Naitch

Agreed that an equaliser seemed inevitable after the start of the second half. It also feels like a red card will come out before the final whistle blows.

This feels like a very England way to win the World Cup (2018, hosted by Italy on FM09); no "major" sides until the Final, no standout players (although Scott Carson did get the Golden Glove for only conceding twice), no player scoring more than 3 goals, and only 5 players in the entire Dream Team 23 man squad. The group stage was one of the easiest on paper I've ever had, 9 points against Serbia (2nd), Ghana, and Saudi Arabia, no goals conceded but only 4 scored despite using an attacking 4-4-2 formation. I lost key CM Danny Guthrie to injury in the opener against Ghana, only just making it back for a cameo in the final, and also Rooney being forced off at halftime in the Iran game, missing the QF entirely, and only returning towards the end of the Switzerland game where Extra Time was briefly on the cards. Winning against an aging Spain side that had knocked us out of WC2010 and Euro 2012, as well as finishing runners up to Brazil in 2014, was a very fitting end to the tournament. Player Ratings in the Final:

It's not an uncommon feature of the 60s era. The First Doctor always had at least one futuristic companion (Susan, Vicki, Steven), and almost always a present era companion or two. In those stories a big part of the companions' character development for that whole era is wanting to get back to the present (Barbara/Ian and Polly/Ben) or leaving because they're traumatised by something "too sci-fi" for them to handle (Dodo and Victoria). I'm currently on the Fourth Doctor/Leela in my classics watchthrough and very much enjoying the positioning of Leela as the independent yet curious savage. Romana is also one of my favourite companions as she's probably the closest equal to the Doctor until River Song, though I'm almost certainly biased from having grown up watching the Tom Baker era on UK Gold repeats.

At best, I see him sitting on the bench and making a cameo in injury time if it's already clear either team are going to win. Is he much of a penalty taker? Could always get brought on in the 119th minute if it goes that far.

It's also an irrelevant question as Canada didn't have any successes, and were never going to. They ended up with the 2nd worst performance in the entire tournament and the only worse team (Qatar) were given/paid for their spot automatically.

I like the idea of using a 3atb with wing backs, interchangeably using a Neville or Beckham, and later the likes of Glen Johnson/David Bentley on the right, with Ashley Cole being the obvious first choice on the left. Bridge/Baines/Lescott/Downing/Joe Cole is a decent depth of options depending on whether you want to attack or defend, with plenty of rotation options in central midfield (Barry/Hargreaves/Jenas) to avoid the need for playing Lampard and Gerrard at the same time. Keep Scholes post-2004 and I think that setup would've worked much better than reality showed. @Bobfoc is right though, that Spain squad were destined to dominate. Even if England had qualified for Euro 2008 in place of Russia, progressing out of a group including Spain and Sweden, only to face eventual winners Spain again as Russia did in the semis, wouldn't have been ideal. Come 2010 and that Spain side was hitting it's stride while England were arguably at the point Belgium are now, there's no chance they were going to stand a chance. It'll be interesting to see how Belgium regroups, I think the idea that they might struggle to find an identity until after 2026 has merit, but England's performance since 2016 (and several tournament winning sides too) shows that it's better to have a cohesive team than a star-studded one. Portugal's performance against Switzerland without Ronaldo starting is another example of that.

Sven and Capello both had pretty good resumes, they just clearly weren't capable of dealing with the lack of cohesion in the squad. In Capello's case, I'm sure that was as much down to the issues having been left unchecked for so long. Steve McLaren, much like Roberto Martinez, was absolutely the wrong choice to manage such a star-studded team. I'm not sure who would've been a better choice at the time, mind. Maybe Allardyce, based on his strong reputation at the time, but his first corruption stuff happened around the same time so you'd just have ended up with his brief run happening a decade earlier. That would've led to Peter Taylor taking the role if the same approach was taken as in 2016, much more likely to have ended up with McLaren anyway though. It was never going to happen but imagine if Fergie had taken on the England job in 2006?

Norwich City have made a key signing ahead of the January transfer window that should help turn their recent misfortunes around... I start in the kiosks for next Saturday's Blackburn game before moving onto the corporate bars in the New Year.

Football, cricket, rugby (do league and union count as separate things?), tennis, motorsport, boxing. That was the order that popped into my head, although I'm fantastically uninterested in boxing, so the average person might think of it sooner than I did. Participation isn't really a fair metric, in my opinion, as most of the above have different levels of team sizes and cultural significance. Does hockey get much mention outside of the Olympics and high school PE lessons? I certainly wouldn't put it on the same level as any of the others I mentioned, and I don't even particularly care for any of them except football.

The local medical facility.

It's looking like Ecuador or Senegal based on the result of their game, unless Qatar provide an upset against the Netherlands or Iran and Wales both win the final Group B games.

Are they any good at football though?

You are in the range of 9 to 5 though!

You say that now but Hungary/New Zealand/Panama is a viable group in the next one.

Catching up on 2022 album releases and the new Simple Plan album is a banger! EDIT - Coheed and Cambria's too.

I never quite got that one. Just did a little bit of research into the origin and also found that, while it's been banned at the Bridge since 2007, some fans will still bring in celery to chuck on the pitch at away games.

Very nice visuals. TEW has always felt a little behind the times in terms of user interface, not as bare bones as EWR but very outdated compared to the likes of Football Manager, for example. I'm very intrigued by the idea of story beats, it basically takes the clunkiness out of TEW's piece by piece booking and adds a storyboarding element to it.

It'll be stylised somewhere between that rounded one and a castle turret.

nashdan38@yahoo.co.uk

EDIT - Lineker added another tweet that makes my post redundant.

Who are the favourites to win this year? Of these teams I'd expect the Italian clubs to do well, but I have no idea what their current form is like. West Ham and Villareal seem like the strongest group winners, maybe AZ after them? I'd love to see a final between two teams that haven't been anywhere near the Champions League knockouts. Feyenoord apparently (and surprisingly, to me) fit that bill but Roma were literally in the CL semi finals 5 seasons ago and the Europa League semis 2 seasons ago, so don't quite have the same underdog vibes.

It'd be interesting to do a retrospective comparison of how this World Cup unfolds versus what could've happened if it was held at the usual time. The sheer number of injuries alone will make it a drastically different tournament.

It might be my Chelsea bias showing but, in an injury-free world, I'd be starting Reece James with TAA as the probable backup. Until recently, I still considered Kyle Walker to be a decent cover option for RB/CB but it sounds like Ben White should be filling that role in the squad these days. Trippier definitely makes the squad as a versatile player who can fill in on either side, and for his reputation as a set piece taker. Given that Luke Shaw is inconsistent at the best of times, and Ben Chilwell is clearly always going to have injury concerns looming over him now, Trippier most likely starts on the left for me and switches over to the right if James can't play, as I just don't trust TAA defensively enough to play him from kickoff, or in any game where a decent attacking threat could jeopardise England's chances of progressing.

"Don't just meet expectations." Ironic.

@METALMAN 1st, Peter Reid at 0.125 PPG/Cap 2nd, Bobby Robson at 0.083 PPG/Cap 3rd, Michael Carrick at 0.069 PPG/Cap Last, Steven Gerrard and Alan Shearer at 0.010 PPG/Cap (Shearer is technically worse if you take it to another decimal but only by 0.0004)