On the other hand Coutinho has apparently declared himself "100% fit" ahead of Brazil's match with England Tuesday. Assume he'll pull up lame again once he gets back to Merseyside. Really hope the search for a replacement is progressing.
Gerrymandering didn't really play a causal part in what happened. It's correct to say that in 3 or 4 of those six counties there would have been a more 50-50% join Ireland - vs - Stay in England, but the huge majority in the most populous of those counties, Down and Antrim (including the huge city of Belfast) were prepared to engage in a bloodbath if the treaty didn't include some form of Partition. The British government were then left to figure out what they could put over on the weaker Irish representatives, based on what they thought would be a feasible State that would endure and be somewhat self-sustaining within the framework of the plan. Basically someone took a decision that it (the splitting) had to be done as "counties" (instead of the more reasoned splitting up the three counties with the large Irish looking contingents. Interestingly, the Nationalists up there or in the South never seemed to have mooted this proposition either. Half of Derry, hafl of tyrone and half of fermanagh and maybe south armagh could have been proposed to be transferred as part of the Irish Free State.... The British would probably have gone for it if the Irish had asked for it.... Then there would probably have been a sort of crossover migration between Derry and Belfast aftrerwards - kind of like India/Pakistan without the bloodletting .. But We'll never know in any case ..... if it would have worked....
Italy went full sh*thouse in the first leg, so I’m all in on Sweden tonight. Supposed legends of the game were behaving like little b*tches, including Buffon. Ireland v Denmark tomorrow. I’ll always support the Republic, along with all the home nations, but my lord they’re as hard to love under O’Neill as they were when Trapattoni was in charge. Grimly effective is about the nicest thing you can say about them. Lovren played all 180 minutes as Croatia breezed past Greece, which will hopefully do him the world of good.
2 stonewall penalties on handball for Sweden denied or ignored in the first 30 mins. Who says FIFA doesn't want Italy in the WC?
Of course they want Italy in the WC / they’ve already lost one ‘potential cup winner’ in the US getting bounced - they can’t afford to lose another
They said before the game that the difference between Sweden and Italy qualifying is about $100 million for fifa
While that is true and they might even win I dont see anything happening remotely close to make up for what happened in Belo Horizonte
probably not, but if Brazil do win it I doubt they - or anyone else - will be concerned about scorelines.
Germany lost to Brazil before there is nothing special about it. No special WC history or rivalry either.
I'm rooting for whatever underdog team looks like they might make a run...essentially that means anyone but Germany, France or Brazil...or Portugal ...or even Spain... I'd be all right with Argentina winning it for Messi...or for England to win it for...Solanke - yes! Any of the African nations - Yes! Any of the Asian nations - sure! Mexico? YES!