Soccer World Cup is off and Running

[mike carey]

It has started. After all the debate and angst about the season, moving the tournament from its accustomed place in the northern summer, and the host, the Football World Cup is under way. Discussion about the politics is for another place, this forum is about the sport.

Qatar is playing Ecuador in the opener. Ecuador scored the first goal but it was disallowed on video evidence. They then won a penalty and scored the first goal that counts in the tournament.

After 40 minutes, Ecuador lead 0-2. There will be more closely watched games but this is the first and that has an interest of its own.

[BuffaloKyle]

The FIFA app crashed causing fans to not be able to access their tickets to get into the games:

https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-world-cup/story/4808225/world-cup-chaos-englandus-fans-face-ticket-issues

[BuffaloKyle]

All the beer that Budweiser set aside to be sold at the world cup that was banned at the last minute will now instead be sent to the country that wins the tournament. Good thing the host country Qatar doesn't have a chance! 😆

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/22/business/budweiser-unsold-beer-world-cup

Edited November 22, 2022 by BuffaloKyle

[EZEtoGRU]

Is it just me or is this World Cup not generating the same level of interest that it normally would?  How full are the stands during the games?

[+ Lucky]

Cristiano Ronaldo is such a beautiful man. I could watch him all day, but I will never watch the Qatar show.

[mike carey]

I wonder what the atmosphere was like on Wednesday evening in the Amalienborg Palace as they watched Denmark in its final game in the Cup. I'm sure we'll never be told. The Crown Prince is an Olympian so I suspect he would have been watching.

That said, the final 16 has been interesting in its diversity and in the fall of some titans (leaving aside that North Macedonia had ended Italy's chance of even being in Qatar).

Three teams from Asia, two from Africa and South America and one from CONCACAF, with eight from Europe.

Two Europeans and two of the 'other' will progress to the quarter-finals. Who they will be, and who the other four will be starts to emerge on Sunday morning our time. I fear that Australia beating Messi, I mean Argentina, will require a miracle, and more than a small one.

[EZEtoGRU]

Australia and U.S. are out.  Can England survive tomorrow?  I am going to guess they will beat Senegal.

Still very little interest generated here in the US over these games this year.  It will be even less now that the US is out.  I was out in a busy bar here in small-town Michigan last night and literally no-one I was near to or speaking with mentioned the World Cup even once.  It's just a non-factor here.  I did partake in two other sports conversations however: one about baseball and one about hockey.  I wonder if interest in this year's games is as strong as ever in soccer powerhouse countries in Europe and South America?

[mike carey]

2 hours ago, EZEtoGRU said:

Australia and U.S. are out ...

Still very little interest generated here in the US over these games this year.  It will be even less now that the US is out.  I was out in a busy bar here in small-town Michigan last night and literally no-one I was near to or speaking with mentioned the World Cup even once.  It's just a non-factor here ... I wonder if interest in this year's games is as strong as ever in soccer powerhouse countries in Europe and South America?

It's been very different here. There were 30,000 people in Federation Square in Melbourne at 2am for the game against Denmark, and there were additional public sites with big screens for the final this morning. In Sydney there were also public sites where people gathered in large numbers. The final was at 6am, so not so wrenching as a 2am start. Sydney made public transport free from 4am to midday for people to go out for the game. (In Melbourne the fire brigade had to put out flares that had been thrown on the stage when Australia scored.) Aside from the public events, everyone seems to be talking about it, but no doubt interest will fade, but not disappear for the rest of the finals. It was football's once in four years moment in the sun.

The consensus here is that the Socceroos did far better than we had dared to expect. Two wins in the group stage, no clean sheets against us, progressing to the knock-out phase for only the second time, and having Argentina on the back foot for the last 10 minutes and coming close to equalising at the end. That after only qualifying in a penalty shoot out in an intercontinental playoff (against Perú).

Our dreams shattered (or to be more accurate our hopes again unfulfilled) it's now on to the qualification rounds for 2026. Or perhaps not quite, for both our countries. The women's world cup is in Australia and Aotearoa next year and both the Australian and US women's teams are more highly ranked than our men. (I heard that the US men's team reaching the round of 16 will result in a pay rise for the women (not just the men) because both teams' pay deals benefit from prize money from the men's tournament.) As was the case for the men's 2015 Asian Cup (which we won) Australia will certainly be focussed on the Cup for the weeks that it is on.

[mike carey]

Federation Square at 6.40am today (which is after the Messi goal):

The area was filled to capacity at 5am, that is, an hour before kick-off.

[mike carey]

France 3 - Pologne 1

Or Francja 3 - Polska 1

And the Polish goal was a Lewandowski penalty deep in time added on at the end of the game. A strong performance from France. On to England - Senegal!

[irfy]

Gutted, England lost in a very close game against France.

[+ Lucky]

On 11/24/2022 at 10:00 AM, Lucky said:

Cristiano Ronaldo is such a beautiful man. I could watch him all day, but I will never watch the Qatar show.

In case you forgot...

[BSR]

Since I'm not a soccer fan, I missed all the World Cup excitement as it was happening.  Only months later did I catch an interview with Bono (Yassine Bounou), the Moroccan goalkeeper who blocked 2 penalty kicks to beat Spain and put Morocco in the QF for the 1st time.  Some Moroccans do speak Spanish, but not with this accent.  Apparently Bono "speaks Argentine" despite playing in Spain because his coach & trainers in his first team Atlético Madrid were all Argentine.  Handsome guy, but holy sh*t, his accent could melt buttah.

[mike carey]

There's less than a week to go until the kick-off of the World Cup in Australia and Aotearoa. A couple of days ago FFA flew a little girl called Matilda into Melbourne from around the country for each of the members of the national team to present them with their match jerseys. A bunch of little Matildas to present the grown up Matildas with those jerseys.

Tonight on the DW news they showed the German team at their winter training ground on the NSW Central Coast in brilliant sunshine at 20 degrees, with the comment that going for a swim at the beach seemed totally in order.

Tonight Australia played France in a friendly in Melbourne in front of a sell-out crowd of 50,000, a record for the Matildas. Next week, 80,000 are expected at the opening game of the tournament in Sydney when Australia play Ireland. In case you were wondering, AUS 1 FRA 0.

[mike carey]

Two games to go in the group stage and if nothing else is clear it's that the countries that are power houses in the men's game are not necessarily the stars in the women's game. On Monday, Australia and Olympic champion Canada both had to win their final game in their group after Nigeria had drawn with Canada and stunned Australia 2-3 in earlier games. To profound national relief Australian not only won but romped it in over Canada 4-0 to top the group. The defending champions USA had a narrow escape in their final game when a Portuguese shot on goal passed the keeper but hit the post, so with a draw the US qualified second in their group. Of course how narrowly you qualify for the round of 16 is immaterial, once you're in you have as much chance as anyone else. Unlike their male colleagues who consistently under-perform in tournaments, the England Lionesses raced to the top of their group beating China 6-1 (and eliminating them).

Yesterday brought two big shocks, especially if you're thinking of the men's rankings. South Africa scored in injury time to beat Italy 3-2 to qualify at their expense (in the same group Argentina had a single point from a draw and two losses), and Brazil are on their way home after the Reggae Girlz held them to a 0-0 draw to become the first Caribbean country to qualify for the elimination stage of a global football competition. Colombia looks set to be the only South American country in the final 16.

[+ FrankR]

7 hours ago, mike carey said:

Two games to go in the group stage and if nothing else is clear it's that the countries that are power houses in the men's game are not necessarily the stars in the women's game. On Monday, Australia and Olympic champion Canada both had to win their final game in their group after Nigeria had drawn with Canada and stunned Australia 2-3 in earlier games. To profound national relief Australian not only won but romped it in over Canada 4-0 to top the group. The defending champions USA had a narrow escape in their final game when a Portuguese shot on goal passed the keeper but hit the post, so with a draw the US qualified second in their group. Of course how narrowly you qualify for the round of 16 is immaterial, once you're in you have as much chance as anyone else. Unlike their male colleagues who consistently under-perform in tournaments, the England Lionesses raced to the top of their group beating China 6-1 (and eliminating them).

Yesterday brought two big shocks, especially if you're thinking of the men's rankings. South Africa scored in injury time to beat Italy 3-2 to qualify at their expense (in the same group Argentina had a single point from a draw and two losses), and Brazil are on their way home after the Reggae Girlz held them to a 0-0 draw to become the first Caribbean country to qualify for the elimination stage of a global football competition. Colombia looks set to be the only South American country in the final 16.

The US team really had me sitting on the edge of the seat. I did not see the Italy/SA game but will go back to watch it - that was a shocker. 

[mike carey]

Well, an intriguing pair of games to conclude Group H. Germany needed a win over fourth-placed Korea to guarantee they qualified, either first if Morocco defeated Colombia or second with a draw or a Colombian win. They would still have qualified with just a draw if Morocco had drawn or lost. Cue another shock (or at least surprise). The gods were not smiling on the fancied Germans. They were held to a draw by the Koreans, who were beaten in their other two pool games, and Morocco beat Colombia. So Colombia won the group, and will play the Jamaica Reggae Girlz in the round of 16 (Tuesday 8 Aug at 1800 AEST/0800 UTC/0400 EDT) in Melbourne / Naarm and Morocco will face France later the same night (2100/1100/0700) in Adelaide / Tarntanya.

[SirBillybob]

I PVR these on Canada’s TSN channel because I am still sleeping, and view in the morning. Both of today’s final group stage games were cut off at the end due to overage. Then it occurred to me to just PVR the following program as well because it is set up for game debriefing and is naturally just encroached upon. Well, duh.

As for 🇨🇦 showing … Welp. 

FIFA soccer, FINA Aquatics, Athletics Diamond League, World Athletics, and World Gymnastics (early Fall) nice partial fill ins for this year’s atypical skipping of a summer trip to Europe. 

Edited August 3, 2023 by SirBillybob

[SirBillybob]

Spoiler Alert, if you play the clip (8 seconds), though I removed uniform colour.

—-

Oh my, heartbreak by millimetres. 
 

Edited August 6, 2023 by SirBillybob

[mike carey]

Yes, it was heartbreak. And ecstasy! Although you could argue that the goal post had already had an MVP role in the game.

[SirBillybob]

Hahahah. Heartbreak, ecstasy, or schadenfreude. MVP runner-up Stockholm penalty syndrome, given 2016 Olympic quarterfinals.

Edited August 6, 2023 by SirBillybob

[mike carey]

Australia is not obsessed.

(Parliament House in Canberra tonight.)

[mike carey]

¡Viva España!

And in a side note, HM Queen Letizia attended the final in Sydney this evening and was on the pitch celebrating with the team after the match. HRH Prince William, the Prince of Wales, chose not to attend despite his role as Patron of the Football Association. Football isn't 'coming home'.

[SirBillybob]

5 hours ago, mike carey said:

¡Viva España!

And in a side note, HM Queen Letizia attended the final in Sydney this evening and was on the pitch celebrating with the team after the match. HRH Prince William, the Prince of Wales, chose not to attend despite his role as Patron of the Football Association. Football isn't 'coming home'.

Queen Olga, well for a day at least.

A great series, and well done, ANZ hosting. 

Edited August 20, 2023 by SirBillybob

[marylander1940]

On 6/16/2023 at 5:17 PM, BSR said:

Since I'm not a soccer fan, I missed all the World Cup excitement as it was happening.  Only months later did I catch an interview with Bono (Yassine Bounou), the Moroccan goalkeeper who blocked 2 penalty kicks to beat Spain and put Morocco in the QF for the 1st time.  Some Moroccans do speak Spanish, but not with this accent.  Apparently Bono "speaks Argentine" despite playing in Spain because his coach & trainers in his first team Atlético Madrid were all Argentine.  Handsome guy, but holy sh*t, his accent could melt buttah.

Rioplatense accent !