close but not quite, winner plays winner of Ned v Chile :p

the rest of us have Telemundo. I can't understand much Spanish, but even that's better that listening to the gibberish Lalas spews

and they are prone to howlers

such as this one

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DfRkB5wWAAA7S-P.jpg:large

and the one against sweden :p

Well France play Australia fisrt round, so that's errm, problematic.

Australia unlikely to win (you can say that again) but imagine if they held the French to 0-0? That would get the scribes a-scribbling.

[honestly though it's more likely to be 0-6, and it's silly to bet against Germany for a WC, ever]

Interesting BBC article on some of the issues surrounding African national sides vying in the world cup. No wonder they have.... um... issues.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/44070259


Belgium is my dark horse. Would love to see Roberto Martinez get them to the final (he did do great things at Wigan, well except for that whole minor relegation hiccup).

Still think Spain takes it.

To paraphrase Gary Linekar: the World Cup is a very simple competition, 32 teams compete over the span of a month in a knockout tournament, and at the end, the Germans always win

Jokes goes, Martinez promised Everton Champions League; instead, he almost got them banished to the League Championships

The thing about Belgium is that they have no outside defenders. For all their attacking talents and defending talents, somehow no one who can play fullback adequately. I'm sure they can go far if this gets resolved.

.... ..
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[QUOTE=echappist;2379681]To paraphrase Gary Linekar: the World Cup is a very simple competition, 32 teams compete over the span of a month in a knockout tournament, and at the end, the Germans always win

Not between 1990 and 2014 they didn't. And while their current and last world cup winning squad is world class, past "winning" editions were lacking in the "class" aspect shall we say. For example, take their winning team over Hungary in the final, the same one that Hungary had demolished earlier in the tournament when they could actually keep their players on the pitch. Or take their lovely team from 1980s, which in 1982 played the two most infamous games in world cup history, apart from losing to Algeria.

i heard of the anschlauss; what's the other one? is that the one where their brute of a keeper (Schumacher, IIRC) decked the French forward?

Yup, Schumacher. "Decked", would be a nice mild term for aggravated assault.

.... ..
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German football has rarely been an act of beauty.
1954, the Hungarians were the dominating team, the FC Barcelona of their time, head and shoulders above everyone else, but they were over-confident to the level of cockiness, they lost to a team playing abouve their own skill, similar to Greece at their EC win, or Iceland recently.
The 1974 Final was a clash between the two undisputed top teams of the world - i know history sees the dutch team as superior but go watch some footage of the (almost identical) 1972 EC winning german team and you'll see they were magnificent. A parallel to 1954: The dutch were cocky/arrogant as well.

Between 1978 and 2002, there are few things to be proud of as a german supporter, with the exception of the 1990 champions which had numerous world class players in its ranks (Matthäus, Brehme, Kohler, Klinsmann, Völler). Still it was the team that manifestzed the image of german football: Discipline, fighting spirit, endurance - rather than finesse.

So North America (US, Canada and Mexico) will co-host the 2026 Cup.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/44464913

"17 of the 23 Stadiums are ready to go with the other 6 requiring minor renovations"

I hope this is a truly the case and tax dollars don't go down the drain building crap that will sit unused afterwards.

Also does that not seem like a large span of places? Imagine having to play in Canada then Mexico, thats a lot of travel... plus 3 teams already in? whatever man.

You know what would be awesome? What if you were one of 2 or 3 massive favorites to win the WC, but you decided to replace your manager just before everything started because he didn't check with the federation before taking a new club manager job.

Strong work , Espana.

what was Real even thinking? can't hold it off after the tournament to start discussions? Selfish move by the coach