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General Category => Sports => Topic started by: KiloDeltaCharlie on June 08, 2026, 07:14:12 AM
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The World Cup starts this coming Thursday 11th June.
48 Teams are taking part with the event being held by co-hosts the USA, Canada and Mexico.
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Indeed.
But sadly due to the time difference I can't really watch any games...
Part from the first one of the day as it starts at 11pm here...and I gotta go to work at 12:30...
All footsy related games should ALWAYS be played in Europe goddamnit! ;D
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It is very inconsiderate... we invented the game for crying out loud !!! :D
Kick offs seem a little random being anywhere from 5pm through to 5am, I may give the overnight time slots a miss but England has earlier time slots.
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Locally, it's 11am to 11pm start times, with the latest ones being Pacific Coast timezone games, I'm guessing for the APAC folks out there.
Meanwhile, all eyes are on Group B, the Group of Death, with deadly opponents Canada, Bosnia, Qatar, and Switzerland facing off in a do-or-die contest that's winner-take-all with wait hang on that's not a very competitive bracket... :smug:
Honestly, the bracket rounds look like warm-up games for most teams I expect to go into elimination rounds.
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Well finally managed to watch two matched yesterday as the kick offs were on time...
Germany took an expected easy win from Curacao...
and Holland and Japan gave quite the thriller. (my bet for this one was 1-1)
Two matches again today that I can watch...
Spain vs Kap Verde
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Belgium vs Egypt
Spain should just roll over Kap Verde but Belgium isn't half the team it was 10 years ago so who knows....Egypt might prove a tough opponent for them.
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I've not actually seen a whole match yet! Probably saw about 20 mins of the Germany game and didn't see ANY of the goals!!
The enthusiasm for this tournament hasn't quite kicked in yet, maybe when the matches become more crucial for qualifying!
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I suppose that's the first shock of the tournament... Spain 0-0 Cape Verde from what I saw (again not much) it was Spain trying to score thru a brick wall / parked bus!!
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Spain still doesn't know how to deal with a bus defence! It is odd...they've fallen victim to it time and time again...one would imagine they'd try something different by now...instead it's just pass here pass there and move nowhere.
Gotta say though Cap Verde sure scouted them well.
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Kansas City was selected to host some games for this year's World Cup. It's...interesting how people here seem to be responding. On the one hand, you have the folks who understand what the World Cup is, and are excited about it due to knowledge and insight. Then there is a much larger group of people who picture the World Cup as a second-tier soccer championship since the local KC team has never been in it. Then an even larger group of people who don't care, they just see another excuse to get drunk.
Then, there is a small group of people who are protesting the World Cup and the fact that KC is hosting some games. They think it is all designed to bring loose European values to the USA so the Muslims can immigrate and take over.
Seriously.
The lead up saw the city of Kansas City, MO, push efforts to "clean up" and so forth. Through all of the interviews and news accounts, over the past two years, not one person ever asked the mayor or any council members, or just posed the question to the internet, why the city can't be in a clean, maintained state all the time? Clearly there is money to do it...
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The Dallas World Cup games will be in Arlington. No impact on traffic for me, since I live in Dallas.
Will I watch the matches? Likely not. The group matches aren't offering any inspiring matchups and the elimination rounds require a payment. From the FIFA website:
"However, for full tournament coverage, a paid TV or streaming subscription will be required."
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From the FIFA website:
"However, for full tournament coverage, a paid TV or streaming subscription will be required."
Well that absolutely blows!
All games are free to watch here!
And as I expected Egypt did bring the hurt down to Belgium. 1-1 is a huge win for them and something of a loss to Belgium I am sure.
Entertaining second half though!
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That was a pretty good show from England beating Croatia 4-2. It makes a change, we usually have a cagey first game probably ending 0-0, particularly against a decent side like Croatia. I think conceding 2 might irritate some, but as far as I'm concerned the result is more important.
I think both Croatia and Portugal (who drew 1-1 against DR Congo earlier) are in a rebuilding phase with their past heroes a little long in the tooth now.
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I think England played one of their best matches in a looooong time last night!
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Yesterday was Argentina vs Austria and I have to say I am in awe...
I watched Leo Messi stand around for 90 minutes taking like two running steps during the whole match and still he managed to score twice. Talk about standing in the right place at the right time! There's no doubt that he has great instincts for the game, but come on....it kind of looks ridiculous. He walks around like he's on a sunday stroll with his obese dog...AND still he manages to score.
Then I see these attackers running around through the field like crazy and shooting and missing by an inch or hitting the frames not scoring once...it's kind of funny and kind of sad at the same time.
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^^^
He certainly has a relaxed attitude. He probably can't do a full 90 minutes if he's too energetic! ;)
It's England's second game tonight against Ghana. I'll probably miss the first half as I'll be out with friends, and we deliberately picked a pub with no sports screens!
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Big day at the World Cup with two European giants both knocked out in a penalty shootout. Germany was a disappointment in this World Cup and really look a shadow of a once great consistent footballing nation that has always been a major player in the big tournaments. Similar goes for the Dutch. Up and down in the group stage and looked like they were playing for the penalty shootout for much of the 2nd half and extra time against Morroco who have proven to be no slouches. Have to say as captain, van Dijk was weak as piss for not stepping up to take a penalty.
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The Dutch and the Germans would have been good bets for the last 8 so going out in the round of 32 is a shock. Morocco are, however, a class act and they are in the top 10 ranked teams in the world, so maybe not such a surprise.
I do think some of the lower ranked teams have done the obvious thing and packed their defence leaving 1 or 2 up field to capitalise on a break away. England struggled against Ghana because of that. Some teams cope better with those tactics than others which is why I suspect we could be looking at an Argentina / France final again (unless they meet before the final!).
I do worry for England, because even though on their day they could give anyone a good game, they are also capable of losing to lesser teams.
Now we are down to the knock out phase I'm finally getting excited for this tournament, and the occasional shock helps!!
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Germany's been on and off lately so I wasn't all that surprised that they didn't make it but honestly Netherlands was a bit of a shock. Also cost me my bet!
England might be struggling to get through, but I have faith in them.
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Norway didn't make things easy for them but in the end they managed to pull through...
But now I've got a quadruple bet so that's just part one done...
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I guess you're betting on France rather than Sweden? :D
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Indeed!
But goddamn Ecuador...all you needed to do was keep your goal clean for 90 minutes....but no...!
Oh well....now if England wins Congo 1-0 I'll make something back.
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Well that's my nerves shot to pieces... thank god for Harry Kane!
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Same here! That was the most nerve wrecking game yet! But Harry to the rescue!
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Today's only watchable match is Canada vs Morocco...
Haven't seen a single match from either yet...But I did put some money down on Canada to win....I'd much rather see them advance than Morocco! But quite possibly this will be another tie and maybe even penalties.
Paraguay vs France should be a cake walk for France. Might even be something like 1-4.
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The Aussie mates I got on the AFL Discord server were devastated after Imhotep beat Crocodile Dundee in penalty shootouts.
Honestly, I think penalty shootouts should be done first. Then play the game. The shootout is a way of saying, "OK, losing team, you best hustle in the next 90 mins or YOU LOSE." Game should be over when it's over, and not after a skill drill.
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Haha! That might be a nice twist! I'd support that!
I watched the match and honestly I think the Aussies would have deserved the win...although neither team really played all that well and the match was rather boring...But I think Egypt was even weaker.
Hany now has the honor of scoring two goals....in their OWN GOAL!!! :lol:
Go for the hat trick and do another one in the next match!!
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Wow...
Morocco is one disgusting team I gotta say...Since the hey days of Neymar I have not seen so much filming in 45 minutes of footsy...
Also the moroccans (is that a word? well it is now) commits crass and disgusting fouls constantly.
These clowns are giving Oliver a very hard day...Hopefully some of those assholes will getting red cards.
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Well well well looks like my World Cup Champion bet is still alive!!
WAY TO GO ENGLAND!
Interesting matches coming again today!
Portugal vs Spain
This should be a very even match...Most likely Spain will be keeping the ball and Portugal will defend...honestly I wouldn't be surprised if this one would be 0-0 or 1-1
USA vs Belgium
This could go either way honestly...can't imagine a goal extravaganza out of this one either.
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I didn't stay up for the Mexico vs England game. Half expected to wake up and find England were out... pleasantly surprised we became only the 3rd team to beat Mexico in Mexico City in 56 years. Not seen many clips yet, but apparently we played well but were "holding on" a bit at the end which wasnl't too surprising given that they were down to 10 men.
Happy, if a little surprised, to see Norway get past Brazil, but Brazil were poor.
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Spain should get past Portugal, but it may be close.
I can see teh US winning with home advantage, Belgium just aren't the team they were 6-10 years ago. But yeah, it could go either wya.
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At the beginning of the tournament I was expecting -- with all things being equal -- that the quarter finals would include these teams...
Argentina and Brazil from South American and France, Spain, Germany, Netherlands and England from Europe with one other out of the likes of Portugal, Morocco, Croatia, Egypt, Mexico or any of the other good second tier teams... I wasn't thinking of Norway!!
Well, of the main 7 we have already lost Brazil, Germany and Netherlands
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I caught the first part of England vs Mexico and those first two goals England made were awesome. Really set MX on their heels, but they put up a fight.
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One little mistake cost Portugal a lot tonight.
Great exciting match though...
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I thought in the second half it was a little cagey with few chances, but you could sense the tension. The goal was well worked and taken.
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Despite all of the red card drama, Belgium knocked USA out of the competition.
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Seems like Belgium is finally getting their act together...lets see if they can win the next one...
Argentina should walk all over Egypt BUT they have proven to be pretty good in tight spots now and Argentina can stumble a bit...I could imagine this going over 90 minutes.
Switzerland vs Columbia...ach...know knows...I have never liked the swiss (or basically albania considering like 90% of their players come from there I think) they play very dirty and are a bunch of whiny crybabies...So I'll be rooting for Columbia here!
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I think the debacle surrounding the re-instatement of the US player after his red card, just might have been the kick up the arse that Belgium needed to play at their best.
Today's game will probably be a win for Argentina but I would quite like to see Egypt win ;) ! It's a coin toss with the other game and I don't really have a preference.
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Well damn...my bet was so close...but that 3rd goal from Argentina...bugger!
But what a great match though!
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Yes, a good game, thought Egypt were going to do it. It was only about 15 minutes of normal time left before Argentina turned up!
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So the Swiss win on penalties. I wasn't really watching the game that closely but I got the impression that neither attack was getting the better of the the opposing defence. Not sure the Swiss will go any further.
There's a day off Wednesday and then on Thursday the Quarter finals start, 1 per day:
France vs Morocco
Spain vs Belgium
Norway vs England
Argentina vs Switzerland
I'd like to think the Semis will be France vs Spain and England vs Argentina but I wouldn't place money on it!!
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France vs Morocco tonight, the first of the Quarter Finals.
Should be a win for France, but we must not forget that Morocco are a top 10 ranked team.
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And Morocco plays incredibly dirty disgusting footsy so that will be an issue...especially if the refs aren't up to the task.
If France loses it won't be because of talent, that's for sure.
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I've heard that about the Moroccan's approach to futbol (see what I did there? ) A guy I was friends with in high school was BIG into soccer, and I recall him discussing how underhanded they were, even back then. Sounds like they are carrying on a fine tradition of, "win by any means, fuck sportsmanship." :)
Unrelatedly, but something I've always thought was pretty cool, and comes to mind given the recent 250th anniversary of the USA's proclamation of independence from those tyrannical British psychopaths: Morocco was the first country to officially recognize the USA as its own political entity, and they were the USA's first trading partner, and have enjoyed a special status with the USA to this day.
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Unrelatedly, but something I've always thought was pretty cool, and comes to mind given the recent 250th anniversary of the USA's proclamation of independence from those tyrannical British psychopaths: Morocco was the first country to officially recognize the USA as its own political entity, and they were the USA's first trading partner, and have enjoyed a special status with the USA to this day.
I did not know that! In fact I did not know that Morocco was even a country in 1776!
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France had a comfortable 2-0 win over Morocco. Not sure they got out of 2nd gear.
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Good news about FR, Morocco's position was overblown so it was only a matter of time. Took long enough though :)
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Yeah Morocco tried to get to the penalties by parking a bus but that rarely works against a team as good as France.
Happy to see those scumbags go, hopefully this is as far as they'll ever go.
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Today's game is Spain vs Belgium
This should be a win for Spain, but after their last game Belgium's confidence got a boost and they could be more of a challenge than I would previously have thought.
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Belgium has picked up momentum for sure...BUT Spain is playing SUBERB footsy right now...on both ends...so I feel rather confident Spain will move forward.
But I'm not expecting a goal extravangza out of this...0-0 or 1-0 is more than possible.
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Very tight game...Merino is a bet killer that's for sure! As every time he comes in he scores...EVERY goddamn TIME! I had this one as a tie with less than 2.5 goals and less than 7.5 corners...Would have hit without him coming in! :D
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Was cetainly a close one - several times I thought Spain was going to give it up, but they managed to hold Belgium off long enough to advance, good on them!
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We have 2 quarter finals today, although the second one is at 2am tomorrow morning our time...
First up is England vs Norway... I don't see this being a 0-0 after 90 minutes, I actually think it could be a 3-2 or something. Obvs I want it to be 3-2 to England, but Harland may piss in our beer!!
The second game is Argentina vs Switzerland. I can not see Switzerland progressing any further in this competition, this "should" be easy for teh Argies!
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England 2 Norway 1 after extra time.
England do not do my nerves anby good!! But 2 goals from Jude Bellingham takes us to a semi final.
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I saw the first half only.
But those goals were both rather stellar...especially Bellingham's...he went past 3 guys and just kept going. What a preformance!
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Something I hadn't realised until it was mentione on TV just now. The 4 semi-foinalists are in fact the top 4 teams on FIFAs rankings... and apparently this is the first time it's ever happened
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I saw the first half only.
But those goals were both rather stellar...especially Bellingham's...he went past 3 guys and just kept going. What a preformance!
Bellingham has always been one to watch, but this tournament he has certainly taken the next steps to greatness. It was disappointing that both Kane and Haarland had subdued games and did very little of note.
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I hadn't realized that the FIFA rankings were so on-point with the semi-final representation either. That's interesting!
I wonder how much that will impact the next World Cup's betting spread :)
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Something I hadn't realised until it was mentione on TV just now. The 4 semi-foinalists are in fact the top 4 teams on FIFAs rankings... and apparently this is the first time it's ever happened
That is pretty interesting indeed. We had few surprises but in the end the final 4 are the ones that were expected. Best 4.
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France vs Spain tonight
In theory it should be France... in practice it could go either way. Personally I think I'm wanting Spain!
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This is indeed a close call....could really go either way.
But this does mirror somewhat of the 2010 world cup when Spain won all of their matches and won the cup. This time though it's France that's won all the matches...so I think momentum is on their side.
IF they win today, it's more than likely they'll win the whole thing...but if Spain wins then my original choice England still has a chance! ;D
I'm assuming this will be a very tight game...1-0 or maybe 1-1 after 90 mins.
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Well how about that...
Spain killed France...quite literally.
Spain played their best match of the tournament...and France their worst.
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I did not see France playing that poorly, but Spain played a great game, and deserved the win.
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Well they had so many missed opportunites and offsides and missed passes...naturally part of that was becuase of Spain's brilliance but still...they have played much better in the tournament in my honest opinion.
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Today we have Argentina vs England
Another game which could go either way, I suspect the Argies are the favourites, but really it's too close to call. Having said that this is as far as England were expected to get so anything else is a bonus.
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I am still 100% rooting for England!!
But honestly this could go either way...depends a whole lot on how strong England's defence game is gonna be.
We're gonna be seeing 90 minutes of Messi walking around on his usual sunday stroll but if England just patiently walks with him things should be alright.
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It's half time... wake me up when a game breaks out!
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Goddamnit!
England did an England again!
After the first goal they just simply stopped playing and gave away their lead so easily and then they lost...How many times have we seen this happen?
Bugger!
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Come on Spain!!
Yes, they scored and then just sat back even when the Argies equalised. It's only when they took the lead that England tried againby which time it was too late!!! AAAAAGH!!!
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So... is Argentina winning in the FIFA script for 2026?
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In the mid 1700s, Argentina had a total estimated population of 130,000 people and no impact on world events.
Today - Messi and Co. are going after Spain (who, in the mid 1700s, was still a legit world power) in the World Cup Finale.
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So Bronze match today...
Frankly this could go either way as I imagine neither team is overly excited about this match.
France has a slight edge I think because England might be in a state of "We don't give a fuck anymore"...
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Yeah, why even have the match? They should do something else like a skills shootout with multiple teams just having some fun. Let them have a few before they get on the field so it'll be really fun to watch. :D
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I'll watch, I'm not going to rush home tonight so I may miss the start. It would be noce to beat the French but I don't really see the point of the match either!
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the final where North Gibraltar hopefully beats West Falklands... :D
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I was reading about penalty shoot-outs. Before they were a thing, winners would be determined by picking lots. Penalty shoot-outs may be flawed, but it sure beats it all coming down to the luck of the draw.
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Well holy shit what a first half!
Looks like the French spirit has already departed to the old country and their bodies have left wondering aimlessly on the field for England to slaughter them!
But one thing I do have to ask? Why in the hell have we not seen more of Saka and Rashford in this tournament! Both are EXCELLENT players and seem to be on FIRE right now.
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Yep, asking the same questions.
I knew they would give a bunch of layers a run out and they seem to have all brought their A-game.
Just hoping this first half doesn't embarrass the French into a big comeback in the second half!
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Never in doubt! :lol:
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Now that was quite a wild match! Sadly I had to go to work during the second half so I didn't see all of the craziness!
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So finals...
Thanks to England winning yesterday IF Spain wins today I'll win most of my money back that I've lost during the tournament...
So naturally I will be rooting for SPAIN harder than ever!
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I'm looking for a Spanish win also. I think they have been most consistent, and the Argies have struggled in the last couple of games.
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I hope that whoever wins, it's not in a controversial manner. If Argentina wins because of a bad refereeing decision, the Spanish fans will have to form a support group with English fans. :D
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Not much goal mouth action in the first half, but definitely Spain in control, and actually looking for goals. 0-0 at half time.
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Yay!!! Spain won 1-0 in extra time and were the only team trying to win.
It's funny, that until Spain scored with about 13 mins to go Argentina had no shots on the Spanish goal! Afterwards they had a couple of efforts but seriously that's a wierd mentality!
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Yeah, zero shots on goal for Argentina... were they hoping to hold Spain scoreless and take a go on penalty kicks?
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Maybe they forgot where the goal actually was? The gameplay was weird, but I'm just a fan, not a pro. No doubt Messi and his crew knew exactly what they were doing. Maybe they were trying to account for Spain's midfield ownership proclivities?
But - CONGRATULATIONS to those wiley Spaniards for taking home the 2026 World Cup!
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Stupid Spain...why couldn't they score in the first 90 minutes!! Goddamnit! There went my bets. So another losing World cup for the loser! What a surprise there!
But still Congrats to Spain...they were hands down the best overall team... I mean only 1 goal scored against them! ONE! That's unheard of!
Looks like the old Spain is back!
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Spain is like the University of Iowa football team, where they think a game in which they win by the only score done - a field goal or a safety - is a work of art.
In many ways, it is.
But, yeah, you kind of wish they did the scoring in regulation time so you could get on with your life. :D