Fedyan Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 Guy Ritchie joins the fun https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VGykknw9eCM Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
samptime29 Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 Getting excited now. Barely saw any football past month, ready to binge. Spain vs Portugal is class game next friday night. I'm in Sunderland for a works do that night, should get some fantastic football insights that night. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleBingo Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 Absolute classic, still gives me chills. Best world cup in my memory anarl. 86 was decent too and 98 was good but the world cup will always be Italia 90 for me. It had loads of standout incidents and England really should have won it, but apparently it was the lowest scoring WC ever......and the final was an absolute shocker. Spain 82 for me personally. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbnufc Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 Spain gonna win this WC Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikon Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 Spain gonna win this WC Brazil I think. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Varadi Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 The Slaves of Saint Petersburg Well that's a horrifying read Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedyan Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 The Slaves of Saint Petersburg Well that's a horrifying read Viciously profit-driven capitalists with certain connections being viscioulsy profit-driven capitalists with certain connections shocker. I sincerely hope the uber-concerned authors believe in some God or at least Santa Claus, because they will make oh so many discoveries about life being unfair and sometimes, dare I say it, genuinely horrible. Could provide them with some fascinating tales about certain current residents of London, Monte Carlo, Nice, Paris, New York City and Miami who made their fortunes here over the last 25 years, but they sometimes don't like Putin, so must be good upstanding citizens with values that are appreciated and some even own famous sports teams. So proud of them. At least, they don't hire poor guys from North Korea. Couldn't be more sincere in wishing them all the best in their heart-driven attempts to tackle the many pressing issues. Yeah, I am being sarcastic. This whole "grave concern" and "sincere outrage" from the very same people who have Greenpeace stickers on their laptops, but have no idea how much water is needed to manufacture one and what conditions are the norm for those who actually produce the said device is really fascinating. But nothing new. This thing took almost ten years to build, became everyone's favourite monument to corruption and greed and an eternal source for all sorts of jokes about pretty much anything St Petersburg. How shocking indeed. Never happened before anywhere else, obviously never will happen again anywhere else. On to things that are a bit more optimistic: - Argentina brought 2 tons of food supplies with them, probably confusing us with Brazil or Uruguay Their president is going to pay a visit if they make the final. Gloryhunter, obviously. - Danny Rose went full Sol Campbell/Theo Walcott mode and told his dad not to bother coming over. We are all hateful racists here, as is well-documented, bananas are only sold to anyone over the age of 6 if you can then factually prove that you will proceed to throw a certain percentage of them in the direction of anyone with a different skin tone. Making monkey noises in process, obviously. Kinda like why nobody is legally allowed to own a horse in Newcastle. Everybody will punch it, wearing a Shearer shirt with a greasy spot on it, so there. Judging by Rose's presumed logic - all modern pro footballers are basically thick, arrogant, partying, escort-loving show-offs with a mental capacity of a spoilt 16 y.o. kid and all the loyalty of a brothel employee. For some bizarre reason, I don't think that's the case, but good old Danny knows better, so whatever rings his tune. - Enormously fun things going on in our club football, what with three second-tier clubs going under in a span of two weeks and everyone either going ape-sh!t mental with anger or acting like Larry David. Promise to post a joke-filled post on it next week, some of the characters involved make Max Cellini or Kenny Bates look like competent people - bought myself three Colombia shirts (one with a 10 at the back, an Italia90 retro kit) and an Argentina78 long sleeve kit. Along with two Colombia tracksuit tops and a hat. What can I say, Adidas are mental with their pricing. But they sure know how to ecstort cash from hopelessly romantic football fans like me. The buggers Wanted to buy a retro USSR Euro88 one as well (will always hate Netherlands in football after that final ), it had USSR written in Latin, so I politely suggested them cocaine sniffers (AKA designers) to actually watch the game and spot the difference. Turns out, I was one of about a dozen customers that day who made the same complaint, just with more polite metaphors. - Sochi mayor announced that every matchday in their city will be a holiday, prompting a few genuinely loud laughter inducing jokes about them being a resort city and everyone doing nothing there anyhow. Fun pub quiz question - Sochi is the only current World Cup host city located in a subtropical climate zone. You are welcome. - Some BBC dudes tweeted something about suspecting that they are being spied upon. Of course. Eagerly anticipate something about a gorgeous blonde (with very sad eyes, obviously) in red dress plotting something. Allegedly. - I now have a small army of Panini Ronaldos. And so does pretty much everyone else I know who tries to get the thing completed. Unfair. - A friend of mine who works at a hotel and will attend one of the macthes featuring Iran actually managed to meet the father of their star striker Serdar Azmoun. Those Iranians, bringing their forrin families with them, the cheek they have - Our fantastic head coach went full Fergie on a few journalists for daring to ask a few questions about his (admittedly, more than debatable) final selection. And then just started to ignore anyone from the media. Things went so bad, our Madrid-born left winger Denis Cheryshev actually refused to talk to the local media after a friendly (but did talk to the Spanish media). Some scenes and plenty of outrage on social media after that, even though I do tend to agree with Mourinho's infamous definition of a sports journalist, I can perfectly understand why some many hacks and fans got upset. Absolutely magnificent, the geniuses at the Federation couldn't even ask the stubborn coont to at least pretend that he can be anything than a brash and arrogant this and that when somebody asks a daring question. A World Cup. At home. Why act like that. What a tool - judging by a few messages I received from a friend who is in St Petesburg at the moment, the millions of bars/clubs/restaraunts on the famous Rubinstein Street are at the ready Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
loki679 Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 Aye, everything's hunky dory then. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gdm Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 This is pretty cool https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/ws-magazine/WSWorldCup18Guide.pdf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
54 Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 There are going to be 4 games this time next week. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shays Given Tim Flowers Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 And it’s Father’s Day a week on Sunday. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbnufc Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 No WC fantasy for money here (£2 in winnings split between top 3) like there was for Euro 2016, is there? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
buzza Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 Anybody see tunisia against Spain last night? They looked very good, much better than Spain until the last 20 mins... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
buzza Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 They pass the ball out of defence well and pressure the second phase of attack and when they get the ball thdy are very quick and dire t Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeyt Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 We having a seperate forum for the World Cup? And seperate threads for each group? Buzzing for Russia v Saudi Arabia Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 We having a seperate forum for the World Cup? And seperate threads for each group? Buzzing for Russia v Saudi Arabia No need tbh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeyt Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 It's been done for all the previous world cups and euros I've been on here Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wullie Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 Aye I thought it worked well last time, will do it later in the week. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
54 Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 Did we want to set up up a prediction league, or a fantasy league this year? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedyan Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 Portugal have arrived to their base in Kratovo (basically a posh forest resort, about 50 minutes by train from Moscow) and found out that each and every player's room was decorated with a customized photo. A specific player in action during his youth and during last season. Judging by Insta - Pepe and Gudes were well chuffed. This is the same place where Anzhi used to live back in their money-rich days, Eto'o and Bobby Carlos arriving by helicopter after a night out in Moscow, Bugattis and Ferraris in the parking lots, several personal fitness gurus and chefs hired by their owner, outlandishly expensive media brunches and all that. Tons of tales and anecdotes from that period. A rather cool gesture from the resort owners. Too bad their local side Saturn Ramenskoe are basically a bit crap now, down in the third tier. Spain have arrived to Krasnodar and were met with a kazak (Cossack? I am not sure how you guys spell it) orchestra and some enormous loafs of bread (greeting your guest with bread and salt is sort of a ceremonial tradition here, although it's mostly done for important meetings with rich/influential forrins and weddings). Judging by the faces of some of their players, their wives and girlfriends must be very concerned. But it was Lopetegui's call, so if anything goes wrong, can't blame the players Iniesta was greeted like a God, will hear like a ton of adoring kids screaming his name when they have open training sessions at FC Krasnodar stadium. Certain members of Mexican squad have allegedly arranged an orgy in their hotel a few days before departing for the World Cup. Or maybe, those dudes just had a few beers. Those tabloids. Bumped into some Aussie politician commenting on thinking not once, not twice, but thrice before even considering a trip here. Which is quite funny because their national team is immensely popular among the casual fans in Russia, for some reason. I know a guy in Samara who was rather surprised that Viduka and Kewell were not picked, but is still ecstatic about seeing Cahill. But, truth to be told, he didn't really follow football for like ten years. Iceland can also count on quite a few local neutrals' support. Here's a free drink (or ten) tip for any Icelander in Rostov-on-Don - wear your national team shirt everywhere. Three of their footballers play there and are rather popular among FC Rostov fans. CSKA are supposed to sign some tall Icelander from Bristol City as well. Those agents, like. Most polls show that our fans expect the big prize to be contested between forrin forrins like Germany, Brazil, Spain, France and Argentina. Rather unsurprisingly, I might add. Portugal, Engalnd and Belgium (insanely overrated in my opinion) also got a few shouts in some of the polls that I studied. But teams like Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Nigeria and Sweden can also count on a quite a few people cheering them on for a variety of reasons. Mexico for an amazing party atmosphere their vast number of fans created last year at the Confederations Cup. Colombia because their current generation is rather popular as well (plus there will also be a lot of fans from there, can't wait). Peru can count on every Lokomotiv Moscow fan (Farfan factor and now like three guys from their squad linked with them). Nigeria have historically been the most followed African team among our football fans (along with Cameroon and Ivory Coast) and quire a few of their guys have played in our league. And we play like a ton of international hockey games, on every level, against those Swedes. Always a good laugh and plenty of beer and strong spirits, and their dudes don't freaking drool at our women like some other forrins do for obvious reasons Just a week removed from my train to Kazan and (finally) some booze consumption as well. This whole "off the juice" thing is only ever good in small doses Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
loki679 Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 Interesting report from the Helsinki Commission. The 2018 World Cup hosted by Russia has created an unprecedented opportunity for the country’s kleptocrats to enrich themselves. Just as he did with the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, President Vladimir Putin has hijacked a world sporting event in an attempt to burnish his own image and enrich the Kremlin elite, rather than to celebrate sport and sportsmanship in Russia. However, unlike the 2014 Winter Olympics, the World Cup has required multiple infrastructure projects in not just one, but eleven, host cities. Oligarchs, as well as regional and national officials, have worked together to embezzle assets from the tournament stadium construction and refurbishment to side projects of accommodation and transport. Mistreated and forced laborers have completed this work. Contractors have used and manipulated Russian and migrant workers to erect the stadiums and other structures that are essential to hosting a World Cup. For example, Russia has continued its unscrupulous use of North Korean forced labor to build St. Petersburg Zenit Arena, opened by President Putin himself in March 2017. https://www.csce.gov/sites/helsinkicommission.house.gov/files/Russia%20World%20Cup%20Design%20FINAL.pdf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinitely Content Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 Portugal have arrived to their base in Kratovo (basically a posh forest resort, about 50 minutes by train from Moscow) A killing spree took place there last year didn't it? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
loki679 Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 No comrade, whoops sorry, mate, nothing bad has happened in the fatherland, it's all unicorns and ponies. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinitely Content Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 Exactly a year ago today, actually. They've got Pepe with them though so they'll be sound Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ketsbaia Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 Fedyan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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