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

What if Squires had a twin....who couldn't draw? He could borrow David's media pass and sneak into The Guardian.....but once there, he wouldn't be able to produce a cartoon! He'd have to do....something else! like....find unattended computers and make alterations to the articles!

Yankee kids practicing "the Neymar"

https://www.facebook.com/NBCSportsSoccer/videos/1702286803159998/UzpfSTEzOTU5NzYxNjk6MTAyMTcyMDI5MjkwOTA3MzQ/

whats goin on with footie

Suarez was killed

i kno when my pubes are being pulled

that usually helps with the experience, yes

highfellatin language if ever i heard any

プロレス界初！VARを採用で判定が覆る！
男色ディーノ＆大石真翔 vs 石井慧介＆梅田公太https://t.co/HxXor6r0io#ddtpro #DDTマジ卍 #ddtuniverse pic.twitter.com/nybSY0n0zK

— DDT UNIVERSE (@ddtuniverse) July 3, 2018

When you see obvious infractions that would otherwise go unpunished like this, VAR does seem increasingly appealing, but it still just feels like something intrinsic to the sport has been lost idk

loool

People complained when Hawkeye was introduced in tennis and cricket but it's generally accepted now. When the stakes are this high any help from technology is welcome.

The perils of having a big screen TV clearly visible in your front room on the walk home from @Wimbledon ... pic.twitter.com/EVvrGGsMM1

— Felicity Baker (@Felicity_Baker) July 3, 2018

Nooo felicity not the sun

there is definitely a balance between having as perfect an interpretation of the rules as possible and having an efficient, enjoyable game. the var in the fa cup was a total disaster, this stuff has been much better

I was concerned about where my grinding frustration at the injustice of it all was going to come from, but happily it's still available from refs' failure to use VAR consistently. Everyone's a winner.

there is definitely a balance between having as perfect an interpretation of the rules as possible and having an efficient, enjoyable game.

yeah it's just the extremists on either side of this position that annoy. i guess i exaggerate my dislike for VAR because i worry about it killing flow and enjoyability, but people who dismiss those aspects as unimportant compared to absolute perfect "fairness" at all times are just.fucking.idiots. who must hate football really.

still, if world cups and their ILX threads teach us anything it's that different people want/get really, really different things out of watching pro sport.

ignoring the chance that cheating cunts will start to weigh up increased chances of detection and punishment there tbh

some incredibly tasty & hard to call QFs. there's been an absurd amount of mbappe hype but uruguay have a proper defence and I imagine their designated big giroud is more likely to make the difference for them. love to see uruguay go further, there's a sobriety to them I find irresistible.

a brazil who have yet to get into top gear versus this motley & ill tempered belgium team is hard to work out. could be a crushing victory full of goals or a tight frustrated game but I am v hopeful for drama in either case.

the other two games are more likely to be excruciating exercises in negation. sweden are at least not totally craven and seem more likely to cause england problems. croatia have the big guns to take pot shots at russia but they seem quite a miserable bunch and have accrued an impressive amount of cards. a sweden-russia semi final would be quite something.

i for one salute the newer, subtler layers of cheating being opened up by technology

any quick QF predictions now we know the full fixtures?

FRA BRA SWE CRO

Fra
Bel
Eng
Cro

FRA
BEL
ENG
CRO

Lol dammit xpost

FRA BRA ENG CRO

FRA BRA SWE CRO

URA BRA SWE CRO

FRA
BRA
ENG
RUS

Mainly as the thought of a Russia-England semi is too tasty not to hope for.

FRABELENGRUS

I'm honestly not jinxing them now, I stand to earn money out of them after all, but the England game is the result I'm most sure about, the others are much trickier to call.

just seen Cavani's confirmed as out which were there anything riding on this wd probably shift my prediction but as it is I'm letting my freak flag fly

hee hee ‘bra’

Uru
Bra
Eng
Rus

interesting that none of the ppl going bel also go swe

FRA (AET or pens)
BRA

SWE (pens /eeyore)
RUS (AET tho shootout would be interesting here as unusual for a team to win two at one WC - not done since Argentina 1990)

Kolkata, today. #WorldCup #BRABEL pic.twitter.com/aASuyRZkG1

— Zico Ghosh (@zico_gh0sh) July 6, 2018

fiery start this
gonna be close

Something about these France shirts looks like they’ve all come out to play in their team Jim-jams.

this is kind of a fun tug of war. could be decided on a lucky bounce

hope Suarez gets his dick bitten off

GOALLLLLLLLLL

Big fan of whichever Uruguay player tried to throw his hand in the way.

Baise ouais.

I loved the ref batting the ball down with his hand a few minutes ago when he got in the way

holy fuck in real time I thought that hit the post, didn't realize Lloris saved that....

nice

Best goalkeeper in the world.

wonder save

incredible save

Best goalkeeper in the world cup.

FRA
BEL
SWE
CRO

Reckon Brazil beat Belgium, they're a proper team.

Enjoyed that half, Uru fucked now I think without Cavani to get them back in it, really shd've got in front before France scored

Makes it a lot more fun though. That France defence is far from impenetrable but its a lot better than the Argentina result would suggest.