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2018 FIFA World Cup Thread [W:87]

To add:

Political considerations aside, unlike France (presumably used as comparison here) Russia is not exactly the holiday country where travelling to some of the stadiums can be combined with having a nice sight seeing vacation or beach visit.

Moscow and Petrograd would certainly qualify for that and would certainly be sufficiently near to each other and Sotschi might make for a nice seaside visit, but which fan actually finds Volgograd or (yikes) Kasan worth a visit? That's not even mentioning Nishni-Novgorod or Rostov (on the Don, not its namesake near Moscow).

Add to all that the often enormous distances between stadiums (towns) plus difficulties in finding accommodations and one can see how France of 2016 offered far more diversity in things to do outside of football.

German fans are not exactly represented in similar numbers to the France-Euro either, with Moscow and Petrograd being favourite "t0 go" places for Germans anyway.

The number of South and Central Americans was disproportionately higher, seeing how having to hop a whole continent to even get close probably didn't make the Russia adventure itself all that daunting by comparison.

Lastly Russia is a place where you can't even fart in the street without that being picked up by monitoring, so where one can argue at length over whether the country is a police state or not, it undoubtedly has more means to jump on anyone showing to be unruly than France or Germany does. So why anyone would have thought that the authorities would allow their own thugs to run amuck, thus completely spoiling the image that Russia wants to convey of itself by this championship, must remain a mystery.

I presume (note the bolding) the implication that the lack of violence so far is due to an absence of Brit fans to have been made in (possibly unintentional) irony.;)
 
Scenes yesterday!!!!! Not that many England fans made the playoffs trip but those of us who did never stopped singing. There was a collective pinch yourself moment. Hugging strangers saying “ is this actually happening?”.
Got offered tickets for the semi final but I’ve turned them down. Flights are expensive over here and plus i want to be back home for this one.
 
Higgins86 said:
Scenes yesterday!!!!! Not that many England fans made the playoffs trip but those of us who did never stopped singing. There was a collective pinch yourself moment. Hugging strangers saying “ is this actually happening?”.
Got offered tickets for the semi final but I’ve turned them down. Flights are expensive over here and plus i want to be back home for this one.
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The great thing is you could hear the English fans singing throughout. It was a good performance by England and I've been impressed with the control of the ball on the ground and moving it forward well. I like England's chances against Croatia, but it will be a tough match for sure.
 
Chagos said:
I presume (note the bolding) the implication that the lack of violence so far is due to an absence of Brit fans to have been made in (possibly unintentional) irony.;)
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There has been violence.. but no more than usual drunk idiots. Hell by all accounts there has been more problems in England than in Russia by England fans..

However the reasoning behind the lack of violence in my opinion is the following.

1) An almost coordinated campaign by the English speaking media against Russia. Warnings about Putins so called hooligan squads and "look what they did in France" and all that.. well that put fear into the minds of a lot of fans. Add to that the racism claims and the usual political bs and even England players families were discouraged from going. Guess what.. it was largely a big fat lie. Regardless, means there are far fewer English fans, but also fans from countries who practice the "English media fear mongering crap" .. including my own country btw. Far fewer danes have gone, and yet 30k Peruvians managed to go.. go figure.

2) Distance.. like it or not the distance from England to Russia is considerable, which makes it time consuming and expensive. With the pound in the crapper, it kinda hurts more than normal. So those that actually go, are fans that can afford it, which could mean the usual holligan types are simply priced out of going. In France they could basically jump in the car and drive. Not so much to Moscow. That was also why it was so "dangerous" in France or any where else on the continent... English "problem" fans have a much easier time getting around.

As I said before in a thread.. Putin would never allow Russian hooligans to ruin the world cup and the country would be on the best behaviour. Yet that was dismissed quickly and yet it turned out to be correct.

I am glad that there as of yet, has not been any violence. For once we have a World or European cup where some (a small minority) English fans are not a disgrace on and off the field and blame others for their poor behaviour.. of course that can change still.

It might also help, that most Russians dont speak or understand English, so it is harder for the English to provoke violence. Takes two to tango so to say..
 
Andalublue said:
~ you think that there's something intrinsically more bestial about Russians than anyone else ~
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It was 2 years ago but I remember watching Russian hooligan training videos on Youtube. Pretty sure they are still online. Thankfully though, Putin has made sure things didn't fall apart however I think the home country's unexpected success helped the mood.
 
PeteEU said:
There has been violence.. but no more than usual drunk idiots. Hell by all accounts there has been more problems in England than in Russia by England fans..

However the reasoning behind the lack of violence in my opinion is the following.

1) An almost coordinated campaign by the English speaking media against Russia. Warnings about Putins so called hooligan squads and "look what they did in France" and all that.. well that put fear into the minds of a lot of fans. Add to that the racism claims and the usual political bs and even England players families were discouraged from going. Guess what.. it was largely a big fat lie. Regardless, means there are far fewer English fans, but also fans from countries who practice the "English media fear mongering crap" .. including my own country btw. Far fewer danes have gone, and yet 30k Peruvians managed to go.. go figure.

2) Distance.. like it or not the distance from England to Russia is considerable, which makes it time consuming and expensive. With the pound in the crapper, it kinda hurts more than normal. So those that actually go, are fans that can afford it, which could mean the usual holligan types are simply priced out of going. In France they could basically jump in the car and drive. Not so much to Moscow. That was also why it was so "dangerous" in France or any where else on the continent... English "problem" fans have a much easier time getting around.

As I said before in a thread.. Putin would never allow Russian hooligans to ruin the world cup and the country would be on the best behaviour. Yet that was dismissed quickly and yet it turned out to be correct.

I am glad that there as of yet, has not been any violence. For once we have a World or European cup where some (a small minority) English fans are not a disgrace on and off the field and blame others for their poor behaviour.. of course that can change still.

It might also help, that most Russians dont speak or understand English, so it is harder for the English to provoke violence. Takes two to tango so to say..
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I may not understand a foreign language, but if I am being invited to dance, the invite is easily understood! There were reports that any reports of less than stellar behavior were to be downplayed by the media/propaganda units......
 
Andalublue said:
First of all, full disclosure, as a City fan I may not be entirely impartial when it comes to Sterling, but I try. Here's why I thought he had a terrific match; for the first 20 minutes or so England were terrible. They looked like they were scared every time a Swedish defender came anywhere near them. Sweden were pressing so high up the pitch that the play was squeezed in the midfield and there was no movement towards the Swedish box. At all. Harry Kane was being marked so closely, sometimes 2-on-1, that he didn't get a sniff. Sterling was being closely marked too, by Gronqvist, but he's so fast that it didn't bother him too much. About 20 minutes in Sterling noticed that he was the one that had to make the runs forward, and he did. The Swedes had to counter that and so the pressure way up towards the English box was eased and a lot more balls started emerging. At the same time the Swedes started conceding free kicks and corners and you could feel the goal coming for about 5 minutes before it did. To me, although Sterling wasn't involved in the goal, it was his actions in making more runs off-the-ball that changed the momentum of the game. He turned it around.

It's true he missed a good chance. He missed a really difficult chance too and he made a mistake not passing at the right time, but the pluses he gave more than outweigh those errors. He was also instrumental in drawing defenders towards him that gave Alli the space to take the second goal.

You probably know that the scummy tabloids really hate him, for some unexplained reason, and they talk him down the entire time for not scoring more goals, but he's not a goal poacher. I would say he's not even a striker, he's just a midfielder that plays very high and his greatest gift is that he dictates the way a defence plays against a side he's playing for and enables his team-mates to make position, enjoy more space, prepare themselves for receiving crosses and passes to score.

Sure, I wish he were slightly more ruthless in front of goal and slightly less inclined to pass than shoot, especially in the 6-yard box, but that's being really harsh. I thought that today he was England's most influential person in the Swedish half. He and Henderson linked so well in a game where Harry Kane was virtually invisible.
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Andy, your city glasses have really clouded you here😁 if Sterling doesn't run into the opposition, he falls over his own feet!
 
I keep sterling in just because i don’t want the morale to drop by dropping one of the lads. He bottles it when he gets in position however he is making the runs that I’d argue Kane isn’t. 4 penalty’s really gloss over for what got me has been a sub par Kane.
I stick with Sterling and trust that it’s going to happen for him.
 
Higgins86 said:
I keep sterling in just because i don’t want the morale to drop by dropping one of the lads. He bottles it when he gets in position however he is making the runs that I’d argue Kane isn’t. 4 penalty’s really gloss over for what got me has been a sub par Kane.
I stick with Sterling and trust that it’s going to happen for him.
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To be fair to Kane, he's had two or three defenders literally hanging off him at times! He's creating space for this teammates in a very unconventional way!
 
Manc Skipper said:
To be fair to Kane, he's had two or three defenders literally hanging off him at times! He's creating space for this teammates in a very unconventional way!
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He’s done the job don’t get me wrong but if we wanted to split hairs he hasn’t created enough chances for himself. Again though I’d leave those 11 lions as they were.
 
I really need to sleep but I’m still buzzing and i have the week off. The wife is hating me right now lol
 
gunner said:
Andy, your city glasses have really clouded you here�� if Sterling doesn't run into the opposition, he falls over his own feet!
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Rather than the ad homs, Paul tell me how my analysis is faulty. I love footie tactical debates. Prove me wrong.
 
Desert Storm said:
Neymar is supposedly getting a lot of negative coverage by Brazilian media because of his failure to win the cup
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Deservedly. He's a brilliant footballer but he seems to care less for his team than for his own profile and in doing that in this WC he has lost a lot of fans all over the world.
 
Belgium playing 3 at the back..ballsy against the speed of the French flanks.

Sendt fra min SM-N9005 med Tapatalk
 
What with all the matches I've seen and some of them appalling, my memory is probably failing heavily by now. But this first half is one of the best (if not THE best) I can remember.

I've made the prediction before (re: Brazil) and couldn't have been more wrong but the winner today will take the cup home on Sunday.
 
PeteEU said:
Belgium playing 3 at the back..ballsy against the speed of the French flanks.

Sendt fra min SM-N9005 med Tapatalk
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works though, so far. In that France barely got near them the first 20 minutes due to the pressure Belgium exerted up front. But they're now showing unnecessary mistakes in ball handling while France appears to be picking up on their own act.

Great game so far.
 
Chagos said:
works though, so far. In that France barely got near them the first 20 minutes due to the pressure Belgium exerted up front. But they're now showing unnecessary mistakes in ball handling while France appears to be picking up on their own act.

Great game so far.
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Yea it works when it works.. just not sure if they can keep it up. A bit surprised with the French.. I expected better.
 
And Barca.. err Umtiti scores!
 
and again...............................a goal from set pieces.

Is this the trend for the future of football? :roll:

Yeah, I know, goal's a goal.

But still.

Fellaini sure messed that one up.
 
and another friggin' blind ref.

Pity, he was on top of it so far.
 
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