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

[Helsinkian]

England: beat a top-20 ranked team 6-2.
USA: draws with a team who haven't qualified for the World Cup since 1950s.

Wales is currently 19th in the Fifa Ranking.

[Lord Halifax]

Well, there go our chances of getting out of this group.

We needed to pick up three points against Wales, knowing we won't get any points against England, to even get second (I can't see Wales losing to or drawing against Iran after Iran's horrible performance against England).

Wales won't get points against England either, so Team USA will just have to beat the Iranians by more than Wales does and lose by less to England.

[Santander]

Let's not get carried away by England's result against Iran. The 6-2 scoreline doesn't really reflect the game - it was probably more like a 3-0 or 3-1 match. Iran have very good forwards who can seriously test more pedestrian teams like the USA and Wales.

England could also lose to anyone in a one-off match.

[Lord Halifax]

Let's not get carried away by England's result against Iran. The 6-2 scoreline doesn't really reflect the game - it was probably more like a 3-0 or 3-1 match. Iran have very good forwards who can seriously test more pedestrian teams like the USA and Wales.

England could also lose to anyone in a one-off match.

Did you see the Iran game? The Iranians clearly weren't playing like a team and the terrible situation in Iran and the double pressure on them from the regime and the people will continue to influence their performance.

England could in principle lose to Wales or the US but that isn't particularly likely, their last match is against Wales but I don't see them sending in the reserves, too much prestige at stake (the tabloids will be merciless if they lose to Wales). The realistic US path is to beat Iran by as much as possible and only lose to England by one goal.

[buritobr]

Probably, in Group A, Netherlands will have 9 points, Qatar will have 0, and Ecuardor and Senegal will contest the 2nd place. In Group B, England can have 9 points, Iran 0, and USA and Wales will contest the 2nd place.

[Santander]

It's very simple math - according to Google (not worth much, but it gives us some numbers), England have a 62% chance of beating USA and 64% chance of beating Wales, which is pretty lopsided for a football match. That is 28% chance to lose at least one of the two matches, and if you include draws, a 39% chance to drop points in the two matches. England will make it out of the group, but they're not even close to guaranteed 9 points.

Wales and the USA are favored by far less against Iran, which accurately reflects the much smaller gap between those teams.

[Suburbia]

The talk from Americans about Qatar's human rights issues is peak hypocrisy, especially coming from Americans.

Yes, I am an American, and I am proud of it, but America has a lot of problems.

We're hosting the 2026 World Cup and all of our problems will be talked about then to the rest of the world.

Women don't have access to abortion in half of the country, police and citizens don't get along, etc.

So the FIFA chairman was probably right, that America and yes, European nations should not speak about certain things...

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Ecuador destroys Qatar 2-0, as the hosts become the first host team to lose the opening match of a World Cup. (Even South Africa didn't lose their opening match to Mexico in 2010).

About 70% of the paid Qatari claqueurs left the stadium after the first half-time.
FIFA didn't show those emptied stands, of course...

https://twitter.com/berger_pj/status/1594387866297061376?s=20&t=AlxEm9KebgBX...

Well, there go our chances of getting out of this group.

We needed to pick up three points against Wales, knowing we won't get any points against England, to even get second (I can't see Wales losing to or drawing against Iran after Iran's horrible performance against England).

No one's talking about the record extra time?

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Meanwhile FIFA has demanded that the Belgium team remove the word "love" from the collar of their away shirt, sources have told ESPN. A source told ESPN that FIFA was not even open to negotiation and categorically refused to discuss the matter with the Belgian federation.

[Edu]

Hope we lose to Saudi Arabia lol

[LAKISYLVANIA]

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

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Meanwhile FIFA has demanded that the Belgium team remove the word "love" from the collar of their away shirt, sources have told ESPN. A source told ESPN that FIFA was not even open to negotiation and categorically refused to discuss the matter with the Belgian federation.

we should just go home.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Well, there go our chances of getting out of this group.

We needed to pick up three points against Wales, knowing we won't get any points against England, to even get second (I can't see Wales losing to or drawing against Iran after Iran's horrible performance against England).

Wales isn't a bad team, and it was always going to be like 50/50 odds compared to them. Also Iran might surprise, they lost to England. You don't know what they'll do against USA and Wales. The tournament isn't over yet.

1-1 isn't a bad result. It would have been way worse if you lost to Wales. USA also played quite well, defence is a bit weaker than their offensive qualities tho, just like Wales whose offence is also better.

Wales isn't a bad team, we had difficult times against them as Belgium. They're on the world cup for a reason. Teams like Italy had to stay home while Wales were able to qualify, so it isn't like they cannot play football... .

[LAKISYLVANIA]

The captains of European teams won't wear their - much maligned, because already watered-downed - diversity arm bands. The players of the Iranian national team won't sing their own national anthem. Seems the European players were afraid of the consequences... the consequences being not imprisonment or house arrest, but to lose multi-million Euro contracts or something. Congrats.

Accumulation of yellow cards in past tournaments resulted in some of our best players not being able to play in key matches, so yellow cards do matter.

If you would want to protest against such a decision, the team would have to decide to go home and not play.

We don't have great width in our selection so we cannot like freely take yellow cards just out of a matter of protest, when the entire nation expects you to at least be in the QF and to be a shadow favourites of winning the tournament. That would be very unprofessional.

If they want to protest, they should just go home and not participate at all. Yellow cards are too much of a disadvantage that it simply would not be worth participating if you want to make the gesture.

[Santander]

🕋

[buritobr]

Hope we lose to Saudi Arabia lol

well well well

[buritobr]

We shouldn't underrate the AFC national teams. The 5th of the AFC, Australia, won against the 5th of the Conmebol, Peru, in the penalty kicks in the qualifier.

[Santander]

We shouldn't underrate the AFC national teams. The 5th of the AFC, Australia, won against the 5th of the Conmebol, Peru, in the penalty kicks in the qualifier.

Asian teams should not be underestimated, but Australia is actually bad.

[Lechasseur]

Do you know the indirect motive for the Brazilian soccer jersey being yellow?
Well, it's the color of the House of Habsburg
Let me explain: the color yellow was choosen in 1953, because of the color of yellow losangle in the Brazilian national flag.
The rectangle in the flag is green because it's the color of the House of Brangança, where emperor Pedro I (1822-1831) belongs, and the losangle is yellow because it's the color of the House of Habsburg, where consorte empress, the Austrian Leopoldina, Pedro's wife, belongs.

Austria played in the World Cup last time in 1998. Since the austrians can't see their national team in the world cup, they might support the Brazilian national team, because it carries something from Austria in the jersey.

I did not know that, but that's actually really interesting.

[Santander]

I love how badly France wants to get more goals.

[buritobr]

For those who like to support the poorer country in games your country isn't playing, I bring this table to help you in your choice.
I don't have separate data for England and Wales, so, the GDP per capita of UK is included in this table

[Middle-aged Europe]

The captains of European teams won't wear their - much maligned, because already watered-downed - diversity arm bands. The players of the Iranian national team won't sing their own national anthem. Seems the European players were afraid of the consequences... the consequences being not imprisonment or house arrest, but to lose multi-million Euro contracts or something. Congrats.

Accumulation of yellow cards in past tournaments resulted in some of our best players not being able to play in key matches, so yellow cards do matter.

If you would want to protest against such a decision, the team would have to decide to go home and not play.

We don't have great width in our selection so we cannot like freely take yellow cards just out of a matter of protest, when the entire nation expects you to at least be in the QF and to be a shadow favourites of winning the tournament. That would be very unprofessional.

If they want to protest, they should just go home and not participate at all. Yellow cards are too much of a disadvantage that it simply would not be worth participating if you want to make the gesture.

Or alternatively, teams who have received yellow cards for wearing the arm brands could choose to ignore the yellow card and send the respective players on the field anyway.

What is the FIFA gonna do? Prematurely terminate the match whre this happens? Disqualify the team for the rest of the world cup? This would create an even bigger scandal for FIFA, possibly endangering the entire world cup if such behaviour snowballs. I dare Infantino to go through with it. This is a game of chicken, and so far it is the European teams who have chickened out unfortunately.

[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!

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

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

The Saudis had a plan crazy enough to work.

[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