nailed it

lol Italy

So if I have this right because of the way the extra places were dished out we have a World Cup with Curacao and Haiti at it but not Italy and Denmark. Lol FIFA.

Iraq v Bolivia playoff at 4am has some proper degen betting potential

To be fair, both Curacao and Haiti finished top of their qualifying groups so would've meant they'd qualify if it was a normal 32 team WC (I think so anyway, surely though?)

Same with Cape Verde in CAF and Uzbekistan in Asia (although they might've finished 2nd I cba checking)

have they considered being one of the top-16 teams in europe? this aint the ****in euros, brotha

bumley legend axel tuanzebe is the top dr congo on the force now


in unrelated news, toronto sports network in mourning over lol italy. hook it to my veins

I think I like Italy, guiz

hussein puts iraq into the tournament, and with that qualification is complete. glgl to all

In past years I'd make an effort to watch every single match, but no way I'm sticking to that with some of the garbage we'll be getting in the group stages. 8 of 12 3rd place teams advancing f'ing sucks and drastically lowers the stakes too. Even a lot of the R32 KO matches will prob suck, with a few gems.

yeah, i remember that first euros where they went to 24 teams, and 16 advanced to the knockouts (iirc), and it was horrible. so many games with nothing happening because everyone knew you'd probably go through with 2 draws. so everything kinda sucked until the quarterfinals, if that.

this tournament should be like that, but with more bad teams, so hopefully more chaotic = exciting. probably more goals and blowouts due to the talent disparity among the teams. hopefully little off-field maga nonsense. if you can't relax and take it for what it is, then yeah you might as well just check out. but yeah i'm definitely buying stock in "this sucks" takes. it is what it is, guys. hopefully the business end of it is good anyway, and the early part is full of fun concacaf madness.

https://defector.com/oops-italy-did-it-again-again






you hate to see it

How the **** was 2010 with vuvuzelas and that horrible jubalani ball 16 years ago

Going to 48 teams was ridiculous, and FIFA have suggested hosting the World Cup every two years.

The group stage won’t interest me.

The unemployed games at the World Cup used to be incredible but I think its extremely hard to watch them all this year, especially if you are trying to do it from Europe. The times they start at and the weird staggering of the matches in some cases makes it a tough ask. Also as you say many more garbage teams sadly might make for many more garbage matches.

In Qatar it was much easier to do and despite all the hosts faults the football was great right from the start.

Here's a full schedule of the group stage with timings (on a UK clock)

https://www.skysports.com/football/n...gland-scotland

confirmed big time back

Cant argue with that

I was more talking about trying to land a 200/1 type epic long shot. No arguments that the most likely thing is someone like Haaland going off or that the players with the best chance of being top goalscorer are the penalty taking beasts playing for the big teams.

That is of course the way it is. I'm just enjoying betting on some long shots for the hopes.

yeah i was mostly just joking around because i saw that post right after i was looking at the qualifying stuff, and how haaland lapped the field (and especially uefa)

16 goals
Erling Haaland (Norway)

12 goals
Almoez Ali (Qatar)

10 goals
Mohamed Amoura (Algeria)
Mehdi Taremi (Iran)
Son Heung-min (South Korea)

9 goals
Mohamed Salah (Egypt)
Aymen Hussein (Iraq)
Ali Olwan (Jordan)
Chris Wood (New Zealand)


golden boot winner probably will be some rando who rips up their weak group

All the groups are weak though, so it will still likely be someone who runs deep...... doubt it's some rando.

Extra KO match too which will weight it even more heavily towards someone on one of the tournament favourites.

I keep reading about the lack of hotel bump

I think USA#1 will show up in the end but there is absolutely zero buzz atm

Based on the lovely announcement that the usually $12.90 return train ticket from NYC to Metlife Stadium is being 7x'd to over $100 during the World Cup (not a typo), and the fact that they are not allowing parking in the massive car park (even charging for it), my quick back of the *** packet maths....

Family of four already staying in Manhattan, to go to England Panama using the cheapest tickets available today would cost ~$4100 to go to the game, probably closer to $4250 if you want a few beers.

Even though i am traveling to NYC for the weekend of that game, that can absolutely **** off.

America is continually the worst

Really?

I have a place to stay in NYC when i visit but when I looked at hotels for the England game weekend they were absolutely astronomical.

Just had a look, they have come down materially.