FIFA WC 26 - Other Nations LIVE Match Thread ⚽

[jimshady]

Hahah, tripped over him? Come on now. There is clear movement towards Salah and he makes contact with the player. The amount of ways people have been going out to defend Argentina this tournament is insane.

Just because it happens in multiple games and hasn't been called, doesn't mean this one shouldn't have been called. It was way more clear and obvious and should have been called. Simple.

Argentina have gotten away with so much this cup, and this game is more of that.

Don't get me wrong I'd rather the last 8 all be teams that have never won before. I don't understand where you want his foot to go.

I don't disagree, just giving context I don't think it was a particular protecting Argentina thing.

Every team has had rubbish go both for and against them. I still think the worst call of the cup was that foul for the Germany goal. That was absolutely outrageous.

 

[Beretta]

You're welcome Richard Reed.

In 1992, while serving a three-year sentence for various street robberies, he was influenced by Muslims he met in prison and converted to Islam.

lol

 

[Beretta]

Yes the most unlikeable Socceroo was a Croat.

Bigot.

 

[TheSecretScout]

I know this isn’t a popular thought but……………

6 of the final 8 are European nations (you could basically say 7 if you include morroco, where almost the whole squad came through European academies.) at this years world cup

Fifa however seem intent to have as many sides as possible from asia, africa, and the Americas qualify though when Europe shouldn’t be losing any more spots.

 

[Robbos]

I know this isn’t a popular thought but……………

6 of the final 8 are European nations (you could basically say 7 if you include morroco, where almost the whole squad came through European academies.) at this years world cup

Fifa however seem intent to have as many sides as possible from asia, africa, and the Americas qualify though when Europe shouldn’t be losing any more spots.

Totally agree on the fact on Europe not losing anymore spots, I 100% agree on that.

However, does Europe deserve more spots ahead of stories that we got like Cape Verde, Iran, Congo & Curacao?

 

[YdF]

lol

INFLUENCED= the result of dropping the soap in the shower

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

Totally agree on the fact on Europe not losing anymore spots, I 100% agree on that.

However, does Europe deserve more spots ahead of stories that we got like Cape Verde, Iran, Congo & Curacao?

I know this isn’t a popular thought but……………

6 of the final 8 are European nations (you could basically say 7 if you include morroco, where almost the whole squad came through European academies.) at this years world cup

Fifa however seem intent to have as many sides as possible from asia, africa, and the Americas qualify though when Europe shouldn’t be losing any more spots.

My 2 cents is that I was extremely sceptical of the amount of teams this WC, and the fact that some "lower teams" would be walkovers and create boring, unsatisfying football.. The most snooze inducing match so far was Spain v Portugal for me... and teams like Cape Verde and Curacao have been incredible on the pitch... OK maybe not polished but incredible just the same. I am happy to admit I was wrong and the minnows DO belong.

In saying that 48 teams SHOULD be the limit... how that is distributed in the future amongst the confederations is another debate but Europe DOES rank supreme

 

[Captain Haddock]

Nathan Cleary was apparently a Man U fan growing up. Not sure how that sits well with his more famous girlfriend Mary Fowler.

Either way I’d hope he uses that to help support the A-League and Aussie soccer. It sounds stupid but are codes really enemies? People like more than one code.

Codes are enemies when they play on a differently shaped/ sized pitch to football. Let's leave it at that...

 

[Captain Haddock]

I don't think NRL is an enemy. Has always generally been quite accepting (at least in Sydney) to me of eachother. Sure, there's a few bogans here and there that will shit on football - but it's very different to what I've generally encountered with AFL fanbases.

Growing up in regional NSW in the 90's, I can recall one kid from school who called football "grass ballet" and reckoned it was a sport for poofs. Mind you, his old man told my parents once he got his son playing league "to get some mongrel into him" so maybe the apple didn't fall far from the tree?

Apart from that, people were either neutral towards football or actively played/ supported it. Another mate in my grade was a keen footballer, had a scouse dad and for show and tell in Year 5 he showed us photos of himself with different Liverpool players when he went to Melwood. Apparently his old man wrote the club before their trip over and said his son was a huge fan and coming from Australia and could he come by for a visit?

Lucky bastard...

 

[Barca4life]

Europe is too strong, 6 of the 8 teams are European how does the rest of the world close the gap is the 64 million dollar question?

The lack of exposure to European opposition and competition is not there enough plus things like the nations league don’t help get more exposure , there is also the youth level as well but not sure how else the rest of the world can close the gap to the Europeans.

It would rather be funny if we get a Morocco vs Argentina final but the point still stands especially for teams outside of Europe and even South American as well is Europe is still main dog in world football.

 

[Dinamo]

My 2 cents is that I was extremely sceptical of the amount of teams this WC, and the fact that some "lower teams" would be walkovers and create boring, unsatisfying football.. The most snooze inducing match so far was Spain v Portugal for me... and teams like Cape Verde and Curacao have been incredible on the pitch... OK maybe not polished but incredible just the same. I am happy to admit I was wrong and the minnows DO belong.

In saying that 48 teams SHOULD be the limit... how that is distributed in the future amongst the confederations is another debate but Europe DOES rank supreme

Europe should really have gotten an extra 4 spots to maintain the same distribution from 2022.

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

Europe should really have gotten an extra 4 spots to maintain the same distribution from 2022.

Clearly qualifying through Europe is, and will be fore a very long time, the most challenging path.

 

[Robbos]

My 2 cents is that I was extremely sceptical of the amount of teams this WC, and the fact that some "lower teams" would be walkovers and create boring, unsatisfying football.. The most snooze inducing match so far was Spain v Portugal for me... and teams like Cape Verde and Curacao have been incredible on the pitch... OK maybe not polished but incredible just the same. I am happy to admit I was wrong and the minnows DO belong.

In saying that 48 teams SHOULD be the limit... how that is distributed in the future amongst the confederations is another debate but Europe DOES rank supreme

I don't think anyone doubts that Europe is ranked supreme, they have the best leagues in the world, the top 7-8 leagues in the world, they have the best academies that money can buy, they are all 1st world countries & mainly stable governments & economies.
The other 1st world nations US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan , (football is not major sport).
You say the 3rd world produces the best players, yes but the European academies shapes them.

However, apart from the joy for those countries qualifying, adding a Ireland, Wales, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Serbia, Russia or whatever big country in Europe that missed out on qualification, what would they have brought apart from an early exit like some of the other European countries.

 

[Dinamo]

Clearly qualifying through Europe is, and will be fore a very long time, the most challenging path.

Everybody knows Italy has missed 3 World Cups but the Dutch also didn't qualify for 2 tournaments in the last 10 years. Europe clearly has the most depth. There is not a lot of difference between the 10th ranked team and the 25th ranked team which is why qualifying is not easy.

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

I don't think anyone doubts that Europe is ranked supreme, they have the best leagues in the world, the top 7-8 leagues in the world, they have the best academies that money can buy, they are all 1st world countries & mainly stable governments & economies.
The other 1st world nations US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan , (football is not major sport).
You say the 3rd world produces the best players, yes but the European academies shapes them.

However, apart from the joy for those countries qualifying, adding a Ireland, Wales, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Serbia, Russia or whatever big country in Europe that missed out on qualification, what would they have brought apart from an early exit like some of the other European countries.

I disagree, just because teams that dont often qualify like Bosnia, Turkey, Scotland and Czechia bowed out early, doesn't mean that other Euro teams like Italy, Denmark or Serbia would have done the same.

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

Everybody knows Italy has missed 3 World Cups but the Dutch also didn't qualify for 2 tournaments in the last 10 years. Europe clearly has the most depth. There is not a lot of difference between the 10th ranked team and the 25th ranked team which is why qualifying is not easy.

100% (despite some of the FA sycophants on here insisting that AFC qualification is special). Im just saying that the "best of the rest" is slowly catching up and was better than I anticipated.

 

[TheSecretScout]

Totally agree on the fact on Europe not losing anymore spots, I 100% agree on that.

However, does Europe deserve more spots ahead of stories that we got like Cape Verde, Iran, Congo & Curacao?

I’m not implying that any of the nations you have mentioned didn’t deserve to be at the WC – they absolutely did since they came through qualifying at the expense of nations that were more highly fancied.

I also know that fifa would love to have a country like china or india qualify, purely from a tv viewership/revenue point of view.

It might be time to completely alter how world cup qualification is done, maybe a champion’s league style format?

Move Russia & israel out of European qualifying and into Asian qualifying (with israel playing middle eastern sides in neutral venues in asia)

 

[zimbos05]

Don't get me wrong I'd rather the last 8 all be teams that have never won before. I don't understand where you want his foot to go.

I don't disagree, just giving context I don't think it was a particular protecting Argentina thing.

Every team has had rubbish go both for and against them. I still think the worst call of the cup was that foul for the Germany goal. That was absolutely outrageous.

That's like many of the fouls, where should a foot go. He moves his for forward on top of Salah. By the law, it's a foul, simple as.

Where do you want the Egyptian player to put his foot on the foul leading up to their goal?

No doubt there has been crap calls, but Argentina have gotten away more for them than any other team, and it's this inconsistency that annoys the fans.

lol

You got the wrong Richard mate

 

[Dinamo]

I disagree, just because teams that dont often qualify like Bosnia, Turkey, Scotland and Czechia bowed out early, doesn't mean that other Euro teams like Italy, Denmark or Serbia would have done the same.

You can't compare qualification football to tournament football, they are different beasts. 2002 might be the best example of that. Argentina finishes 1st while Brazil finishes a distant 3rd, then the WC comes and Argentina can't get out of the group while Brazil goes on to win it.

 

[TheSecretScout]

I disagree, just because teams that dont often qualify like Bosnia, Turkey, Scotland and Czechia bowed out early, doesn't mean that other Euro teams like Italy, Denmark or Serbia would have done the same.

Serbia are an absolute shitshow and will be for some time, until most of the members of the actual federation are thrown out/resign and new ones elected.

If fans in Australia think its ‘jobs for the boys’ be grateful they don’t have to deal with the clusterfuck of the Serbian FA – where there are connections to the president, the government, local gangs and even the Italian mafia.

It’s a viper’s nest of people with different agendas and vendettas.

I’m not joking when I say the ex-president of the FA used the mafia in Italy to threaten Vidic from running for his position.

Another good example is what happened to AU’s luka jovanovic, who was contacted by a person from the federation (now he’s gone) asking him to declare for Serbia (which the player wanted to do) only to be ghosted by the federation and received no further communication.

a 3-0 loss to Croatia in the recent under 19’s European championship also hasn’t gone down well.

Now there’s uproar about the country trying to naturalise players who werent born there like Louis Zečević-John, who is coming through arsenals academy and looks a real prospect.