2022 FIFA World Cup - Qatar, November 21-December 18

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

I think besides Qatar being very bad, people didn’t give enough credit for Ecuador. They were a pretty tough team during CONMEBOL qualification games.

CONMEBOL teams in general should never be underestimated. Ecuador qualified ahead of the likes of Colombia, Chile, and Peru, all three of whom would be top teams in Asia and pretty competitive even in Europe.

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

The Canadian post-match analysis of GER v JPN was very eager to point out that Canada beat Japan in a pre-tournament friendly, lol.

Working from home today, hopefully the Canadians don't pull off too much of a miracle, or I won't get any work done!

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

The Arabs were playing like Allah himself was on the field.

The Saudis had a plan crazy enough to work.

I've noticed that Arabic commentators celebrate goals by yelling a prolonged "Allah" in a similar fashion as the Spanish "goooooooooool". I mean, if you make an appeal to the almighty for every goal, at some point the blessings shall come

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

Canada genuinely played like the better team in the first half, but our finishing is just not there  Still very impressed by the energy and enthusiasm the boys are showing, they're playing as confidently as they did in CONCACAF. Belgium's not out of the woods yet, let's get at least a point out of this!

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

Belgium vs Canada

If the game didn't tie, we know that the winner will be a country that partially speaks French

Country that speaks French vs Country that pretends to speak French

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

Genuinely the most frustrating match I've ever watched, because Canada played much better than I thought we would...we just couldn't score a damn goal!

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

FIFA opens investigation into allegedly homophobic chants by Mexico fans

Look, there should be no place for homophobia, if such chants were made. But if FIFA takes disciplinary action against Mexico, justified or not, FIFA has no moral high ground to claim on these matters

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

FIFA opens investigation into allegedly homophobic chants by Mexico fans

Look, there should be no place for homophobia, if such chants were made. But if FIFA takes disciplinary action against Mexico, justified or not, FIFA has no moral high ground to claim on these matters

But FIFA accepted the World Cup in Qatar, a country that doesn't allow the rainbow flag.

It's like punishing flatulence and accepting defecation.

My point exactly. If you're willing to throw LGBT rights under the bus for the sake of your bottom line, you can't expect people to take your "zero tolerance for homophobia" thing seriously

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

I hope all the USMNT players are wearing "it's called soccer" undershirts for the unlikely event of beating England.

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

I hope all the USMNT players are wearing "it's called soccer" undershirts for the unlikely event of beating England.

What is genuine football called in Canada anyway? Do you call it like your neighbors or like your King?
Do you Canadians also play American football or only Canadian football?

We call it soccer, even French-Canadians call it soccer, which is unique in the French world. Of course, soccer is far from unique to the US and Canada, it's the preferred term in all of England's former "white settler" colonies.

The second question is harder to answer. Canadian football is almost identical to American football, to the point that we call them both "football". There are a few differences, but functionally it's the same sport, to the point that many players in the CFL are actually Americans who got their start in US College football, couldn't cut it into the NFL, and settled for the CFL. Canadians don't really distinguish between "American" and "Canadian" football, you just distinguish between the American and Canadian leagues, as both are popular in Canada.

Fun fact: Dwayne the Rock Johnson briefly played football in the Canadian league, didn't quite cut it, and went into the WWE instead.

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

I hope all the USMNT players are wearing "it's called soccer" undershirts for the unlikely event of beating England.

What is genuine football called in Canada anyway? Do you call it like your neighbors or like your King?
Do you Canadians also play American football or only Canadian football?

We call it soccer, even French-Canadians call it soccer, which is unique in the French world. Of course, soccer is far from unique to the US and Canada, it's the preferred term in all of England's former "white settler" colonies.

The second question is harder to answer. Canadian football is almost identical to American football, to the point that we call them both "football". There are a few differences, but functionally it's the same sport, to the point that many players in the CFL are actually Americans who got their start in US College football, couldn't cut it into the NFL, and settled for the CFL. Canadians don't really distinguish between "American" and "Canadian" football, you just distinguish between the American and Canadian leagues, as both are popular in Canada.

Fun fact: Dwayne the Rock Johnson briefly played football in the Canadian league, didn't quite cut it, and went into the WWE instead.

The biggest differences are 3 vs 4 downs and the unlimited motion

Yeah and the field dimensions, CFL fields are slightly longer. There are a few other differences, but it's near-identical, especially to foreigners who aren't familiar with either.

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

USA should have beaten Wales, and were by far the better team against us tonight. We were ridiculously lucky to come away with a draw.

The USA are a really exciting young team who will be a real threat in 2026, after 4 more years of development, especially as most of your players are now at clubs in top European Leagues.

Like Belgium did vs Canada, England showed that they're vulnerable to the counter-press. They really struggled to get the ball into the USA's half and didn't look comfortable on the ball at all, despite having, at least on paper, one of the most lethal attacks in the tournament. They should be able to beat Wales, but are vulnerable to Ecuador/Senegal in the round of 16, let alone further into the tournament against genuine powerhouses like France and Brazil.

Flashbacks of the Canada game, although the US weren't quite as unlucky as Canada (and England weren't quite as awful as Belgium). Really unfortunate to come out of today's game with only one point, I'm rooting for USMNT against Iran!

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

England and US deadlocked. Hours of effort, for zero change in the status quo. It's the War of 1812 all over again. But with more VAR.

And no Canadians erroneously claiming that we (under the British Empire) beat the Americans (not true)

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

Oof, that loss to Belgium stings a lot harder after today's events. Even if we beat Morocco, Canada can't accumulate enough points to qualify for the Round of 16, meaning that last game is effectively pointless. As for the Morocco vs Belgium match, I think it proves that this Belgium team is just not what they were in the past few tournaments. Which from a Canadian perspective sucks even more, because coming so close to Belgium gave us false hope...in reality, Belgium is a beatable team and we could've gotten a result from them.

Proud of the boys regardless, and especially Alphonso Davies for going in history as Canada's first FWC goalscorer. Deservedly so, as he's the best player Canada has had to date, and he needed a chance to vindicate himself after that poor penalty. Our defence was just not there, the boys burned themselves out too early and got lethargic, and as much as I respect Milan Borjan for all he's done for this team, he's not a World Cup tier goalie and we'll need better going forward. Also a sad night for Atiba Hutchinson, the man's a legend as far as Canadian soccer goes, but at 39 he clearly doesn't have the athleticism to keep up with a world-class team like Croatia.

Onward and upward, we'll get 'em in '26! Hopefully we can get a consolation result out of Morocco. After that, I guess I'll just so what Canadian soccer fans have always done, and cheer for foreign teams that I have a bare minimum connection to

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

Meanwhile, the Belgian squad have had a crisis meeting because the players apparently hate each other. Juicy details are being leaked. Kevin De Bruyne and Thibaut Courtois "haven't spoken for years", strikers Romelu Lukaku and Michy Batshuayi are "not best friends" and Eden Hazard and Leandro Trossard ("everyone in Belgium thinks I should play" but Hazard is actually playing) also don't talk. In an interview, Hazard had apparently blamed the bad results on the old, slow center backs; after the Morocco game, center back Jan Vertonghen implicitly hit back by saying the lack of chances created "was also our fault, or not?" 🍿🍿🍿🍿 I expect this chapter to close after the Croatia game.

https://twitter.com/rtlinfo/status/1597287227008045056

Oh dear.

Yeah, they'll be lucky to get a result out of Croatia after a lucky escape against Canada and an underwhelming loss to Morocco, if this is what's going on behind the scenes.

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

Great to see the USA holding down the fort for the "soccer" nations. Had they not won today, our only hope left would be Australia, and this is like the one sport that Aussies aren't good at.

In seriousness though, I don't see the US getting past the Netherlands. The yanks have a good team that in hindsight genuinely had a shot at winning all three group games, but they struggle to find the net. Two goals in three games is not inspiring form. The Dutch haven't been super impressive either (I didn't watch the Qatar game, but anyone could have beaten Qatar anyway) but with the USMNT struggling to score, the Netherlands absolutely have more than enough attacking quality to put an end to American hopes.

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

Well today we are.

I owe the Australian nation a sincere apology, no doubt.

(b) we don't fake injuries lying on the ground squirming when some one lightly touches us.

I can relate to that, as a Canadian. My mom's side are euros and I played from childhood through high school, so I have an affinity for the sport, but most Canadians without recent immigrant ancestry feel the same way as Aussies and Americans about soccer (it's no surprise that literally every player in Canada's regular starting XI is either himself an immigrant, or the child of immigrants). The diving and play-acting can be very off-putting to people who grew up watching hockey, a sport famous for players literally dropping their gloves and beating each other halfway to death during the game. There's also the fact that European soccer fans can be very gatekeep-y about the sport to the point of obnoxiousness, like they get when you say "soccer" (they say crisps, we say chips, they say football, we say soccer, none of those are incorrect)

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

It seems pretty clear to see what the quarter finals could look like already:

Netherlands/U.S. vs. Argentina
Spain vs. Brazil
England vs. France
Croatia vs. Portugal

Don't think any of the (currently) second-placed team except for the U.S. can take on any of the group winners. But of course, part of the fun in football is that anything can happen.

I'm inclined to agree, but some of the second-placed teams have a better chance than others of causing an upset. Switzerland for example can be a very frustrating team to play against, as France found out the hard way in the last Euro and as Portugal may well find out. I also wouldn't put it past Spain to choke against Morocco, although that's more of a longshot.

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

Serbia have a very good chance of making it out of the group against Switzerland - they have some elite players and actually played fine against Brazil, but Brazil was just that good. They really did bottle it against Cameroon, but they are capable of beating anyone at the tournament except Brazil.

My money's still on the Swiss, but yeah Serbia have a chance

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

england could choke to senegal as well. And croatia isn't over the finish line yet either, depending on who they have to play against.

England choking is always a possibility, but it should be said that under Southgate, they've made the semifinal and final of the last World Cup and Euro Cup respectively. They should be able to get the job done against Senegal

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

It's called soccer het heet voetbal

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

Canada is an improving soccer nation, which I think is generally known, but I don't know that anybody knows this: the parallels between the U.S soccer team of 1990 and this Canadian team, with a few differences.

Canada has a lot of talent, just some areas need to be improved (like defence). Offensively, they're good. They also didn't have luck on their side. They should've won to Belgium.

They will be automatically qualified next time as co-hosts and do great in 2026.

Defence/defensive midfield was definitely the weak spot, and Herdman will have to find good successors to Hutchinson, Vitoria and Borjan in net. Johnston and potentially Miller getting a move to Europe will help them improve.

This Canada team has always been better on the attack, but Jonathan David really didn't show up in this tournament, which was a huge disappointment, an in-form David could have beaten Belgium. It's hard to ignore the fact that Alphonso Davies is by far the best player on this team, but he's not the guy you should be relying on for goals - dropping him back a bit and playing him as more of a playmaker might have helped David and Larin shine as strikers, because those guys are very good, but you need to let them do what they do best. Letting him take the penalty instead of David is emblematic of that. Alphonso is great, but he's not a natural striker, and it showed in how poorly he took that kick.

But yeah, with defensive reinforcements and a bit more cohesive attack, 2026 could see Canada in the knockouts. This is undoubtedly a talented generation, special shoutout to Eustaquio and Buchanan as well who definitely have time to get much better.

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

Good on the Aussies for playing their hearts out to the very end. They easily could have taken Argentina to ET which would have been a huge upset in its own right.

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

England will score first against Senegal, concede a sloppy goal late in the game, causing every Englishman from Cornwall to Carlisle to turn redder than a ripe tomato as he compiles a list of racial slurs to abuse players with. Then Senegal concedes a penalty in ET, Harry Kane scores, and chants of "it's coming 'ome" fill the stadium. Following this, IKEA Qatar instructs all their stores to immediately shut down and evacuate their employees to a safe distance.

Mark my words! England 2-1 Senegal AET

As for France vs Poland, it's gotta be a decent win for France. Poland got lucky that Mexico was unusually weak this time around, the Poles have not played well at all. If they play the way they did against Argentina, 2-0 to France would be a lucky escape

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

In the history of the World Cups, Brazil played once against North Korea and once against South Korea

2010
Brazil 2 X 1 North Korea

2022
Brazil 4 X 1 South Korea

Brazil scored twice as much goals in the South Korea as in North Korea

Glorious Turkmenistan has never lost a match to Brazil