he sets a great example. well deserved.

Slovakia down to ten men. Scotland have no excuse if they fail from here.

Qualified. England are going to Russia.

lets go the boyssss

Gareth Southgate, on England's qualification (congratulations by the way. Bastards.)
We are not going to become Spain in the next eight months

So, no government crackdown when Milton Keynes declares its independence and tries to hold a referendum, huh? :laughing:

Full time in Georgia. The lads from the Land of Song win 1-0, a good, solid performance from the boyos. Parties in The Valleys tonight.

Will you be watching Ireland, TH?

Was that today? If so, then no obviously, I missed it. But if it's tomorrow then I'll watch the highlights, as I always do. Much as I love football, I find it quite boring to sit through a whole match, and doubly so when it's Ireland. 85 minutes of nothing happening on our side, a lucky shot, an undeserved penalty, a bad decision, aliens invading ... whatever weird circumstances result in our actually getting a goal is not worth sitting through the rest of the tedium for.

Won 2-0, last night.

So what happens if Ireland make it to the WC? Will you not watch the matches then assuming you have the time?

I feel similar when it's an England qualifier but when it's the tournament proper I am hooked. More emotionally invested when the matches really matter. Thursday night was painful, I don't care how much anyone supports England.

england are the best team to watch in the tournament cuz u know no matter what they’ll always find a way to bottle it

Some of the best England bottle jobs:

First group game, 2-0 up, lost 3-2:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMn7I3rImWk

Same tournament, just needed a draw in the final group game:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80hZNGOY_g8

Euro 2008 qualifiers, in this qualifying campaign we looked to have blown it a while before this final game, but Russia lost away to Israel 2-1 in the penultimate game which allowed us back in, for England's final game, we only needed a draw at home to Croatia. Absolute banter to fuck this one up so badly:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxXba_ENkDE

This is just :D:o:, England women in the WC semi final:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySaEDzBVgrA

The penalty shoot outs of 2006 & 2012 were bad too, we were winning and still blew it :D

tbf that's a beautiful goal. shame it was wasted on the wrong end :D

a couple more years of growing pains are in order but i'm very excited for 2020 & 2022. England could do big things.

If by some miracle we get there, then I'll probably watch the matches full, but the problem is always that I have to record them, as I'd be feeding Karen or something, and once they're recorded it's hard not to hit that fast-forward button, esp if nothing is happening for long periods. And of course, with the World Cup, you have so many matches to try to watch, again I tend to watch mostly the highlights shows. Nothing worse than anticipating a great match that turns out to be a damp squib, unless it's not bothering with one that looks like it wouldn't be up to much and it turns out to be the game of the tournament!

Kane :cool:

Over for Scotland. Winning 1-0 just needed to hold on. 2-1 then they equalised but it's not enough. FT 2-2 and Scotland are out of the World Cup.

Northern Ireland should still be OK for a play off place.

Wales vs Ireland tomorrow should be an absolute belter.

Congrats to Ireland.

A bit gutted.



Awesome.

Proper gutted.

Why are you guys gutted? England is through. Quite surprised we beat them. Wales I mean, obviously.Typically, I set the TV to record the highlights, it clashed and missed out the first part of the prog which was (anyone?) the Irish match. Got to see Serbia, Italy, Lichtenstein!
Oh joy! :rolleyes:

A Northern Ireland vs Republic would be one hell of a playoff, and it might happen....

I just wanted Wales to go through. I support all the Home Nations (and Ireland when it doesn't inconvenience them). Plus Wales were great last summer and Bale deserves to play in a World Cup.

Ireland going through isn't bad, a shame it was between those two really but I would have preferred Wales.

Would be great.

Wales have a great group of players atm so there'll always be a small part of me that wants them to go through.

It's the tournament as a whole and the neutral supporters who lose when players such as Bale aren't there.

We are facing the very real possibility of Bale, Messi and Ronaldo all missing out. Portugal play tonight against Switzerland and need a win to top the group, if not, then they're in the play offs. They should be OK, but you never know.

Argentina are in big trouble. They are 6th (SIXTH) and their final game is away in Ecuador tomorrow (well tonight technically, 00:30 GMT) - a fixture they haven't won in their last three visits and it's 9,000 feet above sea level. It's not an easy place to go because of acclimatisation and Argentina are badly out of form. It will be interesting.

So European group matches have now finished. Portugal won so Switzerland go into the play offs.

The Netherlands have failed to qualify for a tournament again. Their team tonight - Ake, Babel, Blind, Cillessen (G), Janssen, Rekik, Robben, Tete, van Dijk, Vilhena, Wijnaldum.

no doubt the dutch aren’t what they once were, but it still boggels my mind. on paper there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be still doing well. they have a very solid team.

Argentina have gone behind. Messi needs to stand up and be counted.

Magic. He just scored :D

2-1 Argentina. Messi with a thundercunt.

Messi is GOAT.

https://streamable.com/uyf2t

Unreal gol Robben.

Hat trick Messi :cool:

And Robben's goal was :cool:

Woot Go Team USA.

USA are out of the World Cup. Finishing fifth in a group of six, in their confederation, is :o: x 50.

Chile are also out as they lost 3-0 to Brazil.

Argentina are through thanks to Messi obviously. Here are his goals:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zfnu_7DUU4

Best player ever.

Surprised how US soccer team didn't make it. Fox's $200 million bid for World Cup TV rights looks like a disaster - Business Insider

Yep to T&T. I knew that when I posted it. Just wanted to make fun of those scrubs that get paid more than their female counterparts still!

lol

FC Dallas under-15 boys squad beat the U.S. Women's National Team in a scrimmage

Comparing men's and women's football :D

Anyway, #Pain for Pulisic. Saw a segment on CNN the other night talking about if he could be the first $100m USA soccer player :D

Does look an excellent prospect though. His record for his age is good and he's not playing in a joke league either. One to keep an eye on.

ehhh. i think he's alright. speed is his biggest strength. he benefits from playing on such a strong side imo, and of course he looks good when playing with the USMNT because they have like, 3 decent players. maybe he will end up being a great, but my prediction is he tops out as a nice role player for a mid to bottom table team, probably in the Prem.

if people think the English tabloids are bad, just wait. i feel bad for the kid already, it's going to get bad.

I really like Pulisic. Not sure he will be a super player but should have a very good career.

They did. They're gone. :laughing:
Why? There's about as much interest in soccer in the USA as there is in dwarf bowling. More, probably, in the latter. When the World Cup was on IN THE USA a huge percentage of the people asked about it STILL hadn't even heard of it.

3rd most played sport.

3rd highest average attendances (more than NBA and NHL).

Well I guess that was 1994. Maybe they got sense.

I was surprised. I knew it was growing but 3rd highest played and attended is the equivalent of cricket or rugby here (don't know which one it will be but those are clearly the other two sports in England).

it's quite a bit more popular now, for sure. couple of good vids on how the MLS are building hype around the league, even if i have some issues with the american take on the sport.

I remember seeing the first one a while back. Not knocking their passion but not sure about 'creating' rivalries. Many of them have over 100 years of history, religion, politics and nationality is involved, it's not something you can just pluck out of the air and manufacture. I mean Celtic/Rangers is just an outlet for already existing bigotry and hatred, not the other way round. Most of the typical local rivalries split families & work colleagues, you go through school with it so even if those don't have religious or political sides the emotion is still there. Not going to be the case in the US when everyone on this thread is older than most of their clubs. Not having a go at the Americans, just saying.

USA vs Mexico I can understand. I'm watching the second video now and I can understand why that would be a 'real' rivalry if you get me.