The actual I am watching the World Cup thread. No, non World Cup watchers please. Spoilers.

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Comments

  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,217
    On the performance in both games they didn't deserve to be there to be honest. They just didn't have that fight that has been the characteristic of the team for the last few years.

    Trying to work out if I should still want England to win later now!
  • Pross said:

    On the performance in both games they didn't deserve to be there to be honest. They just didn't have that fight that has been the characteristic of the team for the last few years.

    Trying to work out if I should still want England to win later now!

    It's your only hope, but also needs some sorcery with usa beating Iran and goal difference going your way.

    So you need England to win by lots.
  • First.Aspect
    First.Aspect Posts: 14,498
    Wales looked old and knackered to me. Bit like Belgium, only crap.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,244
    Good on Iran. Soz Pross.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,217

    Pross said:

    On the performance in both games they didn't deserve to be there to be honest. They just didn't have that fight that has been the characteristic of the team for the last few years.

    Trying to work out if I should still want England to win later now!

    It's your only hope, but also needs some sorcery with usa beating Iran and goal difference going your way.

    So you need England to win by lots.
    Or USA win, Wales beat England and Iran beat the USA. I think that puts Iran top on 6 points with Wales and USA contesting second place on goal difference and England bottom. Feels like a nicer not going to happen dream scenario.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,217

    Wales looked old and knackered to me. Bit like Belgium, only censored .

    Agreed, they were second to virtually every ball but they have quite a young team.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,217

    Good on Iran. Soz Pross.

    They 100% deserved it, 2-0 was probably the minimum for a fair result.
  • kingstongraham
    kingstongraham Posts: 26,132
    edited November 2022
    Pross said:

    Pross said:

    On the performance in both games they didn't deserve to be there to be honest. They just didn't have that fight that has been the characteristic of the team for the last few years.

    Trying to work out if I should still want England to win later now!

    It's your only hope, but also needs some sorcery with usa beating Iran and goal difference going your way.

    So you need England to win by lots.
    Or USA win, Wales beat England and Iran beat the USA. I think that puts Iran top on 6 points with Wales and USA contesting second place on goal difference and England bottom. Feels like a nicer not going to happen dream scenario.
    What about usa win both their remaining games, and Wales beat England. Usa top and Wales second. No need for goal difference.

    I think you can hope England lose in good faith.
  • Stevo_666
    Stevo_666 Posts: 58,167
    edited November 2022
    Iran now in with a good chance of qualifying...
    "I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]
  • LOL. So that's Italy and Wales now out of World Cup.

    HAHAAHAHAHAHA

  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,217

    LOL. So that's Italy and Wales now out of World Cup.

    HAHAAHAHAHAHA

    Wales aren't out of the World Cup (yet) - see above.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,217

    Pross said:

    Pross said:

    On the performance in both games they didn't deserve to be there to be honest. They just didn't have that fight that has been the characteristic of the team for the last few years.

    Trying to work out if I should still want England to win later now!

    It's your only hope, but also needs some sorcery with usa beating Iran and goal difference going your way.

    So you need England to win by lots.
    Or USA win, Wales beat England and Iran beat the USA. I think that puts Iran top on 6 points with Wales and USA contesting second place on goal difference and England bottom. Feels like a nicer not going to happen dream scenario.
    What about usa win both their remaining games, and Wales beat England. Usa top and Wales second. No need for goal difference.

    I think you can hope England lose in good faith.
    Excellent, for some reason I couldn't get that to work when doing the numbers in my head earlier. Certainly sounds like the best option.

    U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A

    Get in the goal!

    I think this is going to come naturally to me.
  • Pross said:

    Pross said:

    Pross said:

    On the performance in both games they didn't deserve to be there to be honest. They just didn't have that fight that has been the characteristic of the team for the last few years.

    Trying to work out if I should still want England to win later now!

    It's your only hope, but also needs some sorcery with usa beating Iran and goal difference going your way.

    So you need England to win by lots.
    Or USA win, Wales beat England and Iran beat the USA. I think that puts Iran top on 6 points with Wales and USA contesting second place on goal difference and England bottom. Feels like a nicer not going to happen dream scenario.
    What about usa win both their remaining games, and Wales beat England. Usa top and Wales second. No need for goal difference.

    I think you can hope England lose in good faith.
    Excellent, for some reason I couldn't get that to work when doing the numbers in my head earlier. Certainly sounds like the best option.

    U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A

    Get in the goal!

    I think this is going to come naturally to me.
    You need to practice Ingerland Ingerland Ingerland in case England go a couple ahead. In that case, you want England to do demolition job.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,244
    Re commentary, other countries are no better. Dutch commentary is even worse.
  • Jezyboy
    Jezyboy Posts: 2,868

    Re commentary, other countries are no better. Dutch commentary is even worse.

    Is commentary slightly better for league games? I feel like the terrestrial commentary teams don't really get the practice.

  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 8,719
    Is the commentary/punditry that bad?

    I agree that more tactical analysis pre/post game would be nice but I've a feeling it's not to everyone's taste. I might be wrong in that but I remember Clough saying that the public wanted to watch the game not listen to people talk about it.

    Apart from podcasts and the odd article the most in depth stuff is probably Sky's Monday Night Football
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,244

    Is the commentary/punditry that bad?

    I agree that more tactical analysis pre/post game would be nice but I've a feeling it's not to everyone's taste. I might be wrong in that but I remember Clough saying that the public wanted to watch the game not listen to people talk about it.

    Apart from podcasts and the odd article the most in depth stuff is probably Sky's Monday Night Football

    To me it sounds so cliché ridden. I know what they're gonna say before they say it.
  • kingstongraham
    kingstongraham Posts: 26,132
    edited November 2022
    Put it this way, I knew what was coming when Dion Dublin said he couldn't see a way back into the game for Qatar.
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,511
    One of my pet hates is commentators that are too busy discussing "tactics" to tell the viewer something that is going on that they can't see e.g. ref awarding a corner.
  • My pet hate is the incessant amount of replays even when the ball has come back into play.

    Been watching most on RTE Ireland through a VPN. Commentary’s not the greatest but is nice to watch England games with objective commentary.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,244
    Variants of "he should have done better" "should have put it on target" are the worst.

    A bit more explanation of why a team is playing better or worse would be good.
  • Stevo_666
    Stevo_666 Posts: 58,167

    LOL. So that's Italy and Wales now out of World Cup.

    HAHAAHAHAHAHA

    Where's MF when you need him? :smiley:
    "I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,348
    To be fair to the commentators (on a game I didn't watch in a sport I watch rarely). Brazil should and did have won the game at a canter. Indeed it is probably to their credit and benefit that they didn't expend much energy to do so.

    The football equivalent on having to commentate on the first 100 kms of a third week 210km flat stage with a light headwind and a 3 man break of a french retiree, a german neo-pro and a basque climber who got lost in the neutral zone...
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • ddraver said:

    To be fair to the commentators (on a game I didn't watch in a sport I watch rarely). Brazil should and did have won the game at a canter. Indeed it is probably to their credit and benefit that they didn't expend much energy to do so.

    The football equivalent on having to commentate on the first 100 kms of a third week 210km flat stage with a light headwind and a 3 man break of a french retiree, a german neo-pro and a basque climber who got lost in the neutral zone...

    This is so correct, most football matches are very boring unless you care about the result
  • Ally McCoist is almost as bad as Hartson
  • Went out cycling on 96 minutes, got back later to that!! Well deserved Iran though.

    To be fair Wales 3 best players, Bale, Ramsey and Allen are all past their best. The core of solid PL players like Williams, Collins etc are all retired. They are left with an inexperienced squad and a number of players who just aren't of the required level. I think it will be a struggle for them to qualify for big tournaments in the coming years, they don't have the quality.
  • The look of disdain on Roy Keane’s face when anyone talks is utterly marvellous. He is fuming tonight 😂
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,244
    Holland were not very good
  • tailwindhome
    tailwindhome Posts: 18,878
    I don't want to slag off commentators unnecessarily, but Lee Dixon just explaining that Harry Maguire is starting in defence because he gets on well with the other defenders

    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
  • Holland were not very good


    Very surprised they went back to Van Gaal, suggests the Dutch FA were out of ideas and a dearth of other options. It just looks a bit pedestrian and like they are lacking ideas/inspiration.