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Sadly for both England & Scotland there are better teams than Costa Rica & Bolivia...
Feels quite partridge for my next paragraph to be about how good England looked against Costa Rica and Im starting to get my hopes up . Old enough to know its the hope that kills you .
I think it'd have a massively detrimental effect on the nation to actually win. Glorious defeat is just what we do. It's built in to our national character and we mess with that at our peril. I can't actually see it being an issue at this World Cup any more than it has been previously though
I don't get the love for Bellingham last night – at one point in the first half, in the space of about 10 minutes, he passed the ball directly to the opposition twice, then played a ball to a team-mate so far behind him that all momentum in the move was lost, and he was anonymous for the first 20 minutes.
I watched 28 Summers last night, a doc about Scotland's qualifying campaign. Very good it was too, the togetherness of the squad really comes through. There has been a lot of talk about how Clarke has created a club mentality but I think he's created something even better than that. Most clubs now have a high turnover of players and it's hard to believe that most aren't just there because they offered the most money. I really hope they do themselves justice, for all the justified criticism of Clarke it's hard to see a better option at the moment.
Wrong shape ball. I'm out.
Don't forget to shut the (creaking) door behind you.
Looks like the first 72 games will knock out just 16 of the 48 teams. Maybe the knockout stage will be good.
A few boos for stars and stripes, not just from me.
Right, here we go. Looking forward to seeing some of the new laws / guidance in effect. 5s countdown for timewasting at throw ins and goal kicks. Subbed player has 10s to leave the field or the oncoming sub has to wait at least a minute, and then only come on at the next stoppage. Injured players leave the pitch for a minute and no team talks during injury breaks.
But the first big question - WTF were Andrea Bocelli's shoes?
Well this has started off lively enough. First goal an absolute defensive howler
I have both Mexico and South Africa in the office sweepstake. Can’t see South Africa getting anything out of this
This hydration break is fun...
I'd written off this world cup long before it'd started. However, I'd like revise that assessment based purely on my catching, in the corner of my eye, the shirt of SA player "Sithole" 😄
Poor lad
This hydration break is fun...
What? Binners at his local?
Are the hydration breaks just so the mekins can have more delicious advertisements?
However, I'd like revise that assessment based purely on my catching, in the corner of my eye, the shirt of SA player "Sithole"
...who got a red card.
I'm in Vancouver at the moment, tho not for the football....but weirdly everyone keeps referring to it as "the Fifa"......
"are you here for the Fifa?"
Very odd
Are the hydration breaks just so the mekins can have more delicious advertisements?
I assume so. I was just relieved that ITV didn't have any ads during the break, otherwise I think my telly would have got a kicking.
Edit: I have just done a quick search and apparently ITV has confirmed it won't have adverts. In the USA, viewers of Fox complained as they had ad breaks, and it resulted in missing the restart of play.
Yeah, I, too, had to do a double take when I saw Sithole.
Ohh, and I noticed that the advertising hoardings were advertising 'packages' during the Mexico match last night, and on a few occasions, when the score / time popped up at the bottom of the screen, there was additional text under – the URL for ticket sales via the FIFA site.
So much for being over-subscribed.
Reminded me of Celtics worst signing
Rafael Scheidt
Quote from Wikipedia.
"Scheidt's loan spell at Corinthians ended in 2002, and he maintained his hope of making it at Celtic, informing the Sunday Herald that "I want this year to be known as the Scheidt year".
At least he along with his partner in central defence gave us a classic piece of commentary from Murdo MacLeod...
"Celtic's defence is Tebilly Scheidt"
Still can't do better than when Stefan the German striker and now Turkey manager scored against England, and the commentator declared "and the germans have scored! Kuntz!"
Although close second...Euro 96, Spain striker clean through, takes a heavy touch which enables the England keeper to come out and smother the chance "he was surprised by the sudden onrush of Seaman"
Haven't we all been at one time or another?
Cricket probably wins with the immortal line, "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey". Or at least it would if it was true but Google suggests it never happened on air.
apparently ITV has confirmed it won't have adverts.
Only because offcom told them they couldn't.
While the Holding Willey encounter definitely happened at some point, given their longevity in respective sides of the 70's, I agree no-one had the balls to say it on air at least. Which surprises me given some of Johnners other entries in the lexicon of 'can you say that on Radio 4'
"There's Neil Harvey standing at leg slip with his legs wide apart, waiting for a tickle"
(of South African cricketer Peter Pollock, who had broken his ankle) "He’s obviously in great pain. It’s especially bad luck as he is here on his honeymoon with his pretty young wife. Still, he’ll probably be all right tomorrow if he sticks it up tonight."
and of course he has the best ever (sporting) corpse when the tables turned and Aggers ambushed him with the leg over comment. How can 20 seconds of schoolboy giggling make such fine radio?
See also 'for those of you watching on black & white TVs, the red is behind the green' and 'Forfar Five, East Fife Four'.
Gary Neville and Ian Wright are making lots of nice comments on the Scotland team and how well they're playing. Very unusual.
Anyway, Duncan Ferguson is also a guest.
ITV news reporter earlier reporting on Scotland fans and then the theft of some of Englands training kit - "Police have arrested 2 suspects, but have not said if they were wearing kilts."
Also lots of pics of various American statues now wearing traffic cones on their heads. You can take the fans out of Glasgow...
Gary Neville and Ian Wright are making lots of nice comments on the Scotland team and how well they're playing. Very unusual.
Anyway, Duncan Ferguson is also a guest.
Made me smile.
Not sure I can hang to 2am on Sunday to watch Scotland. However Brazil at 11pm tonight
I know.... "he hit a four over the wicket keeper's head" at 1:04 in your clip gets me every time.
Duncan Ferguson must be about mid 50s now. I would say that breaking into his house would still be a" courageous "decision. Twenty five years ago you would have to be batshit mental
Ok, so maybe I do care more than I thought. Come on SCOTLAND! Let’s get a second so we can enjoy it……
There’s some sort of football tournament thing on? Can’t say as I’ve really noticed, but then, I’ve never paid much notice over the last 60-odd years either… 🤷🏼♂️
Thanks for clearing that up CountZero.
This has gone very scrappy. Nervous last 20 coming up.
Duncan Ferguson must be about mid 50s now. I would say that breaking into his house would still be a" courageous "decision. Twenty five years ago you would have to be batshit mental
He's doing a theatre tour chatting about his life and career. I reckon that might be a fun night out
Scotland were shite. Haiti were the better team.
watching the highlights now Morocco gave it a good go against Brazil.
Scotland were shite. Haiti were the better team.
I’m no football expert but surely that would have resulted in winning?
I'd rather be Raphael Scheidt and win. Scotland have dropped many a point against the so called lesser teams in the past. We needed to win and did. I think the next two games will suit us better.
I’m no football expert but surely that would have resulted in winning?
Surprisingly often not the case. In the end putting the ball in the onion bag is what counts though and Scotland did that so well done them. Plenty of bigger names already have found out there's not many easy games even with the expanded format.
Haiti were good, fair play to them. I fear we may of needed another goal (or two) because if we fail to get anything from Morocco or Brazil, third place qualifying may come down to goal difference. I fear the worst vs Morocco but have a funny feeling we may sneak a draw vs Brazil as we can be at our best when our backs are against the wall.
This could be double figures. The Germans can really punish less fancied teams.
