No Irish, No Yanks, No Clogs - FIFA World Cup 2018

https://i1.wp.com/hotsportstv.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/iceland-fan.jpg?fit=600%2C400

Probably all too ready

been practising my viking chant all week

there's a viking clap too

http://f.radio-capital.io/2018/05/29/618117a47ac7b0-49a8-4737-a13f-a50d6210827ajpg.jpg

With Peru's first WC appearance in 36 (!) years I don't think this boy can even be ready but bless 'im all the same

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/DD55/production/_101116665_capture.jpg

These Iranian female football fans will be totally ready, since in Russia at least they don't have to dress up like a man to be able to attend a match

https://i.makeagif.com/media/11-14-2015/lLtN8M.gif

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ApprehensiveUnluckyBoutu-max-1mb.gif

what in the fuck, spain?

lop off hierro come

https://i.makeagif.com/media/10-02-2015/Swde4g.gif

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https://s15.postimg.cc/xcte0w5zf/0885_AFA2-_FA4_A-4098-823_A-_DAE89_AB1_B9_D4.jpg

Mother confirms Sardar is ready.

aw

i was watching a special on messi the other day and they were saying how his nana was such an important figure in his life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlvz_9OabAA

what is it with nanas being so important in a man's life

got a little teary eyed

Wayne Rooney, for example.

as the reigning champion I feel it is incumbent on me to offer a WC fantasy football league for anyone who wishes to challenge for this most prestigious title

it's on the fifa/mcdonald's site - https://fantasy.fifa.com/en/home - and the code is: IZXFNJP6

is that eu only

lol! good work on the thread title, RS!

It follows, of course, that Deadspin's feature on the England team today threw in Jordan Pickford in the star player section just so they could show off his butt.

https://deadspin.com/the-campaign-to-make-england-great-again-is-well-underw-1826673632

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKjKzXPj97M

is that eu only

it can't be, there's loads of americans on it

I’m at work and the site didn’t want to load

I did it on my phone tho

joined the league

Why do the england panini look like paintings

why do their pizza look like jungles

we will never know

Joined the league

Bloody excited for this shit feast now

I'm ready!!!!

Are Saudi Arabia fasting right now? Very convenient for Russia to get their one game during Ramadan if so.

They're postponing their fast til after the tournament

I think Egypt might be fasting - or they were for the majority of Ramadan.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/13/fast-friends-world-cup-squads-dealt-with-ramadan

During the 58th and 47th minutes of recent friendlies against Portugal and Turkey goalkeeper Mouez Hassen went to the floor injured. This enabled treatment at the precise moment of sundown and players were not only seen rehydrating with water, but consuming glucose-rich dates by the touchline.

Cracking stuff.

fucking hell the cheating bastards are on the glucose-rich dates now lads

I think the only good WC opening game I've ever seen was the first I remember: Cameroon - Argentina at Italia '90. Not sure about today's offering, could do with a couple of red cards tbh.

the best I've seen was germany-costa rica in 2006 which had 6 goals inc a belter from torsten frings. this one should be absolutely terrible. stoked.

croatia brazil was dece but was it the opener

Also 2002 was quite good purely for the upset

Very very fond memories of France Senegal in 2002.

https://i.makeagif.com/media/7-19-2015/XRRshQ.gif

Oh yeah France Senegal was good too.

I’m cautiously optimistic.

KSA are pretty competent and it’s a game that, realistically, Russia have to win to qualify. If by some miracle they can knit Golovin, Dzagoev one of the Mirandchuks and Smolov into a cohesive unit, they could be good to watch. Russia has basically tried to grind out results in recent years (Capello and after) but everyone seemingly acknowledges the defence is too awful for this to be a strategy now.

inevitable dodgy peno to go Russia's way I expect

It'll be like South Korea all over again.

after a 10 minute VAR review, just to get us in the spirit

The Great Patriotic VAR.

never forget

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8w89sl7Grc

I loved 2002, if you could just bottle some of that Dioufy spirit, we could all do with some! Just thinking that was the last WC finals I watched on a CRT television - another era. And Efe Sodjes Against All Odds bandanna>>>current Nigeria kit. I wonder if the reason the recent money laundering trial against Efe collapsed was because wore his "lucky" bandanna to court.

so the big day is here - and yes it is a surprise to find myself in as you would say the 'top job'. there will be many training sessions ahead but i am confident i have the talent to succeed. i have organised several training sessions and indeed i have already created a 'spreadsheet' featuring most of the players in the squad. yes it was hard work, and i will finish it before tomorrow, but that is football. if you are not willing to 'work' you will not harvest the rewards.

afterall, in my country we have a saying: 'football is football'. yes, it is football. perhaps it does not translate. that does not matter at this time as i begin this journey with the players of the spanish national team, having started off myself in malaga many moons ago.

win, lose or draw you can be sure that we will continuing.

regards,

fernando hierro

good to have you here Fernando, altho obviously i'll be cheering for Wolves when you play us tomorrow night

Also he should surely know how unpopular Erdogan is in Germany in particular, but he's a footballer I suppose. I do think the I Am Honouring The Current Leader Of My Forefathers thing is a bit of baloney dreamed up by his PR people after the fact, though.

I'm glad that we've covered the fact that Erdogan is an asshole and that Özil is an idiot to potentially not think like us on the subject.

xxp yeah well this is the nature of diplomacy. sometimes isolating and refusing to play nice is effective, in this instance I'm not sure what it would achieve. for all I know he may be v well informed about turkish politics but feel the same way.

lots of ppl do of course have more or less blind respect for institutions/the ppl they represent which is sub-ideal but another thing I don't feel ozil can be fairly singled out for

I'm sorry that I have to post this extremely distressing picture, but I really do have to.

https://i.imgur.com/KYMuPqh.jpg

Kenny Sansom's leer always cracks me up there.

Xp

Never liked those dudes

The nonsense being hurled at Özil is disgusting and nakedly fuelled by racism and impotent rage at Germany’s decline (both indisputably on the pitch and through a right-wing lens in society), though obviously not at all surprising.

At the same time I disagree with the policies and behaviour of Erdogan and so am happy to conclude that Özil is either a bad cunt or a stupid prick.

He is a pretty decent and effective footballer imo.

fair take too

un-woke Kev has always been a complete twat, I even despised him when I was too innocent to know what hatred really was! But so are most footballers tbh, and arguably being a Tory voting multi-millionaire makes you an even bigger cunt than having photo taken with a dictator. Hasn't Ozil still got family in Turkey? If you were in his position you might not be brave enough to tell Erdogan to get fucked or make a public show of snubbing him.

Ya both are bad

2 wrongs dont make a right right?

Can Guevara xp

2 wrongs dont make a right doesnt address a dilemma

No need to make a show of it simply don't meet the guy.

What's Gundogan been saying about all this?

TBH I try and avoid finding out about the politics of footballers I like and I certainly wouldn't go to them for nuanced political commentary. This is genuinely the first time in my life I've ever so much thought about the political affiliations of Mezut Ozil and I'd have preferred not to do so. Most footballers have the good sense to keep quiet about it.

The Mo Salah/Kadyrov stuff seems relevant enough to mention in this discussion, although the situations aren't perfectly analagous- questions of how much say he had, and what the Egyptian FA were fucking thinking basing the team in Chechnya in the first place, being to the fore there.

Mesut had at least one sympathetic phone call on Monday over his plight, always nice to have someone in your corner...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44943282

lol this fuckin guy

Got to admit every time I see that photo I feel a twinge of sympathy for Ozil, he looks like such a hapless dork.

He's a nerd who got confused into supporting a dictator, how could germans not relate

there must have have been some element of "hmm, this might not go down too well" in that noggin of his at that moment, if the rumours of some footballers possessing sentience are actually true!

hes made his argument on that

probably engineered after the fact, but nonetheless

what the Egyptian FA were fucking thinking basing the team in Chechnya in the first place

My immediate assumption is that the Egyptian FA is skint and Chechnya was the cheapest place they could find. What was in it for Kadyrov is pretty obvious.

He knows the ppl in the German FA and their actions and words, why doesn't he know more about Ergodan?

uh like what the actual name of dude is? probably does

I don't know how I can clarify the above?

Anyway here is Muller on the controversy and its...not good:

Like Neuer wasn't enough, now Thomas #Müller talks about Mesut #Özil's Germany exit, saying "no one" can say there's racism in sports (!), and that the poor DFB just wanted to restore calmness.

Bayern Munich, officially the white men of German football in more ways than one. pic.twitter.com/XGpLX52kGI

— Felix Tamsut (@ftamsut) August 3, 2018