@John Cuthber

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
And I was never interested in sport.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha"

You are lucky

.No AI was detected in Gptzero on this occasion.

Wait, I have not put it through the Schadenfreude machine yet.

Edited July 7Jul 7 by geordief

I was reading at BBC about how Nigel F resigned and happened to notice there's some sort of international sporting event involving something called a cup and people kicking balls around a field. There seems to be some immensely complex system for determining who wins this cup, involving 30-50 years of playoffs and a team of mathematicians using advanced combinatorics and possibly string theory to determine arcane "rankings" and decide who enters the finals. Argentina and Brazil seem to be good at it, whatever it is they do on the field (seems to involve passing a ball around and then maybe once every hour or so some actually interesting action that lasts about five seconds), possibly from forcing toddlers to train in special reeducation camps or "favelas"'as they're called, starting at age 18 months.

Not sure why the finals are being held in some backward and xenophobic banana republic with baking hot summers and large numbers of citizens carrying guns around. Perhaps it's that the country's authoritarian leader is in bed with the president of the sport's governing body? You would think it wouldn't be that hard to grab the couple while they're locked in one of their amorous embraces and drop them down a mineshaft or similar.

7 hours ago, John Cuthber said:

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
And I was never interested in sport.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha - you missed one.

😃

2 hours ago, TheVat said:

Argentina and Brazil seem to be good at it

Not this year.
Brazil is gone, and Argentina is behind 1 - 0 to Egypt after 60 min. with an Egyptian second goal just disallowed due to a foul in the build-up.

And now Egypt up 2 - 0 over Argentina at 67 min !

Edited July 7Jul 7 by MigL

8 minutes ago, MigL said:

Egyptian second goal just disallowed due to a foul in the build-up.

Only a temporary reprieve. 2-0 now and into the final quarter.

2 minutes ago, sethoflagos said:

and into the final quarter.

So now we have 'quarters' ?
I guess the hydration ( commercial ) breaks have forced it on us.
Capitalism and corruption; each enables the other.

4 minutes ago, MigL said:

So now we have 'quarters' ?
I guess the hydration ( commercial ) breaks have forced it on us.
Capitalism and corruption; each enables the other.

I note that UEFA has very publicly stated there will be no such breaks in their competitions.

Spoke too soon.
Argentina scored three goals in the last 15 min.
Their last goal is a little controversial, due to fouling in the build up ( which similarly denied Egypt's 3rd goal ), so there have been some 'confrontations' and complaints, after and during the last few minutes of play.

Luck seems to still be with Argentina.

1 hour ago, MigL said:

Not this year.
Brazil is gone, and Argentina is behind 1 - 0 to Egypt after 60 min. with an Egyptian second goal just disallowed due to a foul in the build-up.

And now Egypt up 2 - 0 over Argentina at 67 min !

Was speaking historically (from the faux persona of someone who only yesterday heard of soccer). (One child and I used to play, practicing with a Limey neighbor and another urchin in the street; my kid was then in a youth league for a year or so)

1 hour ago, TheVat said:

Was speaking historically (from the faux persona of someone who only yesterday heard of soccer). (One child and I used to play, practicing with a Limey neighbor and another urchin in the street; my kid was then in a youth league for a year or so)

They did have Maradona and Pele (plus an amazing cast) play for them

Football aristocracy. England ploughs its field as best it can.

1 hour ago, geordief said:

England ploughs its field as best it can.

If only Egypt had been able to defend like England did; even being a man down.
Ploughing the field is hard work; you've gotta put in the effort.

1 hour ago, MigL said:

If only Egypt had been able to defend like England did; even being a man down.
Ploughing the field is hard work; you've gotta put in the effort.

No, they can't be faulted.Thought Gordon was good...and Bellingham of course.

Pickford too but the standard of goalkeeping is very high (and very entertaining ) all round.

14 hours ago, geordief said:

Wait, I have not put it through the Schadenfreude machine yet.

Sounds like something Maxwell Smart would go to Control HQ to use. 😀

Second Falklands war coming up on Wednesday.
Quite a bit of L Messi's magic is gone, while J Bellingham is really starting to shine.
( though FIFA and the officiating seem to favor the reigning World Champions so far ).

England seems to step up to the challenge, depending on who they play against.
All their games have been nail-biters, and they only do the bare minimum to win after making you sweat a while.
Let's hope they keep it up; maybe it is coming home.

1 hour ago, MigL said:

Let's hope they keep it up; maybe it is coming home.

They'll have to play much better than they did last night.

33 minutes ago, sethoflagos said:

They'll have to play much better than they did last night.

Are Argentina any great shakes?Thought Switzerland were maybe better.

I doubt they (England) would have much of a chance of beating France even if they are at their best.Runners up would be no shame.

It is the World Cup after all.

. No team is enttled to win it

(Gremlins in the formatting?)

Edited July 12Jul 12 by geordief

26 minutes ago, geordief said:

It is the World Cup after all.

... and the semifinalists just happen to be the top four nations in the Fifa world rankings.

As the competition progresses, and teams get worn down by fatigue, injuries, and suspensions, the pendulum swings significantly in favour of the teams with greatest strength in depth. With the notable exception of Norway's defeat of Brazil, the results of the last two rounds have gone to form. I'm hoping for a Spain vs England final, but history says it's tons more likely to be France vs Argentina.

As this is the Politics section, and given the state of the Trump-Macron relationship, I wouldn't actually mind seeing France be overwhelmingly victorious in the US. Particularly given the preponderance of African ancestry among the leading figures in the French team.

Emphasising a link between a nation's current strength and a liberal past immigration policy would not be a bad thing.

2 hours ago, sethoflagos said:

Emphasising a link between a nation's current strength and a liberal past immigration policy would not be a bad thing.

This would be true of the English side as well, and the Trump - Starmer relationship.
However, the American President and his fascist cronies might prefer Argentina, with their past immigration policies favoring NAZIs.
( a low blow considering the World Cup is supposedly apolitical )

Edited July 12Jul 12 by MigL

1 hour ago, MigL said:

This would be true of the English side as well, and the Trump - Starmer relationship.

Not so much. Check the origins of the current French squad: it's overwhelmingly drawn from second generation African immigrants - Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Algeria, Cameroon, Benin, DRC...

Also puts any interesting slant on why there is only one African team (Morocco) in the top ten.

On 7/12/2026 at 4:47 PM, geordief said:

I doubt they (England) would have much of a chance of beating France even if they are at their best.

Funny old game, innit?

11 minutes ago, sethoflagos said:

Funny old game, innit?

They are coming back now.(I am watching with an hour's delay and it is 4-2 .No 4-3 now)

Edited July 18Jul 18 by geordief

T Tuchel is the worst manager.
England had the momentum shortly after the half, during the Argentina game, and he elected to put in all defenders ( as he correctly had to in the Mexico game since they were down a man ).
Argentina took the opportunity handed them, and kept shooting on net.
They hit the post twice before eventually equalizing; it was only a matter of time.
Then they put in the winner.

In today's France game, M Rashford was playing brilliantly, and was involved in the build up to every goal except B Saka's penalty.
Yet instead of leaving him on with Saka, Tuchel took Rashford out for the second half.
Without any pressure from the wings, France was dree to attack, and made the most of it.
It was only later that Tuchel decided to beef up the midfield by bringing J Bellingham on.
Rashford, Saka and Bellingham should have been on the whole game ( H Kane who ? ), even though this was for 3rd place.
The score would have been 6 - 0 .

I'll leave it to you to decide which is true, and which is fact.

1 hour ago, MigL said:

T Tuchel is the worst manager.
England had the momentum shortly after the half, during the Argentina game, and he elected to put in all defenders ( as he correctly had to in the Mexico game since they were down a man ).
Argentina took the opportunity handed them, and kept shooting on net.
They hit the post twice before eventually equalizing; it was only a matter of time.
Then they put in the winner.

In today's France game, M Rashford was playing brilliantly, and was involved in the build up to every goal except B Saka's penalty.
Yet instead of leaving him on with Saka, Tuchel took Rashford out for the second half.
Without any pressure from the wings, France was dree to attack, and made the most of it.
It was only later that Tuchel decided to beef up the midfield by bringing J Bellingham on.
Rashford, Saka and Bellingham should have been on the whole game ( H Kane who ? ), even though this was for 3rd place.
The score would have been 6 - 0 .

I'll leave it to you to decide which is true, and which is fact.

I think this précis overlooks a couple of hidden factors.

i.  England had a significantly more gruelling tournament schedule than France - and that was in spite of the fact that England topped their own group stage quite easily. It was England who had to travel to Mexico and play the co-hosts at home and at high altitude in the intimidating Azteca stadium in Mexico City. It was England that had to play a knockout match in very hot and humid conditions against Norway in Miami Florida, before travelling to play a semi-final match against Argentina in Atlanta.

ii. England had one day less than France did to prepare for their Bronze medal match back in Miami. France had four days of rest, while England had only three days after their semi-final knockout in Atlanta.

It was always a given that England were likely to tire more quickly than France in the second half, and that they would start conceding goals as their cumulative physical and mental exhaustion took hold.

That being said, I don’t think many people would have had England 4-0 up at half-time on their Bingo card, or winning the match 6-4 with the last kick of the game - An extraordinary match !

On 7/7/2026 at 6:42 PM, MigL said:

So now we have 'quarters' ?
I guess the hydration ( commercial ) breaks have forced it on us.
Capitalism and corruption; each enables the other.

Indeed and fear of failure leads to ever more boring games and ever more exciting, and expanding, half time spectacles; the most enjoyable game I've watched was the England v France game, probably the best game in terms of the beautiful game... I'll leave you with an SAS internal joke, apparently, "who cares, who wins."

Yeah, England did play some of the most exciting games, against France , Mexico and even the Congo game.
Argentina turned out to be real sore losers ( other than L Messi ) even though they were thoroughly outplayed by Spain.
90 min without a single attempt/shot on goal )

I do think FIFA and the officiating were making 'excuses' for them throughout the tournament, and after their boorish display after the final, there was a 23M signature petition to ban them from FIFA, as of yesterday.
( they can always play with Russia )