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World Cup 2018 Thread


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2 hours ago, Cugalabanza said:

 

Hard to say.  It’s pretty wide open.  Germany’s out.  Spain & Brazil look ok, but not great.  Portugal, Croatia, Uruguay, England, Sweden...all very much in the mix.  Makes it a fun tournament in my opinion.

 

Belgium is the real deal. Only England has looked better. Croatia needs to prove they can play with the big boys. 

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2 hours ago, BeginnersMind said:

 

Belgium is the real deal. Only England has looked better. Croatia needs to prove they can play with the big boys. 

 

Now that Germany is out, I also have high hopes for Belgium. To their advantage, I think they do not really care about if they play number one or number two of group H in the next round (Japan, Senegal, or Columbia). Thus, they can afford to rest Lukaku (injury) and De Bruyne (one yellow card) against England.

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58 minutes ago, DrW said:

 

Now that Germany is out, I also have high hopes for Belgium. To their advantage, I think they do not really care about if they play number one or number two of group H in the next round (Japan, Senegal, or Columbia). Thus, they can afford to rest Lukaku (injury) and De Bruyne (one yellow card) against England.

 England and Belgium could both be playing to lose. Winner gets nothing. 

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The World Cup has never been more up for grabs than this year.

 

Italy and Holland don't even qualify.  Germany leaves at the group stage.  Brazil is still quite average and looks like the team that was destroyed by Germany 7-1 four years ago.   Argentina is completely lost right now.  

 

Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Croatia...good teams, but none are great.

 

It's wide open.   Would love to see a first time winner pull it off.

 

 

 

 

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10 hours ago, BeginnersMind said:

 England and Belgium could both be playing to lose. Winner gets nothing. 

Yeah. Kind of ruins the potential of a great matchup.

14 minutes ago, BritBill said:

I hope England play as strong a team as possible tonight. Beat whatever team Belgium put out and move on to the next stage with confidence and swagger. 

 

 

Right. That should be the goal.

1 hour ago, row_33 said:

The dream and thought of the game is more enjoyable than sitting there watching for 90 minutes with  the feeling of being totally ripped off when it’s over.

 

 

 

You've been complaining about this throughout the whole thread.

 

We get it. We'll never watch a soccer game with you.

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57 minutes ago, LeGOATski said:

 

You've been complaining about this throughout the whole thread.

 

We get it. We'll never watch a soccer game with you.

 

Some people are like this. We make him happy so let him be. 

 

Agreed that Belgium England would be such a great match if there was something on the line. Oh well. 

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I just came here to say soccer sux.

 

Okay... Not really... I figure you fan boys need a little guff and toughing up.  One can get a little desensitized watching all that flopping around.

 

No offense... Just kidding around keeping everybody out of their safe zone. ?

 

I really do appeciate the game, not as much as you super fans... But I do.  I like seeing the underdog win.  Germany fans crying, because they have been eliminated in Match Play for the first time since the 1930s, is a beautiful thing.

 

There really is hope for this game. Maybe it can become more competitive with different teams?

 

Oh... Not asking to go easy on me.  That's for the potheads in the other thread.  Give it both barrels if you choose to decent against my smooth as a burlap bag critique of the game.

 

 

 

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15 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

 

 

I really do appeciate the game, not as much as you super fans... But I do.  I like seeing the underdog win.  Germany fans crying, because they have been eliminated in Match Play for the first time since the 1930s, is a beautiful thing.

 

There really is hope for this game. Maybe it can become more competitive with different teams?

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't mind Germany as a nation and the Germans are very decent folk. Probably as culturally close to us Brits as any other nation really. The only thing that made me happy about them being knocked out early is they won't be the team knocking England out this time!

 

I think the World Cup can be more competitive at the group stage if they were to invite the top 32 teams in terms of the FIFA rankings as opposed to teams qualifying via the regional tournaments. That would mean it would be even more overloaded with European and South American teams. 

 

You'll see more less competitive games when the competition goes to 48 teams. 

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31 minutes ago, BritBill said:

 

I don't mind Germany as a nation and the Germans are very decent folk. Probably as culturally close to us Brits as any other nation really. The only thing that made me happy about them being knocked out early is they won't be the team knocking England out this time!

 

I think the World Cup can be more competitive at the group stage if they were to invite the top 32 teams in terms of the FIFA rankings as opposed to teams qualifying via the regional tournaments. That would mean it would be even more overloaded with European and South American teams. 

 

You'll see more less competitive games when the competition goes to 48 teams. 

The level of football will take a dip, too.

 

I think a poor advertisement of the 48-team expansion was this past Euros.  

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11 minutes ago, stony said:

The level of football will take a dip, too.

 

I think a poor advertisement of the 48-team expansion was this past Euros.  

 

the level of play at the World Cup is mid-level if you watch all during the year and see the top 12 or so club teams play weekly

 

any of those 12 would wipe out the World Cup champion with ease

 

the World Cup is about trying to hide horrible roster spots and getting out of there with a 0-0 tie or penalty kicks if you are the weaker team

 

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, row_33 said:

 

the level of play at the World Cup is mid-level if you watch all during the year and see the top 12 or so club teams play weekly

 

any of those 12 would wipe out the World Cup champion with ease

 

the World Cup is about trying to hide horrible roster spots and getting out of there with a 0-0 tie or penalty kicks if you are the weaker team

 

 

 

 

I know, Row.  You've made this point 20 times in this thread.  I watch club football all year long, and the top teams are undoubtedly better. No secret there.  

 

My point is, the level of play will further decline with the inclusion of more teams.  But hey!! At least the bean counters are happy.

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15 minutes ago, stony said:

The level of football will take a dip, too.

 

I think a poor advertisement of the 48-team expansion was this past Euros.  

 

Without a doubt.

 

Throw in the amount of money it's going to cost me helping my son complete his Panini sticker album it's going to be a long summer that year! 

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