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

way more fun than when I watch my local team lose their tenth straight later tonight

suspect Belgium actually wants to win as 3rd place would be their best ever finish in the World Cup whereas 4th would just tie their best.

I would have thought that England would want to win because it would be one better than 1990.

BEL just seem more fancy rn

xpost true, I could see that as well

That and the fact that they've put out their strongest side whereas England are playing Eric Dier.

excellent from sterling

does Southgate own like 70 of those vest kits or does he just dry clean the same one each time

immediately gets criticised by brian kerr for a wrong decision which seema kneejerk to me

it was a good ball, Kompany closed on it well forcing Kane to adjust, but it was a real opp from Sterling

"beer's been chucked around and no one moaned about it… showed that they've done a reasonable job"

Neanderthal - if you're talking about the waistcoat then it's the official Marks & Spencer England suit so yes he probably does have a wardrobe full of them right now.

Hoddle still trying to make 'The Love Train' happen against colossal public indifference.

ahh

i'm just indifferent to Hoddle tbh

no, that's not strictly true

ROM, dammit

Mbappe still on for four goals in the final though.

LOL @ England

dink denied

"we can't score in open play, mates, it's not the England way"

enjoying this spurs on spurs action

at least we're saved from "Dier Maker" joekz

dier playing pretty well tbh and its a bit better than they have played in a few games now imo

England w more real opps this half

stop saying sumptuous

what the fuuuuuuck Mertens

wholly unearned counter due to the foul that started it so evens out

some incredible shots today

why did Macguire get a yellow?

complaining re the foul that shouldve ended that belgian counter

rashford sleeping in the box

rlc looks good

great save

holy fuck, great counter, even better save

awesome attack. England deserve a goal though.

I mean the one time I fielded a rocket shot in the stands I had a fuckin welt on the thing for days

jones jones jones

what do ppl think a centre halfs job is at all

that is shocking defending, shocking

counter attacking will always prevail in modern football.

against sheer mindlessness like that it will

kind of a bummer considering how outplayed they've been this half but nice finish

and that woulda been three had the final ball been better

wonder if FIFA will dare to name E. Hazard player of the tournament.

loool england

Today's match is the most unnecessary idea in the world cup.
A burden for both teams.

Why not make in interesting? Like maybe winner has a free ticket for next world cup or something..

― nostormo, Friday, July 13, 2018 10:42 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they already let england into the wc every time tho

Probably the last chance for most of this Belgium team I guess? They might have a Euros in them but that's it.

Went to the local giant liquor store to buy Croatian beer and they were sold out. The beer guy seemed surprised until I told him about the world cup connection. He said he had thought I was going to be asking him for *French* beer. Oh, I said, because of the world cup, too? No, he said. Because today is Bastille Day! I don't think he knew either team was playing tomorrow, or that there was a world cup at all.

A Honduran friend of mine actually flew to Moscow for the Cup opening and a couple of games, and he returned with some interesting observations (and weird Russian FIFA branded candy). I asked him his biggest surprise of the trip, and he said it was how surprised the Russians were to see so many people flying in from around the world, especially from Mexico and South America. He also said the stores and bars were completely ill-prepared for the influx, and were sometimes out of food and in particular beer.

We then digressed last night into a discussion as to why Mexico never seems to do well at the World Cup, especially for a soccer loving nation of 130 million. It's a mystery.

yeah its a my$tery

I mean some nations would kill to get out of the group stage so

Aren't there plenty of nations without deep pockets that make it farther? I mean, Croatia can't be swimming in World Cup cash can it?

Speaking of, correct me if I'm wrong but the way it was explained to me is that teams like France have a lot of cash and sort of loose citizenship requirements that allow them to build teams around the world. But Croatia, most of their players are native, yet must go around the world to play throughout the year to play for other teams, because the nation can't really support them financially.

They've consistently done a lot better than a whole lot of other nations. Though the fact that they qualify for every tournament helps.

The relative richness of the football associations and leagues of the individual nations isn't that significant a factor on whether they are successful or not - if that were the case England would have won the World Cup more than once, more than 50 years ago. French football isn't particularly wealthy - or wasn't until Qataris invested in Paris St. Germain.