FIFA World Cup - Qatar 2022

[Takhisis]

Hasn't made the news here - then again ours disappeared like thieves in the night to various holiday locations after the disappointing draw against Croatia - so I can't rule it out either.

Seems a strange thing to say. We hardly ever get to play teams like Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay etc. and are always happy when we do get a chance.

Or do they mean South American players, playing in Belgium ? That would make slightly more sense.

Thanks to news aggregators, this is something that is hard to find right now. It'd take more digging than I can do tonight.
It was mostly buried amid the scandal related to some players ****olding one another.

Of course, people are now endlessly requoting Mbappé's pre-tournament statements that CONMEBOL's qualifying system is bad because they are all bad teams or something and so all the Europeans are better™, even if the European teams inevitably play not one but two sets of qualifiers (for Euros and WC) against Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Andorra, the Færoes, &c. Which, of course, clashes with examples such as Josu's listing above of where e.g. non-European Morocco plays.

 

[Kyriakos]

Realistically, though, apart from Brazil and Argentina, would the other latin America teams have much of a chance?

 

[Takhisis]

Well, Uruguay reached the semifinals in 2010 and were deprived of one of their best players by bad refereeing in the previous fixture (already explained) and knocked out narrowly by a Dutch team that depended on referees not noticing obvious fouls and had done the same against Brazil in the previous round. In that same tournament, Paraguay got royally screwed by the referee against Spain regarding retaking penalties, again in a quarter-final.
In 2014 Mexico got knocked out by an injury-time penalty awarded after a shamefully obvious dive by Arjen Robben. And also Argentina got to the final and then didn't get a very obvious penalty by Neuer against Higuaín in regular time.

Yes, it is true that Brazil and Argentina usually get further in the World Cups, but they aren't the only ones who get shafted by referees. Ask (cringes) Ingerland too, knocked out in 2010 and 2022 by similarly scandalous refereeing.

 

[Takhisis]

Oh, hey, FIFA has ‘found’ ten thousand unsold tickets lying in a spare drawer or something and put them on sale at retail prices.

 

[Gorbles]

Anyone read anything about the alleged cases of MERS at the World Cup?

 

[Takhisis]

If MERS is the same as the so-called ‘camel virus’ that appears to be spreading through the French team, then yes.

 

[thetrooper]

Anyone read anything about the alleged cases of MERS at the World Cup?

Runours of something going on in the French camp, yes. But MERS? That’s really bad.

Edit; x with Takh.

 

[Gorbles]

If MERS is the same as the so-called ‘camel virus’ that appears to be spreading through the French team, then yes.

Runours of something going on in the French camp, yes. But MERS? That’s really bad.

Yes. If so, it sounds really bad.

 

[Takhisis]

I already knew that gathering a few hundred thousand fans at any given time (expected to be maybe a million?) just to nicely blend strains of covid-19 from all corners of the world was a bad idea, but now with MERS…

Even Bolsonaro's Brazil had only 7,000 fans in the Maracaná last year and there was no special travel during that time.

 

[Takhisis]

On top of the pandemic potentiation situation comes FIFA's refusal to allow any public condemnation of Iran's upcoming public execution of a football player for defending women's rights.

[Borat smiley face]

 

[El_Machinae]

MERS was 2012, so just note that sometimes our eyes skip while reading dates. You'll see numbers that are inclusive to 2012, but miss the fact that 2012 is not 2022.
A friend freaked out because they didn't notice that the report was including 2012 - 2022 data and thought it was 2022 data.

 

[Takhisis]

Infantino himself announces that FIFA has made over 7,000,000,000 dollars in profits from this World Cup. That's over a million dollars a death. Nice.

 

[Snowygerry]

Thanks to news aggregators, this is something that is hard to find right now. It'd take more digging than I can do tonight.
It was mostly buried amid the scandal related to some players ****olding one another.

Of course, people are now endlessly requoting Mbappé's pre-tournament statements that CONMEBOL's qualifying system is bad because they are all bad teams or something and so all the Europeans are better™, even if the European teams inevitably play not one but two sets of qualifiers (for Euros and WC) against Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Andorra, the Færoes, &c. Which, of course, clashes with examples such as Josu's listing above of where e.g. non-European Morocco plays.

Yes it's strange how these things work, we seem to end up playing Wales, Croatia very often, in WCs most we often play against Russia,

We were happy to play Uruguay 4 years ago, hadn't happened in the longest time, Argentina and Brazil happen more, simply because they progress further, and always qualify.

No - South-American teams are always welcome here, although it is true the calendar is already overloaded.

 

[thetrooper]

Impressive Croatia. Just 4M but relevant in almost all team sports.

 

[Henri Christophe]

I'm bit anxious for tomorow final.
I'm suporter of Argentina because I think Messi deserve at least one world cup. Mbappe already have it's own world cup.

 

[Kyriakos]

Impressive Croatia. Just 4M but relevant in almost all team sports.

Or it's just that England plainly sucks ^^

 

[Sofista]

I personally prefer Argentina, of course, and there are arguments to be made for it.
After the rocky start against Saudi Arabia, the team has constantly improved (France has been good, even very good, all along; their parable has been flat, the medical situation might be a problem). Messi is playing like that other n°10 of the Albiceleste, the younger players have settled into their roles splendidly, Scaloni hasn't made a mistake. The cup is within reach.

 

[Kyriakos]

It appears Argentina will officially become the best country in the world, in roughly half an hour
Too bad Maradona is no longer alive.

 

[thetrooper]

Messi hoisting the cup would be well deserved.

And that’s coming from someone who never liked the guy.

T-30

 

[thetrooper]

Oops! Horrible jinx. Mea culpa