Soccer, sports and politics (R)

First casualty of the WC.

Change is on the way for Mexico.

Gerardo "Tata" Martino will not be returning to manage the Mexican men's national team following its early exit from the 2022 FIFA World Cup on Wednesday. https://t.co/k11fsiA01i

— NBC 7 San Diego (@nbcsandiego) December 1, 2022

 

Exactly.

Just like 2018 and the US failing against Trinidad and Tobago. The fault is on the team, not the system.

Italy was in the one of the "easier" groups with Switzerland, Lithuania, N. Ireland and Bulgaria and still failed.

That final match against Northern Ireland was a snooze fest as I recall. One goal and they were through.

They had a second chance and failed, again, losing to North Macedonia.

I think the moral here is that Italy need to avoid any team with "North" in their name. The must never travel to Fargo and play the mighty Bison of NDSU, if they even have a soccer team.

 

I quoted you, but that was directed at USScouse.
Who cares about who's been somewhere the longest anymore? That's some inbred shit and he's
above it.

Exactly. A tournament without Brazil or Argentina is lacking all day long

 

You know what the so-called "Royals" look like, right?

Right?
Right.

A mongrel here and there keeps that from happening. I'm halfway surprised nobody's come out of Buckingham Palace with three ears...



Most of them lost their chins instead though.
To the Tower!!!

 

The French did make the last invasion of Britain, landing in Fishguard Wales 1797.
Several hours later they surrendered to a group of Welsh women dressed in traditional red capes thinking it was the army.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fishguard

 

Apparently, FIFA is considering penalty shootouts for group stage games.

 

That’s a bit pointless (no pun) the one point for the draw is an integral part of the group stage.
You’ll obviously have teams holding back and subbing PK kickers at the end. Instead of last 15 minute or so going for the win.
We saw that in the early MLS or it’s pre league. When the old school from pointy ball wanted a type of OT because they didn’t understand the importance of the tie. Admittedly it’s more important in a relegation league set up.

 

They're worried about the three-team groups for 2024. Too many scenarios where all three teams wind up level on points and goals.

Solution: don't use three team groups.

 

I hate the idea of 3 team groups. Another negative is that you lose the excitement of having two games going on at once to decide the group.

 

Damn. Talk about shooting the messenger!

 

Yesterday afternoon was pretty intense. And here's the thing. . . 2-0 matches in the 80th minute usually aren't overly-compelling on their own. But given the standings . . . Argentina/Poland and Mexico/SA combined for some serious drama.

 

Sometimes it's the best way to send a message back to the one who composed the message.

 

Huh, they must be listening to those wise Americans commenting on social media about how to improve the sport. Next they’ll consider enlarging the goal and doing away with the offside rule.

 

People are actually upset that Italy's not here?

 

At the rate FIFA is ********ing with the sport we will look back on the Havalenge-Blatter era as a high point in football when we only had to worry about corruption.

 

My daughter played on that team. I think they were called the Bisonettes.

 

Morocco is not f'ing around. Love this.

 

There's always North Korea! Surely they could beat them.

What? You say North Korea beat Italy in the 1966 World Cup?

 

I kinda want to see any past champ in every Cup, even if it's waaaay past, like Uruguay. But I can't understand why they wanna act like a gold medal is a star. I get it- it was the de facto world championship BITD. FIFA changed all that, tho.

 

Still 'ic-ing for a goal

 

Since this is the politics thread....

This is just me personally. But while "******** Mexico, I hope they lose forever" always had ethnocentric undertones that "******** Stanford, I hope they lose forever" didn't, I could still justify it in my head as the US being a historic underdog and that Rivalries Are Fun.

Trump ruined that for me. I'm not saying they're my second team or anything, but too many friends, acquaintances and strangers have openly taken shit for their national origin for no better reason than my fellow white people wanted the Apprentice Guy as President. If Mexico winning makes them happy, I don't feel good anymore about crapping on that.

And they were playing Saudi Arabia. ******** Saudi Arabia, I hope they lose forever

 

One of the dead slaves has to claim that status.

And then there's casualties like this:

An Iranian man was shot dead by security forces after Iran’s national team lost to the US and exited the World Cup, as anti-government demonstrations took place inside and outside the stadium in Qatar and across Iran.

Mehran Samak, 27, was shot dead after honking his car horn in Bandar Anzali, a city on the Caspian Sea coast, north-west of Tehran, according to human rights activists.

Samak “was targeted directly and shot in the head by security forces … following the defeat of the national team against America”, said the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR)..
​

Re: yesterday's discussions here, I guess this is another example of the beneficence of government security forces in Iran.

 

National-team hate is just plain inferior to club hate. National-team hate follows too closely to nation hating and other evils while my club hatreds are as pure as the newly driven snow. I relish 25 year old MLS hatreds without a smidgen of guilt.