Football (World Cup 26)

[Skip997]

8 minutes ago, thetime said:

 

I don't get fans cheering on players for England, the players that they spend the next 2 years despising. I have never cheered for an England goal, just seems weird celebrating a Liverpool or City player scoring. 

Absolutely spot on. It’s just weird cheering players you can’t stand 

[steviewevie]

13 minutes ago, thetime said:

 

I don't get fans cheering on players for England, the players that they spend the next 2 years despising. I have never cheered for an England goal, just seems weird celebrating a Liverpool or City player scoring. 

I get all that, club over country cliche stuff...but also just distorts the whole of the world cup when you have players in teams you hate/love coming from all over the world.

 

[steviewevie]

Seems a lot of pointless dislike for Pickford...but he has had a pretty good world cup so far. I think him being a bit shorter than average with little arms is kind of cool. Saying that, I don't particularly like his face...so...

[thetime]

6 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

I get all that, club over country cliche stuff...but also just distorts the whole of the world cup when you have players in teams you hate/love coming from all over the world.

 

 

I am not patriotic at all, just enjoying the games I get to see. As its nice to watch some football in the summer. Just no difference watching an England game to Columbia v Switzerland, although that was a tough watch.

 

Be nice England to win it, especially for my kids who are not really football fans. Although 1 supports Liverpool, just to piss me off. 🫣

 

So I am hoping it inspires them to get into it more. 

[steviewevie]

[lost]

26 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Nothing to do with who he plays for. He’s an absolute lunatic with serious anger issues, a danger to opponents. 

 

Pretty sure Van Dijk has injured more players than Pickford. Deulofeu hasnt been the same since the challenge vs Watford.

[charlierc]

Given how obnoxious Trump has been about Spain at the NATO summit currently going on, the idea of Trump having to present the Spanish team with medals and the trophy just came to my mind and feels like it would be a strangely fitting end to this tournament. Admittedly Spain demolishing the US would've also been a strange spectacle in it's own way but Belgium got there first. So, what are ya gonna do?

 

I still think it'll be France or Spain and that it's a bit of a shame they would be meeting in the semis, as was the case at the Euros,  because it would make for a decent final.  

[charlierc]

1 hour ago, thetime said:

 

I am not patriotic at all, just enjoying the games I get to see. As its nice to watch some football in the summer. Just no difference watching an England game to Columbia v Switzerland, although that was a tough watch.

 

Be nice England to win it, especially for my kids who are not really football fans. Although 1 supports Liverpool, just to piss me off. 🫣

 

So I am hoping it inspires them to get into it more. 

If you gave me a choice between Newcastle or England winning a major trophy, you'd best believe I'm choosing Newcastle. But I appreciate it would make many people I know very happy. I know who some who went out to America for the tournament and some who care more about the national team than any club side, as I feel is the case in rugby, cricket, etc, and if England win, I can be happy for them as much as anything else. Plus at this point there's a novelty to it - 60 years of trying is an objectively ridiculous length of time between major tournament wins and it feels like the infrastructure that creates footballers is good enough to get it done at some point. 

 

Even if I still back France or Spain more. Admittedly Spain feel weaker than the team at the Euros a few years back. 

 

Tbf I was there when England won the Women's Euros at Wembley 4 years ago and that was a properly great day. 

[steviewevie]

 

[charlierc]

3 hours ago, lost said:

 

Its mainly Liverpool and Newcastle fans on here. He's from Sunderland and plays for Everton.

Reminded me that in March I was on a heavily delayed train out of London full of Everton fans who spent the whole journey going "He hates Newcastle, he hates the shite, Jordan Pickford's dynamite"

 

That got very old very quickly. And I don't even mind Everton all that much. 

[Skip997]

4 minutes ago, charlierc said:

some who care more about the national team than any club side,

Generally fans of clubs that never win anything or are likely to win anything 

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, thetime said:

 

I don't get fans cheering on players for England, the players that they spend the next 2 years despising. I have never cheered for an England goal, just seems weird celebrating a Liverpool or City player scoring. 

 

I've never really been patriotic or particularly invested in England, but I do like the current batch of players (Henderson, Guehi, and Pickford aside). I've generally enjoyed cheering for good football in tournaments, and I think this England batch are playing better football and are harder to despise. It's not like the era of Terry/Gerrard/Rooney/Owen/Ashley Cole.

 

1 hour ago, Skip997 said:

Nothing to do with who he plays for. He’s an absolute lunatic with serious anger issues, a danger to opponents. 

^^

Outside a couple of players, wrt most Sunderland and particularly ex-Sunderland players my dislike is generally more jovial. Pickford has intentionally made himself into a cartoon villain multiple times, as well as caused 2 serious injuries. I'm not going to say the Sunderland connection isn't part of it, but he's also genuinely problematic.

 

I didn't have any real problem with Henderson while he was at Liverpool. It's only after his Saudi stunt (which I still find it hilarious he didn't get paid for), that I sincerely dislike him.

[steviewevie]

6 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Generally fans of clubs that never win anything or are likely to win anything 

I mean, it's a lot easier to just support one of the big clubs who have all the money and win everything.

[Skip997]

4 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

I mean, it's a lot easier to just support one of the big clubs who have all the money and win everything.

What if you made the choice when you were really young with virtually no knowledge of football at all 

[charlierc]

13 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Generally fans of clubs that never win anything or are likely to win anything 

I'm perfectly aware that a lot of English flags you see at major tournaments are adorned with the names or badges of lower league sides. Is that necessarily a bad thing though? There's more to English football than those 6 clubs who thought they were better than everyone else when they tried to sign up with the Super League project. 

[steviewevie]

1 minute ago, Skip997 said:

What if you made the choice when you were really young with virtually no knowledge of football at all 

that just so happens to be one of the top clubs that wins everything?

[balti-pie]

Its an obvious comparison, but while yer Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal fans etc are all quite used to winning, it obviously cant feel as real or anywhere near as big as a side starved of success finally winning.

 

Newcastle getting that monkey off their back was amazing- ok people can try and talk it down by saying its 'only a league cup' but thats unnecessarily snippy, it was a beautiful thing made more beautiful by the amount of time it took to happen. 

And Palace winning their first ever trophy - first ever trophy ffs! - imagine the joy of being a Palace fan through thin and thinner, almost relegated to League One and with bankruptcy looming, saved and brought back, and now champions of europe (the Conference champions, but still)! 

Brighton havnt won a trophy, but theyve been in all four divisions in the last 30 years, came 91st two years in a row, and are now in europe and getting closer to that magical day when they get to kiss some silverware and get it aloft - and that will feel far bigger than arsenal boring the planet to tears to win the league for the third time this century, or liverpool winning another champions league - again, their third since the turn of the century - Good for them, meh for everyone else. 

[lost]

31 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

that just so happens to be one of the top clubs that wins everything?

 

BTW Anyone else seeing this go continental? I go home to see my dad and I'm seeing loads of people wearing Real Madrid and PSG shirts who I'm assuming are not from Paris or Madrid.

[balti-pie]

10 minutes ago, lost said:

 

BTW Anyone else seeing this go continental? I go home to see my dad and I'm seeing loads of people wearing Real Madrid and PSG shirts who I'm assuming are not from Paris or Madrid.

Primark arent helping this, by selling cheap and naff PSG and Real Madrid apparel - and obviously the Chinese knockoff footy shirt websites dont help cos its free postage for two, you may as well get another team you 'like' alongside the new man United shirt or whatever.

I cant see the attraction of wearing a Real Madrid shirt, but as i type this i'm wearing a Fremantle footy shirt, they're my AFL team of choice 😄 so i cant moan too much about people picking random overseas clubs, i just wish they were picked for a reason instead of 'Are rich and win lots'  

[lost]

6 minutes ago, balti-pie said:

 i just wish they were picked for a reason instead of 'Are rich and win lots'  

 

When I was a kid and Football Italia was on CH4. I chose Fiorentina purely because they were sponsored by nintendo 😆 My Liverpool supporting mate obviously chose AC Milan.

[balti-pie]

37 minutes ago, lost said:

 

When I was a kid and Football Italia was on CH4. I chose Fiorentina purely because they were sponsored by nintendo 😆 My Liverpool supporting mate obviously chose AC Milan.

Purple, Nintendo AND Batigol - thats three damn good reasons! 

[kaosmark2]

2 hours ago, balti-pie said:

Its an obvious comparison, but while yer Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal fans etc are all quite used to winning, it obviously cant feel as real or anywhere near as big as a side starved of success finally winning.

 

Newcastle getting that monkey off their back was amazing- ok people can try and talk it down by saying its 'only a league cup' but thats unnecessarily snippy, it was a beautiful thing made more beautiful by the amount of time it took to happen. 

And Palace winning their first ever trophy - first ever trophy ffs! - imagine the joy of being a Palace fan through thin and thinner, almost relegated to League One and with bankruptcy looming, saved and brought back, and now champions of europe (the Conference champions, but still)! 

Brighton havnt won a trophy, but theyve been in all four divisions in the last 30 years, came 91st two years in a row, and are now in europe and getting closer to that magical day when they get to kiss some silverware and get it aloft - and that will feel far bigger than arsenal boring the planet to tears to win the league for the third time this century, or liverpool winning another champions league - again, their third since the turn of the century - Good for them, meh for everyone else. 

Honestly, a large part of this is why I still can't hate City. I remember them getting promoted with us and their seasons of struggling and scraping along. I knew a few friends from Manchester who'd supported them for years when they got their first trophies, and it was genuine joy, not like the smug expectation of Man U fans winning a league again.

 

I'm sure in 10-20 years time there'll be a bunch of insufferable glory-hunting Man City fans, but that's not the case for ones of my generation. Them lucking into the timing of getting big oil money isn't a reason to hate the club, and by all accounts, they deal fairly with other Prem clubs when negotiating for their players - unlike others.

Edited July 8 by kaosmark2

[philipsteak]

3 hours ago, balti-pie said:

Primark arent helping this, by selling cheap and naff PSG and Real Madrid apparel - and obviously the Chinese knockoff footy shirt websites dont help cos its free postage for two, you may as well get another team you 'like' alongside the new man United shirt or whatever.

I cant see the attraction of wearing a Real Madrid shirt, but as i type this i'm wearing a Fremantle footy shirt, they're my AFL team of choice 😄 so i cant moan too much about people picking random overseas clubs, i just wish they were picked for a reason instead of 'Are rich and win lots'  

 

I have an American friend who is really in to football, has been for like 25/30 years. The Premier League got by far the most coverage so he agonised over which English team to support. He's got no family connection to England so couldn't do it on that and he didn't want to pick one of the obvious teams, but at the other end didn't want to go full underdog as he'd have no chance of seeing a game if they got relegated. After a lot of thought he ended up with Aston Villa.

Edited July 8 by philipsteak

[steviewevie]

Anyway, no bloody football.

[steviewevie]

Apparently final is going to have a half time show with Justin Bieber, BTS, Shakira and Madonna.