World Cup preparation fixtures

[Reg]

For more International: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football...ilter=fixtures
For more telly: http://www.live-footballontv.com

FS = FreeSports

Saturday 2nd June
Austria v Germany 17:00 BTS2
England v Nigeria 17:15 ITV
Belgium v Portugal 19:45 MUTV
Ireland v USA 20:08

Sunday 3rd
Mexico v Scotland 01:00 BBC1 Scot
Brazil v Croatia 15:00 LFCTV
Costa Rica v Northern Ireland 18:00 BBC RB
Spain v Switzerland 20:00 SS Foot/SS Main Event

Wednesday 6th
TBC Toulon SF 16:00 FS
TBC Toulon SF 18:30 FS
Belgium v Egypt 19:45 MUTV

Thursday 7th
England v Costa Rica 20:00 ITV

Friday 8th
Germany v Saudi Arabia 18:30 BTS1

Saturday 9th
TBC Toulon 3rd P/O 15:00 FS
TBC Toulon Final 17:30 FS
Spain v Tunisia 20:00 FS

Sunday 10th June 2018
Austria v Brazil 15:00 LFCTV
England XI v World XI (Soccer Aid) 20:00 ITV

Monday 11th
Belgium v Costa Rica 19:45 MUTV

[bruhnaldo]

"World Cup preparation fixtures"
"Ireland v USA"

You smug fuck...

[Reg]

Good one bruh.

[Giggles]

"World Cup preparation fixtures"
"Ireland v USA"

You smug fuck...

The John O'Shea retirement extravaganza.

[Jimmy Floyd]

England v Nigeria at Wembley? They'll be dancing in the streets of Lewisham tonight.

[Magic]

Hopefully Nigeria are in their traditional green kits otherwise I won't be able to distinguish between the teams.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I've been doing important research on African goalkeepers ahead of the World Cup as it's always the most entertaining and vital topic at the tournament. Nigeria, having benefited from Enyeama all these years, I think are now going in with Ikechukwu Ezenwa, I'll let the picture speak for itself.

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Tunisia, often an underrated source of terrible flappy keepers, stick with experience in the form of madhead domestic veteran Aymen Mathlouthi, who is also their captain, mainly because he is the best at feigning injury and organised cheating. He may not be the safest pair of hands, nor the slimmest around the waist, but no one in the game can hold a candle to this man when it comes to falsifying knocks on the head between the 63rd and 98th minutes.

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Next up in our round up, it's over to Morocco, where there's a surprising turn as they go to the Spanish second division's Munir Mohamedi. I've not seen Munir play, but with his track record of losing his place in the Numancia team this season, film star looks and extreme anxiety in the eyes, I'm sure there's plenty of potential here.

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Moving back south of the Sahara, we come to Senegal, where goalkeeper has often been a problem position since the retirement 10+ years ago of the not-in-any-way-dodgy Tony Sylva. With such a lack of talent available, all African nations know that the best option is to pick a comedian, and how better to waste time in the 89th minute of a tight Afcon match than by kicking yourself in the ankle? Enter Khadim N'Diaye.

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Finally we head north again to Egypt, where for years people wondered how they would ever replace the shouting, rolling, penalty-taking dominance of Essam El-Hadary. They have clearly thought it over plenty and tried a number of different keepers but have ultimately concluded, rightly, that the best way to replace El-Hadary is just to make him keep playing until he dies, so here he is again, at the age of 45.

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Doesn't look a day older than 43.

[Kikó]

Jim's African roundup. 😎

Cape Verde have just equalised against Algeria.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I miss Boubacar Barry tbh. He absolutely perfected it. 84 caps and fucking useless in each and every one.

That DR Congo guy was a bit of a legend too, but took his act too far towards competence.

[John]

Barry rolling around between penalties in that AFCON final shootout is comfortably the funniest thing I've ever seen on a football pitch.

[Giggles]

It's a wonder Trump hasn't demanded they don't show up for the game.

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[Lewis]

lol at the Nigerians booing Dele Alli. Their kit is shit as well.

[Spikey M]

They’re all Gooners

[phonics]

Harry Kane has decided to pass with the outside of his boot every time and I approve.

[randomlegend]

Jesus I've only had this on 10 minutes but Pickford is a fucking bombscare.

[Magic]

The idea of Southgate achieving anything.

[Lewis]

In his stupid fucking wedding waistcoat.

[Spikey M]

That black armband coupled with a shirt and waistcoat makes him look like he’s out of a Fascist group.

[-james-]

How were England?

[Spikey M]

How were England?

Have you watched any game since 2008? That’s how they were.

[-james-]

England are statistically likely to win a world cup in our lifetime and there's nothing anyone's relentless pessimism can do to stop it.

[phonics]

I thought England were quite good in the first half when the extra man provided by Young and Trippier were really effective. Nigeria seemed to adapt in the second half and they found it a bit harder to play through. They looked really poor in that area between the edge of their own area and the center circle though. Didn't know what to do with it in the middle and struggled to get it out wide when under pressure. Felt like Stones and Dier were standing on top of each other. Nigeria also got in behind a few too many times for my liking even if they never did anything with it.

[Lewis]

England are statistically likely to win a world cup in our lifetime and there's nothing anyone's relentless pessimism can do to stop it.

How do you work that one out?

[Pepe]

+1 for Mexico.

[Baz]

Why didn’t England play that friendly with the word cup ball?

Apparently the next one is.

[Giggles]

Not a chance that's Burkes goal.

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[Sir Andy Mahowry]

It is.

[Giggles]

It is.

It's bullshit if it is. And that's if it wasn't already over the line, which in that case then it definitely isn't.

[-james-]

How do you work that one out?

UK life expectancy: 82
Average age on here: 30?
World cups in next 52 years: 14
Average England outright odds since 1990: 11/1ish

11/12 = 91.6% chance England don't win a given world cup.

1 - 0.916^14 = 70.4% chance England win a world cup in the next 52 years.

[Shindig]

I'll wait for Ital to verify the numbers.

[Spikey M]

He forgot to carry Jordan Henderson.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Slight problem there is that the odds are bullshit.

[-james-]

The "true odds" only need to be about 20/1 for it to be better than 50%. It's true that recreational native money meant England went off shorter than they should for a few tournaments, but that's not the case any more.

My point is that people tend to come up with all sorts of nonsense to explain why England haven't done very well for a while. It's seven football matches that you don't even need to win.

[niko_cee]

When you put it like that . . .

Only saw bits of the game yesterday. For all the hope of Southgate bringing in some sort of team over individual ethos it still looked like to do anything of note we were relying on an individual to do something, and when that individual is Raheem Sterling, well, it can be frustrating. Our midfield is beyond bad and I slightly worry how we'll deal with both bus-parkers and technically superior teams.

[Kikó]

Shut up niko. It's coming home!!

[Jimmy Floyd]

If we develop some sort of footballing identity then we might win it one day. At the moment our footballing identity is just money/PL worship, which is great but doesn't win you World Cups.

We will see so many 'lesser' nations at this tournament play well as a team because it matters to them, which clearly isn't the case with many England players and hasn't been for a while.

[Kikó]

This is probably the least egotistical England team we've had though - the teams don't really hate each other like they did in the Chelsea / United / Liverpool / Arsenal times. And Sareth Gouthgate seems like he's got a clue as well.

[SvN]

Looking at the team, it feels like the old guard has well and truly gone now. No Gerrard, Terry, Lampard, Rooney, Hart, etc.

[niko_cee]

No midfield either though.

Harry Kane dropping deep is going to be this years Harry Kane taking corners.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I would rather have the infamous Gerrard/Lampard midfield than the one we look likely to field in 2018.

[-james-]

England are perfectly capable of winning the world cup without an identity, a midfield or John Terry. You just need to flip the coin enough times.

[Jimmy Floyd]

That is such a wrong arsed way of looking at sport. The way to win is to be good, not to be mediocre for 100 years until you get lucky. Although we were already lucky once in 1966.

[niko_cee]

I would rather have the infamous Gerrard/Lampard midfield than the one we look likely to field in 2018.

Would probably work quite well in this system with Dier and a host of defenders behind them.

[Mellberg]

Not so lucky in 1970 or 1990. Have to be decent enough to give yourself a chance and then you can start flipping your coins.

[-james-]

You can guarantee it would be painted as anything other than mediocre if it were to happen.


Basically everything that ever happens in sport is luck. It's easy to talk about why something happened after it's happened.

[Giggles]

What's with your media always trying to destroy the team before/during every tournament? Genuine question. I can't understand how people even accept it.

[Spikey M]

What's with your media always trying to destroy the team before/during every tournament? Genuine question. I can't understand how people even accept it.

It sells. Or it’s clickable.

People would rather read ‘DIRTY DELE GIVES PROSSIE SOME WELLY’ than ‘England determined to bring football home’.

[Baz]

Sterling looks like a mini John Barnes playing for England. Hopefully he’s better than Barnesy though because, that goal against Brazil aside, he was diabolically bad in a white shirt.

[randomlegend]

Dino is having a proper mental boom on this page.

[-james-]

I think I'm right. That's all that matters.