TheBrownBottle

I just learned what 'smokeshow' means. Feel like I'm down with the kids. No-one should be expected to live a utopian life of virtuous purity - but the shouts of 'hypocrite' are fucking stupid, as the shouter is in all likelihood no less of one. A LGBTQI+ woman wants to make a gesture to highlight the fact that Qatar has monstrous policies which can punish people with death for the terrible crime of being themselves; 'hypocrite' shouts the twitter wankers. And Reuben can get to fuck supporting that shite, little Tory wanker.

There must be another reason Swansea looks the way it does then

Are all of these games going to have ten mins of injury time in each half?

I’m going to guess that the Welsh don’t score this.

Honestly VAR just needs sacking off. It’s a stupid fucking idea and the game is no more consistently refereed than it was before

I’m worried about football as a sport if that’s a penalty. Bizarre

Gan on Callum. And don’t get injured ffs

Maguire is utterly fucking shite mind. Embarrassing

You’ve got to remember that not thinking anyone who isn’t heterosexual deserves the death penalty is simply a cultural difference, and we should respect that, and your great great great granddad probably shot people in another country, so who are you to criticise anybody else? It’s not your sport anyway, it was invented in China. Can I join the FIFA ExCo now?

Heart in mouth job with Trippier. Christ several weeks of this type of anxiety. All the worse in the group stage when you’re playing against cloggers.

The keeper counts as a player. So you can have two outfield players or one outfield and the keeper playing you onside.

Fuck that’s grim, from start to finish. Partly what I pointed out on here the other day - that the ruling classes in the Arabian peninsula are all on it like a car bonnet; the conservative restrictions are for plebs only. And the easily impressed morons who think having the orphaned cub of a vulnerable species as a fucking pet is massive bantz Bunch of twats.

There needs to be two opposition players between you and the goal; he’s the only one

Yep, it is a lot more clear from that angle. He’s offside. Did the TV not show this angle?

Sorry, watched it now. The image didn’t show that there were two Ecuadoreans next to the keeper. Yes, it is obviously offside.

They’re jumping like that when the ball is being played into the box? That’s odd

Bear in mind I haven’t watched the game. If that player is the one who is flagged for offside, then it depends where they were when the ball was played and that freeze frame is completely irrelevant - he is are interfering with player whether he plays it or not n

There’s also just a massive drop-off in talent. Part of the rationale for adding more and more WC places was that it would help football’s ‘developing’ nations improve over time - but that improvement is yet to be seen, and now the WC is filled with turgid teams playing turgid football. The next one expands to 48 teams too; Jesus H Christ.

Look at the picture above. The number 13 is potentially in an offside position when that ball is played. It’s not about the ball being delivered into the box, it’s about the header across. The number 13’s left arm looks like it might be ahead but all but one Qatari player (incl the GK) and ahead of the player winning the ball I’m not saying he deffo is, because sometimes those angles are deceptive - but it’s a bloody close one, and hardly the ‘how have they given that’ that some are portraying it as.

The MBS immunity thing will have deflated a few of the crazies on RTG. And the sad thing is that of course it’s a grubby piece of realpolitik to keep KSA out of the orbits of China and Russia - but those sad acts view everything through the prism of stopping NUFC’s rise. Keeping KSA onside is a good thing for the west, btw - but they don’t care about that whatsoever. They’d happily see their own country’s position weakened if it increased the chances that NUFC. won’t sign a load of new players. That’s a dangerous level of obsession. Broken fuckers.

I want to keep giving him oxygen though. Spontaneous combustion requires oxygen, and he has to be close to that by now

Good to know that in the C21st they post the times on Twitter. Used to be a phone call in the C20th.

No, I don’t think they will this time. Whole thing is tainted. Of course those who care will want England to win, but most of my mates (including the ones who do) are at best indifferent this time. I’m not watching it despite being awake. Won’t give SBS viewing figures for it. Bollocks to them. I’ll watch the England games when they’re on at a convenient time but I’m fucked if I’m watching owt else. I’ll normally watch c.80% of WC matches.

All the sympathy money can buy

All of it is adding up to the incompetently run car crash which was utterly predictable. Money being utterly misspent on badly run projects is the norm in that part of the world. It always brings a smile on my face when people talk about our true owners being super smart and demanding the highest quality. Construction projects in the Arabian peninsula are notorious for over-promising and underdelivering - while being mind-warpingly wasteful with money