So… has it been a good World Cup?

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sendô
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So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by sendô »

A lot was made of how bad itd be before the tournament. Winter tournament, non footballing desert country, poor crowds, human rights abuses, etc.

Honestly though, once the football started and the background circus stopped its turned out to be a memorable tournament.

- Germany and Belgium out in the groups.
- Saudis beating Argentina
- Japan beating Germany
- Morocco beating Belgium, Spain and Portugal to get to the semis.
- Messi turning up for the Argies
- Croatia rolling back the years to get 3rd
- France in back to back finals.

Ive really enjoyed it.
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by hammers92 »

Better than South Africa but thought Brazil and Russia were better to watch imo.
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by e17 »

Purely on football, I’d give it an 8/10

Russia was probably a 9 for the football too.
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by S-H »

It's been decent, quite a novelty to have it on this time of year truth be told.

Interest fell off of a cliff, once England exited, naturally.
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by Gormalysis »

I’ve really enjoyed it too, didn’t even get annoyed when England went out as I think we played well. Really liked it at this time of year but I wouldn’t want it every time, was a nice one off.

Some good scalps as well

Shame about the 2 worst teams in the final
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by vietnammer »

Circumstances meant I could watch more games than in any past WCs. Matches after group stages were consistently better (how it's supposed to be I guess) and the lack of clear favourites can be seen in a positive rather than a negative way. Yes it's been good just hoping for a good final without too many players out sick and no aggro
Or soppy ref decisions
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by bonzosbeard »

S-H wrote: Sun Dec 18, 2022 11:00 am It's been decent, quite a novelty to have it on this time of year truth be told.

Interest fell off of a cliff, once England exited, naturally.
Seconded.
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by Het-Field »

A large vibe of the ‘last hurrah’ for a lot of players who have been so enjoyable to watch over the past 12 years or so. It will be interesting to read the team of the tournament at the end, as I don’t think there will be too many ‘break out ‘ players cited. Beyond the likes of Messi and Greizmann, it was interesting to see the likes of Enner Valencia do quite well, after he came to our attention in 2014.

Sides like Germany, Uruguay, Belgium, Wales, Spain that had a decent spell in the teens will need a rebuild, and Portugal will now be looking at life with a possibly less influential Ronaldo. Morocco have of course made history for the African continent, which will be remembered, and Croatia continue to lead the way for small counties exceeding themselves (one runner up, and two third place in25 years is remarkable)

Some interesting results. Saudi Arabia beating Argentina will be a major scalp. Australia pushing hard was good to see.

Sadly though, there will always be the legacy that brought the tournament to this stage and to this location. FIFA didn’t cover themselves in glory with their rhetoric at the beginning and at the end. Also, the behaviour of players in terms of gamesmanship, or the total lack of responsibility taken in defeat, by a lot of nations was sad, and we have also reached a new level of blaming officials, which won’t help going forward.
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by e17 »

Agreed on the fact it’s the end of an era never being more clear at a major tournament.

There’ll never be another World Cup featuring Modric, Haller, Ronaldo, Hazard, Lewandowski, Suarez, Bale or Messi. and probably not Neymar either.
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by D C »

Pretty mediocre to poor level if football and not worth suspending the real football for. Fine in the summer when there us nothing else on but never again please.

Holding it in such a country is still vile and the western media managed to make it about themselves which is pretty gross also. All talk of fans of an orientation visiting and very little about the poor ****ers that are LGBTQ and born there and have to live under such oppressive laws. Many have been successfully and throughly sports-washed so it’s a huge success for the state and FIFA. All of that for some back handers under the guise of ‘spreading football around the world’ and yet they couldn’t even fill stadiums that didn’t have one of the 3 superstars playing in it

Didn’t realise how annoyed I was by it until I started typing so apologies if you read all of that rant
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by blahblahblah »

e17 wrote: Sun Dec 18, 2022 12:42 pm Agreed on the fact it’s the end of an era never being more clear at a major tournament.

There’ll never be another World Cup featuring Modric, Haller, Ronaldo, Hazard, Lewandowski, Suarez, Bale or Messi. and probably not Neymar either.
He seems a decent guy and I hope his testicles are ok, but I'm not sure I'd put Sebastien in with the rest of that group.
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by lincolnhammer1963 »

I've enjoyed the fact that most games have involved some sort of west ham connection.
In fact I've gone out of my way some for games to makesure I could find a connection however tenuous
it may be and I usually have.
Today of course, we have our reserve keeper, being reserve keeper for the French.
And of course the Argies have an ex player as their manager.
Even the semis yesterday had Vlasic and Aguerd even though he didn't actually play.
So I've taken a little bit of satisfaction in the knowledge of knowing some of our players are making their mark on the highest stage
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by ironside58 »

Overall I have enjoyed more games than usually, no great team but a fair few decent ones.

The group stages and then first matches afterwards more entertaining than the quarters onwards, when cynacism kicked in, Argentina lucky not to have players sent off in semi and today.
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by e17 »

blahblahblah wrote: Sun Dec 18, 2022 1:58 pm He seems a decent guy and I hope his testicles are ok, but I'm not sure I'd put Sebastien in with the rest of that group.
Got my Mullers mixed with my Hallers. Ironically was eating a fruit corner at the time.
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by jastons »

D C wrote: Sun Dec 18, 2022 1:23 pm Pretty mediocre to poor level if football and not worth suspending the real football for. Fine in the summer when there us nothing else on but never again please.
We must've been watching different games because some of the football I've seen has been absolutely fantastic.
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by brothernero »

Started off pretty poor imo but got better and better.

Brazil and Russia World Cups of recent years were better though.

Ps the one held in South Africa still remains the worse ever and likely will stay that way.
Last edited by brothernero on Sun Dec 18, 2022 6:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by sword »

It has now!
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by Alan Pardew's Dad »

Wrong time of the year for it. I love being out in the summer for the football.

I just didn’t warm to this tournament and generally didn’t enjoy it. It all felt wrong. Most of the ‘good’ teams didn’t play well or didn’t even qualify.

It’s time for the World Cup to go back to a real football nation that really cares. I love it when the host nation does well.

Not sure the next one in 4 years time will be much better than this one.
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by Bend it like Repka »

Overall I'm gutted Qatar have got such a great final. Just shows money rules and there is no justice in life.
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Re: So… has it been a good World Cup?

Post by Crouchend_Hammer »

Was a brilliant world cup IMHO

Culminating in one of the best football matches I have ever seen
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