Not worthy of a thread - 2018 FIFA World Cup edition

[Hanshithispantz]

I mean it could have been worse

 

If he opens it with Strong I'll be erect, pointless pretending otherwise.

[Disco]

No Tatu? Disappointing.

[Fugazi]

...And on a more personal note, my beloved pet tortoise ran away from me during a family picnic there when I was 7. The scar still remains. So no win for France from me for picking that site, like.

 

:lol:

 

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

Just got Argies in the work sweepstake. Happy with that.

[Guest NobbyOhNobby]

Weinstein fan of the day - Jorge Sampaoli. A huge scandal is brewing in Argentina as the iconic gaffer is being accused of sexually harassing the lady who is the chef cook for the national team. Some even suggest that the head of their Federation tried to bribe the woman so that the story would be swept under the carpet. Supposedly, they will sack him after the World Cup irrespective of the outcome. Oh, the drama. Now, I don't want to generalize, but there is indeed something sinister in some of the lads with those sleeve long tatts. Especially, if they're bald and are over the age of 40.

 

Iceland had a road cone accidentally included in their team photo when they arrived at Euro16, so they now take it everywhere and put it in front of them as a good luck charm. Oh those mental herring eaters

 

More and more forrins coming over, walking our streets, drinking our booze and all. Those forrin forrins. Got texts from friends in St Petersburg and Nizhni Novgorod about large groups of Colombians and Italians walking around, shopping, taking pictures and acting all touristy. Forrins. 

 

Robbie Williams and the original (and best) Ronaldo will be a part of the pre-game show on opening day. Don't really mind Robbie, but I would opt for a Peace Sells performance from Megadeth and perhaps a bit of of good old 50 Cent with something like Candy Shop to get the crowd going.

 

Jose Mourinho, Stan Collymore and Peter Schmeichel will be covering the tournament for RT, prompting all sorts of magnificent accusations and word "allegedly" being bandied around. Personally, I am not familiar with their sporting shows, but might tune in and watch to see if there is anything fun and informative there. Probably boring and cliche-infested match roundup and a few chats with fans before and after the games. I mean, Peter Schmeichel with all the charisma of Peter Schmeichel. Jose being Jose. And Collymore potentially telling stories about his fun in the parking lots. I would ask Cantona, Gazza and Ronaldinho do the shows. Now that would be epic. With star appearances from Edmundo, Maradona and Effenberg. Imagine the insanity of it all

 

 

 

 

 

I just loved reading all of this

[Minhosa]

'The pole dance thing' :lol: .

[henke]

Do Russians still go in for bugging hotel rooms, honey traps etc?

 

I can see a really high profile player signing for CSKA this summer for no apparent reason!

[Optimistic Nut]

Is it rose tinted glasses or were the strikers in 1998 overall a different gravy to what's around now. Watching the 1998 World Cup film on History Channel and you've got Ronaldo, Henry, Batistuta, Shearer, Vieri, Kluivert, Salas, Suker, Bergkamp, Owen, Bierhoff, Klinsmann, Raul...

[SEMTEX]

lazy self centered cunts all of them

[Astroblack]

Weinstein fan of the day - Jorge Sampaoli. A huge scandal is brewing in Argentina as the iconic gaffer is being accused of sexually harassing the lady who is the chef cook for the national team. Some even suggest that the head of their Federation tried to bribe the woman so that the story would be swept under the carpet. Supposedly, they will sack him after the World Cup irrespective of the outcome. Oh, the drama. Now, I don't want to generalize, but there is indeed something sinister in some of the lads with those sleeve long tatts. Especially, if they're bald and are over the age of 40.

 

 

 

No, I can totally see this happening. Big Sampaoli fan, but I gotta agree.

[triggs]

1pm and 4pm midweek games

[cubaricho]

1pm and 4pm midweek games

 

6am, 9am, and noon here in Denver. You'll be alright.

[triggs]

World Cup 2026 decision tomorrow, Morocco or USA/Canada/Mexico joint bid

[Away Day Gadgie]

Is it rose tinted glasses or were the strikers in 1998 overall a different gravy to what's around now. Watching the 1998 World Cup film on History Channel and you've got Ronaldo, Henry, Batistuta, Shearer, Vieri, Kluivert, Salas, Suker, Bergkamp, Owen, Bierhoff, Klinsmann, Raul...

 

No.  I think the quality of forwards at that particular World Cup was higher than it’s ever been in my lifetime.  That list you gave is outstanding and it didn’t include the likes of Crespo, Del Piero, Stoichkov and Baggio. 

[RS]

Nigerian team travel wear:

 

https://www.rt.com/sport/429425-nigeria-suits-world-cup-russia/

[Paully]

Any reason why the opening match changed from featuring the previous winners to featuring the host nation at Germany 06?

[ponsaelius]

Any reason why the opening match changed from featuring the previous winners to featuring the host nation at Germany 06?

 

They made it so the holders had to qualify after 2002, so a spot in Group A wasn't reserved for them.

 

Why they did that exactly, is not really clear. IIRC Blatter pretty much just decided it on a whim before Korea/Japan.

[Greg]

Here we go.

 

[Greg]

Wullie going back in time?

 

[Wullie]

[Si]

Cheers for organising Wullie. World cup fever is setting in.

[Fedyan]

The Brazilians have landed in Sochi. Neymar is already spamming the web with photos of himself and his teammates having fun on the beach. The question of his fitness remains, but hopefully he gets into tip top shape as the tournament goes. A lot of people don't like him for whatever reason, but I think he is a hell of a footballer and could prove to be decisive. And personally, find the whole money-grabber accusation a bit thick. Football is plastered with the likes of Shaquiri and Oscar, who don't even pretend to be driven by anything other than money, purely a job for them. And people complain about Neymar. Whatever. I would much rather Brazil win then other forrin forrins. Although, I picked Colombia to support.

 

The Serbs arrived in Kaliningrad and started playing the old "brotha" song. Well, some of them did anyway. As if it would make them non-forrin somehow. For a whole variety of historical, political and religious reasons going all the way centuries ago, Serbia and Montenegro (Bulgaria as well, to a lesser extent) are viewed as brotherly nations due to them being Orthodox, Slavic and using Cyrillic alphabet by some of the God-fearing compatriots of mine. Me, I still don't get all the fuss over that Yugoslavia team at Italia90 (brilliant on paper, rather mediocre on the pitch) and thus don't get the whole sporting Yugo-love fest. Plenty of people here cheer on Croatia as well. Anyhow, they will sure as hell command a lot of support from the stands. But no matter the quality on paper, nobody can escape a good transfer saga. And with the window being shorter in England and Italy starting this summer, I can easily see how Sergej's stay or go mumblings will affect the entire team. The Switzerland game should be a banter-filled fun fest, that's for sure.

 

Panama will stay just outside of Saransk, giving so many avenues for creative jokes about a nothing team in a nothing town. But, evil sarcasm aside, their coach loves it there, probably still pinching himself for being at the World Cup. Two Panamanian fans that I know of (curiously - of Chinese and Cuban descent respectively) to this day can't explain how they made it. The way they put it - comparing them with Costa Rica is like comparing Brazil to Guyana when it comes down to football. Go figure.

 

Argentina are staying at a resort in Bronnizi, and the owner of the thing greeted the team with a huge picture depicting them as gladiators. Cristian Ansaldi (played for Rubin and Zenit a while ago, obviously) went ballistic on Insta. I don't share the enthusiasm, since the resort owner is obviously a Spartak fan, and they have no taste by definition. Some former Argie favorites who plied their trade in our league are also arriving - Fernando Cavenaghi (will never forgive him for ruining my birthday by being one of the goalscorers is a 1-5 derby defeat when he was with the pigs) and Hector Bracamonte (a bit of a cult figure here, learned the language, was very involved socially and who can forget that haircut). I also hope that Leandro Fernandez, who joined my club after winning the Olympic Gold in Beijing, will be a part of some TV setup. Gave us a good decade of peerless, no-nonsense service and remained loyal even when the likes of Lazio and Sevilla came calling. Ended up winning nothing, but boy was he a warrior. It is because of him that I found myself in agreement with Cesar Menotti's genius assessment of Argentinian football - the best are from Rosario. So true.

 

Croats have landed in St Petersburg, cue tons of rumors about Modric joining Zenit. As we love to say, there is something in the water there. But then again, I didn't believe that they would pull off Hulk and Witsel in one window, and they did. But FFP made sure that any rich club from Russia or Turkey is practically unable to go for real game-changers, so the virgin integrity of UEFA competitions will stay intact, irrespective of what some deluded hobo (affectional names for Zenit fans and players) journalist thinks. These will get a sizable amount of local support due to some of the above-mentioned reasons (even though they're Catholic) and quite a few fan favorites leaving a mark on local league. Like Stipe Pletikosa, who played for the pigs and then joined Rostov signing a contract that even a kid would deem dodgy (imagine agreeing to join a club that pays you a legal permitted monthly minimum income and provides the rest of your rather outlandish salary from a ton of separate sources, and then those sources opt out due to a conflict with the club's board) and went on national TV screaming bloody murder. As the old saying goes, not all footballers are smart. But, in fairness, I am in full agreement with him on Rostov-on-Don being a very special place. They might actually be decent. But because of Modric and Lovren (the whole lying in court thing) I am kind of indifferent.

 

The Swiss will stay in Togliatti and boy did it ever cause a steer among the many local Facebook standup wannabes. An industrial city (this is where the Ladas are made) known as Stavropol until 1964, when it was renamed Togliatti in honour of Italian communist Palmiro Togliatti who died the same year. A rather fascinating historical figure, absolutely hated the nazis and Duce. Anyhow, this is not exactly Wolfsburg or Leverkusen. Kind of like a smaller Detroit, sans the ghettos. A hockey-mad city (Alexei Kovakev, Viktor Kozlov, Ilya Bryzgalov, Alexei Emelin and Igor Grigorenko are local academy graduates among many others) and basically a huge suburb of Samara. Especially, if you ask someone who is from Samara. Granted, the Zhiguli mountains are fantastic and Volga is a short car drive away, but still a rather curious choice for stay. Used to be quite a newsmaker of a city, for all the wrong reasons, during the riproaring 90s. As they say - hipsters, cosplay enthusiasts and fancy rappers don't live here. For whatever reason.

 

If you thought that Nigerian retro kit was lush, just check out the suits they wore before departure to the World Cup. Man, and those hats! Proper African fashion that, unlike the kits (personally found them a bit meh) this attire is bloody brilliant. Styling and profiling, like.

 

That Golovin kid Rafa was linked with is in high demand. Napoli, Arsenal, Chelsea and Monaco are sniffing around and it is alleged that now Juve have entered the fray with an opening 17 million Euros bid. Some of their directors are visiting the tournament and a few of rather reliable ITKs suggest that they will meet with CSKA big shots before the end of the week to see if the deal can be done fast. Good luck with that, CSKA chairman Evgeny Giner is basically Levy and Oulas wrapped in one when it comes to transfer negotiations. Of course, a sceptic will name Zavarov and Aleynikov as failed replacements for a certain Michel Platini, but somehow I think he would flourish in Italy or Spain, and the said figures are from way back. A very smart kid, none of the fast cars, fast clubs, fast girls BS that seems to unite quite a few footballers world over, has the technical and tactical nous to succeed at the highest level. Hails from Novokuznetsk, a heavy industry city in Siberia, known more for a great youth setup in hockey (Dmitry Orlov just won the Stanley Cup with Washington, Sergei Bobrovsky needs no introduction to any hockey fan, both local boys) than football. I can understand perfectly why Rafa would be interested - imagine a slightly more technical Shelvey, but without the mental streak. We'll see. Too many talented youngsters failed before, for a whole variety of reasons.

 

I decided to finish my Panini album after the tournament, calmly exchanging the extra stickers with those that I miss with other sad adults who can't find a calmer hobby. If I see another Vardy, Cristiano or that Sliti lad, I will go to the Italian Embassy protesting the evil ways of those greedy coonts in Modena, like. I mean, this is getting ridiculous now.

[HawK]

Grr now I gotta check 2 boards rather than just 1, mumble grumble.

[Flip]

Fedyan is a 10 out of 10.

[54]

Fedyan is a 10 out of 10.

I really hope him and HTT don't get into an argument, well end up with a short novel by the end of it