ClaphamFox

Is there an appeal process for red cards within a World Cup? That was a horrendous decision.

All the focus seems to be on the contact with the keeper, but the reason Kane was falling was because he had very clearly been shoved by the defender. https://x.com/Deanooo1990/status/2072600268789743780?s=20

Everything has gone their way so far: four wins out of four, scored eight, conceded none. It will be interesting to see how their players and crowd react if/when they go behind and have to chase a game. Their record at the Azteca is clearly impressive, but less so when you consider that only around 4% of their wins there have come against the leading countries (Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, France, the Netherlands or Portugal). This is mainly because they very rarely play against top sides at the Azteca. Either way, IF we get through tonight it will be fascinating game on Monday morning. Such a shame I'll probably be watching it alone on my sofa with a mug of cocoa.

We'll probably never win it via the normal voting process unless FIFA is completely reformed.. The only way it will be held here again is if a future tournament has to be hastily rearranged because the original host becomes embroiled in war or is just too corrupt to get its act together in time.

RM's sides have to be fit to play the way he wants them to because he favours aggressive counter-pressing and lots of running off the ball. Whatever else you can throw at him (and there is plenty), the suggestion that he's crap at the fitness side of things appears to be baseless.

I wondered if that might happen after they celebrated the win against Germany as if they’d won the whole thing. Hard to do it all over again after that.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of new accounting year. Sales already agreed?!

So today is our last day under the 2025/26 PSR regime. Yet despite the transfer window having been open for more than two weeks, we haven't sold a single player. Does this mean we're so confident of avoiding a breach for 25/26 that we're deliberately delaying sales until 1 July onwards to maximise revenue for 2026/27 SCMP? Or have we just decided that it's impossible to avoid a breach so there's no point in trying?

After our games against Ghana and Panama, if we take anything for granted we deserve to come home. As it happens I don't think Tuchel will allow complacency to creep in. I'm more worried about whether we've got the quality/know-how to unlock another packed defence tomorrow evening...

In most clubs this wouldn’t need saying, buy I can see why Martin thought it needed saying in our case.

Awful decision

If you manage one at all after this shite I can only admire your dedication to the cause.

That comma splice following "Very petty" is a bit awkward. Better to put a full stop there and start the following sentence with "Seems like...".

See also: Mexico v Ecuador.

17/4 in normal time, 12/5 to go through.

Can't a man make a facetious joke without somebody ruining it by being sensible?

It feels slightly petty pointing this out, but surely if Josh Holland is going to be the Mercury's main LCFC reporter from now on it might be useful if he learned where Seagrave is....? "Leicester City players will begin their preparations for the new season today as they return to the Seagrave training complex for pre-season. "The majority of the first team squad, except Abdul Fatawu and Harry Souttar for obvious reasons, will report for duty in the south of Leicestershire seven weeks out from the start of the season." https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/leicester-city-pre-season-alves-11035005

🤔

Yes—it seems we could also play Algeria or Austria if we win the group: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c1wylljn12xo

What determines it? If DR Congo win their third game, do we play them?

Does anybody actually understand how the 3rd place opponents are allocated? I know that if we come top of our group we could face a 3rd place team from about five different groups and at the moment it is most likely to be Ecuador, but how is it ultimately decided?

It absolutely will happen. In fact, I expect Fatawu to become the gold standard of this pattern. In future years, players who improve massively after leaving us will be described as 'doing an Abdul'.

Not only does he have no presence outside twitter, the 'blog' he claims to work for also doesn't exist. Very likely a fugazi.

Brazil v Japan would be tasty.

I think we'll beat Mexico in Mexico if that's a game we have to play. I've watched their games—they're really not very good. And they'd have to attack us, which would play into our hands. It would be even better if Scotland get to play Mexico on Tuesday and beat them, meaning we'll be playing them if we get through our r32 game. A nice prospect, but unfortunately a highly unlikely one.