FIFA World Cup: Qatar 2022 • Page 53

Didn't Rashford start on the left tonight and Foden on the right? I think they swapped round at half time.

 

Rashy is pretty much only a left winger at this stage. Not half as impactful on the right and rarely plays up top.

 

this might be a stupid question but do soccer players wear cups? like protective equipment for your junk, usually worn with a jockstrap or with specific underwear/shorts that house the cup

i assume the answer is no because baseball and hockey pucks move way faster, are way smaller, and can deliver much more damage

mostly thinking about pulisic's balls here

 

So Denmark-Australia and Poland-Argentina are the two to watch today if you can’t split screen, yeah?

 

Hoping Australia can pull off a miracle. Would love to see them advance for the first time, even with what is almost certainly their weakest team.

 

Apparently FIFA want to bring in penalty shoot outs for the group stages in 2026. Fucking hell FIFA must be stopped.

 

It just hit me that we could very well be watching Messi in an Argentina jersey/World Cup for the last time this afternoon.

 

This continues to be fucking stupid

 

Toughy on the Group C games. Poland and Argentina should be the better teams, but Mexico and Saudi both need to go in big on a win to guarantee qualification. Mexico in particular not only need a win, but at least a 3 goal lead to give themselves a strong possibility of qualifying, regardless of the other result. Saudi have to win to keep it in their own hands. Could be spicy.

Could also be a total nothing game by two uninspiring sides...

 

"Risks dull games."

Like every sport ever, then?

 

Penalty shoot outs before matches???? Abolish fifa.

 

If FIFA insist on sticking to round-robin then yep

 

How does a penalty shootout before a game make sense?

 

I assume it's like a tiebreaker task in Taskmaster, complete it then only bring it out if it's needed

What I'm saying is FIFA should make all the captains create the largest tower of mashed potatoes and that decides who qualifies for play-offs

 

if you're only going to bring it out when needed then just ... do the shootout when needed. I'm a new-ish fan to the sport (less than 2 years) but I'm starting to think fifa just likes to fuck with things for fun.

 

Team A vs Team B
Team B vs Team C
Team A vs Team C

If B wins the first two, the third doesn’t even have to be played, right? Or is it the top 2 teams from every group advances?

 

I think every sports organization fixates on the idea of "making things better", and spend so much time on discussing changes that they feel compelled to have to justify their role and make them. It's infuriating that they come off as not even being fans of their own sport.

 

The problem with that would be a tie between team A and team C when team A and team C have already played, do FIFA fly them out to a stadium just to do the shootout?

I still don't think it's a great idea but I can at least understand the issue

EDIT: that came across more patronising than I intended, sorry

 

Yesterday, I finally took my exam for my nurse practitioner license and I can finally sit back and enjoy the WC. These games were such a distraction while trying to study the last week haha

Let's go Danes. I need at least one of my teams from our WC game in here to make it to the knockouts.

 

Top two advance to a round of 32 I think

 

definitely a format to reward mediocrity, haha

 

Imagine the shame of a top team going out in the group though.

 

I just don't get the need change something no one is complaining about and works perfectly fine

 

I think they are under (understandable) pressure to find a way to get more African and Asian nations involved. And I'm sure there is a good way to do so... but 16 more teams ain't it.