FIFA Football World Cup 2018 Russia Thread

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

We are 3 months away from the kickoff, of the most watched sportsevent in the world, the fifa football world cup, taking this time place in russia.

I thought i start this thread a bit early, since we can also already speculate what will happen, how our favorite teams will do and if there are any players you look forward to. And it's kinda fitting that i open it, since i come from the country of the current title defenders.

Let the hype begin.

 

[Ganondorf8 11,118]

I'm hoping that England does way better this time around as opposed to how they fared four years ago.

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

3 minutes ago, Ganondorf8 said:

I'm hoping that England does way better this time around as opposed to how they fared four years ago.

The thing with England is, that they always seem very promising in the buildup to the world cup. But most of the time, they seem to choke in the big games.

Harry Kane can really make a difference though, as well as Rashford. But they are also very green when it comes to the world cup.

[Ganondorf8 11,118]

14 minutes ago, Mesme Rize said:

The thing with England is, that they always seem very promising in the buildup to the world cup. But most of the time, they seem to choke in the big games.

Harry Kane can really make a difference though, as well as Rashford. But they are also very green when it comes to the world cup.

They really choked in the last World Cup on account that they only got the one point in a draw and were dreadful against the teams in their division.

[Frostgage 7,972]

Christian Pulisic is going to lead the USA to World Cup glory!!! ... *sobs*

Anyway I'll probably pull for Uruguay if only because of Luis Suarez. They have what looks to be by far the easiest group so we'll see

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

12 hours ago, Frostgage said:

Christian Pulisic is going to lead the USA to World Cup glory!!! ... *sobs*

Anyway I'll probably pull for Uruguay if only because of Luis Suarez. They have what looks to be by far the easiest group so we'll see

I think this could be the last time for awhile, where Uruguay has a chance to get far in the world cup. Great players like Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani and Diego Godin are already in their 30s and i don't see them playing in Qatar 4 years later.

[IronM17 5,145]

Well, I hope that germany plays better in the world cup than cologne in the bundesliga. XD

But seriously, I hope that germany come minimum into the semi-finals, also because of the reason that the quarterfinal is maybe on my birthday and the last both championship games from germany on my birthday wasn't that goo (2010 against spain and 2016 against france).

I find it a little bit strange that teams like Italy, Netherlands, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, USA or Chile are not in the turnament. But I am also happy that teams like Iceland are their. And yes, since the last Euro, I am an Iceland fan. I don't think that they will play a big role, but who knows. ^^

[BritishBrony2012 719]

I wanted England to win the World Cup, always do.But people will laugh when I say England when told on who going to win the World Cup and alot say they not going to win the World Cup. Do they hate England? I know England failed many times but why should I give up on them and support other team.  Do feel Rashford be next top player but not going to put any pressure.

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

1 hour ago, IronM17 said:

Well, I hope that germany plays better in the world cup than cologne in the bundesliga. XD

But seriously, I hope that germany come minimum into the semi-finals, also because of the reason that the quarterfinal is maybe on my birthday and the last both championship games from germany on my birthday wasn't that goo (2010 against spain and 2016 against france).

I find it a little bit strange that teams like Italy, Netherlands, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, USA or Chile are not in the turnament. But I am also happy that teams like Iceland are their. And yes, since the last Euro, I am an Iceland fan. I don't think that they will play a big role, but who knows. ^^

Well, we always look at these countries and think "yeah, these are big football countries." But sometimes, the name is bigger then the current team. I can especially say that for the netherlands, who have missed the euros and now the world cup. All the best players are gone now and they haven't put any focus on their youth, which the netherlands used to be praised for.

It will take awhile, till Holland can consider themselves the world elite again.

1 hour ago, Adam Burt said:

I wanted England to win the World Cup, always do.But people will laugh when I say England when told on who going to win the World Cup and alot say they not going to win the World Cup. Do they hate England? I know England failed many times but why should I give up on them and support other team.  Do feel Rashford be next top player but not going to put any pressure.

Well, to be fair, England have not shown very good performances and the loss against iceland also didn't help, I said it before, England have a very big problem, when it comes to perform well in the big matches. They can perform well in friendlies, but once it really matters, they seem to be a bit stiff.

I don't wanna wish them bad luck, eventhough i am german and winning against is kind of a nice feeling. They have some good guys with Kane, Rashford, Alli and others. Maybe they will surprise us.

[BritishBrony2012 719]

2 minutes ago, Mesme Rize said:

Well, to be fair, England have not shown very good performances and the loss against iceland also didn't help, I said it before, England have a very big problem, when it comes to perform well in the big matches. They can perform well in friendlies, but once it really matters, they seem to be a bit stiff.

I don't wanna wish them bad luck, eventhough i am german and winning against is kind of a nice feeling. They have some good guys with Kane, Rashford, Alli and others. Maybe they will surprise us.

Like anyone would say about England in World Cup but let wait and see, they will surprice people. I get angry when hearing people negetive things about England. I feel and believe Rashford be next big star. Also, sorry to say I have dislike on Germany football team specially beating England and laugh/making fun at England for not doing well in football.

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

3 minutes ago, Adam Burt said:

Like anyone would say about England in World Cup but let wait and see, they will surprice people. I get angry when hearing people negetive things about England. I feel and believe Rashford be next big star. Also, sorry to say I have dislike on Germany football team specially beating England and laugh/making fun at England for not doing well in football.

Don't worry, no hard feelings. We can cheer and enjoy our teams playing, as well as we respect each other, because respect is important to me.

[Vocal Analyst 665]

The idea of just watching football all day for a month fills me with excitement as it does every four and two years (for the Euro's) respectively. However, despite me being the optimist regarding The Beautiful Game that I am, England won't make it past the Round of 16... even though we've got a solid squad, if we have to get past either Portugal or Colombia we're going to be stuffed.

That being said, the groups allow for mostly open contests, and could throw a few surprises... however Germany are most likely going to retain as Brazil won't have Neymar to help them. Hopefully Iceland, Denmark and Sweden will spring some surprises... but the latter stages are quite easy to predict the frontrunners. Either way, looking forward to it!

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

For players like Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, it could possibly be the last chance to win the world cup for their respective national teams. We pretty much talk about 2 players who pretty much done it all in this sport and are considered 2 of the greatest. But they always get called out for the fact that they never won a world cup, considering all time greats like Pele, Beckenbauer, Maradona, Ronaldo, Charlton, all have won the world cup in their career.

I could imagine that Argentina with messi has the better chance to make it this world cup, but they are sometimes a bit too reliant on messi.

Portugal with CR7 probably makes it to the quarters, but i don't see them get past teams like France, Germany or Spain.

[Vocal Analyst 665]

On 18/03/2018 at 10:41 AM, Mesme Rize said:

For players like Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, it could possibly be the last chance to win the world cup for their respective national teams. We pretty much talk about 2 players who pretty much done it all in this sport and are considered 2 of the greatest. But they always get called out for the fact that they never won a world cup, considering all time greats like Pele, Beckenbauer, Maradona, Ronaldo, Charlton, all have won the world cup in their career.

I could imagine that Argentina with messi has the better chance to make it this world cup, but they are sometimes a bit too reliant on messi.

Portugal with CR7 probably makes it to the quarters, but i don't see them get past teams like France, Germany or Spain.

Ferenc Puskas should've won the World Cup in 1954 with Hungary, yet he's still heralded as the one of the best ever without it. People are just using the international tournaments as s divider in quality between Ronaldo & Messi... hell, many are saying that Ronaldo is objectively better because he won the Euro's, but as an overall footballer objectively Messi is miles ahead, honours discounted or taken into account while Ronaldo is a goalscorer and big game player of the highest order and not much else even with a slightly enlarged trophy cabinet at his disposal.

Argentina & Portugal will probably make it to the Semi's but I'm unsure if they'll make to to the final...

Edited March 19, 2018 by Vocal Analyst

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

Time to revive this thread, as we're only 2 months away from the opening game between Russia and Saudi-Arabia.

I must say, for a host country, Russia dosen't have a particulary strong team, considering some of their better players are already pretty old for footballer standards and greats like Andreij Arshavin, Pawel Progrebnjak and Igor Denissow are not playing anymore.

[Comp 84]

At this stage in football history, anything can happen. Some of the perennial teams aren't there and Iceland might surprise us again!

[Nightfall Thunder 1,937]

Unfortunately, being English, I am well aware that my country's team has no chance.

I personally think either France or Belgium will win, they have probably the strongest teams in the tournament, but it depends how they play with each other.

[Laurel Crown 111]

Hey, bronies talking about football and a thread about the World Cup without actual scorn or dissing for each other. Yay

My bets on who's gonna win it this year are Germany, France, Belgium and Poland. Regarding the South Americans, I'm gonna say Argentina or Columbia.

 

One of you said it's kind of strange a team like Italy isn't in the tournament. Allow me to say why.
Italy has never been good though since 2006. They placed last in 2010, getting third in 2014 due to two shameful losses and they only had decent runs in the European Cups.
Sure we had some top tier players such as Buffon, Totti and Pirlo but, truth be told, what Italy lacked was clearly a "generational jump" where other teams (like Brasil, Spain and Germany) just did and now they are at the top of the rankings.
Sure we have good players in our country such as Balotelli [as much of a hothead he is], Insigne and Immobile but they're not considered prime stuff like the real talents in Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Monaco, Manchester City or Paris St. Germain.

From the former champions in 2006 they turned in mid-tier team at best.

Also, Italy lost against Sweden because of coach Ventura who was terrible at his job because he never made an actual module for this year and just improvised stuff all along. Now they have the much-better Mancini although they are still on the verge of being a mediocre team in my eyes.

Honestly I'm not surprised or even horrified at my team not getting into the World Cup for a reason. It is still an "immature" team who still need time and care to be on the same league as the others, but at that point they're still garbage.

[Hachiroku 127]

Costa Rica is gonna win.

[Oleks 1,983]

I never missed a World Cup since 2002, and this is the first one where I'm gonna watch only the games without any "atmosphere" coverage. And since Italy, my second favorite national team, won't play, my hype is near zero.

But anyway, I hope the games will be interesting and the VAR system will prevent at least some major errors. 

On 3/16/2018 at 2:39 AM, IronM17 said:

And yes, since the last Euro, I am an Iceland fan.

Me too. Especially after they finished first in the group where Ukraine played. So, go, Iceland!

[Dashy 4 Ever 4,832]

I just finished watching Russia vs Saudi Arabia! Russia won 5-0!!!

Tomorrow, Spain will play Portugal that everyone is hyped for!

Also Egypt will play Uruguay tomorrow as well!

And Saturday, we will have Argentina playing Iceland! 

[Divine plywood 1,232]

Strong start from team Russia, even if Saudi Arabia wasn't that hard opponent. Still, entertaining game. And those two goals by Denis Tsheryshev, sweet lord!

However, tomorrow is when this tournament really starts

[Oleks 1,983]

Just two of the lowest ranked teams of the tournament showed that the planned World Cup expansion to 48 participants is a bad idea - more teams like Saudi Arabia.

Btw, don't we already have the World Cup thread?

Edited June 14, 2018 by Oleks

[Jon the VGNerd 842]

Saudi Arabia just got owned by Russia in the opening match 5-0. 

[Divine plywood 1,232]

Entertaining game, though neither of those teams weren't that interesting or high-ranked. Awesome goals nevertheless