World Cup 2022

[pembie]

I think I now make a thread so here’s this one I’m not sure how much I can watch of it this time around probably just England who play Monday at 1pm odd time to have a match but there you go

[Red Ranger 1]

Yeah, it's going to be an odd one for several different reasons.Shame England, Wales and USA (the only team with a Norwich player!) are all in the same group so at least one of them will go out. It could be that most of the group stage is just going through the motions until the obvious ones go through, but maybe they'll spring some surprises.

[Slade]

Personally don't think the World Cup should be hosted in Qatar but politics aside, who do people think are going to win?  Apparently Brazil have a really good team and the bookies have them down as the favourites (followed by Argentina and France).  It's also been 20 years since they last won it so you would think they are due a win.

[pembie]

8 hours ago, Slade said:

Personally don't think the World Cup should be hosted in Qatar but politics aside, who do people think are going to win?  Apparently Brazil have a really good team and the bookies have them down as the favourites (followed by Argentina and France).  It's also been 20 years since they last won it so you would think they are due a win.

I haven’t know idea but England got to final of Euros so hopefully they can do that again 

[pembie]

What did you think of opening game?

[Slade]

Interesting the BBC opting not to show to opening ceremony and the pundits calling out Qatar's human rights record instead.  With regards to the game I thought the first half was good but the second half wasn't great.  Qatar become the first hosts in World Cup history to lose their opening game.  It wouldn't surprise me if they have 3 losses considering that they have Senegal and Netherlands in their group.  Couldn't believe the first goal Columbia scored was disallowed.  I found Gary Lineker's "Really?" to the offside decision quite amusing.

England later on.

[Red Ranger 1]

Let's be honest, World Cups haven't exactly been confined to nice countries in the past.They've been hosted by everyone from Mussolini's Italy to Putin's Russia, who are hardly a bastion of LGBT freedoms and who banned any reference to FIFA member Kosovo because they insist it doesn't exist.Qatar should never have been chosen as the hosts and it was largely down to FIFA corruption that they were, but we've had at least eight years of them ignoring protests, they weren't going to change their hands on the eve of the tournament.

Moving onto the football...favourites? Usual suspects, I guess. Brazil are probably up there, Argentina are likely to do well in what may well be Messi's last World Cup, France, Germany, Spain... I'm tempted to discount Netherlands on account of Van Gaal only picking people he hasn't fallen out with, although they beat Senegal in their opening game and will probably get out of the group stage.

England actually managed to hit their peak before half-time for once.I kind of lost interest when the third goal went in: Sterling scoring almost straight after Saka pretty much made the result certain.VAR awarding Iran a last minute penalty because a couple of England players stuck their arms out after ignoring Iran wrestling two England players to the ground in the box was laughable, but nothing more than a minor irritation. Wales and USA share the points, which is probably good for England and means it's wide open as to whether or not one of them will qualify.

[CaptainHulk]

A lot of corrupt officials in some of these games.

[pembie]

I wasn’t expecting Iran to get that badly thrashed I caught part of the game in pub near my new flat so I didn’t manage to see it all The times of the matches seem arkward I heard that you need eight Stadiums to host a World Cup Qutars is all cramped together in same city  I will be able to watch tomorrows game 

[Red Ranger 1]

So...England still haven't beaten USA in the World Cup: Our record against them looks pretty good until you realise we've only ever beaten them in friendlies! But still enough to stay top of the group, and just need a draw against Wales to be certain of going through. Hopefully this won't be another 2010 and that draw is the difference between first and second. Wales held out for 98 miniutes, then let in two goals in injury time. I didn't think there was any malice in Hennessey's foul and he seemed to be lowering his foot when he made contact, but it's silly to go in with your leg that high.

With Argentina losing to Saudi Arabia and Germany losing to Japan, I wondered if the big boys had decided not to bother this time, but France, Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Netherlands have all registered wins at various levels of convincing.