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Not worthy of a thread - 2018 FIFA World Cup edition

OzzieMandias

by OzzieMandias
in Football

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Incognito

Incognito

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Essentially the next world cup is in 8 years time.

People were saying that about this one too like [emoji38]

 

Surely they were saying 12 years? Given that they announced the venues for now and 22 at the same time.

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Flip

Flip

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Just back from Russia. What an amazing experience it all was. Went to St Petersburg, Moscow, Samara and Kazan and are were nice places in their own little way even if I'd probably never go back to Samara again. Moscow a top 5 city in the world and a must visit imo. Russians were super friendly and all, however, the service in restaurants and their english is probably the worst I've ever experienced :lol: Met probably 2 or 3 people who spoke fluent english and in restaurants if you were lucky you'd get the orders right. Don't be shocked if you get the deserts before your main course. Took the sleeper train back and forth to Kazan from Moscow as well as St Petersburg and they're nice and all, even if a bit warm and humid inside.

 

Went to five stadiums, and feel really disappointing I'm not heading back to Luzhniki on the 15th to watch Brazil in a final. Really felt this World Cup was there for the taking. Although I've said all along I'd be happy to see England win it.

 

All in all, first World Cup I've really experienced the difference between group stages when the cities were buzzing and people were having parties 24/7 to the knock-out stages when people start heading back home. Latin Americans dominated in terms of numbers and was great to see so many from Peru there. Bit disappointing to see the lack of interest from the locals at times. Thought the party was going to be bigger in Samara after they beat Spain.

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Disco

Disco

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Just back from Russia. What an amazing experience it all was. Went to St Petersburg, Moscow, Samara and Kazan and are were nice places in their own little way even if I'd probably never go back to Samara again. Moscow a top 5 city in the world and a must visit imo. Russians were super friendly and all, however, the service in restaurants and their english is probably the worst I've ever experienced :lol: Met probably 2 or 3 people who spoke fluent english and in restaurants if you were lucky you'd get the orders right. Don't be shocked if you get the deserts before your main course. Took the sleeper train back and forth to Kazan from Moscow as well as St Petersburg and they're nice and all, even if a bit warm and humid inside.

 

Went to five stadiums, and feel really disappointing I'm not heading back to Luzhniki on the 15th to watch Brazil in a final. Really felt this World Cup was there for the taking. Although I've said all along I'd be happy to see England win it.

 

All in all, first World Cup I've really experienced the difference between group stages when the cities were buzzing and people were having parties 24/7 to the knock-out stages when people start heading back home. Latin Americans dominated in terms of numbers and was great to see so many from Peru there. Bit disappointing to see the lack of interest from the locals at times. Thought the party was going to be bigger in Samara after they beat Spain.

 

:thup: class. Which games did you go to again?

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Flip

Flip

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Just back from Russia. What an amazing experience it all was. Went to St Petersburg, Moscow, Samara and Kazan and are were nice places in their own little way even if I'd probably never go back to Samara again. Moscow a top 5 city in the world and a must visit imo. Russians were super friendly and all, however, the service in restaurants and their english is probably the worst I've ever experienced :lol: Met probably 2 or 3 people who spoke fluent english and in restaurants if you were lucky you'd get the orders right. Don't be shocked if you get the deserts before your main course. Took the sleeper train back and forth to Kazan from Moscow as well as St Petersburg and they're nice and all, even if a bit warm and humid inside.

 

Went to five stadiums, and feel really disappointing I'm not heading back to Luzhniki on the 15th to watch Brazil in a final. Really felt this World Cup was there for the taking. Although I've said all along I'd be happy to see England win it.

 

All in all, first World Cup I've really experienced the difference between group stages when the cities were buzzing and people were having parties 24/7 to the knock-out stages when people start heading back home. Latin Americans dominated in terms of numbers and was great to see so many from Peru there. Bit disappointing to see the lack of interest from the locals at times. Thought the party was going to be bigger in Samara after they beat Spain.

 

:thup: class. Which games did you go to again?

 

Portugal v Morocco

Brazil v Costa Rica

Argentina v Nigeria

Brazil v Serbia

Brazil v Mexico

Brazil v Belgium

 

Watching Messi score that goal and being in the middle of that Argentina support when Rojo scored was one of the greatest experience along with Coutinho scoring v Costa Rica. The Argie support is A+. The Brazilian one finally improved and were actually quite decent for the first time and outshone all the European supports, but still has a long way to go before reaching what those Argies do. Honest to god, seeing 75+ year old men taking their shirt off and waving them when Rojo scored the winning goal was something else, women, kids all singing and crying together. Was awesome. The Mexicans were class as well, although some of them turned their anger on Neymar onto Brazilian fans towards the end of the game which wasn't pretty to see.

 

Also was almost losing it for the first time ever at the Belgium game, bunch of Russians and footballing-neutral tourists infront standing up trying to watch a fight that was going on above, with 10 minutes to go and Brazil creating. Never been so pissed in my life :lol: World Cup quarter-final Brazil has just pulled one back and people are more interested in a few idiots fighting...

 

 

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Segun Oluwaniyi

Segun Oluwaniyi

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Our paths crossed twice, Flip. I was able to see:

 

Brazil v Costa Rica

Argentina v Nigeria

Iran v. Morocco

Russia v. Egypt

Germany v. Mexico

 

Set up my wife, brother, and father to stay with me in two flats in St. Petersburg and managed to grab one ticket for myself to see the Germany match on a one-day trip to Moscow. I had spent a good amount in Russia before and know a few other Africans in Piter who live/study there and speak the language, so I did not have to deal with the same culture shock as most people. :lol: Honestly, I prefer it to Moscow, architecturally the city is very beautiful and it is a lot calmer and easier to navigate/afford than the madness of the capital. 

 

The World Cup was incredible, btw. The atmosphere at all of the matches was fantastic and it was brilliant to just relax, party and enjoy life and football with people from all around the world. Outside of the non-stop requests for photos and drunken CSKA supporters chanting to me about Ahmed Musa, the locals were brilliant as well for the most part :lol:

Watching Messi score that goal and being in the middle of that Argentina support when Rojo scored was one of the greatest experience along with Coutinho scoring v Costa Rica. The Argie support is A+.

Funnily enough, watching Rojo rip away our hopes and sliding back into the seat with my face in my hands while surrounded by thousands of Argentines jubilating, throwing beer in the air, and chanting the "Vamos Argentina, Messi Maradona" song that had been echoing around the city for days is not a moment from this World Cup that I will cherish. :lol: You are right though, the Latin American supporters dominated this World Cup. Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico took over whatever cities they were playing in and I saw more as many Colombians as Nigerians even though they never played a single match in a city I was staying in. It is a shame that Europe has dominated the tournament to this degree, a bit of the enjoyment was lost when South America was knocked out.

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Flip

Flip

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Our paths crossed twice, Flip. I was able to see:

 

Brazil v Costa Rica

Argentina v Nigeria

Iran v. Morocco

Russia v. Egypt

Germany v. Mexico

 

Set up my wife, brother, and father to stay with me in two flats in St. Petersburg and managed to grab one ticket for myself to see the Germany match on a one-day trip to Moscow. I had spent a good amount in Russia before and know a few other Africans in Piter who live/study there and speak the language, so I did not have to deal with the same culture shock as most people. :lol: Honestly, I prefer it to Moscow, architecturally the city is very beautiful and it is a lot calmer and easier to navigate/afford than the madness of the capital. 

 

The World Cup was incredible, btw. The atmosphere at all of the matches was fantastic and it was brilliant to just relax, party and enjoy life and football with people from all around the world. Outside of the non-stop requests for photos and drunken CSKA supporters chanting to me about Ahmed Musa, the locals were brilliant as well for the most part :lol:

Watching Messi score that goal and being in the middle of that Argentina support when Rojo scored was one of the greatest experience along with Coutinho scoring v Costa Rica. The Argie support is A+.

Funnily enough, watching Rojo rip away our hopes and sliding back into the seat with my face in my hands while surrounded by thousands of Argentines jubilating, throwing beer in the air, and chanting the "Vamos Argentina, Messi Maradona" song that had been echoing around the city for days is not a moment from this World Cup that I will cherish. :lol: You are right though, the Latin American supporters dominated this World Cup. Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico took over whatever cities they were playing in and I saw more as many Colombians as Nigerians even though they never played a single match in a city I was staying in. It is a shame that Europe has dominated the tournament to this degree, a bit of the enjoyment was lost when South America was knocked out.

 

:thup: St Petersburg is absolutely more beautiful, but it's also more european in a sense making it less interesting for me. Love how Moscow is a blend of New York City and Europe. Everything is majestic and the night life was ridiculous. The ruble being quite weak to the Euro also helped the capital to be more manageable as I felt a lot of the things were pretty cheap.

 

Was also a great change from the Brazil World Cup, which I ended up spending most days either at the stadium or at home not really experiencing the whole World Cup atmosphere. As for the shame that Europe has dominated it most definitely is and can be seen by the fact that semi-final price tickets are below facevalue online right now. Had Brazil or Argentina still been at the tournament they would be selling at twice the price at least.

 

Was never looking forward to Qatars World Cup, but right now I'm looking forward to it. Had just a great time at this one, and Russia beat all the expectations I had of it as a country. People were kind, helpful and the locals in Kazan and Samara were always asking to take pictures with us foreign fans and seemed to enjoy the mix of cultures who invaded their country for this short period of time. Really made me think twice whether I'll ever trust our western media again regarding their image of Russia (politcis aside, I'm talking about how the country in general is portrayed).

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ponsaelius

ponsaelius

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I'm glad to see so many people had such a great time. I liked Russia when I went and can imagine it being an even better place to visit during the unique time of a World Cup when a lot of that cultural frostiness has melted.

 

Really sad I didn't have the time or financial means to go, was just really bad timing in terms of this stage of my life otherwise I absolutely would have done.

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