World Cup - Do You Want To Talk About It?

Who is your team(s)? Who are you rooting for? How do you think they are doing? Are you enjoying the World Cup?

I'm Korean but I always root for Japan 'cause good sportsmanship is big with me and Korea tends to play dirty. I'm also rooting for Mexico as an American cause they're our closest neighbors.

Japan got pretty lucky in their first game, which I'm of course happy about but it's always disappointing to be an Asian when it comes to international soccer so I'm bracing for the worst.

Mexico on the other hand seems to be looking pretty good. I think they can go far so my hopes are high.

I'm enjoying the World Cup so far. No one looks completely dominate so I think there will be a ton of exciting moments and matches.

I have the same reaction I usually have at this stage in the tournament.

As they always do, people are reading FAR too much into the first round of the group stage. I expect the teams that are always good (ahem, Germany) to be just fine, and the "upset" games probably won't mean much in the end.

Mexico were phenomenal on the counter-attack against Germany, and Mexico is historically a team I've enjoyed supporting despite having no roots to Mexico.

Argentina vs Croatia tomorrow should be a great game.

@frytup said:

Seconded. It's obnoxious how much PravdaThe Russian Ministry of Propaganda Fox Sports is pimping Russia. And yet who have they played? A Saudi team that might be one of the worst in the last 20+ years of the tournament and a Egypt team that had about 50% of Mo Salah. That's one of those predictions I look forward to getting blown up when they actually have to play a half-way complete team.

Since I'm American and our federation can't find it's ass with both hands, I don't have a team in the tournament. So I guess I'll root for Argentina so Messi can get a World Cup? I don't think they're good enough to do it, though. Plus, I'm sort of pulling for Iceland to pull some mad upset and advance.

Otherwise I'll root against everyone in Group B: Spain is incredibly boring to watch. I've never seen a team do less with more possession. And Cristiano Ronaldo can fuck right off. I've always hated him and his smarmy shit-eating grin. He always dives and he always cozens the referee into buying it. It's maddening. That dive to get the winning free kick in the last game was Oscar worthy.

As an Englishman who lives in Texas, I'm going to have to root for my homeland....

... but I don't see them getting past the last 16.

No team looks overwhelmingly dominant at this stage. This could be a great World Cup!

I am Uruguayan, so I have to root for them, but I am rather unhappy with their performance. They won both games, but their rivals were weaker and they won barely in matches that should have been a lot easier than they ended up being (no offense to Egypt or Saudi Arabia). We will see on Monday, when we face Russia, even when we are both out of danger for this stage, I would like to see them against a harder challenger.

Other than that, I like rooting for unexpected underdogs and surprises, and this world cup has given us plenty of those so far. Outside of a few matches, most are completely unpredictable, and underdogs like Iceland, Senegal and Mexico have been really fun to watch.

Being from Iceland i'm really stoked to see how far the team has come and here in Reykjavík things are pretty nuts. Some shops are closing early so everybody gets a chance to watch the game and i would say most people are enjoying it among other fans watching it on big screens located in the city.

As far as how we'll do its hard to gauge since there have been so many suprise outcomes. But whatever happens I think that for most people here they're just glad that we're competing and it kind of takes the pressure out of the game and you can actually just enjoy it. Really looking forward to the game on Friday against Nigeria.

I'm rooting for my southern neighbors (Belgium), since we boycotted the worldcup this year :-).

They did an alright job in their first game. Russia is looking solid as well. Yes, they haven't had tough resistance yet, but you already see players like Fernandes, Dzyuba, Cheryshev & Golovin shining . They're playing with a clear idea and executing on it. A team like Uruguay or Poland is poor in comparison. Senegal was fun to watch as well. Sarr & Sabaly are crazy fast and a joy to watch.

Still think eventually Germany, Spain, France, Portugal & Brazil are going to decide who wins it all.

If i'm allowed to act salty, watching South Korea - Sweden made me feel like our team would've looked better. All because of a crazy last minute blunder from Lloris in the qualifications. Bah, humbug :P

@therealturk: Totally. There was an article on the BBC News website about the best performing players at the World Cup, and took me a solid 5 minutes to realise there's been one set of matches for each team. There's always got to be some fucking narrative, ohhhh Germany are in trouble! Russia are a good team suddenly! Spain are in trouble because they lost their manager and drew their first game! It's been one whole game for everyone, cool your fucking jets.

Many of the less fancied sides play some decent stuff and looked very tidy in possession, just lack that bit of magic some of the top teams have. Morocco have been incredibly unlucky. Its only been one game for them but you would have to think their is more to come from the likes of Germany, France & Brazil. On paper Brazil seem to have the most balance through he squad.

I would love it if Iceland or Japan won, being a lover of both nations' artistic output and way of living, but Mexico are the more likely of the underdogs to pull it off, which would also be great.

I'll root for England for now -- it's only right -- but Uruguay winning again finally would be a similar victory/achievement to if England did. Any of those outcomes would entertain me greatly, but I always hope it's a country that's never won before above my fairly weak patriotism.

We're all England arnt we?

Go Go Iceland and Mexico!! :D

The US squad didn't even qualify so I'll mostly root for the underdogs. The cup has been super entertaining; Ronaldo especially so in that draw w/Spain. It's just been really fun for me watching the phenomenal athleticism. I see something(s)that blows my mind every game I watch.

No.

For the first time in a long time I'm actually excited to watch England. Obviously we won't win the World Cup, but so long as we can enjoy playing that's all that matters.

I'm usually finding myself rooting for the underdog in these tournaments. I'm pulling more for Mexico being US-adjacent and Iceland with their David vs Goliath charm. If either of those aren't playing, I'll root for teams from Asia, the Middle East, or Africa because they never seem to get too far.

Been enjoying it so far! My favorite moment thus far was probably the Senegal hockey style line change goal, which was exciting and surprising in it's own right, and the ensuing saltiness made it even better.

I pretty much traditionally root for underdogs, and then basically anyone but Brazil. It's been pretty entertaining so far, although I have to agree with some others that some of commentary around the games has been a little exhausting.

@frytup: oh :(

The thing about this World Cup is that it is legitimately open for any of the big teams to win it, there's no dominant favourite. None have impressed in the opening games. They'll make it out of their groups, but it's a tight call between Germany, France, Brazil, Spain, Argentina etc. I had Germany as my pick at the beginning of the Tournament.

As an Australian, I'd like to see us make it out of our group. 2nd half against Denmark about to start. 1-1 at the moment so I'm nervous as fuck. A loss and we're done.

Thoughts on VAR?

I don't really care about football but since I live in Japan, I'm rooting with the Japanese at bars.

Assimilate or be crushed! I'm still rooting for my homeland as well, of course (Iceland).

What's up with colombians and the world cup?

So far, I am OK with it, although it is too early to pass judgement. There have been some mistakes from the referees, but few intentional and this is not something it was going to change overnight...

Am German however our team is on self-destruct mode (too many negative stories that have little to do with football itself).

Since my second favorite team Cameroon (first WC I watched as a kid was 90) didn't make it, I keep my fingers crossed for Mexiko.

Always had a soft spot for Mexiko since in contrast to other Latin and South American teams they had historically a high number of players from their national league in the squad and as a kid they sounded so alien to me.

VAR so far is a mixed bag with some serious questionable calls - then again I like that they tend to overrule the referee on court only if it's a clear wrong call, much better done than in the past German Bundesliga season, which was horrible since they ended up overruling every minor debatable call to the point where it felt the referee on the pitch was remote controlled by VAR.

@captain_insano said:

It's an OK start, but I think there are things that could be done to improve it: (*TRIGGER WARNING*: American attitude towards soccer and video review incoming. Retreat to your safe place if this offends you.)

1. I don't think there is enough risk/reward inherent in the system. Most American sports put the ability to challenge in the hands of the teams, with some sort of penalty if the challenge is unsuccessful. I'd would propose some sort of NHL-style system - the teams themselves can call for a review but they need to risk a substitution to do it. If they lose the challenge, they lose the substitution and can't challenge anymore. No subs, no challenges. It would add a layer of strategy to the process too, since teams are going to need to make an affirmative decision to challenge or not.

2. FIFA has done a pretty poor job of communicating exactly what is reviewable and what the standard is. I get it because I follow soccer pretty closely, but I could see causal fans being completely mystified. It also seems like the "clear error" standard is not very well defined and feels more like a way to protect the referees than it does to get calls correct.

3. Some of the inherent drama of a review is missing from the process. While this might be seen as a positive in that it can keep the game moving, personally I like a little more Wes McCauley in my review decisions. It's the World Cup - play to the drama of the moment. And while we're on the subject, would it kill them to announce what is being reviewed and the justification for upholding or overturning a call?

Yo, Argentina are hot garbage, Messi looks like he could not care less about being at this tournament. Luckily for him he won't be by the end of next week.

Good job Hrvatska though.

As Cesc Fàbregas said on BBC, Argentina played with 5 defenders and 5 attackers and didn't seem to have a plan. Croatia's midfielders must have had the time of their lives. Feel sorry for Messi.

Woof. Argentina. To paraphrase the opening of Dark Souls 3:

"And in venturing North, the Argentine's discover the truth of the Old Words: "Lionel Messi and ten others."

The sucky part is Messi is going to take the lion's share of the blame for, basically, not being Cristiano Ronaldo and playing on a better team.

Oh well, I guess this just means tiny little Iceland now has a pretty good shot at making the knock-out rounds.

@therealturk: I think that might come to an end tomorrow against Nigeria, sadly.

Being French-American I obviously want France to get a second star. As for who I'm rooting for outside of France, that would be the home countries of my best friends, South Korea, Peru and Croatia. I think I speak for everyone who's not facing Iceland in that I want to see Iceland advance out of the group stage.

Sadly for my Peruvian friend they were eliminated by France (one a separate note by brother won his bet with his Peruvian friend and shaved his friend's head after the game), my Korean friend is going to have to hope they play out of their minds considering their group and my Croatian friend and I are hoping we both win our groups and then keep winning until we face in the finals (we still talk about the open hand to the chin by Blanc that led to the Croatian player covering his eye to draw a red card on Le President).

I am absolutely enjoying the world cup, especially as my 7 year twins are now old enough to have an idea what soccer is and what countries are. Sadly I am like many players I'm superstitious that what I do at home affects the results, it's dumb I know, but I wore my Germany and Brasil jerseys a few days ago and things didn't go well for them, so I'm not wearing the jerseys of teams I want to win anymore, then again today I didn't wear my Croatia jersey and they won, but I also didn't wear my Argentina jersey, so I guess it balanced things out.

@bugbarbecue said:

I dunno about that. Iceland can grind out a tie against just about anyone, and they're pretty good on the counter if Nigeria gets too frisky looking for a goal.

@captain_insano:

I think it makes the game more fair in the end. So that's good. But i feel like there are kinks to be worked out. First of all, It introduces a lot of moments where the ref just pauses a game, because the VAR made a decision on something that happened 30 seconds earlier. Sometimes in the middle of a potentially good attack. That's frustrating. Goal line tech is fantastic & snappy. Being able to correct wrong bookings is good too ( Happened to Peru today) . But when VAR fails at sending Otamendi or Rebic off the pitch, i feel like it's not working out well making those red-card decisions. But honestly, the most annoying thing is when the ref pauses the game, looks at the screen, and decides that there was no foul / no penalty. That makes me realize that i rather see the video referee having the final call instead of the field referee. If the VAR has superior sight compared to the field referee, he should be the one that makes the final decision. If a VAR decision requires the game to pause, it should actually affect the game (penalty awarded / red card handed out) It shouldn't end with the fieldref disagreeing with the VAR and letting play continue in the same state as the game was put to a halt for.

I also worry that linesmen will be less likely to make snap judgments on offside. If the linesman calls for offside, the attack is ruined and he has a chance to be wrong about it. If he doesn't call offside and a illegal goal is scored, his ass can be saved by the VAR afterwards. How many linesmen are willing to take the risk that they're wrong, when they can just let the play continue and rely on the VAR to make the correct decision afterwards? Refs are already instructed to not flag as quickly as they normally would do, just because the VAR is a thing now. I feel like the system eventually will make linesmen less likely to flag for 50/50 decisions. When linesmen are discouraged from making these snap judgments on offside calls, at which point do we get rid of these linesmen and just let the VAR check for offside instead? You could probably have the VAR signal through lights whether a player was offside. That would reduce the amount of downtime.

Yeah I'm kinda done with Iceland. It was all fun and cute at the Euro's in a tiny-country-greatly-surpassing-expectations kind of way but that novelty's worn off and they play a pretty shitty brand of football.

Since The Netherlands didn't qualify I don't have a horse in the race and just want to see some good football... of which there hasn't been too much sofar. Russia's doing well in that regard (who'd'a thunk?) with some surprising displays of skill and finesse from their otherwise very physical team, but they haven't met any real resistance. I don't rightly see them doing the same with less space to work with. Everyone else seems to be struggling to some degree. Of course Ronaldo absolutely delivered in that first match and Modric showed he needs to be guarded 100% of the time and not just 99%. Mexico seem to be on the right track as well.

Other than that there's a whole lot of untapped potential in this World Cup... now that all teams have had their openers maybe their nerves will settle down and we'll see more matches meeting expectations.

So, I didn't get to watch Argentina's first game, did they behave as dickishly in that one as they did in this one? That dude whose name escapes me now essentially kicking the ball off of the torso/face of the Croatian player while he was on the ground was something else.

They did, it was a bit of a messi.

@therealseaman: I'm calling the cops for that one.

Boy is Brazil not at all in form so far. It's beyond me that Brazil might be willing to screw up the entire tournament by forcing Neymar, who clearly is not back in shape yet, to be their key player.

That game was this World Cup in microcosm. So much drama in the second half. The narrative turned at every opportunity, but the hard-working, pragmatic, occasionally dirty Costa Ricans were finally undone by the quality of Brazil. Tite's substitutions were brilliant; I thought Paulinho was really playing well, but Costa was more what the team needed. And every time I see Firmino I'm more convinced that he should start every game for them, because his hold-up play, his passes, his movement, they all enable so much to happen around him, and we know he's got goals in him as well. And Coutinho continues to be the man who's stepped up when they need him to.

But what to make of Neymar in that game. I was furious with him for the way he worked the referee, who I thought kept his cool very well. The VAR decision was totally correct, and I'd have given Neymar a yellow for simulation. He was petulant, he was angry, he was frustrating to watch. But we know he's an emotional player, and he's not at 100%, and a lot of his country's expectations weigh on him, and Costa Rica at times seemed to make it their mission to foul him and kick him down. So to see him get that final goal to put the game away and then openly weep on the pitch, I felt relieved for him.

Hopefully this is a platform that Brazil can use to get through the tough games in this tournament, because when they are able to show the kind of football they want to play, and are capable of playing, they are absolutely sensational, and look like world-beaters. The team needs to believe that they are more than just Neymar.

Don't blame Costa Rica for how they played, especially after losing to Serbia. Some of their defending was violent and reckless, but they had a game plan and executed on it really well for 90+ minutes.

That Croatia game was very testy by both sides. 7 total yellows and a blatant missed red. After learning that yellows don’t reset until Semi’s, though, I can’t help but feel worried about Croatia’s four yellows. If Iceland ties, today, Croatia gets a lock as Group D winners, though. So for their final match, they can just not play their yellow-carded players, or just have them play the most conservative soccer of their life.

Kuipers is our nation's pride. With our Dutch Moroccans heading home and our friendly southern neighbours (Belgium) making it so damn hard to root for them we've all rallied behind Kuipers and his team. He should get the final...

...

He's all we've got!

It's the best.

@dirty_harry: I've been rooting for Iceland mostly because I think Iceland is cool. After their draw with Argentina I thought they could make it out of the group stage. But then Croatia wiped the floor with Argentina and Iceland lost to Nigeria. We'll see how the Croatia game goes.

Oof. Serbia got a rough deal there. Thought that 2 men pulling Mitrovic down during a corner certainly would've merited a look at the VAR. Looked like a clear penalty to me. To see them eventually lose is quite bitter. Great game though!

@onemanarmyy: He was straight up american football tackled by one of them; near textbook tackle. Whole game was one sided officiating against Serbia. Absolutely terrible. Fun game to watch, otherwise.

@clush: I don't know about you or your countrymen, but personally, I find this Belgian team to be very likeable, if only for the sheer amount of talent they've assembled over the past few years. I'm English, so we get to watch the magic of de Bruyne, Hazard, Lukaku, and the Spurs CBs every week, and de Bruyne in particular is one of my favourite players in the world at the moment. And I've watched enough Napoli matches in Serie A and UCL to know that Mertens is a real talent. Of course, their big problem is Roberto Martinez; how on Earth he ended up in charge of this amount of talent I'll never know. Just like Deschamps with France, he's getting in the way of his players, and I fear for Belgium when they have to play someone good.

Very convincing second-half performance by Switzerland, who now have set up the incredible scenario where Brazil could fail to get out of the group despite beating Costa Rica. It always annoys me watching Xherdan Shaqiri play, not because there's anything wrong with him, but because it bothers me how much the commentators bring up his height. Anyway, his timing on the run and composure to finish the winning goal were superb.

I think that might be the main issue. For all the obvious talent they have and how stellar they play every week there's too many ego's in the national squad. They don't play well together and seem to prefer throwing eachother under the bus when mistakes are made, rather than break a sweat compensating for them. To me they seem very happy to lose as long as it can't be pinned on them personally.

I'll be happy to root for them once they start putting in the work. For now they seem lazy and simply too arrogant for a once-in-a-century generation of talent that really hasn't done anything but underachieve in a shocking way in recent years.

They're fantastic on paper, yet they only get results against very poor sides. They have literally never beaten a strong team.

I can't see us (Australia) making it out of the group stages. Having seen France play, I am calling a draw between France and Denmark which will keep Aus out of the knockouts. I have been appalled by Argentina and seriously underwhelmed by Brazil and France. Portugal won't make it far as it is just Ronaldo. I haven't seen Germany yet though.

The best part by FAR is that there still has not been a 0-0 draw.