Likes: 1) Egypt. FI-NA-LLY! 2) Panama. Just for their senators who finally managed to get to the WC in final stages of their careers. 3) Morocco. I loved their 1998 team, few icons there, now they seem to have pretty balanced team. Shame for tough group. 4) Australia. Always loved them, one of reasons being many Croats on the team. 5) Peru. I never thought I will see them taking part at the World Cup. 6) Iran. Dislikes: 1) Luka Modrić, Dejan Lovren and rest of the team that "support" mafia in Croatian football. I wish them the ticket home after three matches. 2) Saudi Arabia. Reasons are not football ones, wish them three tough losses. 3) Serbia. Obvious arch rival / enemy reasons. 4) Spain. Can't stand them. Loved them when they were losers, now I don't like this team, even more after they keep on calling that duckface that wanted country to fall apart.
"im surprised that so few put morocco in their dislike list. this is a team who had all 11 starters born in europe. they are like french/belgium/netherlands combined B team. they were all brought up under european footballing systems. lets see a native moroccan team and how well they do." You are surprised why more people don't dislike a team, you list reasons why they should, and when I react you give me morality lessons and tell me that you won't "stoop to my level". You have some nerve, dude. We are obviously not on the same level. And please don't talk to me about your handpicked bookies..
Like: This is hard because I like a lot of teams and I always support all African teams in the World Cup but if I had to pick a top 5, I would say: Morocco: Of course. France: I've followed les Bleus and French football for most of my life. I think that this is the best French team since 2006. Tons of talents + a good coach who knows what he is doing. They have a very good chance of shining. Senegal: I am fan of Senegalese football and Senegal in general. Fun, optimistic, and talented! Iceland: It's not my style of football but I love their story and their fighting spirit. Peru: They have an iconic shirt, grinta, and they really wanted to be at this world cup. Complicated group for them but I hope they do well! Dislike: None.
Minor quibble, but Morocco have 1 starter born in Morocco (Nabil Dirar) Also Morocco is much like Algeria. Even people born in Europe tend to put their perceived homeland ahead of their country of birth. Take Achraf Hakimi from Real Madrid. He would have been a surefire starter for the Spanish national team in 3-4 years, but he opted for Morocco all the same.
While nothing like the numbers for Morocco, Iran does have 2 players that are in the same mold as Morocco's foreign born players. The first one for Iran was Ashkan Dejagah, who had played for Germany's U21 team and chose to play for Iran. He has been a main player for us since. Recently, we have added another such player to our roster, Saman Ghoddos. He has even been capped for Sweden's senior team in a friendly and scored for them, but opted to play for Iran instead even though he could have played for Sweden as well. Besides these 2, our Wc2014 roster also included an Iranian American player, Beitashour, as well as a German-Iranian goalie, Daniel Davari. Neither of them got to play for Iran in the World Cup but that had nothing to do with where they were born!. Although in the case of Davari, besides not doing well for us when he was tested, he was also the closest thing to a foreign player on our squad since he hardly spoke any Farsi/Persian.
Likes:1.Argentina- Maradona 2.Uruguay-Small coountry lot of good players 3.Columbia 4.Mexico 5.Brasil Dislike: 1.Germany allways get the support of referrees 2.Portugal - Ronaldo 3.Any African or Asian team - they do not have the quality to participate on World cup
Must suck for you to need the referee going blind and not calling an obvious penalty plus injury time heroics from Messi just to beat one of these teams without quality, as was the case in the last World Cup! Must also suck that in your last match (albeit a friendly), you end up getting thrashed 4:2 at the hands of another side that doesn't have any 'quality'. Sour grapes much?
They might be but there likely will be several UEFA side that will make up the numbers at the World Cup and won't be any better. If Italy and Holland didn't make the World Cup, where 13 others (not counting a Euro host) did, its their own fault. The same way it wasn't anyone's fault that Holland didn't qualify to even an expanded 2016 Euro with 24 teams! On paper, Holland was much better than most of the sides that had qualified. But in practice, it didn't quality. And while I do rate Chile as 3rd in Conmebol, it is also ultimately their own fault they didn't qualify. Conmebol has half their entire membership represented in the World Cup. That is enough and while I would have preferred to see Chile in place of one the others who did make it, the last thing I want to see is a "world cup" which doesn't represent most of the world! Incidentally, since our difficult loss to Argentina in Wc2014, Iran have actually played 2 other teams from Conmebol in friendlies. Yes, they were friendlies, but regardless I like to point out the results to disabuse you of things you hold as self-evident. Iran 2 Chile 0 (in Europe in 2015) Iran 1 Venezuela 0 (in Europe in 2017). Even though Venezuela had finished last in Conmebol qualifying, they had revamped their squad and not lost their last 5 games (including against your Argentina) when they met Iran.
those shady things were blown out of proportion. It was actually really tame apart from a few guys with fireworks. For example the nz anthem was not booed....which is a rare occurrence in south American qualifiers
lol the airforce was a known organized event that took place in mid morning not at 3am...where do you even get your news from? 3am were the fireworks (which mostly annoyed the Peruvians living in the zone) If an airforce show intimidated the all whites while they were chillin in their hotel pool then they need to change profession. Luckily Jeremy Brockie enjoyed the experience
They had a group perform the haka in the tunnel in Wellington...btw not normal fifa protocol to have a cultural performance before a game (unlike rugby for example) the Peruvians didn't have a cry over it and just got on with the game
In principle, I am against having anything other a minimum quota for each region of the world. If it was up to me, everyone else besides that minimum to ensure some basic diversity, would have to earn their spots in intercontinental qualifying. Until then, however, I have no problems with Conmebol's quota or allocation. It allows half its members to play in Russia. The other half, even if good enough, are still not going to be missed by me.
That is pretty standard, it isn't a haka but a waiata which is a welcoming song and a welcoming onto the land. A haka is a wardance for laying down a challenge, not offensive either. Meh, the only thing that was most disruptive was changing the NZ flight route delaying their landing by six or seven hours. But whatever. Still hope you guys do well in the world cup and I'm glad Guerrero can play. Hopefully we can face off again one day!
Actually, other than the Chile game, the Peruvian fans were generally respectful of other anthems throughout WCQ. I definitely didn't hear whistling during the two games that I attended (vs. Paraguay and Ecuador).
a very welcomed change to other qualifying processes...I think the FPF has been pushing the respect the opposition anthem quite a bit
Waiata as far as I am aware means traditional song. Are you thinking of Karanga (performed by a woman elder)? Which is part of a Powhiri ceremony (welcoming someone onto a a marae? It was a haka (led by the men with woman behind)...I can spot a Haka a mile away having lived in NZ most of my life (came here as a kid) and yeah not offensive at all, I was just surprised to see one being performed at a FIFA event, since I dont recall one being performed in previous All Whites games (then again I dont really pay much attention to the All Whites). Obviously of course Haka's are part of Rugby culture in NZ just never really been integrated into the NZ footballing culture
They are quite often done to welcome any sort of group - sporting, cultural, musical, celebrity, movie stars (eg. Lord of the Rings premiere), VIP politicians, etc. It's not too out of place to do it in that situation. If diverting planes, 3am fireworks, and jet plane swooping, and lasers on the eyes of players is the cultural equivalent in Peru then fair comparison [emoji14]