On the Eve of the new Season...

hutch wrote:
Good World Cup so far….

I have to agree…so few predictable results
The underdogs are taking over
Nail biter
Man these pk's suck
Good for England
Broke my heart to see Pékerman suffering the pks so much….. He is a very good man and of course Argentina lost pk shootout to Germany in 2006 Cup when he was its coach…you got to feel for him…that fourth Colombian pk hit the woodwork and bounced out…so close

But England played better…in fact I am surprised at how badly Colombia played
It's coming home!
If you grow into a tournament anything can happen….

The premier league has been the best club league for so long now (most fun to watch) and England having invented the game and spread it around the world maybe they have suffered enough…it’s hard to go more than one game at a time and Sweden won’t be easy but it’s doable
Just so I’m clear, for the small percentage of the MAGA set who pretend to care about soccer, with the US out, are they mostly defaulting to England or Russia as their team of choice?
Julian, wrote:
Just so I’m clear, for the small percentage of the MAGA set who pretend to care about soccer, with the US out, are they mostly defaulting to England or Russia as their team of choice?


For those few, I would venture to guess they would root for the (non-Muslim) authoritarian regimes.  That pretty much leaves Russia in the final 8.
I get where you’re comjng from but for those who want the country to go back to its roots: England is right there.
Julian, wrote:
I get where you’re comjng from but for those who want the country to go back to its roots: England is right there.


Nationalised Health System would trump all of that.
South American teams have never really fared well in Europe.
I believe that is so with the notable exception of Brazil in 1958….and I guess Argentina miraculously making it to final in 1990 and Brazil in 1998 final


A poor World Cup for South American teams here….striking

I think it’s hard to generalize or find one explanation and of course until 2014 a European team had not won in South America….but I have my theories about what we are seeing
England to Eurocup semis!
Croatia joins England, France and Belgium in 2018 Eurocup semis
https://deadspin.com/terrible-news-england-defeat-sweden-to-advance-to-worl-1827418763
in a truly unfortunate turn of events, England’s World Cup run can no longer go down as anything other than a tremendous success after the terrible lads triumphed over Sweden Saturday

The truth is England dominated play most of the way, and earned this victory, leading to nightmare scenes like this one, of British people enjoying themselves