ponsaelius

Annoys me that Shaqiri retired. Still doing it domestically, surely could have had one last dance.

Their owners are worth about 50 billion. They can afford it and he's exactly the kind of player they've been targeting (19-23, with a Spanish focus). They do have an issue of complying with UEFA FFP rules however and could probably do with bringing in more domestic talent.

Fwiw you can watch 8~ highlights spoiler free on iPlayer, check out the NWOAT thread for links. I do agree though, amazed they haven't done that.

If you're like me and wanting to watch unspoiled highlights in the morning but annoyed by the score being ruined - I've bookmarked this page: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002y2yz/episodes/player It seems to upload them with no score shown.

I'm always grateful to that cunt for getting Messi the trophy

That's our kit? it's dreadful

Well actually there's clearly one Ecuadorian league player who is lazier

Has anybody actually watched it or just random clips out of context? I thought it was good, although I imagine the original stage show would have been better where you get a bit more poetic license. It's always a bit cringe/uncanny valley trying to recreate people on screen whose appearances and mannerisms are so well known. Plus football scenes never translate well to TV/film (even in case of Ted Lasso which is well loved).

There's a few reasons I'm not as excited as I have been for previous tournaments. Obviously the disgusting price gouging, visa issues and Trump propaganda sticks in the throat. I would never have thought a US world cup would actually be worse than Russia and Qatar in terms of negative feeling but here we are. But my main lack of excitement probably just comes from the format. As ever the expanded tournament is not just a problem of reduced quality. Although I think this will be an issue, and too few European teams have been included in the additional 16, I can probably get away with that in the spirit of things. I certainly watch worse quality football on a regular basis. However going from 32 to 48 immediately means you have the shit group stage format. If you go back to 2022 most of the groups had jeopardy for the big sides going into the last game, and plenty of upsets. You lose most of this knowing 3 points probably puts you through and only losing 33% of teams rather than 50% from the majority of the tournament's fixtures. It's the same issue from a sporting sense that the CL suffers from now. Nothing really matters until the knockouts. I also think there's a massive lack of star power in the top of the game at the moment, as the sport has shifted towards collectivism and coaching at the expense of individuality. I can't remember a world cup that had quite so few big names I was particularly looking forward to seeing.

This is easily the least excited I've been for a major tournament in my lifetime

double post

That is an interesting quote and like you say can only really be read that way. Why else would you be watching penalties of all these other games. It sums up the approach to management (I'm thinking Arteta here, but I think it's endemic on a wider level) - approaching every facet of the game as a fixed static element where the percentage can be tilted in your favour. There's not much romance or purism to this. The existence of VAR probably only encourages this kind of approach as a variable coaches can control under the assumption the 'right' decision will ultimately be given.

Martin Keown looks like he's at a funeral

Surely it's partly the way they play though? They've slid the sliders so far towards shape and organisation over the last couple of years, and it's basically worked, but fuck me it's dreadful to watch.

I didn't see most of the game but three of those Arsenal shots were in the last minute of injury time as well