FIFA World Cup 2018

[Liam]

2 minutes ago, TCO said:

We can all relax and enjoy the final now ☺️

Also I don't hate England. I dislike the media and the fans. We share your media so the next 50 years would have been torture.

Also it has to have been the easiest path to a semi ever. Their toughest test was a Colombia with their best player missing and only squeaked past them.

Likeable manager and team, except Dele Alli, he's a right little shit!

Germany had an easier route in 2002.

[Arjen Robben]

Keane and Wrighty bickering there was a good laugh.

[Kaney]

1 minute ago, Arjen Robben said:

I dunno, I mean I've overstated saying I "always" wonder it, but it just seems odd to gravitate towards an English club, watch English football, and then actively root against England. But it sort of feels like if I just at some point decided I supported Real Madrid but at the same time actively hated Spain. Or supported Celtic but hated Scotland.

I feel like a lot of the more anti-England stuff comes as a result of the way the media is about the national team, but then the media around the Premier League is fucking annoying and shit too.

Eh, like I say nationality is not really all that relevant in my particular opinion. I want Scotland to do as well as possible but in Scotland you have a whole load of Rangers fans who "aren't Scottish we're British so God save the Queen rah rah rah" who want England to win, and a bunch of Celtic fans who desperately want to be Irish.

Maybe it doesn't make sense, I dunno. I support Arsenal, but Arsenal =/= the England squad. Celtic =/= the Scotland squad. I don't see an issue

[MDK]

Just now, Spainanite said:

Eh, like I say nationality is not really all that relevant in my particular opinion. I want Scotland to do as well as possible but in Scotland you have a whole load of Rangers fans who "aren't Scottish we're British so God save the Queen rah rah rah" who want England to win, and a bunch of Celtic fans who desperately want to be Irish.

Maybe it doesn't make sense, I dunno. I support Arsenal, but Arsenal =/= the England squad. Celtic =/= the Scotland squad. I don't see an issue

Nobody expects sectarianism in Scotland to make sense.

[FLiam]

On the subject of Spurs bottle jobs, they had 9 players in the semi-finals and 8 of them went home.

[Hobo]

I get as equally tired with the "if england win they're going to not shut up about this for years" stuff as I do the English media hype train.

It's been interesting listening to The Anfield Wrap podcasts and learning how Liverpool fans from the city view the national team as not being anywhere near as important as the club side.

I take a similar view on the Irish team. I've looked at recent squads and tbh, no clue who they are some of them. I think the last Ireland game I watched was against Gibraltar and I was more interested in Gibraltar. 

my ideal WC final was Belgium vs Croatia

[FLiam]

I must say, an England defeat doesn't hurt nearly as much as an Arsenal defeat does.

[Moses Julep]

14 minutes ago, Spainanite said:

 To answer that myself, I don't particularly think it's relevant? I mean Arsenal might be an English club but my favourite players aren't English and it's not as if there even were any gunners in the England squad.

Actually no you are not allowed to root for Arsenal or an English team period so I recommend you find another fifth favourite club, I recommend Toronto FC because they actually win things  

[TCO]

6 minutes ago, PolaMDK said:

Apart from when I saw your mum gardening.

That was pretty good one. Fair play! 😂

[Kaney]

1 minute ago, Moses Julep said:

Actually no you are not allowed to root for Arsenal or an English team period so I recommend you find another fifth favourite club, I recommend Toronto FC because they actually win things  

Shut the fuck up Ringy

[Arjen Robben]

To be honest, I'm not really super invested in the national team myself. Think the only reason I have been more than usual this time is because of Gareth Southgate, and he's pretty much a club legend for us and a good bloke so I'd like to see him do well. But otherwise I've never really felt any kind of representation or anything with the national team. 

Gary Neville was just talking there about people not caring enough about international football and fans getting annoyed when international football interrupts club football and he wishes and hopes it'll be different, and tbh I'm like that and I think I still will be. I'm just not arsed about international football at all outside Euro's and World Cup's and that's not even specifically about England so much as it just is about being able to watch football every day for a month.

 

[The Lusophone]

14 minutes ago, TCO said:

We can all relax and enjoy the final now ☺️

Also I don't hate England. I dislike the media and the fans. We share your media so the next 50 years would have been torture.

Also it has to have been the easiest path to a semi ever. Their toughest test was a Colombia with their best player missing and only squeaked past them.

Likeable manager and team, except Dele Alli, he's a right little shit!

Germany 2002 had an easier run.

[DavidMarrio]

2 minutes ago, Hobo said:

I get as equally tired with the "if england win they're going to not shut up about this for years" stuff as I do the English media hype train.

It's been interesting listening to The Anfield Wrap podcasts and learning how Liverpool fans from the city view the national team as not being anywhere near as important as the club side.

I take a similar view on the Irish team. I've looked at recent squads and tbh, no clue who they are some of them. I think the last Ireland game I watched was against Gibraltar and I was more interested in Gibraltar. 

my ideal WC final was Belgium vs Croatia.
 

Pretty much. This is the first time since being a little kid I've gotten behind the country and after being beat although it's a bit rubbish I'm actually not that bothered at all. Now go back a few weeks to the Champions League final I was devastated. 

I don't know if it's down to "there's a bunch of lads from teams you don't like", "England only play several times a year and really the only time it's a meaningful competition is every two years" or down to social views going back to times such as the whole "managed decline" that the Tory government wanted to do to the city in the 80's  and the attitudes towards scousers/Liverpool fans in general and especially after Hillsborough 

[Adam]

I'm very proud of the team. I always thought going in that we would do well to get further than the Quarter Finals, and we did that. The way the country got behind the team and everyone got swept up by the World Cup has been brilliant, I was only a kid for 2002 and I haven't really been bothered by any other World Cup since England-wise, so this has been great fun.

[Arjen Robben]

Choking at England and Belgium somehow conspiring to play not just one, but two games that neither actually want to play in just the one World Cup.

[TCO]

7 minutes ago, MexicoJack said:

Germany 2002 had an easier run.

Nah, they had to play us. We were actually good then too!

If we had Roy Keane I'm 100% sure we go to the semis.

[Gazz]

They should just say fuck it and have a penalty shoot out for 3rd / 4th.

[Hobo]

28 minutes ago, Arjen Robben said:

I dunno, I mean I've overstated saying I "always" wonder it, but it just seems odd to gravitate towards an English club, watch English football, and then actively root against England.

 

There is a strong tradition in Ireland of having a team in England. It's really only relatively recently that you get people who are fans of clubs other than Liverpool and Man Utd (maybe Leeds and Arsenal going off my memories of being in primary school in the early 90s).  I would assume immigration, the fact they're historically successful (my grandfather was a Man Utd fan and my dad kinda is, whereas my brother who grew up in the 70s and 80s is a Liverpool fan and that's why I am) and geographically not that far away help.

Celtic would get a similar following here because of sectarian reasoning (that said my great-aunt was both Catholic and a big Rangers fan).

Since the Premier League started that's changed a bit. Honestly don't think I saw any Spurs fans in Ireland until about 10 years ago, for example.

There's also the fact that the League of Ireland is about League One level at best. Maybe low tier championship. Only been professional since the mid-2000s and regular TV coverage is also only historically recent. I don't remember seeing any league of ireland football on TV until about the mid-2000s.

As for the "actively rooting against England". Well, the effects of colonialism and jingoism make hypocrites of us all.

[MDK]

So this finally settles the debate about the lack of English players in the PL and the lack of a winter break affecting the England team.

[OctoberRaven]

Well at least third place can still come home, then.