FIFA World Cup

[gazza ladra]

35 minutes ago, cubaricho said:

Nah dude. They’re dumb across the board. 

How so?  Just the Denver thing?

[cubaricho]

1 hour ago, gazza ladra said:

How so?  Just the Denver thing?

I mean that’s egregious. We had one of the single best matches in USMNT history in Denver but I guess that’s neither here nor there.

 

Only two venues in Canada, and only three in Mexico, is kind of fucked too. 
 

It should’ve never been three countries either. 
 

Kansas is a wild choice. So, so far away from everything.

 

In the end they chose a lot of these venues in absolutely abject, failing, soccer markets. I think they’ll hope these might create a bounce.

 

The only right choice is/will be the final being in NYC. 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by cubaricho

[gazza ladra]

I don’t know anything about the quality of the facilities in Kansas City (or Denver for that matter), but it does seem an odd choice. I wonder if completely ignoring the Midwest just wasn’t  politically viable (“flyover country” and all that).
 

Still, I think that KC metro area is pretty small. I would think the smallest of the host cities.  I can’t get over the absence of Chicago.
 

A lot of the 94 host cities were passed over: Chicago, Detroit, Orlando, DC. This will be third World Cup for CDMX and Guadalajara.  I just hope the final isn’t at Azteca. (It’s a bear).

 

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by gazza ladra

[Deuce]

6 hours ago, cubaricho said:

Nah dude. They’re dumb across the board. 

Would’ve been a cool chance for cities that don’t traditionally get to host. Pittsburgh, San Diego, Minneapolis, Denver, Nashville, Baltimore, Austin, Columbus.

[Sima]

4 hours ago, gazza ladra said:

I don’t know anything about the quality of the facilities in Kansas City (or Denver for that matter), but it does seem an odd choice. I wonder if completely ignoring the Midwest just wasn’t  politically viable (“flyover country” and all that).
 

Still, I think that KC metro area is pretty small. I would think the smallest of the host cities.  I can’t get over the absence of Chicago.
 

A lot of the 94 host cities were passed over: Chicago, Detroit, Orlando, DC. This will be third World Cup for CDMX and Guadalajara.  I just hope the final isn’t at Azteca. (It’s a bear).

 

 

 

Final will be SoFi or MetLife, I reckon.

[Segun Oluwaniyi]

10 hours ago, cubaricho said:

 

Kansas is a wild choice. So, so far away from everything.

 

I am sure Denver is wonderful, but is it not even further from other places than Kansas City? I had to drive from Salt Lake City (which a map says is one of the closer cities to it) to Denver airport after an unfortunate travel incident a while back, and it was roughly 9 hours through an actual mountain.   Kansas City meanwhile is three hours from Saint Louis. 

 

The hope was for matches in Batimore, but I strongly doubted this after it had to combine with DC. The fact that Baltimore, which has perfectly adequate stadium and facilities, felt the need to attach itself to another city and DC had to abandon the idea of hosting matches in their disgraceful stadium in the boondocks of PG County, meant FIFA likely did not view either favourably. 

 

There is a distinct possibility that Nigeria will again fail to qualify, be banned internationally, or fail to exist in general by 2026, but still I will spend the next four years wishing to have a match in Dallas or Houston. Would be madness and essentially a home match, as long as it is not against a Latin American team or the US. 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by Segun Oluwaniyi

[Deuce]

3 minutes ago, Segun Oluwaniyi said:

There is of course the distinct possibility that Nigeria will again fail to qualify, once again be banned internationally, or fail to exist in general by 2026

 

[B-more Mag]

6 minutes ago, Segun Oluwaniyi said:

I know people were hoping for Baltimore, but I strongly doubted this after it had to combine with DC. The fact that Baltimore, which has perfectly adequate stadium and facilities, felt the need to attach itself to another city and DC had to abandon the idea of hosting matches in their disgraceful stadium in the boondocks of PG County, meant FIFA likely did not view either one favourably. 

 

I agree. It's ridiculous that D.C. doesn't have a state-of-the-art stadium in the city. And Baltimore gets continually fucked by the perception that we're nothing more than a crime-ridden shit hole. 

 

Bit of a shambles that there won't be matches in two of the U.S.'s five largest combined statistical areas (Chicago - 9,986,960; DC/Baltimore - 9,973,383).

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

Any excuse to go back to Seattle. I’m there.

[cubaricho]

9 hours ago, gazza ladra said:

I can’t get over the absence of Chicago.

They withdrew their bid so they were not chosen. 
 

33 minutes ago, Segun Oluwaniyi said:

I am sure Denver is wonderful, but is it not even further from other places than Kansas City? I had to drive from Salt Lake City (which a map says is one of the closer cities to it) to Denver airport after an unfortunate travel incident a while back, and it was roughly 9 hours through an actual mountain.  

That drive in particular is pretty brutal. All my buds in bands do it and fucking hate it, usually tacking on an off-day in Denver just to recover.  

 

And yeah geographically it is further out but everyone will be flying for this and DIA is the busiest airport in the country, traffic wise, so it makes sense to have it here based on that alone. Most of the planes will literally be landing here at some point anyway.  

[B-more Mag]

They can't claim altitude, either, in light of Mexico City and Guadalajara.

[Mike]

18 hours ago, cubaricho said:

Kansas City over Denver is a literal joke.  

 

Will send you pics from the NY game xoxo

[B-more Mag]

5 minutes ago, Mike said:

 

Will send you pics from the NY NJ game xoxo

 

[Mike]

9 minutes ago, B-more Mag said:

 

 

Nevermind. Fuck that.

[Chapo]

The worst sports city in America getting games is a shame. 

[Segun Oluwaniyi]

2 hours ago, Tomato Deuce said:

 

We have just missed the last one primarily due to internal incompetence, the successful basketball and athletics teams were just recently banned internationally due to further incompetence, and the people in power make Trump and Biden seem like Alexander the Great. You are laughing, but I am deadly (Mike translation: dead-ass) serious.

1 hour ago, cubaricho said:

That drive in particular is pretty brutal. All my buds in bands do it and fucking hate it, usually tacking on an off-day in Denver just to recover.  

 

And yeah geographically it is further out but everyone will be flying for this and DIA is the busiest airport in the country, traffic wise, so it makes sense to have it here based on that alone. Most of the planes will literally be landing here at some point anyway.  

You are not lying, I love driving long distances in all manner of scenarios, but when the wind started whipping in the Wyoming mountains with all of those trailers around, I was actually scared for my life. I cannot even imagine it in winter, there was snow around in April, still. That makes sense about the airport, never seen the city, but as you say, have been through the airport a few times. KC is actually rubbish and boring anyway, so I do not doubt Denver is better. 

1 hour ago, B-more Mag said:

 

I agree. It's ridiculous that D.C. doesn't have a state-of-the-art stadium in the city. And Baltimore gets continually fucked by the perception that we're nothing more than a crime-ridden shit hole. 

 

Bit of a shambles that there won't be matches in two of the U.S.'s five largest combined statistical areas (Chicago - 9,986,960; DC/Baltimore - 9,973,383).

DC United Stadium is quite nice, but tiny, yeah. Baltimore has problems that everyone knows about, but the stadiums are wonderful and I doubt people are coming from all-over the world to stay in Park Heights and Walbrook, anyway. In Russia, the events were essentially in two places for most of the cities, there was not a need to go elsewhere. 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by Segun Oluwaniyi

[Guest]

I keep forgetting there's a World Cup this year. 

[mighty__mag]

Am I right in thinking, when the league shuts down for this, that the likely City, Liverpool, Man U,Arsenal etc, their players will get an extended break for recovery? That will likely mean the so called big six will be without key players for a while after, would be a really good time to play these sides after the tournament has ended.

 

We don't play any of them after sadly. But before it shuts down we have Chelsea at home, I'd assume some would miss out or not want to play incase they get injured the weekend before they are due to play in the tournament. 

[Lazarus]

Whats the plan for the Mexican gangs and hundreds of thousands of football fans being in close proximity?

[Away Toon]

What's the plan for the millions of mad fuckers with guns all over the States and football supporters?

[Mike]

5 minutes ago, Away Toon said:

What's the plan for the millions of mad fuckers with guns all over the States and football supporters?

 

Remember that there's armed racist maniacs and don't be daft drunk dickheads? Best we can do.

[B-more Mag]

58 minutes ago, Mike said:

 

Remember that there's armed racist maniacs and don't be daft drunk dickheads? Best we can do.

 

Also, charvas vs gun nuts might be a win-win?

[Mike]

Just now, B-more Mag said:

 

Also, charvas vs gun nuts might be a win-win?

 

Gonna be a bad summer to be a black charva.

[leffe186]

On 17/06/2022 at 13:25, CFlan said:

The worst sports city in America getting games is a shame. 

But you probably do have to include NY just on population.

[leffe186]

7 hours ago, mighty__mag said:

Am I right in thinking, when the league shuts down for this, that the likely City, Liverpool, Man U,Arsenal etc, their players will get an extended break for recovery? That will likely mean the so called big six will be without key players for a while after, would be a really good time to play these sides after the tournament has ended.

 

We don't play any of them after sadly. But before it shuts down we have Chelsea at home, I'd assume some would miss out or not want to play incase they get injured the weekend before they are due to play in the tournament. 

There’s probably a really good in-depth article on this out there. There are so many factors. On the one hand a team with lots of internationals might not get a break, but a team with few internationals might be rusty. Someone made the point that it might actually be better than a number of mid-season internationals because they’re all flying to and staying in one place (rather than, say, Bruno Guimaraes flying back and forth from Europe to South America).

Is, say, Ben Davies worse off now than Kulisevski? Chances are he gets three games in the sun and then a couple of weeks off, versus Kulusevski just taking an extended break. Injuries are obviously a massive concern, but presumably bigger teams have both more players involved and a bigger squad to deal with it.

 

If, say, it’s a Korea vs England World Cup Final then Son and Kane will be knackered and whoever loses will be devastated. But if they both go out in the first knockout round (infinitely more likely) then they’ll get a really nice mid-season rest.