Adopting a Red Headed Step-Child.

[youllneverwalkalone]

How many people also have their second country (you have to be FIFA eligible for this question, sorry) eliminated? I'm usually good to go to the round of 16 with Germany. 

 

[narduch]

1 hour ago, youllneverwalkalone said:

How many people also have their second country (you have to be FIFA eligible for this question, sorry) eliminated? I'm usually good to go to the round of 16 with Germany. 

 

Go Italy!

[RJB]

My seconds s Korea, Australia based on previous residency, and Italy by parent. The last one is self explanatory, a d the first two I'm jealous of. 

[eramosat]

i'll always cheer for any team that's never hoisted the World Cup to finally pull it off.  spread the wealth around, the fans neeeeeed it.  and that goes for every single match, it can be (usually my first choice at most WCs) the Netherlands, the USA, Croatia, Japan, Morocco, I don't care, anyone new is bueno.

amongst the already-won-it crowd, who are pretty likely to be present at the end...well...from amongst a poor set of choices, because really, most of them already have more than enough success...give me Argentina, and a deserved chance for Messi before he's done.  

[Cicero]

Looks like an utterly predictable final eight is shaping up. Not even a hint of an upset so far. Dull.

[Bison44]

8 minutes ago, Cicero said:

Looks like an utterly predictable final eight is shaping up. Not even a hint of an upset so far. Dull.

What time does Germany play Belgium in the quarter finals?

[Cicero]

35 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

What time does Germany play Belgium in the quarter finals?

Out of R16 games. Hoping for an upset tomorrow, but we could end up with eight teams that are completely unsurprising final eight participants. Morocco and Japan seem most likely to pull it off.

Edited December 4, 2022 by Cicero

[Wayverider]

Now that Canada is out I’ll return to my roots and cheer with bigoted enthusiasm for the true originator of football - Scotland! ... For those of you who may be somewhat confused by what that means, it means i’m supporting whoever is playing England. 

Allez les Bleus

[Unnamed Trialist]

I'm leaning towards either of the teams in our group, Croatia or Morocco.

In part because we've measured ourselves against them, so if they win, that gives us an interesting benchmark.

It also vindicates us having been in a quality group.

Neither have ever won and they'll go crazy, apart from breaking hegemonies in world football.

They both played nobly against us, were honest I felt, despite the silliness with the Croatian fans and Herdman/Borjan. I would feel they are deserving, I would not feel I was holding my nose. 

[jonovision]

Other than Uruguay in the early days, a small country or outsider has never won a finals, and has rarely even appeared in a final. Brazil, and Argentina, and the largest countries in Western Europe (England, France, Spain, Germany of various flavours, Italy).

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

Said it somewhere else.

1. England

2. Someone outside Europe/South America

3. Someone new 

4. A West Ham player, though that would hard with the rest of  Areola's team.

A Brazil - England final would do for me.

 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

1 hour ago, Wayverider said:

Now that Canada is out I’ll return to my roots and cheer with bigoted enthusiasm for the true originator of football - Scotland! ... For those of you who may be somewhat confused by what that means, it means i’m supporting whoever is playing England. 

Allez les Bleus

Finding it difficult to muster up the usual level of antipathy this time. Their fans finally seem to have figured out that the Union Jack isn't their's to wave at a World Cup (the blue and diagonal white bits stand for Scotland, while the diagonal red bits are for Ireland, if anybody doesn't understand why) is maybe part of that.

I have been steering well clear of the BBC, Sky etc coverage saying "we" for England and assuming their audience is all supporting England when they are supposed to be UK outlets not English ones. If I listened to about 5 minutes or so of the usual arrogance and wall-to-wall references to 1966 I'd no doubt quickly be hoping they lose to teach them some humility if only briefly. This revolves around the way any club team supporter feels about their local rival basically not a desire for a Yugoslav style breakup.

Beyond that I have never understood how anybody can actively support a national team if they are not a citizen and just as importantly have never actually lived there like the nth generation plastics that latch onto St Patrick's Day in North America every year that people who are actually from both bits of Ireland tend to either laugh at or despise so I usually just hope whoever is playing the best football and actually deserves it wins basically. Think that's either France or Brazil so far.

[jonovision]

15 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

the blue and diagonal white bits stand for Scotland, while the diagonal red bits are for Ireland, if anybody doesn't understand why) is maybe part of that.

* Northern Ireland

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Understand where you are coming from but where is the Red Hand if it is only NI? The Cross of St Patrick pre-1921 stood for all 32 counties and that was never modified in terms of the flag.

[jonovision]

14 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Understand where you are coming from but where is the Red Hand if it is only NI? The Cross of St Patrick pre-1921 stood for all 32 counties and that was never modified in terms of the flag.

I see what you mean now. 

[Ed_S]

Pretty much cheer for an African nation since WC 1990 - so Cameroon for me. Although my first immersion in a WC was in 1970 as a 16 yr old RCAF dependent living in West Germany, and Brazil was magnificent. 

 

[ted]

5 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Understand where you are coming from but where is the Red Hand if it is only NI? The Cross of St Patrick pre-1921 stood for all 32 counties and that was never modified in terms of the flag.

The Union Jack is the flag of the United Kingdom which consists of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland (and Wales but they were conquered too long ago to have made it on the flag). The Red Hand of Ulster is irrelevant to the discussion as it is a symbol of the Irish Province of Ulster and has never been a part of the Union Flag.

[kacbru]

My remaining favourites, in order:

1) Morocco

2) Netherlands

3) Croatia

4) France

5) Argentina

6) Portugal

7) Brazil

8) cancel the WC and let's never talk of it again

[Lurker]

 

Sorry @kacbru, I couldn’t resist!

[kacbru]

Looks like someone who just exposed themselves on the subway. 

[ted]

Frankly I don't care who you support as long as it isn't the Argentina Diving Team. A long history of cheating upheld by the current crop of floppers who give football the reputation that has helped keep the sport out of favour in Canada and the US.

 

</rant>

[Unnamed Trialist]

4 hours ago, ted said:

Frankly I don't care who you support as long as it isn't the Argentina Diving Team. A long history of cheating upheld by the current crop of floppers who give football the reputation that has helped keep the sport out of favour in Canada and the US.

</rant>

People don't like soccer in Canada and it's all Argentina's fault!

Next please....

[BearcatSA]

On 11/29/2022 at 9:24 AM, BearcatSA said:

In the past, I have always wanted an African team to do well and though I won't be cheering for them on Thursday, my sense is that Morocco have the look of a team that could run to the semis.  They seem to have a home continent feel to them with their very strong supporters group here and their drive/commitment on the field.

 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

On 12/10/2022 at 6:52 AM, ted said:

Frankly I don't care who you support as long as it isn't the Argentina Diving Team. A long history of cheating upheld by the current crop of floppers who give football the reputation that has helped keep the sport out of favour in Canada and the US.

 

</rant>

Really on a roll after that post above that conveniently airbrushed out that the Union Flag is unchanged since 1801 and the Union between Great Britain and Ireland when the St Patrick's Cross of the Kingdom of Ireland was merged into the earlier Union Flag of 1707 that combined the St Andrew's and St George's crosses of the Kingdoms of Scotland and England.

Sounds like an England fan who latched onto the "Hand of God" goal in 1986 as a way to explain away his team losing while conveniently forgetting the way that Diego Armando also ran past half his team from the halfway line in that game like they weren't even there. No fouls are ever committed by England when they play? They always play fair and never cheat. Really?

Can't possibly be because the other team were simply better overall and had arguably the real GOAT (lean towards Pele on that personally), so the notion of superiority has to be maintained by droning on and on until the end of time about how the other team cheated.

The real reason that soccer was sidelined in Canada pre-WWII was primarily because it was viewed as a British sport and the spirit of the time was a Canadian nation building project that required exceptionalism on sporting preferences. Diving Argentinians had pretty much nothing to do with that happening.

In a land of ongoing massive immigration nothing stands still on stuff like that. Post-WWII immigrant communities kept the sport going through leagues like the NSL in southern Ontario and Quebec and from the 90s onwards there was the youth soccer registration boom and the growth of women's soccer that slowly brought the sport out of being stuck in a recent immigrant ghetto in cultural terms.

Was busy with something else during yesterday's second quarter-final. Will find the time to watch it now hopefully with a distraught English commentator to provide some added schadenfreude. Wonder what the excuse will be this time to deflect from the obvious that this French team are simply better than the England one and were favoured to win by most people looking at it objectively.

Edited December 11, 2022 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[ted]

23 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Diving Argentinians had pretty much nothing to do with that happening.

This is the only part that is worth responding to so I will.

Diving players, Argentinian or otherwise, is PRECISELY why soccer is still a tough sell in Canada. It may not be the ONLY reason, but that perception holds us back.

Just in the last to weeks, when I started talking to my coworkers about watching the World Cup, those who don't watch soccer cited diving/flopping/fake injuries as reasons they have never watched a game. People who know NOTHING about soccer generally can name Neymar and reference his rolling around the pitch from years ago. The perception is out there whether you want to admit it or not.