I was thinking we should start a World Cup 2018 thread, we can put our WCQ's, Playoffs, the upcoming draw in December and the Grand Finale itself in June!!
I noticed that all the teams that are playing WCQ's today are playing at the exact same time to avoid any conspiracies!! Europe's games are kicking off at 2:45pm EST, S. America 7:30pm EST, and CONCACAF at 8pm!!
Syria made the Aussies fight to the end!! Closer than I thought!!! My 2 cents for today: FRA 3-1 BLS (France should have no problem beating Belarus) POR 1-3 SWI(Crissy Poo and co will feel like they're Swiss cheese as the Swiss will poke holes in their defense...sorry Crissy on to the playoffs!!) HOL 5-0 SWE(There will be Swedish meatballs being roasted in a Dutch oven today!!) TNT 1-1 USA(The Soca warriors will drain Sam's Army to a stalemate) PAN 1-4 CRC(Panama will be screaming NO MAS as the Ticos will do a Sugar Ray and whoop them silly!!) HON 0-2 MEX(El Tri will remain undefeated) URU 2-0 BOL(Bolivia will be grounded and pounded being back to earth!!) PAR 3-1 VEN(F. Arce will lead his team back to the WC after missing out in WC'14!!) PER 0-2 COL(Peru hasn't been to the WC in 36 years and guess what? It's gonna be another 36 years before they see a WC again!! Colombia will have Peru in tears tonight!! Hey Peru if you want to make it to the WC again...listen to me...in 2019 move your WCQ's from Lima to Cuzco!! The altitude just might help you!!) ECU 1-4 ARG(Argentina will have the Eye of the Tiger!!! After seeing Crissy Poo turned into Swiss cheese Messi will show why he is the best player in the world and will score a hat trick and Dybala will score as well!! Quito will have no effect on the Argies!! Argentina will put the doubters to rest, just like our Brazil did in WC'2002 and Argentina IS MY PICK TO WIN THE WORLD CUP 2018!!!)
France are mint. Maybe they are a bit young and mercurial, but they have so many great young players, can't see past them as favourites.
Wow!! The US will miss the WC for the 1st time since 1986!! There is going to be numerous changes coming I bet!! But karma is a bitch...I remember in 2013 Panama was literally begging the US to take it easy and not score that 3rd goal that knocked them out of WC'14 and saved Mexico!! Panama is going to their 1st WC!!
This is pending that Peru beats the Kiwis, Honduras lose to the Aussies, and Tunisia, Senegal and Morocco, Italy Switzerland, Denmark and Croatia punch their ticket to Russia next month
Ok....lets switch Italy for England!! We won 4 of our 5 WC's when we played them!! They're our good luck team
They should reduce the entire world cup down to one game: Brasil vs Germany! All other games are a waste of time.
I disagree. France is very strong with Dembele and Mbappe, Spain is another strong team without the stagnating influence of del Bosque. Argentina are still dangerous, as are Portugal, Italy, and Colombia.
Mein Deutscher freund, that was an extremely silly comment without seriousness on the writer's part. Old Carioca is a great guy, but the top-tier NT world is obviously greater than Brazil and Germany.
I am actually looking forward to see Spain's team. I think they have the potential to go very far. France can go either way imo. They tend to implode every other WC regardless of talent. They did well last WC so they're due to have some sort of scandal and not pass through the group stage this time. England is always fun to watch because of the ridiculous expectations and eventual disappointment. Argentina is a mystery. Barely scrapped by but Sampaoli has 8 months to figure out how to get the best out of Messi/Dybala/Icardi and even Kun. They can go either way.
Yeah. Argentina are a team that could go to the final or get knocked out of the group. England would actually be interesting if they had anything at all in central midfield. I think England could do well as a counter-attacking defensive team that was physical and looked to transition quickly, playing through the Tottenham pair of Kane and Ali up front in a 442 setup, but chances are they try to play a more expansive game and fail badly.
Absolutely correct.... I am in fact a great guy!!!! Having said that, I will never dismiss Argentina - Messi and Sampaoli are smart and motivated to prove everyone wrong, unless they have to face German.... LOL Yes- 2018 is going to be an interesting and fascinating WC!!!!
Beats me. I guess they won a lot of qualifying games and friendlies. They didn't make it to 2014, but made it to Euro 16 QF (2w,1d in group phase). Although their R16 was a tie and so was their QF. Italy who's typically a seed has been bad. They did make it to Euro 16 QFs as well (2w, 1L in group phase), but remember they got knocked out in group phase of WC 14. Spain got knocked out of R16 Euro 2016 and didn't make it past group stage of WC 2014. If you look at the rankings, scores are weighted 100%, 50%, 30%, 20% in the past 4 years. In the last 2 years Poland has outperformed Spain by a stretch. That's your main difference. I guess if you make it to a WC or Continental competition and don't win a game (or just 1), it won't be that much of a difference compared to not making it to the competition.