OT - Men's World Cup

[horus13]

would like to see Netherlands finally win one

hoping El Tris makes it past the 2nd round

hoping USA is respectable. I wonder if we'll ever be world-class.
not a huge fan. once USA is eliminated I'll probly lose interest

I've been a Netherlands fan since they beat USSR at the '88 Euro's. Will go all in for them this year once again.

[I Touchdown There]

Belgium's one of the top favourites? Coming second to them in a group after losing a game in the last seconds of added time should say something about how Wales carried themselves in qualifying.
Man, 94s.. I was in the streets in Romania back then, best ever WC for us.
That experience you've mentioned is what I think gives the clear edge to Wales over USA in this group. Big stage at WC.
2028 is not a long way, so I might come visit, hopefully with a Romanian team out of their 30s slump.

You're Romanian? Very cool...I've always been a big gymnastics fan but was really impressed by your team in the 90s-early 2000s.

I'm doing a work pool and have no idea who to pick

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[Kyle Cactus]

Fivethirtyeight just dropped their model. They seem to like Brazil and Spain. The other model I linked on the previous page liked Brazil, France, and Argentina. There's not much good data to build those models (in terms of competitive matches between international teams, especially between teams from different fedartions) so I don't put a ton of stock in them, but it's interesting that they both really like Brazil.

[HotInHere]

Fivethirtyeight just dropped their model. They seem to like Brazil and Spain. The other model I linked on the previous page liked Brazil, France, and Argentina. There's not much good data to build those models (in terms of competitive matches between international teams, especially between teams from different fedartions) so I don't put a ton of stock in them, but it's interesting that they both really like Brazil.

France at full strength would be a prime contender. But they've lost a ton of guys to injury, including Kante and Pogba. Benzema has been injured. They should make it out of group, but quite possibly at #2 behind Denmark. I doubt this year's squad can make a deep run.

[The Excellector]

France at full strength would be a prime contender. But they've lost a ton of guys to injury, including Kante and Pogba. Benzema has been injured. They should make it out of group, but quite possibly at #2 behind Denmark. I doubt this year's squad can make a deep run.

Kante's a big one. He does so much for both them and Chelsea. He covers so much ground it's ridiculous.

[Kyle Cactus]

For fun, who do you have getting out of the groups?
A: Netherlands, Qatar
B: England, USA
C: Argentina, Poland
D: France, Denmark
E: Germany, Spain
F: Belgium, Canada
G: Brazil, Switzerland
H: Portugal, Uruguay

[AQKingRaven]

One of the top Euro teams. England or Germany if i had to pick.

European and English counter attacks are too good imo. Kane, Saka, Sterling, Rashford and Grealish catch my eye when looking at the rosters for the reasons above. I like England to take it however most seem to think theyre a meme team. I also like the English side as i think they will gel quickly which is of course a huge factor for Natioanl Teams

[horus13]

England is pants, Belgium a bit too old, you can never count out Germany but they are not there yet with the new generation, Portugal is not that good, Spain has got a lot of work to do, France is playing on one foot, Argentina is not a team, Brazil aren't either and Netherlands are the most unlucky team at the WC. Flipping Italy would have won this playing blinded, how they f'd up the qualifiers is beyond belief... I'm going outta box here and go Uruguay, though I do hope the dutch break the curse lol.

[lobachevsky]

Just FYI, while all you footy fanatics are waiting for a match to start, you might enjoy this video about "How Qatar Bought The World Cup":

FIFA is corrupt to the core, but you all already know that, and you don't give (as Frank Perdue would have put it) a frying flock. Enjoy your "beautiful sport" with rules designed for Thalidomide babies...

[The Excellector]

Spain is the squad that will likely go farther than expected, because their slow paced possession style is better suited for international football than club football. Flick has done great things with Germany. A HUGE step up from Love. France is going to miss Kante a LOT. England’s issue is that they don’t have the mentality to play the way southgate sets them up to play. And when he’s more aggressive, they have issues at the back.

I’m most interested to see what Argentina does, because they’ve seemingly been on a roll since winning the Copa America. Messi finally got that hump off of his back.

Uruguay is more intriguing to me if Araujo plays. He’s a very good up and coming CB.

[The Excellector]

Is Lukaku fit for Belgium?

[horus13]

Is Lukaku fit for Belgium?

He should be fit for their second game