Hi all! ⚽ ⚽ ⚽
It starts today, so I figured we'd have a thread about the World Cup.
- Can Southgate's Young Lions go all the way in Russia?
- Is this Messi's time to do a Maradona, and single-handedly (*ouch!*) carry a mediocre Argentina to the golden trophy?
- What on earth were Real Madrid thinking when they tapped up Spain's head coach on the sly just before the tournament?
- Will Nigeria's new kit melt your eyeballs in HDR?
And many, many more questions.
So what are peeps' thoughts on the upcoming proceedings? Favourites? Dark horses? Predictions for obscure player who'll be catapulted to stardom? Who've you got in a sweepstake? Post 'em here!
Argentina were abysmal last night - even taking into account Croatia's, erm, "robust" approach to defending.
There's something very wrong in the Argentina camp IMO. They played more as a collection of individuals than a team, and as though they expected to be beaten. Their supporters had more belief than they did. No doubting Messi’s talent and ability as a player; but he’s not the best captain it would seem.
Sad to see.
LOL. Well, I guess you should never write-off the Germans - even against the giant-killing Swedes. :robottongue: I'm not Swedish or German, but even I was watching that last-minute free-kick from Kroos from behind nervy fingers.
Decent result for England yesterday - although we could've done without conceding a sloppy goal towards the end. Unlike Tunisia, Panama got punished for their wrestling-ring tactics, including allowing Stones to run unchallenged into their box for the first goal whilst they were busy trying to manhandle other players to the floor.
Final matches of Group A (Saudi Arabia vs. Egypt and Uruguay vs. Russia) this afternoon; and Group B (Iran vs. Portugal and Spain vs. Morocco) this evening.
Well boring and quite dissapointed about yesterday. I thought we should have gone all out, top the group and get on with it. Anyways, here goes the highlight of the match :manlol:
What an amazing game of football yesterday #JPNBLG classic!
Thats classic as well 
Yep - quite the match! Felt sorry for the Japanese; they deserved to win IMO.
Also, quite the weekend for the underdogs. Amazing to think that neither Messi nor Ronaldo have ever scored in a World Cup knock-out stage. Looks like Spain's coach shenanigans finally caught up with them too. Their media are probably on the money with their assessment.
As for the Brazillian Roll lol:
Well, I couldn't sleep until the early hours of the morning after that game...
Kane must've been the most fouled player in the tournament in last night's game alone. Maguire was a giant. Pickford was immense (that save just before the Colombia 93rd minute equaliser was amazing - but almost forgotten in the ensuing drama). Trippier clearly felt he needed to redeem himself.
Beyond the obvious attitude and character shown by the boys throughout - and especially in the shootout - it was interesting to see England defenders confidently playing almost tiki-taka football in their own box.
@AntS, Well England defied some expectations when it went to the wire. Hopefully your euphoria won't be short lived Was thrown out first time tried to make comment-got the maintenance message.
