Official 2018 World Cup Thread

[NYBF]

**** you france, bunch of cheese eating surrender monkeys.

[The Outsider]

Griezmann flop, BS handball. Why the **** even bother with VAR?

The Griezemann flop sure, but that was a legit handball.

[sanka]

Mpabbe reminds me of Thierry Henry of 1998.

Viva Le France ...2nd World Cup. France needs to improve lives for the immigrant groups that live in the hood outside of Paris.

[The Outsider]

M'bappe is actually better than Thierry Henry was at his age. If he can improve his touch and skill he could be Messi/Ronaldo levels of good. I'd also like to see less diving and other bullshit from him but I'm.afraid it's become part of.the culture.

[sanka]

True. I hope Madrid can snatch him up and leave Hazard for Chelsea's sake...he is all we have. We could sell Hazard and buy Mpabbe lol.

[The Outsider]

True. I hope Madrid can snatch him up and leave Hazard for Chelsea's sake...he is all we have. We could sell Hazard and buy Mpabbe lol.

Considering I hate Chelsea....

Lol, honestly though I don't think PSG is going to sell M'bappe quite yet. They are as wealthy as Madrid and only just signed him. And with M'bappe on the rise on the right and Neymar on the left they could have the best duo of wingers in the game in 2 or 3 years.

[NYBF]

Griezmann flop, BS handball. Why the **** even bother with VAR?

The Griezemann flop sure, but that was a legit handball.

Kick the ball into a defender's hand from 3' away it will never be ruled a handball. But for some reason a deflection off the head from under 2' away is?

[NYBF]

Mpabbe reminds me of Thierry Henry of 1998.

Viva Le France ...2nd World Cup. France needs to improve lives for the immigrant groups that live in the hood outside of Paris.

Funny considering how many "French" made up the national team.

[sanka]

Mpabbe reminds me of Thierry Henry of 1998.

Viva Le France ...2nd World Cup. France needs to improve lives for the immigrant groups that live in the hood outside of Paris.

Funny considering how many "French" made up the national team.

Yea, but, many of them do hail from the banlieue of Paris.

[Jason Bourne]

Griezmann flop, BS handball. Why the **** even bother with VAR?

Handball was legit

[The Outsider]

The Griezemann flop sure, but that was a legit handball.

Kick the ball into a defender's hand from 3' away it will never be ruled a handball. But for some reason a deflection off the head from under 2' away is?

I've seen the replay like 15 times at this point. Perisic can't have his arm stuck out like that. It doesn't matter if he intended to hit the ball with his hand or not. His arm made his body bigger due to being in a position away from the body. Any defender knows that you have to keep your arms, especially elbow down, in as tight to your body as possible when you're inside the box like that.

[Buc2]

It was the right call and it didn't decide the game. As much as I was pulling for the underdog, at the end of the day, the best team won. Congrats, France.

[Ken Carson]

Croatia dominated most of the game. France won on the counter attack and through good fortune. Given full rest for both teams, I like Croatia in a rematch.

[uscbucsfan]

Heard on the radio the WC ratings were down as much as 32% from 4 years ago. Not sure if those were just US numbers, but the whole tourney was down, especially the final.

Edit: They were down from 2010, too.

[The Outsider]

Croatia dominated most of the game. France won on the counter attack and through good fortune. Given full rest for both teams, I like Croatia in a rematch.

That's the thing about soccer. Croatia dominated possession and had twice the shots that France did, but had less shots on target. The best team doesn't always win the possession battle. In fact, Jose Mourinho's Chelsea won the English Premier League on parking the bus and winning on the counter.

[NYBF]

Heard on the radio the WC ratings were down as much as 32% from 4 years ago. Not sure if those were just US numbers, but the whole tourney was down, especially the final.

Edit: They were down from 2010, too.

From what I've read, that's just US. Eh, their loss. Best world cup in a while.

[uscbucsfan]

Heard on the radio the WC ratings were down as much as 32% from 4 years ago. Not sure if those were just US numbers, but the whole tourney was down, especially the final.

Edit: They were down from 2010, too.

From what I've read, that's just US. Eh, their loss. Best world cup in a while.

It felt that a ton of people in the US were interested. I kept hearing on ESPN that each of the last 3 WC it has gotten more popular here and it's growing, then the numbers come out and the ratings were terrible. The US not being in factors in, but I also don't think the popularity has grown like some had thought.

[Buc2]

I watched some of highlights of games online, but I only watched one full game. The final.

[Deja Entendu]

I think the US not being in it is the obvious major factor; on top of that, I also feel like the game times weren't as convenient as they were in 2014.

Maybe I'm mis-remembering, but it felt like they were all in the afternoon. I know the 10am games were tricky for me this year, and I have a more flexible work schedule than most. Taking the US out of the equation and you have less people following and invested in finding ways to watch.

I'm curious what the streaming #s were like.

[acmillis]

I think the US not being in it is the obvious major factor; on top of that, I also feel like the game times weren't as convenient as they were in 2014.

Maybe I'm mis-remembering, but it felt like they were all in the afternoon. I know the 10am games were tricky for me this year, and I have a more flexible work schedule than most. Taking the US out of the equation and you have less people following and invested in finding ways to watch.

I'm curious what the streaming #s were like.

I'm gonna go with the start times. If you work a M-F, 9-5, you only caught weekend games.

[NYBF]

Yeah, I think time zone was a bigger factor than the US not being in it. 2014 had the perfect storm of the US doing well and Brazil being (I think) split between Eastern and an hour ahead of Eastern, so the game times were convenient.

[Buc2]

Yeah, I think time zone was a bigger factor than the US not being in it. 2014 had the perfect storm of the US doing well and Brazil being (I think) split between Eastern and an hour ahead of Eastern, so the game times were convenient.

2022 won't be much better with the games in Qatar. They're the same as Moscow...7 hours ahead of ET.

[NYBF]

Yeah, I think time zone was a bigger factor than the US not being in it. 2014 had the perfect storm of the US doing well and Brazil being (I think) split between Eastern and an hour ahead of Eastern, so the game times were convenient.

2022 won't be much better with the games in Qatar. They're the same as Moscow...7 hours ahead of ET.

And it won't help that it is now running from Nov - Dec and interrupting club seasons all over the world.

[Buc2]

2022 won't be much better with the games in Qatar. They're the same as Moscow...7 hours ahead of ET.

And it won't help that it is now running from Nov - Dec and interrupting club seasons all over the world.

Oh, wow. I didn't realize they did that.

Here's the Wiki write up on it...

Move to November and December

Owing to the climate in Qatar, concerns were expressed over holding the World Cup in its traditional timeframe of June and July. In October 2013, a task force was commissioned to consider alternative dates and report after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.[66] On 24 February 2015, the FIFA Task Force proposed that the tournament be played from late November to late December 2022,[67] to avoid the summer heat between May and September and also avoid clashing with the 2022 Winter Olympics in February and Ramadan in April.[68][69]

The notion of staging the tournament in November is controversial since it would interfere with the regular season schedules of some domestic leagues around the world. Commentators have noted the clash with the Western Christmas season is likely to cause disruption, whilst there is concern about how short the tournament is intended to be.[70] FIFA executive committee member Theo Zwanziger said that awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar's desert state was a "blatant mistake".[71] Frank Lowy, chairman of Football Federation Australia, said that if the 2022 World Cup were moved to November and thus upset the schedule of the A-League, they would seek compensation from FIFA.[72] Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, stated that they would consider legal action against FIFA because a move would interfere with the Premier League's popular Christmas and New Year fixture programme.[73] On 19 March 2015, FIFA sources confirmed that the 2022 World Cup final would be played on 18 December.[74]

[Zarniwoop]

But Qatar promised air conditioned venues for both the fans and on the field for the players too.

Surely FIFA vented out this promise in their original bid?

[Deja Entendu]

What are the odds it even takes place in Qatar? I still think there's a decent shot something unravels and Great Britain gets it (now that North America is getting 2026).

[Zarniwoop]

I think it’s a near certainty it stays in Qatar. FIFA will bankrupt itself if it means a good spot of virtue signaling

[The Outsider]

I think it’s a near certainty it stays in Qatar. FIFA will bankrupt itself if it means a good spot of virtue signaling

Like virtue signaling has anything to do with it. ****ing over people who bribe you is bad business. If they want to keep the dirty cash rolling in they can't **** Qatar on this.

[Ken Carson]

From what I've read, that's just US. Eh, their loss. Best world cup in a while.

It felt that a ton of people in the US were interested. I kept hearing on ESPN that each of the last 3 WC it has gotten more popular here and it's growing, then the numbers come out and the ratings were terrible. The US not being in factors in, but I also don't think the popularity has grown like some had thought.

The fact that it was on Fox Sports and not ESPN has to be factored in as well. I bet you 80% of subscribers can't tell you what channel FS1 is on their TV