[Football] World Cup Opening Game

[Stat Brother]

The Russian players today, written off as hopeless by the entire world beforehand, demonstrated amazing athletism. Each one faster, more powerful, with greater stamina, than their opponents. Almost as if on steroids and amphetamines.

No drug can make a player kick a ball straight.

 

[southstandandy]

This is why I'm against a 48 team tournament from 2026. 24 teams in the past was perhaps too few, maybe 32 now is just about ok, but in 8 years time with 48 teams even Scotland might qualify!

My biggest fear is the diluting of the tournament if too many teams make it to the finals in the future. We will start to see huge scores in more and more matches, and even though it was great to see a few goals today, ultimately the match was as boring as hell. Saudi Arabia didn't muster 1 shot on target all game.

I know in 2014 we had the 7-1 Germany vs Brazil score (which was completely unexpected) but I want to see most of the tournament being fairly competitve. This is supposed to be the finals where the quality should be pretty high. With 48 teams from 2026 the competition could develop into a farce.

 

[Lindfield by the Pond]

No drug can make a player kick a ball straight.

But they can make a ball bend.....or is that in the eye of the beholder?

 

[Exile]

This is why I'm against a 48 team tournament from 2026. 24 teams in the past was perhaps too few, maybe 32 now is just about ok, but in 8 years time with 48 teams even Scotland might qualify!

My biggest fear is the diluting of the tournament if too many teams make it to the finals in the future. We will start to see huge scores in more and more matches, and even though it was great to see a few goals today, ultimately the match was as boring as hell. Saudi Arabia didn't muster 1 shot on target all game.

I know in 2014 we had the 7-1 Germany vs Brazil score (which was completely unexpected) but I want to see most of the tournament being fairly competitve. This is supposed to be the finals where the quality should be pretty high. With 48 teams from 2026 the competition could develop into a farce.

It’s a complete fallacy though, to suggest that 16 more teams = 16 teams worse than the current worst team. Giving Europe 3 more spots (Holland, Italy, Austria?), South America 2 more (Chile, Paraguay?) and CONCACAF 1 more (USA?) is hardly going to introduce 16 Gibraltars.

 

[Guinness Boy]

The Russian players today, written off as hopeless by the entire world beforehand, demonstrated amazing athletism. Each one faster, more powerful, with greater stamina, than their opponents. Almost as if on steroids and amphetamines.

It's a bit like Liverpool, written off as never to be competitive again, reaching the Champions League final by spending 80 minutes of every 90 minute game running around like speed-addled marathon runners and then hanging on.

Meanwhile, Jurgen's prodige gets Huddersfield Town, a team that were overachieving when they were mid-table of the Championship, in to the Premier League and staying up by, erm, closing down like speed addled marathon runners. They must share a fitness coach.

 

[Stato]

The Russian players today, written off as hopeless by the entire world beforehand, demonstrated amazing athletism.

No they didn't. They looked decidedly average and would have lost to any half decent side.

The Saudis never seemed to want to move the ball forward and defended appallingly. The fourth goal was well taken, but the other four were down to defensive errors: defender slipped for the first, two defenders went to ground for the second, centre half lost his man for the third and the keeper left himself too much to do and dived like a wet haddock for the fifth. While all this was going on, we had to listen to Glenn Hoddle going on about what amazing goals they were. There's nothing like the World Cup to remind you how appalling ITV is.

 

[portlock seagull]

I'm obviously alone in believing it's entirely possible Russia bought this game? Let's face it, two v.wealthy countries run by dictators with geopolitical interests they might wish to trade...in a bent tournament...run by a corrupt organisation...involving cultures where bribing is the norm.

Hmmm...A 5-0 opener, the highest in nearly a century, in favour of the hosts who couldn't buy a goal before the tournament. Well, maybe they just did today?

 

[seagulls4ever]

It’s a complete fallacy though, to suggest that 16 more teams = 16 teams worse than the current worst team. Giving Europe 3 more spots (Holland, Italy, Austria?), South America 2 more (Chile, Paraguay?) and CONCACAF 1 more (USA?) is hardly going to introduce 16 Gibraltars.

Concacaf will be getting more than one more:

Africa - 9 (up from 5)
Asia - 8 (up from 4 or 5)
Europe - 16 (up from 13)
North, Central America and Caribbean - 6 (up from 3 or 4)
Oceania - 1 (from 0 or 1)
South America - 6 (up from 4 or 5)

+2 more from some sort of play-off system.

With Asia getting 3/4 more places, and people not being happy about the quality of Saudi Arabia, then I don't think they'll be too pleased about the quality of other Asian teams which weren't able to qualify! Clearly not all the additional teams which enter will be worse than the current worse team, but some of them will be. Certainly the overall average quality of the teams in the tournament will decrease.

But my biggest issue with the 48-team World Cup is not the expansion of teams, but the format which it will take.

 

[drew]

No they didn't. They looked decidedly average and would have lost to any half decent side.

The Saudis never seemed to want to move the ball forward and defended appallingly. The fourth goal was well taken, but the other four were down to defensive errors: defender slipped for the first, two defenders went to ground for the second, centre half lost his man for the third and the keeper left himself too much to do and dived like a wet haddock for the fifth. While all this was going on, we had to listen to Glenn Hoddle going on about what amazing goals they were. There's nothing like the World Cup to remind you how appalling ITV is.

Not sure many keepers would have kept out the free kick.

 

[Weststander]

No drug can make a player kick a ball straight.

Bad news for Puncheon then, he might as well retire now.

 

[drew]

Concacaf will be getting more than one more:

Africa - 9 (up from 5)
Asia - 8 (up from 4 or 5)
Europe - 16 (up from 13)
North, Central America and Caribbean - 6 (up from 3 or 4)
Oceania - 1 (from 0 or 1)
South America - 6 (up from 4 or 5)

+2 more from some sort of play-off system.

With Asia getting 3/4 more places, and people not being happy about the quality of Saudi Arabia, then I don't think they'll be too pleased about the quality of other Asian teams which weren't able to qualify! Clearly not all the additional teams which enter will be worse than the current worse team, but some of them will be. Certainly the overall average quality of the teams in the tournament will decrease.

But my biggest issue with the 48-team World Cup is not the expansion of teams, but the format which it will take.

Think the proposed format is 16 groups of 3 and top two go through to 32 team knockout round.

 

[Weststander]

No they didn't. They looked decidedly average and would have lost to any half decent side.

The Saudis never seemed to want to move the ball forward and defended appallingly. The fourth goal was well taken, but the other four were down to defensive errors: defender slipped for the first, two defenders went to ground for the second, centre half lost his man for the third and the keeper left himself too much to do and dived like a wet haddock for the fifth. While all this was going on, we had to listen to Glenn Hoddle going on about what amazing goals they were. There's nothing like the World Cup to remind you how appalling ITV is.

Hoddle's normally a miserable fecker, finding fault. It's as if he decided to reinvent himself as Mr.Positive for this WC, over-praising Russia against Conference level opposition. Perhaps he'll revert to type when England don't live up to his exacting standards.

Agree, ITV and Tyldesley are shite.

 

[Kosh]

I'm obviously alone in believing it's entirely possible Russia bought this game? Let's face it, two v.wealthy countries run by dictators with geopolitical interests they might wish to trade...in a bent tournament...run by a corrupt organisation...involving cultures where bribing is the norm.

Hmmm...A 5-0 opener, the highest in nearly a century, in favour of the hosts who couldn't buy a goal before the tournament. Well, maybe they just did today?

Affirmative.

Ball grabbingly obvious. The Saudi keeper took his hands away from at least one goal, dived over another. This game had the look and feel of a scripted ‘performance’ or errrmmm ‘fix.’

I smell something fishy, and i’m not just talking about the contents of the Baltic sea.

This is going to be a hugely suspect WC, mark my words.

That said; it was enjoyable all the same. A smattering of WWE ‘drama’ aside... well as long as the script is engaging, i’ll watch and see who the writers have decided should win. Did i say writers? Whoops! i meant bribers.

 

[Weststander]

Affirmative.

Ball grabbingly obvious. The Saudi keeper took his hands away from at least one goal, dived over another. This game had the look and feel of a scripted ‘performance’ or errrmmm ‘fix.’

I smell something fishy, and i’m not just talking about the contents of the Baltic sea.

This is going to be a hugely suspect WC, mark my words.

That said; it was enjoyable all the same. A smattering of WWE ‘drama’ aside, well as long as the script is engaging, i’ll watch and see who the writers have decided should win. Did i say writers? Whoops! i meant bribers.

Teams facing Russia will have all the 'bad luck'.

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

I'm obviously alone in believing it's entirely possible Russia bought this game? Let's face it, two v.wealthy countries run by dictators with geopolitical interests they might wish to trade...in a bent tournament...run by a corrupt organisation...involving cultures where bribing is the norm.

Hmmm...A 5-0 opener, the highest in nearly a century, in favour of the hosts who couldn't buy a goal before the tournament. Well, maybe they just did today?

I had exactly the same thought. That first goal would be one of the easiest to throw too. Second ball. Don't mark. Fall over. Dive but don't fully extend.

Watch it back. It looks REALLY weird.

 

[Mellotron]

I don’t see the correlation (within reason) between quality and enjoyment level.

You can watch two much higher class teams play out a HORRIFICALLY DULL match (Chelsea under Jose anyone?!). At the same time League One/Two can throw up some cracking end to end games.

That was both low standard and really entertaining.

 

[PTC Gull]

No they didn't. They looked decidedly average and would have lost to any half decent side.

The Saudis never seemed to want to move the ball forward and defended appallingly. The fourth goal was well taken, but the other four were down to defensive errors: defender slipped for the first, two defenders went to ground for the second, centre half lost his man for the third and the keeper left himself too much to do and dived like a wet haddock for the fifth. While all this was going on, we had to listen to Glenn Hoddle going on about what amazing goals they were. There's nothing like the World Cup to remind you how appalling ITV is.

Marvelous use of a fish reference outside of the "ahem" other thread.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Be interesting to see Uruguay v Saudi , bet Suarez will fill his boots

Bet he can’t wait to sink his teeth in.

 

[atfc village]

It took Hoddle 38 seconds to say it's good too see the host nation do well in a tournament.Russia surely through now ,the longer they stay in the more decisions will go their way.

 

[jackalbion]

First, I don't think it was as bad as you're making it sound. Couple of quality goals at the end there.

Second, yes it instantly becomes more enjoyable because it's the World Cup. You can see how much it means to each team, the effort and intensity they put in, when they might not have the quality. There's only three games in the group stage - and so each one becomes immensely important. Just like cup finals, title deciders, etc are instantly more enjoyable games of football because of what they mean - even if the games themselves are dull 1-0 results. I've seen far worse quality in the lower divisions of English football and still enjoyed it.

It's interesting to see the styles of different teams from around the world. You could see Saudi Arabia were trying to play passing, technical football - but they didn't have the quality to get past Russia, who will have surprised everyone with that performance, in their own country. The atmosphere was great.

It was the two lowest ranked teams in the tournament, but I was entertained. You could improve the quality of the World Cup by cutting the teams and restricting it to just the European and South American teams, but I think that would be a bit shit really.

Maybe you're just not that into football?

I found the commitment to passing football entertaining and quite amusing. Their commitment to it was dumbfounded, despite it leading the conceding of 3 goals at one point they continued to try and play out of every situation. One of the most entertaining, amusing and frustrating teams I’ve ever watched.