Confederations Cup 2017

That's insane, I'm sure they'll have to rest the majority of those players

Totally crazy! I'm sure they'll rest quite a lot of players, mostly the ones playing in Europe - like Germany is doing as we speak - but still. Call me old-fashioned, but as a football fan I enjoyed the three months without football every summer. Those days seem long gone, with every summer filled with 'tournaments' like this.

the gold cup and confederations are both 25 years old

also confederations basically an extended international community shield of a mickey mouse competition so can be easily ignored if one wishes

That depends on your team though , doesn't it? I mean Chile for example is all in on this tourney. For one thing the "golden generation "'s window is closing. Also FIFA ranking is at stake: a win places Chile 6th, a loss 11th. This could be critical in getting a top spot in the group stage, which in turn can help us avoid the fate that always seems to befall La Roja: make it out of its group only to run into Brazil in the first knockout round . So this is far from Mickey Mouse territory for that team, and the game is expected to significantly depress voter turnout for Sunday 's primaries.

(Hi everyone, by the way, I've been away from ilx for about six months or so )

(Obv referring to World Cup implications above)

yeah, i am totally stoked for this tournament because of those reasons, but i have never care anytime before!

also hi collardio

Chile looking tidy at the moment.

oh

this could be coffin nails ....

got away with it imo

the magic of video reffing

lmao. so the ref sees the vid the whole world saw and still only gives a yellow. shambles.

umpteen minutes delay just to make a terrible decision

this is the sad, sad future of football isn't it?

nah, in the next 10 years they'll find lots of other ways to ruin it too, so you end up forgetting how shitty this is

reassuring. van basten's got some mad ideas up his sleeve (three thirds instead of two halves, hockey like pen's, bringing a gallon of goat's blood equals a goal extra etc)

Vidal really should've scored there.

okay that would have been a spectacular goal

What a fucking joke

I'm gutted by this loss tbh. We should have been up 2-0 by halftime; instead it was 0-1.

There are a lot of obvious analytical remarks I could make , but I'm too dispirited to bother. I just hope the players (esp Diaz) recover from this , learn from it, and for fuck's sakes, forwards: how about keeping a cool head in front of the net?

I love La Roja and the fight in them, but the golden generation seems to be running out of ammo.