General World Cup Chat

[CWC1983]

22 hours ago, Nalis said:

As a fellow Celt, I find Scotland's obsession with England completely cringe. Their fans whole schtick in the US is based around 'arent we mad banter and great fans, not like those English'.

Its really not any more.

 

At the height of the Hooliganism problem there was definitely a shift in fans attitude to mellow and distinguish our fans as being not from England. 

 

 Nowadays, it's about the party. Bit of a cliche, but that's the attitude of most travelling. 

Absolutely no one cares about the England fans when they are abroad following Scotland. 

 

 I saw it in Germany 2 years ago, there's a differant attitude abroad by both sets of fans. 

 

 

 

 

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

14 hours ago, RowlattsFox said:

I have enjoyed it so far but I do find myself looking at the amount of games left and thinking ****ing hell, it's going to go on a fair bit  

I wonder if tournament fatigue will become a factor, not just for us watching but for the players. Start getting bored of it. 

I’m on holiday and haven’t seen a single game yet so should be raring to go by the knock out stages. 
Looking at the games so far there are just too many poor teams taking part. 
Im in Greece for a month and unfortunately they’re not in it 😩

Edited 25 June by Mark 'expert' Lawrenson

[Super_horns]

This seems really harsh as wasn’t a bad tackle.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c0lykrnw64xo

 

[Jattdogg]

53 minutes ago, Super_horns said:

This seems really harsh as wasn’t a bad tackle.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c0lykrnw64xo

 

As a canuck,  I dont agree with a 5 game ban. Should go down on appeal IMO. Think red card sufficed.

[Chiltern Fox]

Why oh why did they drop sirius as the walkout music??? 

It was mesmerising & perfect 

[FoxesDeb]

Am I the only person who's still completely confused about the whole 3rd place thing? Even after reading up on it I still don't get it

[Parafox]

4 hours ago, Mark 'expert' Lawrenson said:

I’m on holiday and haven’t seen a single game yet so should be raring to go by the knock out stages. 
Looking at the games so far there are just too many teams poor taking part. 
Im in Greece for a month and unfortunately they’re not in it 😩

How are you coping with the temperatures there. Here, schools are closing, offices are sending employees home, people might die, nobody is behaving responsiby  and we're having to be told by the government to drink more water and wear a wide brimmed hat.

Ridiculous. 

 

Edited 24 June by Parafox

[Parafox]

1 hour ago, FoxesDeb said:

Am I the only person who's still completely confused about the whole 3rd place thing? Even after reading up on it I still don't get it

Me either 

FIFA farce for revenue imo.

Expand the number of teams in qualifying and bring them in to the groups. The smaller countries that reach this stage attracts interest from sponsorship and, therefore, money for those countries but, more importantly, FIFA.

FIFA is not about football at any more. 

I can't think of any other worldwide sport that is less corrupt.

Edited 24 June by Parafox

[when_you're_smiling]

2 hours ago, Super_horns said:

This seems really harsh as wasn’t a bad tackle.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c0lykrnw64xo

 

Had he been sent off before, because that’s the only reason Ronaldo has played in the first two games. Ludicrous an attempted tackle is a five game ban while an elbow was just one.

[spacemunky]

So, South Africa it is!

[Jattdogg]

8 minutes ago, spacemunky said:

So, South Africa it is!

Won't be easy but a better option than I expected.

[spacemunky]

1 hour ago, Jattdogg said:

Won't be easy but a better option than I expected.

I know they have Sithole in the midfield and that's plenty to fear!

 

And yes, I'm 8 years old! 

[Super_horns]

5 hours ago, when_you're_smiling said:

Had he been sent off before, because that’s the only reason Ronaldo has played in the first two games. Ludicrous an attempted tackle is a five game ban while an elbow was just one.

Well not in this tournament and would if matter if he’d been sent off before hand in another competition?

 

2 hours ago, spacemunky said:

So, South Africa it is!

Good chance there I reckon.

[Lionator]

The African sides are absolutely killing it, Senegal have Iraq up tonight so if they can get a big win they’ll go through. Then Congo need something v Uzbekistan and Cape Verde need a point v Saudi. If that happens 8 out of 9 African sides will have qualified, and even worst case now it’ll be 6 out of 9. Are they genuinely good or was it because AFCON in Jan got them tournament ready? 

[shen]

12 minutes ago, Lionator said:

The African sides are absolutely killing it, Senegal have Iraq up tonight so if they can get a big win they’ll go through. Then Congo need something v Uzbekistan and Cape Verde need a point v Saudi. If that happens 8 out of 9 African sides will have qualified, and even worst case now it’ll be 6 out of 9. Are they genuinely good or was it because AFCON in Jan got them tournament ready? 

Senegal are arguably the best African side of them all, but playing France and Norway is just brutal. They would need a comprehensive win to make it, yeah. And I don't think it's that surprising so many go through considering 32 teams will make it. The CONCACAF and most of the AFC sides are comfortably worse than the top 4-5 African sides. Do you think Morocco or any of the other sides could make it beyond the QFs though?

[Lionator]

1 minute ago, shen said:

Senegal are arguably the best African side of them all, but playing France and Norway is just brutal. They would need a comprehensive win to make it, yeah. And I don't think it's that surprising so many go through considering 32 teams will make it. The CONCACAF and most of the AFC sides are comfortably worse than the top 4-5 African sides. Do you think Morocco or any of the other sides could make it beyond the QFs though?

At this point it’s going to be luck of the draw. Like you say Senegal are the best.

 

If the brackets are right from what people are guessing, you could perhaps see Ivory Coast make the last 8 but they’d have to beat USA (not impossible). 

[StanSP]

Incredible amount of copium on Sky Sports News right now for Scotland

 

Looking at squad values and amount of games played by defenders in particular. 

 

Yawn. 

[Spudulike]

Would've been great fun if England could effect whether Scotland qualified. That might test the banter!

[The Bear]

On 24/06/2026 at 09:12, RowlattsFox said:

in the old format there are some potentially interesting last group games. 

 

Australia v Paraguay

Sweden v Japan

Ghana v Croatia 

Austria v Algeria

 

But could all play out dull draws to make sure they both go through. 

Croatia can't go through with a draw as Ghana are already ahead on GD, and if we lose we'll finish 2nd as we've already beaten Croatia so they can't go above us. 

[StanSP]

3 minutes ago, The Bear said:

Croatia can't go through with a draw as Ghana are already ahead on GD, and if we lose we'll finish 2nd as we've already beaten Croatia so they can't go above us. 

Croatia will get to 4 points with a draw and almost certainly be one of the best 3rd-best teams if so. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Already feeling a bit of fixture fatigue to be honest, I watched about 20 minutes total of the games overnight and then skimmed Scotland's highlights.

[The Bear]

1 minute ago, StanSP said:

Croatia will get to 4 points with a draw and almost certainly be one of the best 3rd-best teams if so. 

Yeah sorry my bad I meant wouldn't be in the automatic places. 

[filbertway]

11 hours ago, Super_horns said:

This seems really harsh as wasn’t a bad tackle.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c0lykrnw64xo

 

Wow. I've watched it back and it's a yellow card at an absolute push. I still don't understand how the poor lad got so badly injured. 

 

I am as squeamish as they come and can't usually watch leg break tackles but this one just seems massively unfortunate.

 

Interesting breakdown by a guy that talks through sport injuries.

 

 

[skolfoxes]

24 minutes ago, StanSP said:

Incredible amount of copium on Sky Sports News right now for Scotland

 

Looking at squad values and amount of games played by defenders in particular. 

 

Yawn. 

Copium? Most of what I have seen is people saying we've not been good enough and key players haven't turned up.

 

Highlighting the fact the most of the defense, bar Robertson, are journeymen SPL/EFL pro's, and bit part players for their clubs, is a fact. You could say it's an excuse, but it's also a pretty valid point as to one of the reasons we struggle.

 

Not sure why so many England fans get so butthurt whenever there's any analysis when it comes to Scotland. Of course we're not held to the same standards as England, it's our first World Cup in nigh on 30 years, and we've been largely crap in that time.

[StanSP]

11 minutes ago, skolfoxes said:

Copium? Most of what I have seen is people saying we've not been good enough and key players haven't turned up.

 

Highlighting the fact the most of the defense, bar Robertson, are journeymen SPL/EFL pro's, and bit part players for their clubs, is a fact. You could say it's an excuse, but it's also a pretty valid point as to one of the reasons we struggle.

 

Not sure why so many England fans get so butthurt whenever there's any analysis when it comes to Scotland. Of course we're not held to the same standards as England, it's our first World Cup in nigh on 30 years, and we've been largely crap in that time.

It's just over-analysis of what was poor mistakes in a game against a very good Brazil side. 

 

In the same breath, I didn't see much of it when you only won 1-0 against Haiti. Surely you should be doing better than that against a side who hasn't even been at a World Cup in 52 years...