soccer soccer soccer

[Rex Buckingham]

Rio Ferdinand not loving that England drew Croatia

[UMFan83]

2 minutes ago, Rex Buckingham said:

Rio Ferdinand not loving that England drew Croatia

Not ideal but it guarantees they draw one of the minnows in pot 4 right

[soccer10k]

No Jordan from Pot 4 either. So from that pot we're down to the 4 UEFA teams, New Zealand, Ghana and Cape Verde.

[soccer10k]

Just now, UMFan83 said:

Not ideal but it guarantees they draw one of the minnows in pot 4 right

Yep, they can't draw one of the UEFA playoff teams.

[JHBulls]

Australia vs USA!!!

That is the exact matchup I wanted. The rest of the draw doesn’t concern me at all. 

[UMFan83]

USA vs Paraguay in our first match.  And now we get a UEFA playoff team right?  Not good.

Edited December 5, 2025 by UMFan83

[Rex Buckingham]

Paraguay, another decent draw

[soccer10k]

I'll take that. So roughly a 3/7 chance we get a minnow in Pot 4. Could be less than that due to the UEFA limitations of 2 per group.

[soccer10k]

Nice, we avoided Italy and Denmark's playoff group. So better odds now we get a minnow.

[soccer10k]

Well we're getting a Euro team. Rio just said every group must have a European team.

[JHBulls]

Wow. Easier ever group Australia have had. Thrilled with that. 

[JHBulls]

Turkey/Romania/Slovakia/Kosovo.

[UMFan83]

Toughest of the playoff groups by ELO

[Rex Buckingham]

Favorite from that play-off has to be Turkiye, right?

[soccer10k]

So we hope Turkey gets bounced.

[soccer10k]

Group I seems like the toughest group with France, Senegal and Norway. Maybe F depending on which Euro team advances from the playoff since it already has Netherlands and Japan.

[Sammy Sofa]

 

[CubinNY]

3 minutes ago, Sammy Sofa said:

 

If they move the games out of "blue cities" whateverthefuk that means, where are they going to hold them? A pasture in Iowa? Morgantown WV? 

[soccer10k]

19 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

If they move the games out of "blue cities" whateverthefuk that means, where are they going to hold them? A pasture in Iowa? Morgantown WV? 

Exactly. FIFA’s going to tell him to horsefeathers off because all they care about is making as much money as possible which means hosting games in the biggest stadiums that will draw the most fans.

[UMFan83]

Based on that simulator site I linked to earlier, 99% of the simulations I've run have 4 points enough to advance to the knockout rounds and most sims have at least 1-2 teams with 3 points advance.  Who knows if it will play out like that in real life but it seems like a win and a draw should be enough to squeak in but even more than previous WCs, there's a bigger advantage to winning your group since you will likely play a mediocre 3rd place team in the round of 32

[JHBulls]

Somehow the World Cup final halftime show isn’t the stupidest thing that will happen at the tournament anymore. 

[JHBulls]

Liam Rosenior has the perfect CV for Chelsea, he is a former Brighton player.

[soccer10k]

Amorim pulled a Conte and had a weird press conference where he was basically asking to get fired without actually asking to get fired. And just like Conte, he got his wish and got fired.

[JHBulls]

 

[soccer10k]

Guessing that will likely end this month. Arsenal won 6 of 7 games and the only one they didn't was a 95th minute loss at Villa so I wouldn't be surprised if Arteta gets it.

I know you weren't saying the December manager of the month will be fired though.