7 - England have been eliminated every time they have faced a top 10 ranked nation in the knockout stages of the FIFA World Cup since 1998 (7/7).Obstacle. pic.twitter.com/TsO5i5eZR5— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) July 15, 2026 fake ass "top nation". they don't beat anyone good... they luck out.
2018: But this loss to Croatia, after naming an early lead, is precisely their point. I remember this match. 2020: Also remember the Denmark match. England were by far the better team. The italy loss abd going into a Defensive shell is precisely their point. 2022: This is the match Kane missed his PK and England were superior for about an hour then Giroud scored beat the end.
I'm legit trying to understand what's being written here. The team that was superior at 0-0 for 55 Minutes had nothing to do with skill. Only physicality. Then looking like shit had nothing to do with throwing on defenders and sitting deep it was because it was the only way they could do it. From a guy who won everything.... World Cup, Euros X2, multiple UC's, La Liga titles is wrong and guys on a message board are correct. It's not cowardly or bad substitutes it's just that they lack skill? One more from Casillas: They (england) score a goal and then sit back. A cowardly approach. They haven't left their own box and have allowed (argentina) to create more chances. The logical outcome follows. 🏴 mete el gol y se va atrás. Planteamiento cobarde. No han salido del área y han permitido a 🇦🇷 llegar más. Sucede lo lógico.— Iker Casillas (@IkerCasillas) July 15, 2026
I guess I am too . But man what the heck ? Nearly all their trophies have come since 2008 within the span of just under 20 years . Should they win Sunday , thats 2 WCs and 3 Euros since 2008, for a total of 5 big international trophies in 18 years. Nuts.
Corrupt stick together. Infantino will reward them. FIFA will expand the tournament, punish UEFA for dissent and reward Africa and Asia for his re- election with 10 of the 12 spots. Nevertheless, there are currently no doubts over Infantino's re-election; as continental federations from Africa, Asia and South America have already pledged their support for him. For example this letter of support from the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) [@BILD] https://t.co/OuySbebmAk pic.twitter.com/e5neYNRjsw— Bayern & Germany (@iMiaSanMia) July 15, 2026
So hilarious when you read it like this. How FIFA pretty much funds African football and keeps them afloat. But who funds FIFA? Namely European football fans, of course. So FIFA using money from Europeans to advance other Confederations. Europe has already started discussing a possible replacement for FIFA President Gianni Infantino after recent World Cup backlash.The difference is that from the 209 voting 🗳 members 54 from Africa 🌍 have already vowed to re-elect him in 2027 giving him Third term.This is… pic.twitter.com/7kT4BYwbQ2— Collins Okinyo (@bedjosessien) July 15, 2026
Asia and Africa are larger in land mass and diversity. Of course need to fight for more places. I do wonder which candidate they are backing. EDIT: as of yet there is no other candidate in the running. Deadline to submit candidacy is November.
Handing out more spots to nations ranked in the 50s and 60s and below really does fvck all for the sport or those nations. Besides the majority of the nations in that range ( 50s to 60s ) come from the middle east through the maghreb and levant. Then once you get outside that it dips really fast. China is ranked 91st with the world's largest population. India is ranked 138th with another huge population. I don't need to see china nor india at the world cup because fifa gifted them easier qualification. I don't think anyone does. Im not too sure it can be argued fairly for their inclusion in being handed more spots in qualification. How many more " gimmes " can FIFA really hand out at the expense of teams which are indisputably better ? Its a joke some of these nations were even here at this WC. The only consolation in expanding it to 64 would be that you get rid of that stupid third place grouping and the group phase actually has " some " real weight to it again. I only say some, because again you're diluting the groups even further than they have already been diluted. Japan 18th Iran 20th South Korea 25th Australia 27th Uzbekistan 50th Qatar 56th Iraq 57th Saudi Arabia 61st Jordan 63rd United Arab Enirates 68th Morocco 14th ( fvck them as they are largely born & trained in Europe...I believe 18 / 23 in fact ) Senegal 17th Egypt 33rd Algeria 37th Nigeria 44th Ivory Coast 46th Cameroon 49th Mali 51st Tunisia 52nd South Africa 57th I mean fvck it at this point . Let's just allow everyone in and call it a royal rumble of world football , right?
Can't wait for the 30 minute halftime show. Workers setting up and dismantling a stage, dancers, performers, equipment men (and women) cutting up the pitch. I mean it's not like an injury could come from something like that... then you're going to have players who are creatures of habit who are used to only 15 minute HT's are gonna have 30 minutes and I've heard from ex pros that anything over 15 minutes, plenty of them would prefer another warm up. For what? to listen to stale-ass Shakira and her crummy music? This is gonna be a shitshow this is why I'm against infantino. The Balogun red card, the hydration breaks when it's 20'C and overcast between Ghana vs Panama., expanding the WC to 64 to stock it with non-Euro teams filled with Euro-trained players. Infantino's got to go. And this has nothing to do with Italy. They suck. I'd rather a team like Denmark or Poland there.
Kind of don’t want either team to win. Don’t see Argentina allowing the chance for Spain to score, especially considering how opportunistic their goals have been at this World Cup. Can honestly see them going B2B and Messi getting his Fairy Tale Ending (Pt.2) lol
I'm neutral I see Spain more as a contemporary rival to Italy and want their style to fail so it goes out of fashion but they are just too damn good. Of course Argentina winning 4 world cups since 78 pushes Italy down a peg but someone has to win always so I don't care really. Even if England won I would have been happy for them it's just fascinating when they continue to lose.
Yes we can't split UEFA into east west because of the quality in western europe but we could maybe do UEFA north vs UEFA south or just do UEFA 1 vs UEFA 2. Russia/Eastern Europe should maybe just be part of AFC Georgia all those teams maybe even Turkey etc. Maybe put Germany England Netherlands the British Isles Scandinavia Belgium part of eastern europe in one confederation and then France Italy Spain Portugal Greece Balkans San Marino Malta in another. Give each UEFA 16 teams!
The appeal of the World Cup is the exclusivity of it, whether people consciously acknowledge that. Even in this current addition there were matches that were tasteless, but it equally provided just enough incredible stories to make it overall quite enjoyable. Diluting this more will swing the pendulum further away. At least we’ll see Italy (Maybe) haha
TC, no. Absolutely no reason to. Already the smallest Confederation by land mass. No need to balkanize it.
Argentina's 4-1-4-1 formation is probably the most ideal formation to combat Spain's possession style and formation. I have a couple ideas how this game's going to go. I think Argentina's defense is better than what they've shown so far. You can't do s*** about goals like the second Cabo Verde goal othet than applaud but there's other goals that they've conceded, where I think it's not like them. I think they're gonna be a lot more tight marking like never before. You would think that Argentina often times scraping by is finally going to catch up to them. Of course it could, but with only one match left, who's to say that their savvy veteran players just don't get it done this one last time. Touched on it yesterday, am afraid Spain are going to finesse the ball and try to walk it in whereas sometimes a shot at goal and a juicy rebound like against Belgium works just as good. Whereas Argentina will have no problem shooting from distance. It's been working all tournament. EDIT: for Argentina, I'm going to bet the house on it that there are going to be plenty of "accidentally on purpose" hands to the face, elbows, stepping on the feet, shirt pulls, kicking the ball 2 FT as Spain is setting up a set piece. Their gonna try and intimidate Spain. I don't really think Argentina has the hard men like they think they do but it's more to frustrate them rather than the threat to hurt them.
It would be nice but in the 22 years since he has been out of the game, I don't think Roby Baggio is or has ever been the administrative behind the scenes type.
Yeah, and they would actually go ahead of Italy in the Table because of this being their 7th final, whereas Italy is still suck stuck on 6. They have recently surpassed Italy in matches played (IIRC in 2022). And this has all really come in the last, I wouldn't even say 3 missed qualifications, but rather you could say the last 5 World Cups. Where Italy also had two 1st Round eliminations so Italy have really ********ed themselves over in the last 5 World Cups (only themselves to blame which everybody knows). In the same time, Argentina has made 3 out of 4 Finals which is a shade under Brazil and Germany type levels. Both of these 2 teams went to 3 consecutive Finals. Italy just failing by the slimmest of margins to make 3 of 4 Finals between 82-94.