The World Cup 2018 general pub chat thread.

[Lootman]

The four semi finalists are all European. So it looks like European teams have a higher standard.

For the longest time the World Cup alternated between being held in Europe and being held in the Americas. And it was a fairly reliable rule of thumb that a European team would always win when it was held in Europe and a Latin American team would always win when it was held in the Americas.

Historically the one exception was when the World Cup was held in Sweden in 1958, when Brazil won it. And much more recently when Germany won in Brazil in 2014.

This century the host country has been more diversified, with Japan/South Korea, South Africa and (next) Qatar hosting it. Even so, the pattern is usually that there is a home advantage that flatters the teams from the same continent as the host country.

[Bubblesofearth]

Haven't looked it up but is this rare for a WC to just have England playing with Wales, Scotland and the two Ireland's not qualifying?

The four semi finalists are all European. So it looks like European teams have a higher standard. OK - I admit that the weightings give more places to European teams, but I suspect that a number of European teams that did not qualify could have seen off qualifying teams from other parts of the world.

Not in question. If you look at FIFA rankings the top 32 sides comprise 20 from Europe, 7 from S America, 3 from N&central America 2 from Africa and none from Asia;

https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking ... index.html

I'm pretty sure Italy and the Netherlands would make short work of the likes of Saudi Arabia and Panama!

I guess the importance of Global participation, marketing etc are deemed more important than having the best 32 sides in the competition.

One alternative might be to do what the Olympics do and have every Nation represented at the finals. Get rid of the group stage and have a knockout comp starting with maybe 128 countries. Still some pre-tournament elimination required but we're talking very weak countries! Then seed the top 32 as per Wimbledon. It would be a lot more games of course, 96 before the last 16 compared with 48 currently but all of them would be exiting (knockout) and any one team would still only play a max of 7 games, same as current.

BoE

[DiamondEcho]

@Swill, re: Berlin WC venues.
Another option is watching it outdoors on a screen. There is a very pleasant beer-garden right on the north east side of the Berlin zoo, in the Tiergarten, called Cafe am Neuen See. It's well away from roads/traffic, and IIRC it backs onto a lake where people can hire rowing boats and so on. Imagine a beer-garden on the banks of the Serpentine in Hyde Park. The food is pretty good there too. It was the ideal kind of place to take friends visiting us, for a glimpse into relaxed outdoor F+B Berlin-style.
This is their site: http://www.cafeamneuensee.de/
If you open their site, a pop-up will appear re: screenings of the football. If that doesn't happen on your computer, the link therein leads to:
http://www.cafeamneuensee.de/events/ with info on their WC related offering.

If interested you could run that through a translator. Looks like you need a reservation for the BBQ they're offering, but it might be otherwise there is no need to book to see the game. That's a nice relaxed place, if I were in Berlin this week, weather permitting, this would be the venue I'd hope to see it.

[Clitheroekid]

Can we return to the topic please. It may have skipped people's notice but Scotland do not appear to be in this world cup!

Neither are Yorkshire, though they no doubt feel they should be! But at the risk of a slap from the mods there was a good joke on "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" at the weekend - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b86z4n

In 1935 a Yorkshire team made up of leading players from clubs across the region, including Huddersfield Town, Leeds United and Sheffield United, took on a team formed of Aberdeen, Glasgow and Dundee players.

Sadly, the Yorkshire versus Scotland match was abandoned before the kick-off, when no-one was willing to lend the referee a coin.

[scotia]

Its almost 24 hours since there was any chat on this board. What has happened? While I was asleep did England get knocked out?

[Meatyfool]

Its almost 24 hours since there was any chat on this board. What has happened? While I was asleep did England get knocked out?

Working up the energy to make ludicrously optimistic posts shortly before kickoff?

Righteous indignation will have to power us afterwards!

Meatyfool..

[DiamondEcho]

Its almost 24 hours since there was any chat on this board. What has happened? While I was asleep did England get knocked out?

We're moving house [internationally] in 2 weeks time so not as much leisure time as usual; that's if your Q was more than rhetorical
Anyway, thanks for the heads up, I see it's on ITV @7pm [UK time]. So I'll crank up the VPN later this pm and double-check I can access ITV!

[Leothebear]

France V Belgium tonight. Could be the quality match of the tournament. I can't help but think that the champions will come from this semi.
For England's sake (assuming they get by Croatia) I hope they kick 7 shades out of each other.

[nimnarb]

It was a good performance by France. Good defending, midfield control, Pogma had an excellent game and a few great saves from Lloris plus namely keeping the Belgium's danger men at bay.

Now for the big one....Can we actually get there to have a chance of bringing it home?

[Leothebear]

That was a high quality game. Belgium had most of the possession (64%) but the French defence was strong and they looked dangerous on the break.

Alderweireld's shot on the turn brought out the save of the tournament by Lloris and was Belgium's best chance.

France are worthy finalists. It'll take a very good team to beat them.

[poundcoin]

Going off at a tangent.......

Saw the brass/bass drum combo on this mornings news in Moscow banging out the England chant

Woah, England are in Russia,

Woah, drinking all your vodka,

Woah, England's going all the way!

1-2-3-4 etc

I know I am slow on the uptake but thought I knew the tune .....for those like me that didn't realise , its from September by Earth Wind and Fire

Actual lyrics of that bit

Hey hey hey
Ba de ya, say do you remember
Ba de ya, dancing in September
Ba de ya, never was a cloudy day

Of course now its an ear-worm that I can't get out my head !

[melonfool]

You sure?

I'd have thought it was this:

https://www.lyricsfreak.com/t/typically ... 58873.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaElH0EHjIs

Mel

[PinkDalek]

You sure?

I'd have thought it was this:

https://www.lyricsfreak.com/t/typically ... 58873.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaElH0EHjIs

Mel

The original is this version, as poundcoin suggests:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs069dndIYk

I prefer the one you linked to!

[poundcoin]

No Mel definitely September..... if the Guardian says so must be right :

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theg ... ussia-2018

[poundcoin]

Going even further on another tangent , Uri Geller this morning on the power of the number "eleven" and how it will help England win tonight !

It starts about 3 mins 45 secs in , unless you want to see the segment before about the actual 1966 football used in the final ( and signed by U.Geller many years ago ).

Some remarkable facts but sceptics could probably get as many coincidences using other numbers .

https://youtu.be/HnXFNQwdxZw

[melonfool]

How did they write that whole article without mention of Sit Down by James being adapted as 'Mo Salah, Mo Salah...' - which James have endorsed saying they are happy for their song to be used for people playing beautiful football?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew7Zkkucos8

(yes, it was also used for Game of Thrones)

Mel

[PinkDalek]

I'm more worried that this will be apt:

The End
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... SUIQgEVDM4

[melonfool]

Luckily, James current single provides us with the perfect new footie song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2OL2CHSs4Q

(what time is the match, when can we talk about having two up front and three in the back?)

Mel

[Itsallaguess]

It'll be interesting to see if tiredness plays it's part tonight.

Belgium looked lacklustre at times last night, and I think we're at the stage of the competition where the regular games and hot conditions can start to affect performances.

England's extra day's rest, along with an easier passage to the semi's with a 90-minutes win over Sweden, compared to the match a day later for Croatia and extra-time/penalties, may help to decide how the match goes in the latter stages tonight.

If England can keep themselves in it, we've got a good bench in terms of pace, so it'll be important for us to give ourselves the best chance to take advantage of that. Can't see Southgate dropping Sterling, but I'd love to see Rashford come on and run at a tired Croatian defence if we need him to.

I can see Croatia scoring tonight, so we're going to have to do well to progress, I think, but we've got quite a few players in there that have yet to play at their best in this World Cup yet, so fingers crossed.

Getting a bit nervous now, mind!

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[nimnarb]

Yes, getting very nervous now...........

What with Wimbledon, feds trying to hang in there and TDF, quite a sporting fiesta.