetLife. I would think there's a high likelihood of Hard Rock being one of the US stadiums to host games.
Yeah, it's great to see it here in the US again. Last time (94) England hadn't qualified, it was a real disappointment, so I didn't go. Although I watched every game from home Where did you see the final was going to be at Metlife? I'm assuming either the Rose Bowl or Coliseum here in LA will host some games, so I'll likely check it out this time. Would much rather prefer one of the new soccer stadiums here to go to, but they just aren't big enough I suspect (unless they expand on them by then, a possibility I suppose).
Full WC 2018 predictions for the record.... Group A: 1. Uruguay 2. Egypt 3. Russia 4. Saudi Arabia Group B: 1. Spain 2. Portugal 3. Morocco 4. Iran Group C: 1. Peru (I'm doing this as it sets up the Fra v Bra final!) 2. France 3. Denmark 4. Australia Group D: 1. Argentina 2. Croatia 3. Iceland 4. Nigeria Group E: 1. Brazil 2. Serbia 3. Switzerland 4. Costa Rica Group F: 1. Germany 2. Mexico 3. Sweden 4. South Korea Group G: 1. Belgium 2. England 3. Tunisia 4. Panama Group H: 1. Colombia 2. Senegal 3. Japan 4. Poland (like the Swiss, they always seem to have a high FIFA ranking and then disappear in the tournaments) Brackets (and now the fun really begins): 1F Germany 2E Serbia 1H Colombia 2G England 2A Egypt 1B Spain 1D Argentina 2C France 2F Mexico 1E Brazil 2H Senegal 1G Belgium 2B Portugal 1A Uruguay 2D Croatia 1C Peru Quarters: England over Germany (I actually think England could win this because Germany is not that good this year, they seem off in the warm up games) France over Spain (French team, after not winning the group and a wake up call, will be much better in the brackets) Brazil over Belgium (Would be a great game on paper) Croatia over Portugal (A bit of an upset, but you can't argue with Rakitic and Modric in the MF) Semis: France over England (has to be penalties, still to get to the semis for England would be a coup. The tourney sets up very well for them to make the quarters. And even though expectations are low, it would be disappointing for them not to make it to the qf) Brazil over Croatia Final: Brazil over France (what a final that would be?)
This is the BBC article from yesterday on the FIFA conference where the vote took place, and the final being in NY is mentioned as part of the bid details https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44464913 I was planning on going to my first WC in '94 as a Scotland supporter and expected us to qualify as, hard to believe now, but that's just what we did in those days. Five tournaments in a row we'd been too....but of course the streak ended in '94. The last 20 years (since we last qualified in '98) has been hard to imagine after growing up used to us being there. Increasing the qualifiers to 48 has my fingers crossed for '26 though, should be a good one to get to.
I was so stoked for the 2026 announcement. My brother and I for sure will be going. As usual I pretty much agree with your predictions as well. I think Croatia / Iceland could either take 2nd in their group, depends on momentum imo (Though would prefer our boy Lovern making the round of 16). I like the prediction of France not winning their group, think that group is being lavished so much they could stumble like France did in 2002 going in as favorites. One of my first world cup memories was watching with my dad in the summer on 86. It was the first time I spen my summer in Mexico with my dad and was made sweeter that it was being held in Mexico as well that year. Everything has come full circle, my Dad is now spending the summer with us in Alaska visiting and we'll be watching tons of matches.
More for fun than as a predictor. There are teams I hate and can't root for, so I am not predicting them to do well!
I'm trying to figure the math on the 80 games by 48 teams in 34 days... will there be 12 groups of 4? and how do they get down to the round of 16, 12 group winners plus 4 highest second place teams. 16 games in the elimination round if there's a round of 16. 64 games in the group stage. 64 divided by 12? doesn't work. 6 games per group... times 12 groups is 72 games plus 16 games is 88 games total. hmm... what am I missing? ok... researched... wikipedia knows all... "The tournament will open with a group stage consisting of 16 groups of three teams, with the top two teams progressing from each group to a knockout tournament starting with a round of 32 teams. The number of games played overall will increase from 64 to 80, but the number of games played by finalists remains at seven, the same as with 32 teams, except that one group match will be replaced by a knockout match. The tournament will also be completed within 32 days, same as previous 32-team tournaments" Jesus.... they should just do what they do in NCAA baseball... round robin, double elimination etc etc. 16 groups of 3... So the second match is going to be played at different times for each team. in other words, you're at a disadvantage if the other two teams in the group play their last game after your last game. They know what they need to advance while you sit there with your thumb up your ***? Can you say collusion? I guess the wiki article talks about them not having ties, which would be interesting, having all ties broken by penalty. Welp, there goes England's chances of advancing into the 32 I suppose in theory the double elimination is exactly what the group of three is with two teams advancing... because the one that doesn't advance would likely have lost both games (or tied 1 and lost the other).
I could see the Argentina collapse coming in the first half of the Croatia match. They were slow, imprecise and just plain unimaginative in the first half. I like Croatia but they aren't "that good." Argentina made them look incredible. Strong WC for Europe as you say (except for ze Germans)... who have two games to figure it out or they could be bounced early as well. They look disjointed as well... and slow. Mueller has looked awful. Kroos and Khedira look slow and tired. If they don't start fast next game out, they are next. Brandt and Reus should be starting. Bench Mueller. Bench Khedira. Should probably bench Neuer as well, he looks off. I haven't really been thoroughly impressed with anyone yet. Sure the Spain Portugal match was brilliant. But both teams struggled to win their next matches. It's funny, it seems the more fans you have at the match, the less likely you are to win... see Peru and Argentina today. yikes.
Argentina should probably fire that Andre Agassi fella before their next game... They can thank Nigeria for still having a chance to advance!!
Germany doing its best to Virginia my bracket, but pulling it out... Belgium-Tunisia was great game to watch but what was with all the technical glitches? Cameras switching from high def to standard def intermittently, lost Crowd noise behind the play-by-play, and some play-by-play a second ahead of the video!!!
yeah, that's Fox coverage for you. They are very inconsistent. The first England match my TV was having all kinds of problems going in and out of feeds. The on field angle wasn't timed up with the above field angle. It was a mess. Mind you, NBCSN is sometimes off in it's audio/video sync to the point where I've had to mute the sound so as not to tip what was going to happen. Alex, you are freaking lucky Sweden's *** puckered up when Germany went down to 10. They were still playing for a draw. Idiots. And you can thank that one Swede that fouled outside the box setting up the FK for Kroos... I mean there's a couple of minutes left and he's fouling like an idiot. What a wombat.
As I understand it, their video is off the international feed, and they have almost no control. However, I think the audio is all on them. And I don't even want to discuss the majority of their commentators and talking heads, it makes me want to throw up too much. Some of those guys make Jimmy Cefalo and Bob Griese sound brilliant...