I had to hold in my yell of happiness as I was on a bus when the SEVEN extra minutes were finally over. I would think that Germany, Brazil, and France are all pretty happy with that result.
Wow. That is crazy. The Italians can join us Americans in the bars lamenting what could’ve been.
US, Italy, Chile and Holland all out of the 2018 World Cup.
Crazy.
Republic of Ireland scored the first goal in their second leg game against Denmark and then allowed five straight goals to lose 5 - 1 on aggregate.
I know that I’m supposed to root for the underdogs, but c’mon. Christian Eriksen hat trick!!!
And a natural hat trick to boot.
Has Qt3 ever run a World Cup pool?
Dunno. When does the Cup start?
June 14.
Groups are set!
Looks like easy cruising for Brazil and Argentina. Group B though.
Interesting:
GROUP A: Russia, Uruguay, Egypt, Saudi Arabia
GROUP B: Portugal, Spain, Iran, Morocco
GROUP C: France, Peru, Denmark, Australia
GROUP D: Argentina, Croatia, Iceland, Nigeria
GROUP E: Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia
GROUP F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea
GROUP G: Belgium, England, Tunisia, Panama
GROUP H: Poland, Colombia, Senegal, Japan
Top two in each group get through to knockoff rounds.
My take: easy groups are Group A, B, G, H. Group C,D,E,F will have a tougher time.
Easiest should be group G. Tunisia and Panama? Do they stand any chance Or how about Group A? Egypt and Saudi Arabia? No way. Same with Iran and Morocco in Group B. Group H is the only borderline one in my easy picks, since Poland and Japan might surprise me, and I have no idea how strong Senegal and Colombia are these days. They used to be strong in the past, but I have no idea now.
No clear Group of Death this time where you look at four strong teams in one group. Maybe Group F? South Korea is always surprisingly spunky and strong. Germany is always strong. Mexico can surprise you sometimes. And I have no idea how strong Sweden is now, but they’ve had good teams in the past, I think.
Or maybe Group D. Argentina and Nigeria are usually strong. Iceland showed in the Euro championship that they can be strong, and Croatia used to be pretty badass.
Never underestimate England’s ability to dissapoint in the Group Stage. Sure, they advance, but they never look good doing so.
Like Rock8man, I’m not up to date on the form of most of the 3rd- and 4th-pot countries. But from my ignorant point of view, this looks to be about as balanced a draw as any in recent cups. That would be good for the knockout rounds, at the cost of relatively little interest or drama in the group stages.
As I was asking @ChristienMurawski in the Oscars thread, do we have a strategy for watching the
World Cup this year as a cord-cutter?
Is SlingTV still the best option? Their Blue package, I believe, has the Fox Sports channels. ESPN used to also give you access to their WatchESPN app, so you could watch any match later on demand. Does Fox have something like that?
Also, SlingTV has a DVR feature you can pay extra for, but that didn’t work on any Disney channel, including ESPN. Will it work for Fox channels? If so, is SlingTV Blue + DVR the best way to watch all the matches? I don’t want to miss a minute of a World Cup.
Looking further into it, the Fox Sports Go app might be the way to go. You can view it on mobile, desktop and Xbox One. It looks like they also have access to a lot of league matches and UEFA cup matches and so on. $20 a month, apparently, but you get 7 days for free, and $10 a month for the first three months, something like that.
Check out Youtube TV, which has a ton of channels:
If you sign up before the 13th, you can lock in the current $35/mo price after your 7 day free trial.
MC, BBC America , BBC World News, Big Ten Network, Bravo, CBS Sports Network, Chiller, CNBC, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, E!, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, FOX Business, FOX News, Freeform, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, FX, FXM, FXX, Golf Channel, IFC, MSNBC, NBCSN, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, Newsy, Olympic Channel, Oxygen, Pop, SEC Network, Sundance TV, Syfy, Telemundo, Tennis Channel, Universal Kids, Universo , USA, YouTube Red Originals, and WE tv
Plus local TV channels and Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, CNN, Comet, HLN, TBS, TCM, TNT, truTV, and Turner Classic Movies.
Can also add on Fox Soccer Network for $15/mo if you really wanna go nuts, but I think between 4 ESPNs and 2 Fox sportses, you’re probably covered.
What about Comedy Central? I probably watch that most of all.
I watch Comedy Central programs through the Plex plug-in, which allows me to watch the things that are available on their website. So Daily Show and South Park are covered. There might be some shows that might not be available, those are the only two I’ve tried in the last few months since Larry Wilmore’s show went off the air.
It’s going to happen soon!
And on that upbeat note, here’s a downer: The Ringer has a long-read on the collapse of the USMNT.
Great article. They really need to clean house completely at the top. While I think we’re producing better soccer players now than ever in the history of American Soccer, I think the identification of those talents is poor and the roads to being identified are paved only in the gold of parents with the money to put the kids there.
The reason USA Basketball is nigh unbeatable is because you don’t have to be rich to be identified as a talented basketball player and you will be found by someone. Soccer still hasn’t figured that out in the US despite the fact that probably everyone knows the story of Pele practicing with grapefruits.
The middle and high schools play soccer, but the college coaches only look at the paid clubs, and the paid clubs require big dollars if you’re even deemed good enough (or politically connected enough with the club) to make the team. It’s a damn mess.
This is kind of cool.
1 of 100 referees caught accepting bribes. Nice sting operations.