World Cup Musings (ramblings)

[PeterL22]

So today is Day 3 of World Cup in Russia - I have watched 4 matches today of varying entertainment and skill - here are my 10 thoughts on the first 3 days so far

1. Best match by a mile was Spain v Portugal - Spain playing the best football of anyone so far and Portugal hanging on in there to get a draw. Not impressed by Ronaldo's hat-trick apart from the free kick at the end (brilliant strike and what pressure!).His second goal was a real howler by supposedly the best goalkeeper in the world, and he dived for the penalty!

2. Worst game by a mile was Morocco v Iran - two poor sides and Iran the dirtiest side so far.

3. Best team performance - Iceland (of course) for their resilience and stopping Messi. Also equalising after going one down is great. Argentina were not good - but was it because Iceland stopped them. Honourable mention here for Portugal who fought against a really good team in Spain and got their rewards right at the end.

4. Unluckiest team so far - Egypt. They did really well against one of the "big" South American counties, Uruguay, and only conceded during injury time. Add to that the fact that they were unable to use Salah (top scorer in Premier League this season) and they can really feel upset.

5. Most cheating by diving and simulation goes to France - especially Hernandez who fell over every time an Aussie breathed on him. Not convinced about their penalty either! Honourable mention to Moses of Nigeria who spent most of the game having a lie down against Croatia.

6. Team that really didn't deserve to lose and played some great football - Peru. Also they win the award for the best kit so far - that shirt with the red sash is a design classic!

7. Best look-a-like goes to the Morocco manager Herve Renard (see Shit Pic thread) who IS Jamie Lannister. Special award (probably for making Vicky go weak at the knees!) is for the Viking impression by Aron Gunnarsson of Iceland

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8. Best fact by commentator in Argentina v Iceland - the population of Iceland is 1/40th of the population of Buenos Aires!

9. Worst performance by Premier League player - Pogba of France (and no he didn't score, it was an own goal!) - I gave up counting the number of times he gave the ball! Honourable mention for De Gea with his howler (two Man Utd players - won't Jose be impressed).

10. Best performance by Premier League player - Sigusson of Iceland - work rate and leadership fantastic.

Tomorrow's results are :-
Costa Rica v Serbia - scoreless draw
Brazil v Switzerland - Brazil by 2
Germany v Mexico - Germany by 2 or 3.

More tomorrow

[PeterL22]

Day 4 - another 3 matches.

1. Performance of the day - obviously Mexico! Totally deserved to beat a lacklustre Germany. Could/should have been more than 1-0 - what chances they missed on the break.

2. Referees are pretty good so far - I hope the Premier League refs are watching to see how its done. Not giving free-kicks when a defender blows on an attacker, and no major mistakes. Even the VAR seems to be working well (I'm a fan of VAR)!

3. Are Brazil that good. Another easy one - NO! First 20 mins against Switzerland they looked good, but after that no real cohesion - not a team. Nowhere near as good as Spain on Friday night.

4. Most over-rated superstar - Neymar (Brazil). Apart from falling over to try to get free-kicks and then messing them up he did nothing tonight. Coutinho should be Brazil's free-kick taker.

5. Best goal of the day - Coutinho doing what he does and cutting in from left to curl ball into top right corner (you know he's going to do it but the defence can't stop him)! Honourable mention for Kolarov's free kick for Serbia - to my mind better than Ronaldo's.

6. Best kit - Mexico today, but none that I would want to buy.

7. Best fact quoted by commentator - price of petrol in Moscow is £0.50 per litre - which compares to £1.30 per litre here in Southern England.

8. Worst under-performance of day - Germany by far. They were slow and unimaginative. As I said above Mexico could have won by 2 or 3 goals

9. Worst haircut of day - it has to be Neymar again - what is going on on his head. The long blonde bit on top with the curls, and then the shaven black bit at back and sides!! He should sue!

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10 Goalkeepers actually catching the ball rather than pushing it away - kudos to Neuer (Germany) & Ochoa (Mexico).


Tomorrow's results are
Sweden v South Korea - Draw
Belgium v Panama - Belgium by 3
Tunisia v England - England by 1 (sadly)

[stickyvicky]

This is a super interesting article and video about the Iceland coach

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/15/foot ... index.html

We are actually going to this island where he is from tomorrow!

[PeterL22]

This is a super interesting article and video about the Iceland coach

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/15/foot ... index.html

We are actually going to this island where he is from tomorrow!

He actually still has a practice in the Westlands - the commentators over here joked that he made more money from that than he did coaching Iceland!
Take that you overpaid footballers!!!

[PeterL22]

Day 5 - lucky England (again)

1. predictions pretty good today - I knew England would get a goal around 90mins! They were so lucky to ge gifted a corner by the Tunisian defender!

2. WWE has merged with the World Cup - some great take-downs and throws in the penalty area at corners this evening. Why they didn't get penalised I have no idea!

3. First really poor referee (even with VAR) today - the Zambian Mr Sikazwe, who refereed the Belgium v Panama game - didn't have a clue!!

4. Best dressed supporters goes to the three guys supporting Sweden shown just before kick off in their game against South Korea. All three in full Swedish national dress (for girls) with sexy blonde wigs with plaits (braids). Gorgeous guys, but next time shave the beards off - they didn't go with the costumes. Honourable mention to the South Koreans for the weird red hats!

5. Silly haircut of the day - Torres from Panama - I didn't know pineapples grew in Panama

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6. Goal of the day - Dries Mertens for Belgium - what a well-placed volley!!

7. Kevin De Bruyne is human - a poor game today (by his standards) and many passes went astray!

8. Most emotional rendition of a National Anthem goes to the Panama team - it almost had me in tears - but they obviously cared!

9. Best/worst dive of the day Dies Martens in first half against Panama - to be fair the defender was only 1 yard away from him.

10. Worst striker of the day based on missed chances in 20th, 28th and 41st min of game against South Korea - Berg of Sweden!


Tomorrow's results are as follows
Russia v Egypt - draw (maybe Egypt if Salah plays)
Colombia v Japan - Colombia by 1
Poland v Senegal - draw
I think we may get the first 0-0 tomorrow.

[PeterL22]

Day 6 - rushing Russia

1. It looks like Russia are the first team through to the knockout stages. Are they that good? It's difficult to say really. Saudi Arabia were the worst team in the Finals and Egypt were too defensive until they went 3-0 down. Sarah was not 50% fit and for long periods Egypt were playing with 10 men. So we don't really know about Russia. Good solid defending, a great Brazilian/Russian right back and a useful lump of a centre-forward in Dzyuba. Next game against Uruguay may tell us more.

2. Hottest fans of the day - lovely Polish girls!!

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3. Goal of the day - Dzyuba tonight for Russia. Great control and finish for a big lad.

4. Worst/most boring game of the day - Poland v Senegal - the first match I have fallen asleep in!!

5. First red card (and absolutely justified too) - Sanchez for Colombia - deliberate handball - and Falcao should have been booked for all that arguing!

6. Comedy moment of day - that awful "pass" by Krychowiak that lead to the second Senegal goal

Tomorrow's results are

Uruguay v Saudi Arabia - Uruguay by 2
Portugal v Morrocco - Portugal by 2
Iran v Spain - Spain by 3

[rokkerr]

Thanks for the awesome new thread....

Vicky did the thunderclap in Iceland in the pouring rain at the national park in the capital of Iceland with a lot of fans...
The fans were thrilled with the result...

I am pulling for Iceland to make the next round and obviously England to do well...
I was shocked Brazil drew their first game and if their star player turns out to be injured they could be in for some trouble...
Germany losing was another shocker...

I wonder if Germany might not make it to the next round...

[PeterL22]

Thanks for the awesome new thread....

Vicky did the thunderclap in Iceland in the pouring rain at the national park in the capital of Iceland with a lot of fans...
The fans were thrilled with the result...

I am pulling for Iceland to make the next round and obviously England to do well...
I was shocked Brazil drew their first game and if their star player turns out to be injured they could be in for some trouble...
Germany losing was another shocker...

I wonder if Germany might not make it to the next round...

Brazil were awful , and Neymar was woeful. They often start like this. Germany will get through to next round - they are too good a team not to - they have got their poor game out of their system, and play tournament football well.
Argentina were the most disappointing for me - Iceland deserved their draw!

[PeterL22]

Day 7 - negative Portugal & Uruguay

1. I totally expected Uruguay to play like they did and grind out a 1-0 (see prediction), they have a class centre back pairing to build their game on. Portugal were more of a disappointment - they will need to be much more positive to progress (although they did win Euro 16 with the same style of play). Ronaldo needs to get more involved - yes he did score again today, but what else did he do?

2. At last an American who fully understands (real) football - Mark Geiger who refereed Portugal v Morocco had an excellent game!

3. Favourite comments by TV presenters - Frankie Boyle (a comedian) who did a travelogue bit about the Luzhniki Stadium where Portugal v Morocco was played. Loved the comment about the artificial lights that were used to help the pitch "more lights than a Glasgow cannabis factory"; but the best one was when he was talking about the rock bands who had played the stadium. When he said about U2 playing to an audience of 85,000 there he said it was probably the biggest breach of human rights that Russia had seen - how I laughed!!

4. Dirtiest and most cheating team today (and overall so far) - Iran by a mile. Diving and some of the tackles on Isco - ouch!

5. Most valuable player of the day (I know you Americans love MVPs) - has to be Diego Costa! Lots of running and getting your knee to the ball like that - class. To be honest, I think he may well be one of the players of the tournament.

6. Worst player - again my vote goes to Pepe of Portugal. Didn't play well but some of the acting when tackled was hilarious.

7 Goal of the day - not much to choose, but probably Suares - he took the apartunity so sharply.

8. Ugliest player of the day - again Suares - as the song used to go "Louis Suares, his teeth are offside!"

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9. Silliest/most girlie hairdo of the day - Laxalt of Uruguay!

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Tomorrow's results are

Denmark v Australia - Denmark by 1
France v Peru - France by 2 (but I would really love to see Peru get a result - if only for Paddington!)
Argentina v Croatia - first 0-0 draw of tournament

[CGYMike]

I confess to not seeing much of the tournament so far...probably because I've been working while the games are on, but I am surprised with some of the results so far...a couple of underdogs are showing up to play and the favourites look to be struggling out of the gate. It's gunna be interesting going into the second games of the round robin.

Less Ronaldo....more hot Polish girls :)

[PeterL22]

Day 8 - my favourite result so far Argentina 0 Croatia 3 !!!!!

1. I'm really glad Argentina lost.They are my least favourite country of all (including all those not competing in Russia( - except England of course! For too many tournaments I have watched them cheat, kick and generally fluke their way through to finals. Over the time I have been watching World Cups, they have been by far the dirtiest team - as you saw to a small extent tonight!

2. Funkiest shirt of day - has to be Croatia. Their first choice red and white checked shirt is pretty cool, but the black and charcoal one they wore tonight was really cool!

3. Three great goals today - Ericksen's goal for Denmark (not just his finish but the pass across the box to him was sublime), Rebic first for Croatia (Caballero's mess up was funny, but the volley to smash the ball into the net was very skilfull) and, of course, Modric's second Croatian goal (the way he set himself up and the curl on the ball were superb). On balance, especially given the timing of the goal, my award goes to Modric.

4. C*ck up of the day has to go to Caballero! No way that you can explain that attempt to dink the ball over Rebic.


5. Best player from Premier League performance has to go to Giroud for France - he worked so hard and always gave France an option up front. No prizes for guessing worst PL player - yep, it's Pogba (again) - total rubbish, giving away the ball and sulking all the time!

6. Weirdest hairdo of the day - Vida - nice ponytail - another player in touch with his feminine side!
Sorry no real photo of it - just watch the highlights.
Interesting note that Pogba's hairstyle was weird for him - a more or less normal cut (commentator said he had had his barber flown in from London to do it ).

7. Best fans has to go to Peru - really, lous, boisterous and positive. Especially for Mike - some of their ladies were hot too!

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Also honourable mention for the Aussies - I heard them singing "Waltzing Matilda" during the second half!

8. Isn't there a lot of added time at the end of matches - even if VAR not used - seems to be minimum of 4 mins and often 5. Much longer than Premier League games.

9. Team I enjoyed most today - Peru again - lovely quick feet, great passing. Shame they don't know how to score!
10 Note no 0-0 draws yet!

Tomorrow's results are :-
Nigeria v Iceland - scoreless draw.
Brazil v Costa Rica - 2-0 to Brazil
Serbia v Switzerland - draw - again probably 0-0

[rokkerr]

My gut says Iceland win... which would make the Argentine coach cry.... dude is going to get fired (or worse) at the end of this cup unless they rally and make the 2nd round...

[rokkerr]

I confess to not seeing much of the tournament so far...probably because I've been working while the games are on, but I am surprised with some of the results so far...a couple of underdogs are showing up to play and the favourites look to be struggling out of the gate. It's gunna be interesting going into the second games of the round robin.

Less Ronaldo....more hot Polish girls :)

A field trip to Poland is in order...

[stickyvicky]

Sooooo sad today! Iceland lost to Nigeria! Boooooo!

On the upside look at these pictures, lol...
http://mikesouth.com/sports/meet-nataly ... 018-27025/

[PeterL22]

Day 9 - how overrated is Neymar???

1. Most over-rated and useless superstar of the tournament is Neymar. Did b^gger all today and had numerous hissy fits. If it wasn't for Coutinho Brazil would be struggling. To be honest, Brazil showed today why they do well in World Cups - not because they play superb Samba football (majority of the time they don't), but because they grind out results and even at 90+ mins I wouldn't bet against them scoring!

2. Disappointing result of day - yes, you've guessed it Nigeria 2 Iceland 0! An honest reflection of at least the second half, but Iceland didn't look like scoring whole 90 mins. Musa's first goal was the goal of the day - great break from defence and wonderful finish. When Gylfie missed that penalty you knew Iceland were never going to score!

3. Best fans of day - Iceland of course. Great noise and the "Viking Thunderclap" is absolutely awesome!

There's the "How to do it guide".
But did you know it wasn't actually invented in Iceland? Originally, it came from Scotland (Motherwell I think) where an Icelandic club were playing in a Europa League match and copied it off the locals - the rest, as they say, is history ........

4. Iceland again (sorry) - one for the ladies!

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Gislason - the number 19 is a part time model.

5. The game I was expecting to be the least entertaining today was actually the best! Serbia v Switzerland had the lot. Some good play, controversy (Midrovic should have had a penalty) and a late winner from, arguably, the oddest shaped footballer in the Premier League, Shaqiri!

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Tomorrow's results are as follows :-
Belgium v Tunisia - Belgium by 2
South Korea v Mexico - Mexico by 2
Germany v Sweden - Germany by 1

[CGYMike]

God Bless you Sweden...you had a run at them but those damn Germans pulled one out of their azzes..

Less Germans ...more hot Swedish girls

[PeterL22]

Day 10 - German do what Germany do!

1. Germany can always score (a bit like Brazil) and it was no surprise when they beat Sweden in the 95th minute. Interesting game, and I have to admit Germany deserved to win - the Swedes were so negative! To be fair, they were robbed of a penalty in the first half which could have made it 2-0 at half-time. Don't write Germany off from winning it - remember their coach has ALWAYS got them to at least the semi-finals of every tournament he has lead them to!

2. Goal of the day - well, up until the last half hour I was going to say Son's cracking shot for South Korea (and Belgium scored some beautifully crafted goals in their game), but it has to be Kroos for Germany. Brilliant effort - both in terms of saving Germany's bacon, but also a thing of beauty in its own right!

3. Best fans of day has to be Mexico - fantastic noise , colourful and they don't do Mexican waves (i really hate those and never take part!)! For Mike, they even look the part!

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OK she's a TV presenter, but still really hot!

4. Belgium are 2 or 3 players short of being potential winners! Look at their front three - Hazard, Lukaku & Mertens - better than anyone else (and they showed it today). Then you have De Bruyne, who still hasn't been playing at his brilliant best. Their defence did look a bit shaky today - especially Boyata who was awful today. But they do have Company who is reasonable (but generally overrated) who can come in. They do look like a side that will score 2 for every 1 they concede - and they are due to perform in a major tournament!

5. Mexico are pleasing on the eye, great on counter attack, but not really a serious contender. I think they will go out at quarter finals. They struggled more today when they had to make the running against a fairly poor South Korean team.

6. Today was the first time I have ever seen footballers saluting their National Anthem. The explanation was that it was the South Korean players who are currently doing their National Service in the military! - It still looked odd and odd when they saluted their President in the stands when they were being substituted!!

Tomorrow's results are as follows

England v Panama - England by 2
Japan v Senegal - 0-0 draw (there has to be one soon)
Poland v Columbia - Poland by 1.

Still not missed a minute - except for a brief snooze in the Senegal v Poland game!

[rokkerr]

The usual rolling on the floor routines at the cup this year are a bit tiresome...

[rokkerr]

Poland vs. Columbia today...

[PeterL22]

Day 11 - half way through!!

1. England now think they can win the World Cup. They are not as good as they think they are - they haven't played a decent side yet. Their defence is really suspect - see the goal by mighty Panama today! Stones is so over-rated and always has a mistake in him, and Maguire is very inexperienced. Why does Sterling star - he is rubbish - couldn't score today (or as Saints fans sing about their team at home - "Couldn't score in a brothel, score in a brothel!" The draw is too complicated to work out but they will get knocked in quarter finals.

2. Harry Kane is a real striker - just look at his third goal today, how lucky was that?? But that's what good strikers do, they just manage to score any which way - and the two penalties were superb!

3. FIFA Rankings are total cr@p! Poland are ranked 8th in the world! Honestly, I know you won't believe me after tonight's showing against a massively superior Colombia side.

4. I knew Poland would be in trouble when Bednarek was organising their defence (his mistake for first goal - where was he going on walkabout?). He plays for Saints and only got in the first team for last few matches due to injury - spent most of season in U23s. A lot of us really believe he was a total waste of money - Jack Stephens is far superior.

5. I am getting to love The Blue Samurai (Japan) because they keep going - two equalisers against a fancied Senegal today. They may not be the strongest team but they do have that typical Japanese spirit.

6. Goal of the day - first Japanese goal by Inui. It was a lovely cut inside and curl of the ball inside the post. To be fair Lindgard's goal for England was good - but any English goal has to be world class for me to even consider it!!

7. Colombian fans must all be on marching powder - they were totally bananas tonight
Here you go Mike - especially for you!

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8. Still no 0-0 draws - I wonder what the odds are on there being none at all?

Tomorrow's results are as follows
Saudi Arabia v Egypt - 0-0 (but Egypt by 2 if Salah plays)
Uruguay v Russia - Uruguay by 1
Iran v Portugal - Portugal by 2
Spain v Morocco - Spain by 3