The World Cup....

[mechanismj]

No.

[A_Northern_Soul]

The vibes are definitely pretty shit at this WC.

The "official" vibes seem pretty rotten (the Somali ref being sent home, the "hydration" - aka advert - breaks, the searching of teams arriving in the US at the airport), but seeing footage of a small town in I think Kansas adopting and supporting the Algerian team who are based there, and the lovely footage and stories from Boston with the Scotland fans making lots of new friends, is really REALLY lovely and a reminder that most people across the world are good people, regardless of their government, and just want to get along with each other.

I think that's wonderful.

[fujee]

Preach! The Scottish fans cleaning up in Boston and lighting up the baseball crowd was great to see. Saw a clip of a guy who's responsible for cleaning a local park and he was so grateful they weren't dicks. Said the Scots must have no water cos they can really drink

[A_Northern_Soul]

There was also the guy who was woken up in the early hours by bagpipes after the AirBnB across the road from his house was filled with a group of Scottish fans. Instead of complaining, he fired up the barbecue, cracked open the beers and made some new friends. I've also heard about pubs running out of beer.

[Mexicola]

On the running out of beer thing, the funniest part was one Scottish guy complaining that all the pubs had left was Bud Lite.

Once flew to Milan to watch Newcastle play Inter in the Champions League (2003. Shearer scored twice as we 'won' 2-2). On both flights, the drinks trolley didn't even make halfway down the aisle before it sold out of beer. There was nearly a riot on the plane. Good times.

[A_Northern_Soul]

Once flew to Milan to watch Newcastle play Inter in the Champions League (2003. Shearer scored twice as we 'won' 2-2). On both flights, the drinks trolley didn't even make halfway down the aisle before it sold out of beer. There was nearly a riot on the plane. Good times.

I was at the home leg of that one. Absolutely rotten; A goal down and down to 10 men within the 1st five minutes. Seem to recall it was either pissing it down or just freezing cold too.

[fujee]

Ok, now I am into this WC. What a fucking game!

[Waterbagel]

Ok, now I am into this WC. What a fucking game!

Cape Verde/Argentina, Norway/Brazil, Mexico/England have all been fantastic to watch. really looking forward to more games

[Mexicola]

There is an horrific orange stench today though and I'm not talking about the unwashed Holland laundry either.

FIFA bows down to the almighty $ yet again. Stinks.

[Aesthetics]

There is an horrific orange stench today though and I'm not talking about the unwashed Holland laundry either.

FIFA bows down to the almighty $ yet again. Stinks.

Don't worry, they are gone.

It would have been great for the international sporting world if the US had reached the semi-finals. However, not in this way.

[Mexicola]

Amen to that. No reflection on the US team incidentally. I'm guessing they were as embarrassed as everybody else. And what a superb way to get Belgium to raise their game after they'd spent most of the tournament looking very average and lacklustre. Genius. Once again, 'he' shows all the strategic foresight of your common or garden urinal block.

[Waterbagel]

i like to imagine infantino took the call, chuckled, pocketed a few hundred k of somehow our tax dollars in some offshore account, and picked up the phone after belgium’s appeal just to say “I really don’t think you need to worry lol”

some good moments for us in that game (maybe a whole hand’s worth) but after freese came out into midfield to get the dog shit off his shoe it was OVER over

[fujee]

It would have been great for the international sporting world if the US had reached the semi-finals.

Guess this is the inevitable outcome when they play an actual international sporting event rather than a domestic competition called the 'world series'.

[Aesthetics]

That just goes to show once again why I’m starting to have such a hard time with modern tournament football and the inconsistency at this high level…
Argentina are simply being helped to progress. How is it that an Egypt goal is disallowed for a ‘foul’ (lightly stepping on a toe), yet the VAR doesn’t even look at two fouls committed by Argentina prior to their goal? The situations are almost identical… Why isn’t the VAR stepping in? What an injustice, it’s terrible for Egypt.

[Waterbagel]

That just goes to show once again why I’m starting to have such a hard time with modern tournament football and the inconsistency at this high level…
Argentina are simply being helped to progress. How is it that an Egypt goal is disallowed for a ‘foul’ (lightly stepping on a toe), yet the VAR doesn’t even look at two fouls committed by Argentina prior to their goal? The situations are almost identical… Why isn’t the VAR stepping in? What an injustice, it’s terrible for Egypt.

yeah, i was really disappointed by that. egypt really had great runs and ought to have progressed

[Mexicola]

Felt for Egypt. Was that disallowed goal the greatest that never counted? Gotta admire Messi though. How is he still that good at that age?

[fujee]

He's been playing in the chump MLS as well, so not exactly match sharp with the elite European leagues. Different gravy.

[jcnporter]

That just goes to show once again why I’m starting to have such a hard time with modern tournament football and the inconsistency at this high level…
Argentina are simply being helped to progress. How is it that an Egypt goal is disallowed for a ‘foul’ (lightly stepping on a toe), yet the VAR doesn’t even look at two fouls committed by Argentina prior to their goal? The situations are almost identical… Why isn’t the VAR stepping in? What an injustice, it’s terrible for Egypt.

Yeah, there's been some proper dodgy refereeing decisions that just happen to have helped the 'established' teams - Neymar's penalty against Norway and then an extra 5 minutes added on from nowhere....and yet what has salvaged this world cup from being a complete FIFA clownshow are the smaller teams playing out of their skins, while out of the big teams, only France has really live up to their reputation. Would love to see a final between two first-timers.