15 hours ago, Malcador said:

Well will be sensible when they make it 64 teams, and probably always hold it in the US

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cqx13p4q8wvo

Well, at least from a financial perspective, the WC held in the US have been the most successful. But FIFA has also been prosecuted for corruption by the US, so they may be reluctant. Then again...

US Attorney Dropped FIFA Bribery Case at Trump Official’s Behest

Gotta love those swamp critters.

Well, give the Americans what they want and no on gets hurt, I suppose

Potentially, France and Germany will be meeting on July 4. That could be fun. Argentina and Brazil may have the easiest road to the quarterfinals; not easy of course, just winnable.

Shame Bruce, I was supporting South Africa. Well, guess I can still hope the Dutch win it all.

Edited Sunday at 09:29 PM3 days by Malcador

9 hours ago, Malcador said:

Shame Bruce, I was supporting South Africa. Well, guess I can still hope the Dutch win it all.

I enjoyed the SA vs Canada game

Firstly I didn't think we would even progress to the next stage but we did beat SK. So just getting to the last 32 was a win for me

But end of the day Canada deserved to win, they played a better game but our defense was excellent. The biggest " mistake " we made was assuming we would get into extra time but Canada scored in the last 3 minutes

I mentioned this before but I like to see host countries doing well. So Im not disappointed, South Africa did as well as they could

Now we will see teams drop like skittles, its going to be frenetic and exciting

Argentina-England semifinal

Germany need Klopp yesterday

The same team the USMNT crushed 4-1 knocks Germany out of the contest. Ha! I hope we see more upsets.

1 hour ago, rjshae said:

The same team the USMNT crushed 4-1 knocks Germany out of the contest. Ha! I hope we see more upsets.

I keep seeing Americans bring this up, I'm not sure it really means as much as they think. Knockout football and the Paraguayan coach perhaps doing what Nagelsmann cannot and learn.

EDIT : VVD ****s things up again

Edited Tuesday at 04:16 AM1 day by Malcador

I watched the Germany game and I was very disappointed with the outcome

Germany should have won. Again I use the official stats to make this point

Germany possession 65% vs 23 %

Goal attempts 21 vs 6

But they only came alive in the second half. And then the goal that was disallowed for " goalie interference"?? Really

I also hate penalty shootouts as the way to decide who wins but I suppose you have to have some way to get a winner

Biggest disappointment so far

And then to make things worse Netherlands lost to Morocco so now 2 prominent EU teams are out

Japan can at least be happy with there performance against Brazil

The German result was hilarious. Though there was a lot of pre tournament talk was about how brittle they looked you didn't really expect them to lose to a team ranked in the 40s.

I guess Morocco kind of justified what looked like a ridiculously high official ranking.

Paraguay had a strong defense, not sure what they were on in their first game. Oh, if Germany had Karl and Gnabry.

18 hours ago, Malcador said:

I keep seeing Americans bring this up, I'm not sure it really means as much as they think. Knockout football and the Paraguayan coach perhaps doing what Nagelsmann cannot and learn.

Meh, it's just irony. No need to turn it into anti-Americanism as usual. Keep in mind that there are millions of immigrants to the USA who grew up playing football, and know more about the game than you might think.

Edited Tuesday at 07:26 PM1 day by rjshae

1 hour ago, rjshae said:

Meh, it's just irony. No need to turn it into anti-Americanism as usual. Keep in mind that there are millions of immigrants to the USA who grew up playing football, and know more about the game than you might think.

What anti Americanism? Was all over the forums I was reading. On the whole too many fans think this is rock paper scissors, matches are independent and teams react (well not Germans). Canadians thought they're better than Switzerland because the Qatar result, etc.

4 hours ago, Malcador said:

What anti Americanism? Was all over the forums I was reading. On the whole too many fans think this is rock paper scissors, matches are independent and teams react (well not Germans). Canadians thought they're better than Switzerland because the Qatar result, etc.

As with most sports, the "playoff" contests are often about matchups; some teams will match up particularly well with certain opponents. In that sense, it's a lot about the luck of the draw. Apparently in this case the Peruvian style matched up well against what looked like a more stodgy Germany team. I've watched a few Copa América tourneys and their rivalries can be quite intense; it can be a very different look compared to European matches.

11 hours ago, rjshae said:

Meh, it's just irony. No need to turn it into anti-Americanism as usual. Keep in mind that there are millions of immigrants to the USA who grew up playing football, and know more about the game than you might think.

You not going to avoid anti-Americanism in this WC. Its unfortunate and Trump is a big part of it. But it would be nice if people could learn to separate politics from things like the WC

But this is the world we live in, the good news its irrelevant to most fans and the success of this WC which is what I was predicting. This type of sentiment exists almost entirely on SM and the Internet and doesn't reflect RL views and RL outcomes around the support of this WC

Great win for Norway, this is the furthest they have advanced in 28 years. I was reading up on iconic " Viking row " that Norway has adopted

Fascinating history and such a quintessential Scandinavian development, I really appreciate it now

https://africa.espn.com/football/story/_/id/49221882/norway-world-cup-viking-row-usa-fans-erling-haaland-martin-odegaard

And then huge game tonight, England vs DRC

Go England !!!!

7 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Great win for Norway, this is the furthest they have advanced in 28 years. I was reading up on iconic " Viking row " that Norway has adopted

Yeah, that synchronized clap thing can be chilling.

Shame, Congo beating England would have been funny. Their keeper's stock went up for sure

6 hours ago, Malcador said:

Shame, Congo beating England would have been funny. Their keeper's stock went up for sure

Many of those African clubs are looking rather good. Senegal almost pulled it off against Belgium. Perhaps we're looking at a sea change for future WCs?

BIH were a waste of a spot

2 hours ago, rjshae said:

Many of those African clubs are looking rather good. Senegal almost pulled it off against Belgium. Perhaps we're looking at a sea change for future WCs?

People have been saying that at least since Roger Milla era Cameroon came close v England. Every once in a while a Senegal beats a France but it hasn't happened consistently.

Having said that, it's easy to forget that Morocco is African and came 4th in 2022. So there isn't all that much progress left to be made.