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

[Fight for Trump]

Netherlands 0-1 USA
Argentina 3-0 Australia
Croatia 2-0 Japan
Brazil 4-1 South Korea
England 2-0 Senegal
France 2-0 Poland
Spain 2-1 Morocco
Portugal 0-1 Switzerland

[Meclazine for Israel]

Still coming to terms with the US win over Iran.

Probably the USA's best sporting win over Iran since Hulk Hogan vs The Iron Sheik in 1984.

The Iron Sheik vs. Hulk Hogan (1984)

https://youtu.be/XgEjzI2_ALg?t=482

History made in Madison SQuare Garden. It's up there with The Doors and Led Zeppelin.

[NewYorkExpress]

Still coming to terms with the US win over Iran.

Probably the USA's best sporting win over Iran since Hulk Hogan vs The Iron Sheik in 1984.

The Iron Sheik vs. Hulk Hogan (1984)

https://youtu.be/XgEjzI2_ALg?t=482

History made in Madison SQuare Garden. It's up there with The Doors and Led Zeppelin.

Professional Wrestling really doesn't qualify as a sport.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

And tonight diversity did win.

What a beautiful team.

I'm unironically relieved that Germany's little sister destroyed Russia's colony yesterday, thereby coming a step closer to winning our proxy war. Congratulations! 🙌🏻
It was fun to see how our enemies bit on Granit, who showed them his balls of steel.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

I have

Netherlands defeating USA
Argentina defeating Australia
Japan defeating Croatia
South Korea defeating Brazil and being cursed next time
Senegal defeating England after penalties
France defeating Poland
Morocco defeating Spain
Switzerland defeating Portugal

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Round of Sixteen Picks:

Netherlands defeat USA 2-1 AET

Argentina defeat Australia 5-0

Croatia defeat Japan 1-0

Brazil defeat South Korea 3-1

England defeat Senegal 4-1

France defeat Poland 3-0

Spain defeat Morocco 5-0

Portugal defeat Switzerland 0-0 on Penalty Kicks.

No upsets? If it was that easy, just take out a 8 way multi-bet and cash in.

especially the margins like...

[Meclazine for Israel]

Preview of Mexico vs Portugal.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/ClRJJ0CjpU3/

[GenerationTerrorist]

Come on, America. You really can do this lot. No fear, get in to them, run them ragged.
I'm cheering for you (via the pub) against the Dutch.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Still coming to terms with the US win over Iran.

Probably the USA's best sporting win over Iran since Hulk Hogan vs The Iron Sheik in 1984.

The Iron Sheik vs. Hulk Hogan (1984)

https://youtu.be/XgEjzI2_ALg?t=482

History made in Madison SQuare Garden. It's up there with The Doors and Led Zeppelin.

Professional Wrestling really doesn't qualify as a sport.

Them's fightin' words.

[DavidB.]

Being proven wrong seldom felt so good. 🇳🇱

[Zinneke]

Loser gets NYC.

[buritobr]

The first game of today is the apple pie rivalry and the second game of today is the barbacue rivalry

[buritobr]

The results I expect
Netherlands 3 X 1 USA
Argentina 3 X 0 Australia
England 2 X 1 Senegal
France 3 X 0 Poland
Japan 1(3) X 1(4) Croatia
Brazil 1 X 0 South Korea
Morocco 1 X 2 Spain
Portugal 0(4) X 0(5) Switzerland

I am not rooting for all results I expect. I am rooting for Argentina, Senegal, Japan, Brazil, Morocco, Portugal. I am neutral in Netherlands vs USA, and France vs Poland. I have a preference for the poorer countries. But I like the Japanese team. And I won't root for Poland because I don't like the ideology of the most recent polish governments.

My first one was correct

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

It's called soccer het heet voetbal

[Zinneke]

It's actually quite easier to root for the Dutch this world cup more than others. If there's a feel good story from this world cup it's a terminally ill Louis Van Gaal leading a group of young players and Daley Blind to a decent result. Winning it would obviously be the death of us. But Van Gaal is a genuine legend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMtGfvvaqYs

[Benjamin Frank]

I predicted Netherlands 2 U.S.A 0 but I don't think the U.S really scored the goal, the ground did.

This U.S team has more players in the elite leagues than I think any previous U.S national team had, but their scoring ability is poor, they don't have anything close to an elite level striker. Christian Pulisic is a very good distributor/possessor of the ball, but he can't really score at the elite level. If this U.S team had a Brian McBride, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan or even a super sub like Josh Wolff, the result might have been different, but then I don't think Netherlands would have played the style they did. I think they clearly conceded a lot of possession and a lot of shots/crosses into their box with the expectation that ultimately no American would score.

I think the U.S had more than 30 crosses this game, and possibly had the ball in the Dutch mixer around 50 times. And all they could get was one very flukey goal.

I predict an Argentina win, but closer than others have. I think Australia has improved as the tournament has gone on, and while Argentina has as well, I haven't been enormously impressed. I predict Argentina 2 Australia 1

[Benjamin Frank]

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.

The U.S returned to the World Cup stage in Italy in 1990 after being out for 40 years. Canada returned after being out for 36 years.  The U.S was set to host the World Cup in 1994, Canada is set to co-host the World Cup in 2026.

In the games themselves, in 1990, the U.S was outclassed in their first game by Czechoslovakia 5-1. Similarly Canada was outclassed by Croatia 4-1 in their second game. The U.S though gained respect with their second game, losing to Italy just 1-0. Canada gained respect after losing to Belgium just 1-0. Both the U.S and Canada lost their third games by 2-1 scores, with the U.S losing to Austria and Canada losing to Morocco.

The biggest difference is that Canada went in with a much more pedigreed team, with two players in the top five leagues in the world, whereas the 1990 U.S team was made up almost entirely of players who were 1 year removed from College.

Seeing the three bottom teams in this World Cup, I think shows to some extent the importance of the knowledge of how to play at this level. #32 Qatar had never been to a World Cup (obviously), #31 Canada has not been at this level since 1986, while #30 Wales had not been at a World Cup since 1958.

In regards to Canada though, one last point: It's been said that this is only the second World Cup Canada has made. Though accurate, the process was very different, as many nations did not apply to compete in the World Cup for a long time. Canada did not apply until 1958, applied but then withdrew for some reason in 1962, and did not apply in 1966. Canada has only regularly competed to make the World Cup since 1970.

[Benjamin Frank]

I see that oddly nobody has mentioned this. Not only are 8 of the 16 teams that got out of the group stage European with half not being European (what a coincidence!) but in each group, one European team advanced and one non European team advanced.

In all:
8 European
3 Asian
2 South American (Comnebol or whatever it is)
2 African
1 Concacaf.

Maybe nobody but me cares about symmetry like this.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

It's actually quite easier to root for the Dutch this world cup more than others. If there's a feel good story from this world cup it's a terminally ill Louis Van Gaal leading a group of young players and Daley Blind to a decent result. Winning it would obviously be the death of us. But Van Gaal is a genuine legend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMtGfvvaqYs

I have the dutchies as world champion. They have been twice three times, never been the winner.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

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.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

I see that oddly nobody has mentioned this. Not only are 8 of the 16 teams that got out of the group stage European with half not being European (what a coincidence!) but in each group, one European team advanced and one non European team advanced.

In all:
8 European
3 Asian
2 South American (Comnebol or whatever it is)
2 African
1 Concacaf.

Maybe nobody but me cares about symmetry like this.

More asian teams than south american is a surprise, don't think that ever happened? Except maybe 2002 or in the 1990s.

[Benjamin Frank]

I see that oddly nobody has mentioned this. Not only are 8 of the 16 teams that got out of the group stage European with half not being European (what a coincidence!) but in each group, one European team advanced and one non European team advanced.

In all:
8 European
3 Asian
2 South American (Comnebol or whatever it is)
2 African
1 Concacaf.

Maybe nobody but me cares about symmetry like this.

More asian teams than south american is a surprise, don't think that ever happened? Except maybe 2002 or in the 1990s.

Given that the tournament is played in Asia it maybe isn't too big a surprise, but it isn't the Middle Eastern Asian nations that have benefited. Maybe if Saudi Arabia and especially Iran didn't have their political difficulties they would have advanced as well.

This result was on a knife's age with South Korea advancing just ahead of Uruguay.

[buritobr]

Yes, for the first time there are countries from all the continents in the round of 16. North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. There is no country of the confederation of Oceania, since Australia belongs to the Asian Confederation, but there one country of the continent Oceania.
Only Antarctica is not in the round of 16, but there is no fixed population of human beings in that continent.

Another fact: in this group of 16, only Switzerland is a landlocked country. No landlocked country won the World Cup yet.

[lfromnj]

I just left my gas stove on for an hour, to increase carbon emissions to eventually drown out the D*tch.

[Benjamin Frank]

I don't think this has been commented on enough: in past World Cups, for the first two games of the group stage there were 3 games a day. In this World Cup, there were four games a day (counting the first Qatar game with the 3 games played the next day, as was originally scheduled.)

So, every team has played once every four days unlike the previous World Cups (dating back to I'm not sure when) when it was once every five days. I think this has clearly impacted the fitness levels as well as the mental fitness of the players. One of the criticisms of the U.S team is that Berhalter did not pace the team well by using more of his bench.

As I said above, I don't think it had any impact ultimately for the U.S against the Netherlands as I think they lost due entirely to their inablity to score (the one U.S goal against the Netherlands was an incredible fluke.)

However, it likely impacted Argentina who, despite winning, made a number of poor errors late in the game.

In contrast, the Netherlands seem to be pacing themselves very well having I think clearly not played at 100% potential yet.

I think Netherlands has to be favored against Argentina for this reason.