The EPL Sucks but this tournament should still be fun. The tournament never should have been here but it is so let’s enjoy the ride.
Got $50 in free bets and did a four team parlay across the first four games: Ecuador to win England/Iran to draw Netherlands to win USA to win
In all likelihood, we probably only need 7 to 10 options at most. That said, I'd love to see a first time winner.
My plan was 32: 31 teams (minus England) with “The EPL Sucks” as the 32nd option. EDIT: The Spain/Netherlands final from 2010 was so great to me because neither had ever won so we were guaranteed a new winner.
What no "Malort" in the poll? OK I successfully added Fox Sports to my TV this morning but I don't know where the bill is going so that's not really important right now. Feels weird trying to get excited for a World Cup when it's 17 degrees outside but maybe after the opening game it will feel more exciting.
Moving to late November, the awful reports of abuse and deaths among the tens of thousands of migrant workers, the absolute crap storm of charging $200 a night to sleep in a tent with a fan (or in incomplete shipping containers), the lack of beer (well, saved people from spending $15 for a Budweiser), I have not selected a team to follow (beyond my regular "favorites"), and, for the first time since 2002 I have not created a pool, have dampened my enthusiasm. That being said, I have every game set on the DVR and I will watch as many as possible. I cannot pick a winner at this point.
I finally posted my first video in a long time the other day to do a World Cup preview: I've finally decided that it is morally okay to watch this World Cup as long as you just keep talking about Qatar's atrocities that got the whole thing to this point. Cause this isn't about money, so trying to keep them from making money is pointless. They want the clout, so just don't give them that clout. I'm just here to see the game, not allow Qatar to pretend they didn't do all of that other stuff (other stuff being crimes against humanity).
So, those who paid $3,000 a ticket to sit in first class seats can have a beer in the stadium. Those who scrimped and saved to get there, nope, THAT offends Qatari religious sensibilities.
Here we go! 3 minutes in and 1-0 Ecuador. At this pace it will be 30-0, just what Qatar deserve. Oops, here comes VAR to check. (Money changes hands) Offsides.
There have been 6,500 foreign worker deaths since the World Cup was announced. People keep attributing that number to the World Cup but with or without the Cup, Qatar has been building at a frenetic pace. Subways, skyscrapers, roads, ports, etc. The number of foreign workers is seven figures and possibly eight. It’s an almost unfathomable situation. For reference, over that time 2,100 Nepalese workers have died over the 12 years but there are currently over 200,000 Nepalese workers in Qatar. Over the course of those 12 years, there have certainly been a million or more Nepalese workers and of course not all are working on the World Cup infrastructure. One of the recent Nepalese deaths was a food delivery driver who was hit by a car. Many more of those have been of natural causes. So while I am skeptical of the figure Qatar puts out (37) for deaths involved in World Cup related construction, I am also really concerned by reactionary left wing groupthink. The World Cup isn’t responsible. FIFA isn’t responsible. Capitalism is responsible and no matter where we put the Cup, we would be somewhere entrenched in capitalism. When the Cup comes here in four years, we won’t see the construction deaths. But we will have an economy still entrenched in the natural gas that made Qatar so wealthy over the last fifty years. And those deaths that will continue in Qatar between now and our Cup will not stop because we will continue to feed the oil and gas machine and continue to rely on those deaths to prop up our economy from afar. And all of the people involved in World Cup boycotts now will support the next Cup and continue to turn a blind eye. So to the virtue signaling lefties out there, shame on you all.
I think FIFA bear some of the responsibility. They awarded the Cup to a nation state with the size of Connecticut with 330,000 citizens, virtually no football infrastructure and one of the most oppressive environments (in all aspects) in the World. They awarded it to a repressive, evangelical Petro state with an atrocious civil rights record. They accepted massive bribes to allow this vanity project to go forward. While you are, of course, correct about the larger problem of the addiction to dead dinosaurs being the root cause as to why Qatar could buy the World Cup, and that only some percentage of the deaths are directly attributable to the World Cup (much higher than 37, but not all 6,500), there is also the terrible conditions that the Qatari forced upon the migrant workers and FIFA's (most recently demonstrated by the unhinged monologue of Infantino yesterday) steadfast support for Qatar. Really, FIFA is probably the single worst and most corrupt organization in the world. Possibly, the worst example of capitalism, maybe next to crypto. But we love our World Cup. Oh, and Ecuador scored again!
Apparently Enner Valencia also scored the first goal of the 2014 World Cup and five in a row for Ecuador.
Stu Holden and John strong talk non stop. Very nfl like. Lastly, Qatar suck and will be lucky to score a goal this World Cup.
Fox went from planning on a very small crew covering the World Cup to suddenly having a full-blown production because Qatar Airways suddenly became a sponsor. Meanwhile, Telemundo is consistently going to be showing various segments covering the human rights abuses and other corruption issues surrounding the World Cup. Also, they have Andres Cantor and not Stu Holden. There's a winner here.
Yes, I managed to adjust the volume so I get the crowd noise, but really cannot hear them. When you mean lucky, do you mean "lucky enough to find a defense/goalkeeper in another match to pay off to allow a goal?" I suspect there will be a specious penalty call sooner rather than later.
Qatar become the first host nation to lose their opening World Cup game in the 92-year history of the tournament.
But not the first host nation to not make it to the knockout rounds as South Africa alas did not make it out of group. Assuming Qatar does not have a miraculous turn about to make it out of group.