Football (World Cup 26)

[steviewevie]

The good guys won

[steviewevie]

sh*t final really 

[Crazyfool01]

just debating if I stay up or not and watch Trump tears .... 

[Crazyfool01]

nah 

[charlierc]

28 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

if it goes to 10 -10 on penalties do Spain get an extra one as Argentina are down to 10 players and they arent  ? 🙂 ... Feels like Argentina are winning this on pens 😞 

Interesting question. Guess we'll never know. 

[steviewevie]

Paredes being a bit of a legend at the end.

[Ben7amin_]

I think with Penalties the side with more players nominates player(s) to sit out so it even

[charlierc]

Least in 2014, Argentina could point to the fact they missed a ton of chances. Can't hide behind that today. It took Spain a lot longer than it should've but this could've ended up as a thumping had some of their shooting been more accurate. 

 

Paredes starting a few fights on his way out just to boost Argentina's reputation. 

[Ben7amin_]

1 minute ago, steviewevie said:

Paredes being a bit of a legend at the end.

 Suspect he is retiring from international football anyway but if not a big ban is coming 

[charlierc]

1 minute ago, steviewevie said:

Paredes being a bit of a legend at the end.

Just been confirmed he's been sent off after the final whistle. 

 

He could easily have gone before that tbh.

[kaosmark2]

On 15/07/2026 at 11:26, xxialac said:

Speaking of predictions. This has been a blinder of one...

OK, now I'll take the plaudits for it.

[xxialac]

On 12/07/2026 at 11:40, Ben7amin_ said:

Recon Spain dont stand much of a chance against France - they have really struggled to get out of second gear in the last two matches nicking it late - I think on the way the 4 teams that made the semis - they actually look the weakest of the 4 right now 

LOL

[Ben7amin_]

18 minutes ago, xxialac said:

LOL

 

This was pre France game........

 

I think we all saw them go up a couple of gears in that game 

Edited July 19 by Ben7amin_

[Ben7amin_]

On 26/05/2026 at 11:48, kaosmark2 said:

I wonder how tired that Argie team will be, Alexis McAllister and Enzo Fernandez have had a big drop off this season, and they've not got much depth in midfield or defense. Absolute class goalie and frontline but I have less belief in them than usual.

 

I fancy Spain, insanely class midfield and with such depth and they know how to balance their lack of a top no 9. It'd also be quite funny if they win without a single Real player in that squad.

 

Fair play. On this prediction

 

 

I take seconds prediction place.

[kaosmark2]

On 15/07/2026 at 14:02, Skip997 said:

Maybe this will 

Congrats! A flag worked!

[Ben7amin_]

Rodri won player of the tournament 

, I kind of thought Messi would get it by default 

[steviewevie]

[pink_triangle]

Spain had the toughest draw in the tournament and nobody laid a glove. One goal conceded and only 10 shots on goal in 8 games. What impressed me is even in the tight games how calm and controlled they were. Completely worthy winners.

[xxialac]

42 minutes ago, Ben7amin_ said:

 

This was pre France game........

 

I think we all saw them go up a couple of gears in that game 

Nah. You see what you want to see.

 

Spain were never the fourth best team. They controlled this tournament from

beginning to end.

 

Kudos to @kaosmark2 who actually knew

what he was talking about.

[pink_triangle]

4 minutes ago, xxialac said:

Nah. You see what you want to see.

 

Spain were never the fourth best team. They controlled this tournament from

beginning to end.

 

Kudos to @kaosmark2 who actually knew

what he was talking about.

 

You won’t get a more controlled run in an international tournament. They basically just played exactly the same way all tournament. Drew to Cape Verde and no panic, Belgium score and no panic. No fear at all playing against Spain.

 

Today other teams would have got frustrated,  changed their game plan but Spain had total belief what they were doing would work. Even 15 minutes from a shootout they may have lost no sense of panic at all.

[xxialac]

3 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

 

You won’t get a more controlled run in an international tournament. They basically just played exactly the same way all tournament. Drew to Cape Verde and no panic, Belgium score and no panic. No fear at all playing against Spain.

 

Today other teams would have got frustrated,  changed their game plan but Spain had total belief what they were doing would work. Even 15 minutes from a shootout they may have lost no sense of panic at all.

And they had higher Xg than their opponent - in every single game all tournament (contrast that with England…)

[kaosmark2]

52 minutes ago, xxialac said:

Nah. You see what you want to see.

 

Spain were never the fourth best team. They controlled this tournament from

beginning to end.

 

Kudos to @kaosmark2 who actually knew

what he was talking about.

Hard to feel that predicting the current Euros champions is particularly out there though. I wasn't quite brave enough to put my "Brazil to get knocked out by a lesser team instead of reaching Eng/Arg" thought more public.

 

On a continental breakdown note, 9/10 African teams got out of the groups. Admittedly with a lot of 3rd places but I also thought almost all of them gave the Europeans a tough game. Morocco beat Netherlands, Senegal very close v Belgium, Ivory Coast being decent against Norway is less impressive but I still enjoyed watching them. And I thought both Cape Verde and Egypt can feel somewhat hard done by against Argentina. Only really Tunisia and Algeria who stunk it up from Africa, compared to basically every Asian team except Japan, and the Concacaf teams being almost universally awful except Mexico. I kinda expected it from the Concacaf teams but I was hoping we'd get a little bit more from at least one Asian team.

 

I'm not sure whether it'll be next world cup or 1-2 after that we go up to 64 teams, but it feels inevitable sooner or later. I hope they actually stop at 64, because that actually just makes groups into knockouts easier. I think there's ~230 registered members of FIFA, so the big tournament being just over 1/4 does feel like that's large enough to actually be a representative and engaging "finals".

 

I hope that when they do they keep adding more African teams, and not too many more lesser European teams and too many Asian teams. Partially because I think that Africa has the strongest teams that didn't qualify, and partially because it'd be funny if the world cup expands and Italy still fail to qualify.

 

And, once again, f**k Trump, and f**k Infantino.

[charlierc]

7 hours ago, steviewevie said:

Well at least this time he didn't insist on being front and centre as happened with Chelsea at the Club World Cup last year. 

 

Though I'm assuming he attempted to keep one of the medals for himself.

[lost]

After wondering why ITV splashed out on a decent studio and the beeb didn't we found out where the money went instead with a strange begging advert at half time 🙅‍♂️

 

If FIFA wanted a showpiece final to sell the game to the yanks they completely failed but its their own fault for allowing Argentina’s gamesmanship all tournament. Hopefully that's going to go away with Messi's retirement.

[Ben7amin_]

Went under the radar but for reasons only he knows - Romero did not shake Trumps hand, he actually looked the other way and blanked him.  Maybe there is a decent bloke in there somewhere - 

Edited July 20 by Ben7amin_