The Official World Cup 2018 Megathread

[Alan]

Perfect ball in. Took everyone out of the equation and at just the right height for Dzyuba to get head it down and with power.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

This is poop.

This defending is nonsense. First goal you've got a defender falling over for no reason, second two defenders slide in and miss a ball that they could have just walked into it brought away and then they've decided not to mark the one man in the box.

 

[AndyWolves]

This match alone should be enough to keep the format at 32 teams

 

[Tredman]

Nah, there are plenty of good teams missing, but it's the geographical qualifying which keeps them out and means you end up with tosh like this.

 

[Alan]

Nah, there are plenty of good teams missing, but it's the geographical qualifying which keeps them out and means you end up with tosh like this.

So what's the alternative? Dump Sri Lanka and Mongolia in a group with Spain and Brazil during qualifying?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I'm not interested in inclusivity, I'm interested in quality.

There aren't 32 genuinely good international teams in the world, this is the limit.

 

[Tredman]

So what's the alternative? Dump Sri Lanka and Mongolia in a group with Spain and Brazil during qualifying?

Within reason yes.

 

[Alan]

Within reason yes.

So what's the difference? No matter what you end up with ridiculous matchups or "poor" games like this one at some point along the line.

By the semis it will be just Europe and South America left anyway in all likelihood.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

By the semis it will be just Europe and South America left anyway in all likelihood.

Because they're the best teams with the best players.

Saudi Arabia have been diabolical today, they've been caned by a dreadful Russia team, yet they qualified. Quite easily too. Why would you want more Asian teams who were proven to be worse than this to also be involved?

What are UAE, Iraq, Thailand, Uzbekistan, China and Qatar going to bring to the party? Other than playing for a 0-0 and failing.

 

[Kenny]

Nice goal there though

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Fuck off goalkeeper, really.

 

[Kenny]

So, who put money on Russia banging 5 in today?

 

[AndyWolves]

It's nuts that teams like Saudi are in but Italy aren't

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

MOAR teams in the World Cup please. I definitely want to see worse outfits than what I've just seen.

I suppose Russia got the job done (although they themselves would never have qualified were they not hosts) even if it was the most flattering 5-0 win ever, even more so than our effort vs Rotherham in 2015.

 

[Keef]

As it stands it's cost paddy power 50k,they've promised 10k for every goal Russia scores in the World Cup to Russian LGBT groups

 

[Parkins left foot]

That wasn't really worth watching - though in truth I probably wasn't for most of it

 

[Alan]

It's nuts that teams like Saudi are in but Italy aren't

Maybe Italy should have played better in qualifying.

 

[Kenny]

As it stands it's cost paddy power 50k,they've promised 10k for every goal Russia scores in the World Cup to Russian LGBT groups

They had promised £50k if Russia didn't score, so right now they are at the minimum promised.

Better offer than the Mastercard one where they promised to provide meals for starving kids every time Messi and Neymar scored!!

 

[nimrod]

high quality game there

couple nice goals at the end. Hansen would have a field day with the defending.

 

[YoungWolf]

The format as it is is fine. As Dan says there aren’t 32 good teams at international level. I like the fact that teams like Panama get to play at a World Cup once in a while but once we increase it there will be lots of that type of team and there won’t be any going back.