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

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.

So what makes some teams repeat powerhouses and some not? I don't know enough about the way things are organized to hazard a guess. I assumed it was money.

Producing talent. Though money obviously helps in developing it. You're not paid anything for playing for national sides.

Only three of the French squad weren’t born in France - and of them, only Umtiti has had any game time. The opposite is actually true - France has produced over 30 players representing other countries this World Cup.

Canonically, France and Belgium have thrived by investing in youth development and focusing on skills rather than athleticism. Croatia has less money but a football culture where players like Modric can come through despite being slight / short, which is possibly less likely in England where strength and speed are more of a priority. This seems to be changing a bit.

I get the impression that organised community sports outside of school are more accessible to French kids than they are to Brits. That might also be true of lots of Eastern / Southern Europe.

The amount of money you get paid in europe and the states is ridiculous compared to latin america, plus europe has the prestige

So the best latin american players are picked up by european leagues and the crap players get stuck at home

And these good latin american players never practise lots with their national team and/or develop a different style, so there’s always been this weird miscommunication and poor systematic output on the pitch

But mexico’s problem is not unique to mexico. It happens all over latin america with the exception of brazil, argentina and uruguay, whose best players are already in some pretty good european clubs

Lots of south american players prefer to play for a brazilian club instead of at home too, which is itself viewed negatively by some south americans

Since the US started pumping tonnes of money into their soccer league (1992), it had qualified for every single cup except this one

Mexico has a good record of qualifying but it’s in a unique situation where it was until relatively recently the best team in the concacaf by a wide margin and now mexican players want to get into the us leagues because of “better opportunities”

The Southern Slavic nations have always produced good footballers - and coaches, thousands of coaches, wherever you go in the world you will always find a Croatian or a Serbian or two or three managing an national side.

All very interesting to me!

Mexico haven't played a team they look particularly better than on paper in the second round since...maybe 2002 or 1994? That's not helped.

Tallest nations list is something like 'Holland, Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Denmark, Bosnia and Hezegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Iceland, Czech Republic' which is pretty much a list of football overachievers relative to population, Estonia/Latvia aside.

lol srsly guys

colonialism

colonialism
history/demographics of kids playing game
dictatorship

that is it, there is nothing else

Lots of eurocentrism here too

The shortest European nation is Portugal - who have done pretty well for themselves over the years. Meanwhile the Norwegians are tall and they're shite.

The US is good at basketball

the BEST