The Ultimate Football Thread 2013-2014 Vol. 4 EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A etc

[Beans]

everyone knew Qatar bought the 2022 wc.. glad its finally coming to light..

I secretly always thought it was that BBC documentary on the bribes that released days before the vote that cost England the WC..

England should host 2018 and USA 2022

 

[heggsy]

everyone knew Qatar bought the 2022 wc.. glad its finally coming to light..

I secretly always thought it was that BBC documentary on the bribes that released days before the vote that cost England the WC..

England should host 2018 and USA 2022

Exactly this.

Here in England, we were certain favourites, the infrastructure is here, stadiums, some of the best in world football, travel links, hotels, everything is here already. Little, if nothing, needed to be done.

Same with the USA, some of the most iconic stadiums in US sport, travel links, hotels. Everything again, already in place.

They were and should've been the two best candidates, maybe Australia, but the US has better infrastructure IMO.

FIFA is absolutely corrupt and it's a damn shame the most popular sport in the world, whether some of you in here agree with that or not, is run by an absolute shambles of an organisation.

 

[eiddyfouw]

BREAKING: League Two's Dagenham & Redbridge FC have ruled themselves out of signing Fabregas.

Dagenham & RedbridgeVerified account
‏@Dag_RedFC
Breaking: With current interest from London clubs, the Daggers have ruled themselves out of the running to sign Barcelona's, #CescFabregas

 

[heggsy]

 

[Beans]

BREAKING: League Two's Dagenham & Redbridge FC have ruled themselves out of signing Fabregas.

Dagenham & RedbridgeVerified account
‏@Dag_RedFC
Breaking: With current interest from London clubs, the Daggers have ruled themselves out of the running to sign Barcelona's, #CescFabregas

i love how awesome the social media departments are at certain clubs/companies

 

[eiddyfouw]

EXTENSION: Midfielder Sebastian Larsson has signed a contract extension with Blunderland AFC until 2017. (Sunderland AFC)

View media item 1005825

 

[Coupé It]

As long as Qatar is stripped of the WC in 2022 and maybe Russia in 2018. That's cool and fine with me.

Hoping for a Portugal/Spain bid and USA in 2022.

 

[Sinner]

http://www.theguardian.com/football...ia-will-not-look-at-qatar-corruption-evidence

 

[leavemeglazzies]

England should host 2018 and USA 2022

&

Australia 2026

Canada 2030

Ireland 2034

New Zealand 2038

Back to US/England again in 2042

I think that the next English speaking nation who should get a shot is Australia. US had the WC in '94 and didn't seem too excited about it. FIFA needs to stop trying to force feed football to Americans. If they don't like it - fine. If it were up to me, I think the 2018 and 2022 WCs should go to Australia and Turkey. Maybe China. That would cover most of the cultural and geographical diversity and give the World Cup to nations who haven't hosted it before, but who would be capable of hosting it without much trouble.

And don't mean to defend Qatar, they definitely didn't deserve the WC to begin with. But the fact is that they have already invested a lot of money on building stadiums. Can they just erase their WC bid just like that and hit them with a "Deal with it" gif when Qatar complain about this? I don't think that it's going to be that simple.

 

[champcruthik]

With Falcao out, Colombia is still a strong side but I like Japan to win Group C.

 

[wings90]

 
&

Australia 2026

Canada 2030

Ireland 2034

New Zealand 2038

Back to US/England again in 2042

I think that the next English speaking nation who should get a shot is Australia. US had the WC in '94 and didn't seem too excited about it. FIFA needs to stop trying to force feed football to Americans. If they don't like it - fine. If it were up to me, I think the 2018 and 2022 WCs should go to Australia and Turkey. Maybe China. That would cover most of the cultural and geographical diversity and give the World Cup to nations who haven't hosted it before, but who would be capable of hosting it without much trouble.

And don't mean to defend Qatar, they definitely didn't deserve the WC to begin with. But the fact is that they have already invested a lot of money on building stadiums. Can they just erase their WC bid just like that and hit them with a "Deal with it" gif when Qatar complain about this? I don't think that it's going to be that simple.

I don't think Qatar will be able to do much about it. With these newest reports on top of all the controversy, they can try and fight it but they're certainly not getting any public support. It's in FIFA's hands.

 

[Beans]

&

Australia 2026
Canada 2030
Ireland 2034
New Zealand 2038
Back to US/England again in 2042

I think that the next English speaking nation who should get a shot is Australia. US had the WC in '94 and didn't seem too excited about it. FIFA needs to stop trying to force feed football to Americans. If they don't like it - fine. If it were up to me, I think the 2018 and 2022 WCs should go to Australia and Turkey. Maybe China. That would cover most of the cultural and geographical diversity and give the World Cup to nations who haven't hosted it before, but who would be capable of hosting it without much trouble.

And don't mean to defend Qatar, they definitely didn't deserve the WC to begin with. But the fact is that they have already invested a lot of money on building stadiums. Can they just erase their WC bid just like that and hit them with a "Deal with it" gif when Qatar complain about this? I don't think that it's going to be that simple.

i think one of the issues with Australia is the time difference.. doesnt allow for optimum viewing

 

[oneilmatt]

Dont be talking * on Russia. They are a perfectly legitimate host.

 

[champcruthik]

Dont be talking * on Russia. They are a perfectly legitimate host.

Dzagoev going off in Brasil. How many clean sheets for Akinfeev?

 

[Beans]

Dont be talking * on Russia. They are a perfectly legitimate host.

not sure if srs

 

[rck3sactown]

In what way was the US not excited for the 94 WC?

 

[truth-serum]

Any peeps in the NYC area looking to meet up and watch some of the world cup games at sports bars in Manhattan?

 

[oneilmatt]

Dzagoev going off in Brasil. How many clean sheets for Akinfeev?

I don't know why people still talk about Dzagoev. I can't see him recreating the magic from the Euros as he has not been great for CSKA or Russia in their matches. He is good, but not the wonderkid people seem to think he is. The ones to watch will be Kokorin, Samedov, and Shatov when he'll play. And Russia's defense is very experienced and strong, I predict a max of 2 goals conceded in group play. 

Overall Russia's success will come down to whether or not Kerzhakov  and the offense will play well. They won't concede many.

 

[champcruthik]

Player to watch from each squad, my personal take/interest:

Group A
Brasil - Henrique
Croatia - Dejan Lovren
Mexico - Marco Fabian
Cameroon - Joel Matip

Group B
Spain - Koke
Chile - Mauricio Isla
Netherlands - Terence Kongolo
Besides Wijnaldum and Clasie, who I've hyped tremendously on NT.
Australia - Massimo Luongo/Curtis Good (tie)

Group C
Japan - Maya Yoshida
Colombia - Juan Quintero
Greece - Sokratis Papastathopoulos
Ivory Coast - Gio Sio

Group D
Uruguay - Gaston Ramirez/Sebastian Coates (tie)
Italy - Mattia De Sciglio/Lorenzo Insigne (tie)
England - Luke Shaw/Raheem Sterling (tie)
Costa Rica - Joel Campbell

Group E
France - Clement Grenier
Ecuador - Jefferson Montero
Switzerland - Fabian Schaer
Honduras - Rony Martinez

Group F
Argentina - Franco Di Santo
Nigeria - Elderson Echiejile
Bosnia and Herzegovina - Izet Hajrovic
Iran - Alireza Jahanbakhsh

Group G
Germany - Matthias Ginter
Portugal - William Carvalho
Ghana - Christian Atsu
USA - Julian Green

Group H
Belgium - Divock Origi
Korea - Son Heung-min/Kim Bo-kyoung (tie)
Russia - Alexei Ionov
Algeria - Nabil Bentaleb

 

[champcruthik]

Any peeps in the NYC area looking to meet up and watch some of the world cup games at sports bars in Manhattan?

Count me in. Nevada Smiths and Legends should be jumping.

I don't know why people still talk about Dzagoev. I can't see him recreating the magic from the Euros as he has not been great for CSKA or Russia in their matches. He is good, but not the wonderkid people seem to think he is. The ones to watch will be Kokorin, Samedov, and Shatov when he'll play. And Russia's defense is very experienced and strong, I predict a max of 2 goals conceded in group play. 

Overall Russia's success will come down to whether or not Kerzhakov  and the offense will play well. They won't concede many.

Group H is weakest. Besides Belgium, Korea and Russia will battle to advance to the knockout stage.

 

[truth-serum]

Put down the crack pipe. Messi is not the greatest of all time. He has not won a WC and he has not won a trophy with a different team in a different league. Good players embrace challenges. Messi is overrated and I am a barca fan since the romario days

He wants to play with his country men and the GOAT.

 

[oneilmatt]

Ionov? 

Did you just draw a name from a hat?

Anyway. I pick Russia to be group winners. They have more experience then Belgium and Belgium is a bit of a wild card. 

 

[champcruthik]

Ionov?  Did you just draw a name from a hat?

Anyway. I pick Russia to be group winners. They have more experience then Belgium and Belgium is a bit of a wild card. 

Been following Ionov since Zenit. Like I said my personal take/watch-list.

 

[oneilmatt]

Fair enough. But what do you see in him? He's got what, 4-5 goals in 50 club appearances? He just doesn't stand out for me at all whenever I see him play for Dynamo.

 

[champcruthik]

Fair enough. But what do you see in him? He's got what, 4-5 goals in 50 club appearances? He just doesn't stand out for me at all whenever I see him play for Dynamo.

Blind faith or hope, to be honest. Thought he turned a corner at Kuban before leaving for Anzhi.