Janny's having a stormer here. Just needs to give the canucks another couple of penalties and he should get a nice summer pad in Winnipeg.
That's a beautiful block.
Announcing yellow cards on the tannoy with name and number might be worse than the migrant worker stuff.
As appears to have been said at length, Belgium look dreadful. Who are they on course to be roasted by in the knock outs?
Canada a bit embarrassing as well with all their going down holding their faces.
Quite like the neat little 'events' icons on iplayer.
I like the idea but I don't quite know whose benefit it's for. Commentators know. People in the stadium know.
Have the MSM still not picked up on the high-flying ball when you hit it hard? Surely De Bruyne blazing it 100 miles over the bar from 20 yards there will alert them.
I wonder how many times we've all been Canada in this game on FM before. Between us on here it's probably thousands.
So frustrating to watch.
Except instead of being superkeepered, they sliced across the ball with every shot.
I think there's genuinely something in modern football coaching that downplays the role of kicking it properly. I've not been party to any modern football coaching, so I don't know, but that's certainly been the outcome.
Another example of that mindset was Jenas seething about Batshuayi all night, when his classy finish was literally the only important thing done by Belgium all night.
The Belgians all look like they’ve aged 10 years since the last tournament.
The fucking contrast between Kompany's intelligence and the rest. No wonder you poor fucks are left with having to make your own uninformed conclusions and thinking Don Martinez is a poor manager etc.
Spain will get dicked the second they face a coherent side with a BLM midfielder to eat up those shite midgets.
Remember you saying similar about Italy in the Euros.
Spain were great tbf, can hardly accuse them of being dull when they've scored seven. One less than their entire tournament in 2010. Felt like there was a nice mix of shit tiki taka and actually incisive attacking. Second match will tell a lot more.
Winning 7-0 is handy as it covers them off for a scenario where they lose to Germany and then beat Japan. Hard to see Costa Rica being that bad again.
Switzerland/Cameroon doesn’t half sound grim. Pleasantly surprised if we get more than 1 goal
The World Cup hasn't truly begun until Switzerland have stunk out the place.
Hopefully the roons can spring a surprise, I'm reasonably optimistic. They should be a lot better than their last couple of appearances.
That front 3 and Zambo is naughty. But then so is having 6 absolute clowns in defence.
Also sad to report they're going to be in all green and the cuckoo clock people in all red, which is SACRILEGE.
Impressive how Switzerland have the same team in every tournament since like 2002.
This shows up the Premier League where teams routinely play in their away/third kit when there's no clash in their first kits in the name of helping those that are colour blind (but we know it's just marketing), yet FIFA have no issue pairing up a full green against a full red.
The World Cup sending zero-covid China into some sort of existential crisis is quite funny.
As is this waxwork special:
lolstate media have sought to amplify China's "presence". The Global Times has reported on how China-made products "ranging from buses to the [Lusail] stadium, and even air conditioning units are well represented at the event".
China being as terrible as they are is worth one of those 10,000 word Athletic think pieces. They really should at least be at perennial qualifying standard by now.
I'm with Andros (enjoying his presence here) on this one: good game so far. I think the notion of Switzerland as boring cloggers is outdated - they're a quality outfit.
You could put Maradona in a Swiss shirt and he'd be as interesting as a bank clerk.
Bit of a high line here from our cheese-melting friends.
Commentator here is going with 'Mbomo' but I'm sure I've heard PL commentators going with 'Mbermo'. Neither of those sounds right. Thoughts, Jimmy?
That’s a great challenge. Goal saving.
It's probably a transliteration into French of what would in English be Mbomo, sort of halfway between oh and uh.
This game has indeed been quality, as have Andros, Switzerland and Widmer.
This game reminds me that both Choupo-Moting and Shaqiri couldn't stop Stoke losing to League 2's Coventry City in the FA Cup a few years ago. Shoehorning that one in where I can
Somehow about Coventry, again.
John Hartson started it the other night, give the people what they want
For the other games, Brazil vs Serbia: Mitrovic scored for fun last season apart from when he lost TWICE against Coventry City
Portugal vs Ghana: Ghana have called up Tariq Lamptey, probably grandson of Coventry City's Nii
Uruguay vs South Korea: Uruguay used to wear yellow until their coach saw a resplendent David Speedie in his pomp
Last edited by wullie; 24-11-2022 at 11:00 AM.
Is that an apologetic non-celebration in an international game? Never seen that.
Sow and Vargas are horseshit whilst they have Okafor on the bench
Get Aboubakar on ffs.
Have we had a goal from further out than Al-Dossary's yet? I didn't see all the Spain goals last night.
I'm not sure there's going to be a long range goal in the tournament other than possibly a daisy-cutter all along the deck, or via deflection.
Spain looking really good with this ball. Same as in 2010, with a bad ball the teams that pop it about short are the ones to watch. Maybe someone will work it out, Forlan-style.
Aren't long range goals prohited by the stats wankers now anyway?
They are, but both with long shots and a lot of corners / longer free kick deliveries, I've noticed the ball just zooming off into the sky, almost like a flyer from the rough in golf. The Canadian bloke last night (Eustacchio?) was exhibit A but it's been in every game. Also lots of chances blazed way over the bar even from inside the area.
Maybe it's the giant A/C fans disturbing the ball.
South Korea and Suarez and Nunez, proper entertainment in store.
I actually looked up Michael Wanker-Cox's twitter account to see if he'd picked up on it as I thought him the most likely, but nothing. Well, the clock is ticking for the first long range goal.