World Cup draw thread and that. 3pm UK time and that.

[Bilo]

South Korea, Germany and Mexico is a HORRIBLE group for us. Fucks sake.

 

[Dirk]

Our group is neither too easy nor too difficult. We could've faced tougher opponents from Pot B than Mexico (like England or Spain). Sweden is always tough to play against but normally we should win this. South Korea is a little bit unknown, we faced them in the WC 1994/2002 where we both won.
I think we'll make it to the next round
Interesting 1FF Duel: mistermagic vs lib

 

[Stevencc]

MM vs Lib.
France vs Peru.
Europe vs South America.

A battle for the ages.

 

[Flustercuck]

With me being part Morroccon and my girlfriend being Morroccon,I will support them

 

[Stevencc]

Moroccan*

 

[AFCB_Mark]

Well that could have gone worse.

Memories of the likes of Algeria and Costa Rica in not far past world cups should keep everyone from complacency when it comes to Tunisia and Panama you'd hope. Make sure of a professional, competent job in those games, as opposed to turning up and strolling around, and getting results there would leave Belgium as a free hit.

Our setup and approach to the first two games compared to Belgium will have to change a lot you'd think. Will be interesting to see how Southgate manages that transition from favourite with the emphasis on us twice, to underdog having to contain and counter. Is the squad and manager able to be so tactically flexible?

 

[epic73]

The only teams I'd count out completely are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Panama, Tunisia, and maybe South Korea. Group H could go any way.

 

[Flustercuck]

A good response by Gareth Southgate.No need to downplay.I remember after WC2014 draw many people downplayed Costa Rica and were then served humble pies

 

[Laker]

It's a decent draw, I expect we'll get a win and two draws or something like that. Think Belgium will probably pip us to first but doesn't sound like it'll be horrendous for us in the second round either way.

 

[Reaper]

Should win the first 2 games and qualify before we play Belgium but no doubt we will do it the most difficult way as per usual and struggle to get out.

 

[G.B]

decent draw for ingurland that and that. can't see any of the other home nations going any further in the competition however.

 

[Lance Stoe]

Fancy England to get quarters at least. We have enough to beat Colombia. Out in the quarters when Germany or Brazil give us another footballing lesson.

 

[Lance Stoe]

Fancy England to get quarters at least. We have enough to beat Colombia. Out in the quarters when Germany or Brazil give us another footballing lesson.

 

[G.B]

football's coming home imo and that

 

[Super_horns]

Least this draw past without any issues unlike some previous ones!

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...17/nov/29/world-cup-draw-fifa-russia-football

https://www.thesportsman.com/articl...wn-remembering-the-shambolic-balls-up-of-1982

(Guess the Scots haven't had to worry about such a mess for a while..)

 

[AnkleBiter]

As both an England fan and a neutral I like this draw. So many wide open groups where any of them can finish anywhere.

England's group, fuck me we've done well. I never understood why people chose Iran ahead of Tunisia in their ideal groups. This may come back to bite me in the arse, but we really shouldn't have any problems there, they only qualified because they had a lucky qualifying draw, the only challenger being DR Congo (!), does anyone know any of their players? I could say all this about Panama too.

 

[G.B]

As both an England fan and a neutral I like this draw. So many wide open groups where any of them can finish anywhere.

England's group, fuck me we've done well. I never understood why people chose Iran ahead of Tunisia in their ideal groups. This may come back to bite me in the arse, but we really shouldn't have any problems there, they only qualified because they had a lucky qualifying draw, the only challenger being DR Congo (!), does anyone know any of their players? I could say all this about Panama too.

sunderland legend and all round top player wahbi khazri.

 

[Ciderhead]

It's a decent group but I would have preferred the Belgium game to be first up.

If we can win the first 2 like we should, then Belgium last is ideal. A free hit and good test of where we're at going into the knockout stages.

That isn't a safe assumption though!

 

[mistermagic]

Our mate MisterMagic reckons Man City have already won this.

It's possiible.

mistermagic got his dream group

See you in Ekaterinburg mate?

I've got tickets to Iran/Morocco (big fucking meh), Argentina/Croatia and Germany/Mexico. I'll definitely go to France/Peru (wanted to do Ekaterinburg anyway) and should be doing Novgorod, Kazan and Kaliningrad. Can't fucking wait.

Regarding the draw and later stages, how fucking lucky Spain are? They've got the easiest group they could have in the round of 16 (Poland are no pushover contrary to what everyone thinks) while we could end up vs Argentina (never seen one of these at the World Cup in my lifetime so wouldn't mind), Croatia (Euro 2004), Iceland (Euro 2016) or Nigeria (World Cup 2014). Given how shit Argentina are these days, I have no idea who will finish top or 2nd in that group (then again, I don't know if we'll top our group, we probably will but will need time to get going).
Reallistically, I reckon if we do avoid Spain, we can make a semi (we'll beat Brazil, we always do while the Germans are tosh) and then it's anyone's guess.

 

[Dirk]

I reckon if we do avoid Spain, we can make a semi (we'll beat Brazil, we always do while the Germans are tosh) and then it's anyone's guess.

Pride comes before a fall. The "tosh" Germans will bow before the excellence of our mister Magic, the proven 1FF Prediction "King"

 

[St. Juste]

England have no excuse not getting out of that group and possibly even past the last 16 though our journey will end at the last 8 either way because Brazil or Germany awaits.

Fancy England to get quarters at least. We have enough to beat Colombia. Out in the quarters when Germany or Brazil give us another footballing lesson.

England fans never change.

I wonder what reasoning they are using to suggest they could beat Colombia. They beat Argentina 15 years ago (16 by the team of the match) in the World Cup - there's that.

Repetition of the EASY headlines.

Of course, they finished bottom in 2014 with one point, against a Costa Rica side who had already qualified.

 

[Jax]

England have no excuses in any tournament NOT to make it out of the Group stage and the draw has been kind. Tunisia & Panama are clearly inferior footballing nations no matter your views on England. On any given day especially in a World Cup, anyone can be beaten and giant nations like Argentina (2002), France (2002 & 2010) & Italy (2010 & 2014) have gone out in World Cup group games in the 21st century + England in 2014 but still we should progress. England do seem to up there games against bigger nations (until penalties occur) who open the game up for us and Martinez has never been able to organise a defence in his life so the Belgium match could go either way.

 

[mnb089mnb]

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[St. Juste]

England have no excuses in any tournament NOT to make it out of the Group stage and the draw has been kind. Tunisia & Panama are clearly inferior footballing nations no matter your views on England. On any given day especially in a World Cup, anyone can be beaten and giant nations like Argentina (2002), France (2002 & 2010) & Italy (2010 & 2014) have gone out in World Cup group games in the 21st century + England in 2014 but still we should progress. England do seem to up there games against bigger nations (until penalties occur) who open the game up for us and Martinez has never been able to organise a defence in his life so the Belgium match could go either way.

Really? Name some competitive matches where this has happened.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

I think it happens in pretty much every competitive match against the big nations, we're still not good enough to beat them but the performances are still noticeably better than the turgid shit we see against the lesser sides in the group stages.

 

[St. Juste]

I think it happens in pretty much every competitive match against the big nations, we're still not good enough to beat them but the performances are still noticeably better than the turgid shit we see against the lesser sides in the group stages.

Any specific examples you can refer to?

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

Italy twice, Uruguay, France etc.

I can't think of a game against a top side where out performance levels weren't better than against the lesser sides, can you?

 

[St. Juste]

Italy twice, Uruguay, France etc.

I can't think of a game against a top side where out performance levels weren't better than against the lesser sides, can you?

Really? In the 0-0 draw England were ragdolled throughout and lucky to even get to penalties. Italy dominated that game, The first line of the BBC article "Italy were vastly superior to England over the course of 120 minutes".

The France game was described as a "low key draw....that dulled the early sparkle of the tournament". In the Uruguay game their opponents, a tiny nation less than a tenth of their size, dominated both possession and shots on target.

Indeed, during Euro 2012 their average possession stats were a shocking 39% - https://www.theguardian.com/football/2012/jun/25/euro-2012-statistics-damn-england.

Englands performances in all these games were distinctly underwhelming, or actively terrible. They were completely outclassed by better teams. The best they could do was a terrible game against a rubbish France side that they didn't even win.

As for your question - I'd say England performed worse when Germany hammered them relative to, say, their dead rubber draw versus Costa Rica or their dull draw versus Algeria.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

We were far, far better against Germany than Algeria. It would have been 2-2 at the break but for a scandalous refereeing decision, and only we conceded further because we were done on the counter with too many bodies up the pitch. The Algeria performance by contrast might have been the worst I've seen at a tournament until Iceland came along. And Costa Rica, lest we forget, were the best side in that group having beaten both the Italians and the Uruguayans.

 

[Dirk]

We were far, far better against Germany than Algeria. It would have been 2-2 at the break but for a scandalous refereeing decision, and only we conceded further because we were done on the counter with too many bodies up the pitch.

Scandalous refereeing? The ball never crossed the line (the same as in 1966 where the ball never crossed the line but there it counted)

here's proof:


Lampard's shot way before the goal line

Nah, seriously, both decisions made by the referees, in 1966 and 2010, were wrong. In 1966 it wasn't a goal and in 2010 it was a goal. But tbh both times we had a deserved winner at the end (in 1966 it was England and in 2010 it was us)