The Football.....

[Beebo]

Steve Clarke has resigned, a couple of weeks after signing a 4 year contract.
Strange to renew a contract before the tournament?

 

[Mike_P]

We are currently playing Senegal.
Or is this the next stage

Actually Congo DR

Steve Clarke has resigned, a couple of weeks after signing a 4 year contract.
Strange to renew a contract before the tournament?

Strange. Now presumably needs to find his own flight home?

Nine African nations in the 32 but none play each other.

 

[Beebo]

So it looks like any path to World Cup glory will be tricky.
R16 Mexico at altitude
QF Brazil
SF Argentina
F France/Spain.

Clearly this is all speculative. But it’s a tricky route. I predict an QF exit to Brazil.

 

[Mike_P]

If there's a most competitive award it should be jointly awarded to Algeria and Austria. A 0-0 draw seemed on the cards as both would go through and could have spent the whole game passing with no forward motion of any note. Instead both teams went for it ending up 3-3 with none of the goals gifted.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

It ended a goalless draw, after a Colombian deemed offside by a toe, but it was a pretty entertaining match against Portugal in the early hours.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

The Devils in Skirts have an unenviable tournament record, the country with the most participations who have never got out of the group stages. Both the Irelands and Wales who have similar populations (But mainly part time professional leagues and a much smaller number of clubs) have done far better.

 

[Mike_P]

Taking a positive Scotland did go as far as South Korea and Uruguay. Its been an unique tournament with the sheer number of Africa teams winning out of the first stage with 9 compared to 6 being the most before.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

Taking a positive Scotland did go as far as South Korea and Uruguay. Its been an unique tournament with the sheer number of Africa teams winning out of the first stage with 9 compared to 6 being the most before.

The international game is levelling up. Countries which we used to regard as cannon fodder now have their top players playing for European sides and also have access to good class coaches and their methods.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

The international game is levelling up. Countries which we used to regard as cannon fodder now have their top players playing for European sides and also have access to good class coaches and their methods.

The majority of the DR Congo players were born and raised in Europe - France, Belgium and England mainly - and could probably have chosen to play for European teams. I'm sure it's a similar situation in some of the other African teams, especially sub-Saharan. They've benefited from expensive European training and coaching set-ups as well as playing at a high level since youth. No surprise that the expansion to 48 teams sees more of them getting through the group stages

 

[Vapin' Joe]

No surprise that the expansion to 48 teams sees more of them getting through the group stages

Forty eight teams is a nonsense. It would be better expanding it to 64 with sixteen groups and the top two of each going into the knock outs. It would not mean many more matches, be easier to follow and with the tournament increasingly shared between neighbouring countries logistics would be easily manageable.

Forty eight seems like a number dreamed up by a committee who couldn't agree on anything sensible.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Forty eight teams is a nonsense. It would be better expanding it to 64 with sixteen groups and the top two of each going into the knock outs. It would not mean many more matches, be easier to follow and with the tournament increasingly shared between neighbouring countries logistics would be easily manageable.

Forty eight seems like a number dreamed up by a committee who couldn't agree on anything sensible.

64? Your groups would essentially be decided by whether you could put more than 17 past The Solomon Islands or something.

 

[matticus]

This morning I finally saw a car with multiple decent sized England flags.

They've won the fans over !

Maybe it's coming home?!

 

[Dorset Boy]

64? Your groups would essentially be decided by whether you could put more than 17 past The Solomon Islands or something.

1/3rd of the countries in the world - LoL
The sports tw@ts sorry administrators would go for that!

I'd like the goups to be bigger so Scotland teams get 4 matches rather than 3 as a minimum