2026 World Cup

[Cruz_del_Sur]

I see both sides and don't love either

That pretty eloquently describes my positon, thank you.



Btw, where are my manners? Best of luck today (and Saturday!), @TRF_Olyy et al.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

(and Saturday!)

Now you've really got my hackles up (I want England to lose if BJVR is in the side)

 

[Welsh Exile]

Good luck @Cruz_del_Sur

What are your plans for the game, anything special? I feel like this will be a game best watched in a large group but I guess that’s down to the individual.

 

[Saintjay]

Jordan Pickford might not come across as the brightest

But in this i agree. "It's only a game of football"

A good game, clear winner, no controversy will do me

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

A good game, clear winner, no controversy will do me

I want the most scandalous match of all time in any sport tbh.

 

[Welsh Exile]

I want the most scandalous match of all time in any sport tbh.

My thoughts exactly. I want to see the benches have a full on fight, maybe an eye gouge or 2 and twice as many red cards and pens.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

What are your plans for the game, anything special?

I have an issue with footie world cups: they attract the largest amount of fairweather, uneducated and delusional fans in the history of sport. It's unbelievable. The kind that do not even know the rules, scream nonsense, do not know a single lyric to the songs and spend more time pretending to be passionate and recording it on video/selfies than watching the game. And, most importantly, they get you into fights while they run away. After they single handedly provoked them.

Have you seen the comments on yesterday's game? You cannot make that stuff up.
- That wasnt a penalty. (most blatant penalty in the history of fifa wcs)
- If that is a penalty, it shouldnt be (what the actual ****?)

I have no desire, will nor inclination, whatsoever, to be part of such a conversation. And sure, in rugby we don't always agree on what the call should have been, but this is different. This is not about interpretation. This is blatant ignorance tied up with no sense of self respect and a mercurial desire to call for attention. It's unbearable.

And no, it is not just social media. Trevor Noah giving his thoughts on the games. DEar lord. I can understand someone not reading the laws of the game but if you are going to use a big platform for this, at least make sure you know and understand the basics. Or the supposed footie law expert on cbs (?) that kept calling parabolas (the trajectory the ball follows when kicked) 'rainbows'.
I consider myself a rather tolerant person, but this easily exceed my limits. Or lalas claiming the president of a country calling fifa to reverse a RC was ok because in the end, the right result was achieved. I say it again: what the actual ****???

And going to an all argentine bar is just as bad. It's fun and all for the first 30 mins, but that's it. Having a 80 kilo blond screaming at my ear 'that's a foul you inbred **** (ref)' when all you can see is the fairest challenge ever, gets annoying very, very fast. And those places by design attract those sorf of people. So it's a no-no for me.

I'm watchin it with 2 friends at one of their places. Nice, propper, carefully selected and specifically curated beers for the ocassion, snacks and that's it. All i need.

That's one of the things i love about rugby.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

I want the most scandalous match of all time in any sport tbh.

This! In spades. In steroids.
I want people to leave the stadium thinking 'what the **** just happened?'

 

[Saintjay]

My thoughts exactly. I want to see the benches have a full on fight, maybe an eye gouge or 2 and twice as many red cards and pens.

The Welsh are experts and knowing what a red card is like for stopping your chances of a final. I guess.

 

[Welsh Exile]

I have an issue with footie world cups: they attract the largest amount of fairweather, uneducated and delusional fans in the history of sport. It's unbelievable. The kind that do not even know the rules, scream nonsense, do not know a single lyric to the songs and spend more time pretending to be passionate and recording it on video/selfies than watching the game. And, most importantly, they get you into fights while they run away. After they single handedly provoked them.

Have you seen the comments on yesterday's game? You cannot make that stuff up.
- That wasnt a penalty. (most blatant penalty in the history of fifa wcs)
- If that is a penalty, it shouldnt be (what the actual ****?)

I have no desire, will nor inclination, whatsoever, to be part of such a conversation. And sure, in rugby we don't always agree on what the call should have been, but this is different. This is not about interpretation. This is blatant ignorance tied up with no sense of self respect and a mercurial desire to call for attention. It's unbearable.

And no, it is not just social media. Trevor Noah giving his thoughts on the games. DEar lord. I can understand someone not reading the laws of the game but if you are going to use a big platform for this, at least make sure you know and understand the basics. Or the supposed footie law expert on cbs (?) that kept calling parabolas (the trajectory the ball follows when kicked) 'rainbows'.
I consider myself a rather tolerant person, but this easily exceed my limits. Or lalas claiming the president of a country calling fifa to reverse a RC was ok because in the end, the right result was achieved. I say it again: what the actual ****???

And going to an all argentine bar is just as bad. It's fun and all for the first 30 mins, but that's it. Having a 80 kilo blond screaming at my ear 'that's a foul you inbred **** (ref)' when all you can see is the fairest challenge ever, gets annoying very, very fast. And those places by design attract those sorf of people. So it's a no-no for me.

I'm watchin it with 2 friends at one of their places. Nice, propper, carefully selected and specifically curated beers for the ocassion, snacks and that's it. All i need.

That's one of the things i love about rugby.

I love this post. Up there with one of your best.

 

[Welsh Exile]

The Welsh are experts and knowing what a red card is like for stopping your chances of a final. I guess.

If you’ve still got Borthwick in charge for our WC group match next year half your team will deliberately get red cards so they don’t have to play.

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Aren't you a big tough guy lmao.

Its true though, if your rolling around its either way way painfull, or your faking it

I remember when I broke my foot I just laid on the ground saying “it ******* hurts so bad” over and over again.

You tend not to move when your body senses serious issues.

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

I have an issue with footie world cups: they attract the largest amount of fairweather, uneducated and delusional fans in the history of sport. It's unbelievable. The kind that do not even know the rules, scream nonsense, do not know a single lyric to the songs and spend more time pretending to be passionate and recording it on video/selfies than watching the game. And, most importantly, they get you into fights while they run away. After they single handedly provoked them.

Have you seen the comments on yesterday's game? You cannot make that stuff up.
- That wasnt a penalty. (most blatant penalty in the history of fifa wcs)
- If that is a penalty, it shouldnt be (what the actual ****?)

I have no desire, will nor inclination, whatsoever, to be part of such a conversation. And sure, in rugby we don't always agree on what the call should have been, but this is different. This is not about interpretation. This is blatant ignorance tied up with no sense of self respect and a mercurial desire to call for attention. It's unbearable.

And no, it is not just social media. Trevor Noah giving his thoughts on the games. DEar lord. I can understand someone not reading the laws of the game but if you are going to use a big platform for this, at least make sure you know and understand the basics. Or the supposed footie law expert on cbs (?) that kept calling parabolas (the trajectory the ball follows when kicked) 'rainbows'.
I consider myself a rather tolerant person, but this easily exceed my limits. Or lalas claiming the president of a country calling fifa to reverse a RC was ok because in the end, the right result was achieved. I say it again: what the actual ****???

And going to an all argentine bar is just as bad. It's fun and all for the first 30 mins, but that's it. Having a 80 kilo blond screaming at my ear 'that's a foul you inbred **** (ref)' when all you can see is the fairest challenge ever, gets annoying very, very fast. And those places by design attract those sorf of people. So it's a no-no for me.

I'm watchin it with 2 friends at one of their places. Nice, propper, carefully selected and specifically curated beers for the ocassion, snacks and that's it. All i need.

That's one of the things i love about rugby.

While I agree with your post I reserve the right to say “games gone soft” every time a call goes against the team I’m rooting for.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

You honestly believe that Argentine independence came about because of our right to self determination? Seriously?
This has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with rights, and Chagos is the best example that rights mean nothing, specially to the government that has been using it as a cornerstone for the claim of Malvinas.
Decades, simultaneously claiming self determination to sustain a position on one group of islands while doing exactly the opposite on another. And you want to take the moral high ground by talking about rights? Delusional take.

It has everything to do with power: the ability to enforce one's will. You have that power now. The key word is "now." Spain had that power over us for a time as well.

I openly said we were hypocrites, the thing is we actually ARE taking the moral high ground with the Falklands so you can't use that argument.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Not true, and funny enough, that is one of the arguments from the argentine side. There were no british settlements at the time we became independent (1760s till 1833 iirc). They were under spanish control at the time.


That's a point that needs to be argued and supported, not merely asserted. You appear to believe that the usurpers has some sort of acquired rights. We does not.

And what makes them usurpers and you not? They have lived there longer than any other group in history.

What makes your claim to the islands somehow any superior to Britain's? They aren't exactly just off your coast, they are hundreds of miles away.

Your arguments stem either from you "inherited" them from Spain, in which case you legitimise Spain's original ownership and thus Britain's too, or you base your claim on the fact you sent people to land that was already claimed by others and just asserted it was yours, no different to the colonial powers.

Either way you have no leg to stand on.

Let's also not forget Argentina flew a pregnant woman to the Antarctic to try to claim they were the first native Antarctican and thus cousin a huge slice of the continent. For all the poking our hypocrisy, you seem blind to your own.

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

I openly said we were hypocrites, the thing is we actually ARE taking the moral high ground with the Falklands so you can't use that argument.

How can you not see the contradiction while you are typing that?

They have lived there longer than any other group in history.

Good argument! Following that logic if i squat someone's brand new house i have a claim to it since i've lived there longer than the new owner who didnt have time to move in yet.
Outstanding.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

How can you not see the contradiction while you are typing that?


Good argument! Following that logic if i squat someone's brand new house i have a claim to it since i've lived there longer than the new owner who didnt have time to move in yet.
Outstanding.

No, because the Falklands isn't the one where we are being hypocrites, it's the Chagos. Therefore if you want to use the hypocrisy argument, that's fine if talking about the Chagos islands but doesn't apply to the Falklands as there we are actually doing the right thing.

Again, if you want to use the squatters argument, Argentina are more like the squatters than Britain. Someone gets a brand new house but aren't in it yet, you then move in and assert it's yours. You are then removed when the actual owner comes back and 2 centuries later are still claiming it is yours. One day you decide to break into it and force the owners out to assert your claim and are again evicted so the actual owner can return.

The squatters in your analogy apply more to Argentina than Britain. How long must the people live there before you recognise their right to be there? Shall we say Argentinians have no right to be in Argentina except for the natives? We are hypocrites elsewhere but in this case, you are the hypocrites. I can admit we are hypocrites in other cases but you don't seem able to.

You mock the argument but every populace at some point migrated to where they are. Where do you draw the line on what is and isn't legitimate? If you went into the future and saw their descendants were still there in another 200 years, would you be still proclaiming they are usurpers? 500 years? 1000?

 

[Welsh Exile]

Morgan Rogers starts. Didn’t see that coming.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Morgan Rogers starts. Didn’t see that coming.

Shouldn’t this be on the Politics thread?

 

[BrokenWing]

Morgan Rogers starts. Didn’t see that coming.

I don’t think Saka is fit and Madueke has done nothing so far.

 

[Welsh Exile]

I don’t think Saka is fit and Madueke has done nothing so far.

How unfit is Saka, though? I mean, I get taking a big player who isn’t fit but you’re pretty confident they’ll be fine by the KO games. England are at the semis. Just seems a waste of a space when they could’ve taken a Bowen, Foden, Palmer etc

Madueke is a very head down player. Fast but final ball/shot not great.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Morgan Rogers starts. Didn’t see that coming.

Battered chips will see us through

 

[Saintjay]

Ed Milliband and bacon sarnie spring to mind looking at Bellingham.

 

[Welsh Exile]

Nice to see the anthems respected. lol.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

The faces of the Argentina team during those anthems were brilliantly intense.

 

[Welsh Exile]

And so it begins.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Argentina trying to push and shove and intimidate and they're all barely nipple height on the England players haha

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Dan Burn on Messi, when he comes on

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Wish Pickford would spend a bit less time outside his area. Giving me kittens.

 

[Saintjay]

Is the world's smallest man marking Kane at corners?