World cup - looking forward?

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Cyril Haearn
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Re: World cup - looking forward?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Belgium is already world champion in my favourite sport, I imagine there are more top cyclists there per population than anywhere else
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661-Pete
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Re: World cup - looking forward?

Post by 661-Pete »

thelawnet wrote:Not sure if any of these count as 'less-developed, third-world countries' TBH.
I can see my words are coming back to haunt me :oops: ! How should I have phrased it - within the context of this thread, that is? "Less commonly associated with football", perhaps?

As it happens, I have been to Indonesia. Main reason was to watch an eclipse, but we saw parts of the country as well. It would take a lifetime to get to know that vast and culturally diverse part of the world! As well as our eclipse-viewing island (Tidore in Maluku), we visited Jakarta (ugh! Get rid of all those damned mopeds and it'd be a beautiful city!), Yogyakarta (Prambanan temple was divine!) and Bali (the interior was nice - the coastline a bit touristy).

As to the 'beautiful (?)' game - I'm sure plenty of Indonesian people can play it excellently: what they need is to come together and form a viable national team capable of winning tournaments. Surely the popular support would go without question! Same could be said of many other countries not currently in the WC.
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thelawnet
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Re: World cup - looking forward?

Post by thelawnet »

661-Pete wrote:As to the 'beautiful (?)' game - I'm sure plenty of Indonesian people can play it excellently: what they need is to come together and form a viable national team capable of winning tournaments. Surely the popular support would go without question! Same could be said of many other countries not currently in the WC.


There have been a few Indonesian-descended players.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radja_Nainggolan is of Indonesian descent, but abandoned by his Indonesian father in Belgium as a child.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_van_Bronckhorst - another.

But none who have learned their trade in Indonesia, due to the terrible standard of training. Also Indonesia's clubs are poorly managed and owned by dodgy military/police types and general corruptors, so they have yet to produce a single world-class player.
Brucey
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Re: World cup - looking forward?

Post by Brucey »

661-Pete wrote:
thelawnet wrote:Here's the ordered list of countries by odds of winning the thing.

* Brazil, Germany, Spain, France
* Belgium, Argentina, England, Portugal
* Uruguay, Croatia, Colombia, Russia
* Denmark, Poland, Switzerland, Serbia
* Senegal, Mexico, Iceland, Peru
Indeed. I've just been reading the news stories about Argentina, as expected, soundly thrashing Iceland, Germany cruising home to an easy win over Mexico, and now Brazil comfortably putting paid to any Swiss dreams....

No - wait!

Have I been visiting the wrong news site, by any chance? :lol:


I've been watching the wrong TV set this afternoon as well, then... :wink: that's another two top teams that failed to live up to expectation.... :shock:

cheers
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thelawnet
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Re: World cup - looking forward?

Post by thelawnet »

This is looking like being the most European-dominant World Cup since Spain '82, when 12 of 14 European teams advanced to round 2 (format then: 12 teams advance of 24, now 16 of 32).

Currently it looks like 11 or 12 of the 14 European teams going through (it could even be 13, if Poland qualify, and Sweden & Germany win their final games), while the Asian and African teams have been very weak, with probably Senegal and/or Japan the only teams to go through out of 10 Asian & African teams.

For 2022 there will only be 13 European teams, with Qatar likely to become the worst team ever to host a World Cup.
Last edited by thelawnet on 23 Jun 2018, 8:59pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cyril Haearn
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Re: World cup - looking forward?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Oh no, Germany scored at the end to stay in the running :(
Commercial? I am sure it is scripted by a dramatist to be as exiting as possible
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reohn2
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Re: World cup - looking forward?

Post by reohn2 »

6 1,Result! :)
Now the real tests begin.....
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: World cup - looking forward?

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
6:1..............you need to look twice at the score, England.............maybe there's hope...........past history says it wil take a miracle. I am not pro football at all, just to make it plain but I always have to check the score.
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reohn2
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Re: World cup - looking forward?

Post by reohn2 »

Yes it was 6:1 to England,I watched the match(a walk over) :)
But as I posted "now the real tests begin" :wink:
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661-Pete
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Re: World cup - looking forward?

Post by 661-Pete »

Please say it ain't so! :shock:

Oh well - my consolation: I'm still in France, so I'm not having to endure seeing those silly flags on cars at the moment. We're not due back until first week of July. Surely the flags will have come down by then?! :twisted:
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Cyril Haearn
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Re: World cup - looking forward?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

"We" are world champions on the road now by my reckoning
I predict we will beat Belgium to win the group and lose to Belgium in the final :wink:
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Re: World cup - looking forward?

Post by reohn2 »

661-Pete wrote:Please say it ain't so! :shock:

Oh well - my consolation: I'm still in France, so I'm not having to endure seeing those silly flags on cars at the moment. We're not due back until first week of July. Surely the flags will have come down by then?! :twisted:

I'm currently in North Wales and haven't seen any either :)
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Cyril Haearn
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Re: World cup - looking forward?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

reohn2 wrote:
661-Pete wrote:Please say it ain't so! :shock:

Oh well - my consolation: I'm still in France, so I'm not having to endure seeing those silly flags on cars at the moment. We're not due back until first week of July. Surely the flags will have come down by then?! :twisted:

I'm currently in North Wales and haven't seen any either :)

The Guardian reports that a street in Oldham is completely festooned with English flags
Wales Street, of course
Cymru am byth!
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Re: World cup - looking forward?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

The flags are *@#+% dangerous, they increase drag and fuel consumption and often snap off and then drift through the air, what if I hit one at 99 kmh?
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Cunobelin
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Re: World cup - looking forward?

Post by Cunobelin »

661-Pete wrote:The good news:
It'll only last three matches, so far as the E****nd team are concerned, so all those silly flags on the cars will be coming off almost as soon as they've gone up...
The bad news:
This means we'll only have a few days of traffic-free roads - albeit at only 90 minutes a shot, they don't stay traffic-free for very long!

Anyway, we're off to France next week....



Mis-timed it yesterday.... One minute it was fine, the roads were full of baying muppets hanging out of the car windows and squealing at anything that moved.

At least Royal Weddings are quite and more dignified
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