World Cup General Discussion Thread - 2030 The Jokes On You

It’s a fair point, but surely quite unusual for both teams to play well for the majority of a final - or it seems that way to me. Take the Istanbul Champions League final, for example. Perhaps the West Ham - Liverpool Cup Final or Palace - United are examples?

I can’t think of a better WC Final in my time, they’ve been pretty drab and/or one-sided on the whole. 1982, maybe? Can’t say I remember much about it other than the final score.

 

I just think people tend to forget that the first 80 minutes were one-sided and France didn’t get going until their first penalty. If they had played like they (and Argentina) played in extra time, then it would have been a great final.

 

I suspect if they had played like that all through they would have won easily and so it might not have been great at all...

 

A really entertaining rather than ‘great’ final, for that reason. The first 80 minutes were a quite decent game, rather than a classic.

 

How many games have been non-stop thrill a minute? Most games, even the classics, have lulls

 

I've been wondering if what they said about the France team being affected by a bug was true, how the final would have panned out if France's players had been feeling 100%. We'll never know for sure - but clearly they weren't as affected as Brazil were by their one star player being ill in the '98 final (and they were playing against ten men for over 20 minutes).

 

They were utter garbage for 79 minutes, it took a senior moment from Otamendi and a moment of magic from one of the best players in the world to get them back into it. I don't know who was most affected by the illness in the camp, but most of the French players were pretty crap by their standards, suspect they'd have won it fairly comfortably if they were all at 100%

 

Well I never!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65834022

 

Very disappointed with the 4-0 reverse against Honduras yesterday. It was the first defeat in 7, I think. Onel Hernandez was out injured and it showed.

Jamaica top the group after a 2-1 win v Haiti with honduras through in second. They go through to meet the big boys for qualifying proper - Mexico, Canada and the United 'bloody' States.

Shock win for Sint Maarten away at Guadeloupe, following up on their demolition of those Bonaire Bastads.

 

Sadly "One l Hernandez, there's only One l Hernandez"....

 

Not true that only Saudi Arabia could bid for 2034. Australia intended to bid, but weren't expecting the invitations to bid to come out so soon. The Saudis put in their bid immediately the announcement was made, so the Aussies decided not to waste their money by competing with a done deal. And when I say "deal".....

 

I wonder how they knew it was coming out before Australia, hard to fathom.

 

A WC Finals on the Arabian peninsular is long overdue.

 

How dare you, Jordan Henderson has made it very clear that the tournament is going to be great! (As long as your not gay of course....)

 

The general consensus from the gay community in Qatar was they had a great time and faced no trouble whatsoever.

 

So it appears that Saudi Arabia will be getting the 2034 World Cup.
What's the fu**ing point anymore?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67274585

 

Good news for Ausie drivers, petrol will probably be very cheap for a few years

 

I’m sure they won it fair and square. It’s only right that the Arabian peninsular, the traditional hotbed of football, should get 2 world cups in such a short space of time, having been ignored for decades. I’m sure those that don’t fully understand the game will suggest money had something to do with it.

 

The only positive thing is that it's to be held in a single country, the next two WCs will be a farce particularly as 2030 will be held partly in 5 countries. But the increase to 48 will mean a lot of dead rubbers or perhaps collusion as seen in 1982, so the whole competition will be a farce anyway until the last 8.

 

They will need to start the group stages of the 2026 competition pretty soon to get all those games in.
Football, Rugby, Cricket....all these competitions have now swelled to the size where half of the games, if not more, are irrelevant filler just squeezing every last drop of TV & advertising revenues.

 

Sweden is still waiting for another World Cup since 1958. The second longest wait has been since 1966, no doubt because that bunch of losers don't care about football, don't have the infrastructure and are politically unstable.

 

...and the endless list of documented Swedish human rights violations. They have no chance for the foreeable future.