Official 2018 World Cup Thread

[Zarniwoop]

Teams are starting to announce their 23 man rosters so I thought I would create the thread now

Group A: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uruguay
Group B: Portgual, Spain, Morocco, Iran
Group C: France, Australia, Peru, Denmark
Group D: Argentina, Croatia, Iceland, Nigeria
Group E: Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia
Group F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea
Group G: Begium, Panama, Tunisia, England
Group H: Poland, Senegal, Colombia Japan


First Game: June 14th - Russia vs. Saudi Arabia

[Zarniwoop]

My picks:

Group A: Russia, Uruguay
Group B: Spain, Portugal
Group C: France, Denmark
Group D: Argentina, Croatia
Group E: Brazil, Serbia
Group F: Germany, Mexico
Group G: Belgium, England
Group H: Colombia, Japan

[DreadNaught]

edit - actually I will watch some of the WC.

[uscbucsfan]

My picks:

Group A: Russia, Uruguay
Group B: Spain, Portugal
Group C: France, Denmark
Group D: Argentina, Croatia
Group E: Brazil, Serbia
Group F: Germany, Mexico
Group G: Belgium, England
Group H: Colombia, Japan

Group B is brutal. I bet that's the group we would have been in if we made it. I think Switzerland makes it over Serbia, but I don't know much about Soccer.

[Ken Carson]

Infuriating to see Panama in there. Ugh.

[Zarniwoop]

Infuriating to see Panama in there. Ugh.

Why? I actually like their style of football. Direct counteract. Like we played in ‘02

[Ken Carson]

Infuriating to see Panama in there. Ugh.

Why? I actually like their style of football. Direct counteract. Like we played in ‘02

No disrespect to them. It just brings memories of our putrid qualifying campaign.

[Zarniwoop]

Group B is brutal. I bet that's the group we would have been in if we made it. I think Switzerland makes it over Serbia, but I don't know much about Soccer.

Man they burnt me at Euro 2016...I lost money on them. I cannot forgive them.

That being said, they are on quite the hot streak and have a good balanced team offensively and defensively. It would surprise me to see them do well.

[Zarniwoop]

Why? I actually like their style of football. Direct counteract. Like we played in ‘02

No disrespect to them. It just brings memories of our putrid qualifying campaign.

No doubt...I think CONCACAF struggles in this tournament. I'm not even very high on Mexico right now. I don't see Costa Rica or Panama making it out of the groups.

[acmillis]

Teams are starting to announce their 23 man rosters so I thought I would create the thread now

Group A: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uruguay -Russia, Uruguay
Group B: Portgual, Spain, Morocco, Iran - Portugal, Spain
Group C: France, Australia, Peru, Denmark - France, Denmark
Group D: Argentina, Croatia, Iceland, Nigeria - Argentina, Iceland
Group E: Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia - Brazil, Switzerland
Group F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea - Germany, Sweden
Group G: Begium, Panama, Tunisia, England - Belgium, England
Group H: Poland, Senegal, Colombia Japan - Colombia, Japan


First Game: June 14th - Russia vs. Saudi Arabia

Russia 3-0

[The Outsider]

I won't be watching.

[Zarniwoop]

Platini basically came out and admitted the World Cup draws are fixed.

http://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-world-c ... enced-draw


Is there a more corrupt organization on earth then FIFA

[NYBF]

Did you see this year's draw for Russia? There shouldn't be a doubt in anyone's mind they're fixed.

[Phantom Phenom]

Now we can finally see who the real soccer fans are in 2018 opposed to the people who only fake care once the world cup rolls around

[The Outsider]

Now we can finally see who the real soccer fans are in 2018 opposed to the people who only fake care once the world cup rolls around

I'm assuming you're referring to the USA not being in it. While that's somewhat true, there are a lot of soccer fans like myself who aren't watching out of disgust with FIFA.

[Zarniwoop]

We have some friendlies coming up during the world cup.

Here is the roster for the first game against Bolivia at the end of the month.

Incredibly young and Europe based roster

\

Goalkeepers: Alex Bono (Toronto FC), Bill Hamid (Midtjylland), Ethan Horvath (Club Brugge)

Defenders: Cameron Carter-Vickers (Tottenham, on loan at Ipswich Town), Eric Lichaj (Nottingham Forest), Matt Miazga (Chelsea, on loan at Vitesse Arnhem), Matthew Olosunde (Manchester United), Erik Palmer-Brown (Manchester City, on loan at KV Kortrijk), Antonee Robinson (Bolton Wanderers), Jorge Villafana (Santos Laguna), Walker Zimmerman (LAFC)

Midfielders: Joe Corona (Club America), Julian Green (Stuttgart, on loan at Greuther Furth), Alejandro Guido (Club Tijuana), Lynden Gooch (Sunderland), Weston McKennie (Schalke), Keaton Parks (Benfica), Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund), Rubio Rubin (Club Tijuana), Tim Weah (Paris Saint-Germain)

Forwards: Andrija Novakovich (Telstar), Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen)

[The Outsider]

We have some friendlies coming up during the world cup.

Here is the roster for the first game against Bolivia at the end of the month.

Incredibly young and Europe based roster

\

Goalkeepers: Alex Bono (Toronto FC), Bill Hamid (Midtjylland), Ethan Horvath (Club Brugge)

Defenders: Cameron Carter-Vickers (Tottenham, on loan at Ipswich Town), Eric Lichaj (Nottingham Forest), Matt Miazga (Chelsea, on loan at Vitesse Arnhem), Matthew Olosunde (Manchester United), Erik Palmer-Brown (Manchester City, on loan at KV Kortrijk), Antonee Robinson (Bolton Wanderers), Jorge Villafana (Santos Laguna), Walker Zimmerman (LAFC)

Midfielders: Joe Corona (Club America), Julian Green (Stuttgart, on loan at Greuther Furth), Alejandro Guido (Club Tijuana), Lynden Gooch (Sunderland), Weston McKennie (Schalke), Keaton Parks (Benfica), Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund), Rubio Rubin (Club Tijuana), Tim Weah (Paris Saint-Germain)

Forwards: Andrija Novakovich (Telstar), Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen)

There are so many names still missing from that roster. Where is Yedlin? He's been solid for Newcastle all year. And Bobby Wood, John Brooks. I get you want to see new guys this year but the top level guys should still be involved.

[sanka]

My picks:

Group A: Russia, Uruguay
Group B: Spain, Portugal
Group C: France, Denmark
Group D: Argentina, Croatia
Group E: Brazil, Serbia
Group F: Germany, Mexico
Group G: Belgium, England
Group H: Colombia, Japan

Hahahahaha what a ****ing dummy pick is this....Japan is not getting out of the group stage. Lmao @ Russia over Egypt...who have the best player in the world in Mo Salah...Group D is all for all grabs...Argentina is only good on a paper.

[The Outsider]

My picks:

Group A: Russia, Uruguay
Group B: Spain, Portugal
Group C: France, Denmark
Group D: Argentina, Croatia
Group E: Brazil, Serbia
Group F: Germany, Mexico
Group G: Belgium, England
Group H: Colombia, Japan

Hahahahaha what a ****ing dummy pick is this....Japan is not getting out of the group stage. Lmao @ Russia over Egypt...who have the best player in the world in Mo Salah...Group D is all for all grabs...Argentina is only good on a paper.

Okay, so Salah is having a great year scoring but he isn't even close to the best player in the world.

That aside Egypt is a very good squad and very well could make it out of the group stage.

[NYBF]

Egypt may have Salah, but Russia has Russia. Absolutely no one should be surprised if the hosts advance.

[Zarniwoop]

Egypt may have Salah, but Russia has Russia. Absolutely no one should be surprised if the hosts advance.

^

[Zarniwoop]

Only once in the entire history of the World Cup has the host not got out of the group stage — South Africa

[The Outsider]

Only once in the entire history of the World Cup has the host not got out of the group stage — South Africa

And IIRC they were pretty dam close.

[The Outsider]

Egypt may have Salah, but Russia has Russia. Absolutely no one should be surprised if the hosts advance.

The Russian team isn't awful either. It's not like we're talking about Trinidad & Tobago here.

[Zarniwoop]

Only once in the entire history of the World Cup has the host not got out of the group stage — South Africa

And IIRC they were pretty dam close.

Yes, they tied in points, lost out on tie breaker

[Zarniwoop]

Spain fired their national team coach 2 days before the tournament because he agreed to take over Real Madrid after the tournament was over.

[The Outsider]

Spain fired their national team coach 2 days before the tournament because he agreed to take over Real Madrid after the tournament was over.

Makes perfect sense.

Also, looks like good ol' North America is hosting 2026. Time to start saving up. Gotta love that automatic qualifier.

[Nano]

They haven't actually determined who will automatically qualify yet. Some think that all 3 will, while some are arguing that only 1 will be given out.

Either way, they're increasing the number of teams for that WC from 32 to 48 so if the US can't qualify then...

[NYBF]

They haven't actually determined who will automatically qualify yet. Some think that all 3 will, while some are arguing that only 1 will be given out.

Either way, they're increasing the number of teams for that WC from 32 to 48 so if the US can't qualify then...

This is why I think it should go to Canada. Mexico will qualify. There is absolutely no excuse for the US in a watered down tournament.

[The Outsider]

And Saudi Arabia is getting smashed by Russia.