FIFA World Cup 2018

[MDK]

His legs go all the way up

[Kaney]

[MDK]

Imagine my disappointment when they banned upskirting

[Lineker]

1 hour ago, PanamAdam said:

Danny Murphy has legitimately ruined this match for me. He makes the games bloody unwatchable with his constant drivel.

Don't worry, Martin Keown is commentating on the final!

[Gazz]

Though on the red button, you can have Danny Murphy, Mark Lawrenson, Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh and a 1950's lawnmower commentating.

[Adam]

3 minutes ago, Switzerlineker said:

Don't worry, Martin Keown is commentating on the final!

He's better than Murphy to be fair. And I doubt I'll be able to hear him if I'm in the pub anyway.

[Rich]

2 hours ago, CrOwentia said:

A Belgium win here would be nice. A Croatia vs. Belgium final is something I could get behind.

nope

[Owen]

8 minutes ago, Rich said:

nope

 

[Arjen Robben]

I can't really think who's been the stand-out player of this tournament, if there's even been one. Certainly can't think of anyone who stood out the way James Rodriguez stood out in 2014. I mean, Kane has six goals and it's three penalties, two corners and one that just bounced off his foot. 

Genuinely think the player I've been most surprised by and who I think has been consistently really good is Kieran Trippier?

[Jimmy]

Modric has been pretty spectacular and Mbappe's been pretty eye-catching imo too. There's been plenty of players who've had great tournaments, but maybe no clear standout in the same way - thought Cheryshev and Golovin were excellent in an over-achieving Russian team. The Swedish captain stood out in the four or five games he played, as did Mina, Sanchez's centre back partner for Columbia. Even if Kane's goals were three pens and two corners etc, he's still stood for being absolutely lethal in front of goal. Lloris deserves a shout for being great too, especially in the last two games, he's made big saves for his country which made their progression look fairly straight-forward. 

Edited July 10, 2018 by Jimmy

[Arjen Robben]

Cheryshev is a decent shout actually, didn't even start their first match and then scored 3 or 4 goals since. I think "spectacular" is a bit of a stretch for Modric though.

[Jimmy]

44 minutes ago, Arjen Robben said:

Cheryshev is a decent shout actually, didn't even start their first match and then scored 3 or 4 goals since. I think "spectacular" is a bit of a stretch for Modric though.

Probably, I just love him, I think you can argue he's also the star of a Croatia side that's got to the semi final (at the very least) and has looked classy when he's played. Love being over dramatic though don't I, so what can ya do? 

[GoN_]

After those last 5 minutes by France, I sure hope whoever wins the second semi final takes this.

[Moses Julep]

It’s funny, because as someone who’s immersed in a lot of non-English punditry and journalism, there’s always been this view that the English national team has this obsession with passion. Like Sven Goran Eriksson, relatively decent tactician takes over, and within a few months he’s kinda given all that up and instead he’s talking about how he needs his players to have drive and passion and ambition. Fabio Capello, master tactician, takes over and quickly goes full FM “where’s the passion laaaaads?”. Not to mention Hoddle and Keegan and McLaren and Hogdson who just went on and on and on about the players being passionate. And for years, all I’ve heard was that England would benefit from actually playing a solidly tactical game like the Germans or the French or the Spanish and move away from this PASSION LADS business.

Now it seems passion and drive works very well, who knew all you needed was an ambitious team willing to work as a unit as opposed to a bunch of overrated, selfish twats like Stevie G and JT trying to go for the glory  

[FestiveJack]

I've never been this nervous about any game of football, let alone an England one. It's wonderful to have an England team it feels the entire country - certain members of the press aside - has rallied behind. 90 (or more) minutes of escapism from an awful political situation in this country awaits and - whilst I'm mindful of giving into the hype - it feels like we can both this game and on Sunday.

It's (hopefully) coming home.

[Colly]

6 hours ago, Moses Julep said:

It’s funny, because as someone who’s immersed in a lot of non-English punditry and journalism, there’s always been this view that the English national team has this obsession with passion. Like Sven Goran Eriksson, relatively decent tactician takes over, and within a few months he’s kinda given all that up and instead he’s talking about how he needs his players to have drive and passion and ambition. Fabio Capello, master tactician, takes over and quickly goes full FM “where’s the passion laaaaads?”. Not to mention Hoddle and Keegan and McLaren and Hogdson who just went on and on and on about the players being passionate. And for years, all I’ve heard was that England would benefit from actually playing a solidly tactical game like the Germans or the French or the Spanish and move away from this PASSION LADS business.

Now it seems passion and drive works very well, who knew all you needed was an ambitious team willing to work as a unit as opposed to a bunch of overrated, selfish twats like Stevie G and JT trying to go for the glory  

Surely we are playing a solidly tactical game though? He's built from the back for a counter attacking side, playing Walker "out of position" in that brilliant mopping up roll he's been doing (I like Mopper, it's like Sweeper but more moist), and the front end in theory looks after itself but due to Alli and Sterling being a bit unproductive goal wise (they've been pretty good generally) we've not quite clicked going forward in open play, at which point our brilliant setpieces have got us where we are. That free kick against Panama was NFL style in it's complexity. I mean yes, there's bantz and stuff, but to suggest this isn't a tactically great England team is doing them a massive disservice. 

[MDK]

And The Love Train

[Arjen Robben]

One of my friends, who's German, said to me yesterday so nonchalantly "Oh yeah, this is the first time in my adult life that Germany haven't been in the World Cup Semi-Final" like he'd only just realised.

And by adult life he means since he was like 8. Spoilt.

[DavidMarrio]

You know who deserves more praise for how they've played this tournament yet hardly ever gets it...Henderson. 

He's been brilliant and has carried over his club form into this World Cup but because of his role and the job he does it gets unnoticed by a large majority of people. But he's been a quality player for ages yet people massively underrate him by both non Liverpool and certain sections of Liverpool fans. 

[Lineker]

25 minutes ago, PolaMDK said:

And The Love Train

Human Centipede.