2022 FIFA World Cup Finals

[Famine]

Boycotting it is just silly, when you could go there and use your presence to highlight the issues.

Unless it makes FIFA or the host country uncomfortable, or you put yourself at any risk, or you have to do anything at all to highlight the issues, or you might get a yellow card.


All seven countries should - if they're going to turn up, which they shouldn't have done - send all players onto the pitch with the armband on. Any match where a team is reduced to fewer than seven players must be abandoned, which would lead to quite the public discussion why almost a quarter of all the games have been abandoned...

 

[Dennisch]

I'm still hoping to read that at least one team will hop on the plane back home. But I really doubt it.

 

[PeterJB]

A token gesture like that was never gonna change societal or cultural attitudes in a country like Qatar anyway.

 

[Famine]

A token gesture like that was never gonna change societal or cultural attitudes in a country like Qatar anyway.

And yet they couldn't even manage that...

 

[Jimlaad43]

What is this England? It's definitely not the team who were abysmal in the Nations League.


Also this match has had 24 minutes of added time in it lol

 

[Jimlaad43]

Senegal Vs Netherlands has been an awesome match so far. 0-0 after 30 mins but both sides are attacking strongly and very equal

 

[MagpieRacer]

Senegal Vs Netherlands has been an awesome match so far. 0-0 after 30 mins but both sides are attacking strongly and very equal

I wouldn't say it is awesome, it's been pretty bland to be honest.

 

[Biggles]

National pride on full display as the Welsh players and supporters absolutely belt out the national anthem. So far though, the US is completely dominating the match play.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

England 6-2 Iran
Senegal 0-2 Netherlands
USA 1-1 Wales

Dominant display from England, Saka scored two goals with one each from Bellingham, Sterling, Rashford and Grealish, Bellingham scored his first England goal and Rashford scored just 49 seconds after coming on. Iran were poor for the most part but scored twice with Taremi getting them both and the second was a late penalty, only disappointment for England was the fact they conceded twice against them.

Senegal-Netherlands was the first even game we had, it was a good contest with the Dutch goals coming from Gakpo and Klaasen, Netherlands didn't have a shot on target until the goals and Senegal were a bit wasteful up front. USA brilliant in the first half with Weah scoring, Wales were second best throughout the half but Page brought Moore on for James at half time and Wales were a different team in the second half, equalizer was a Bale penalty which was given after he was brought down with around 10 mins left but Wales had a few chances before that so it was a fair 1-1 draw.

A couple of other things, Iran players didn't sing their national anthem as a sign of protest to the issues in their homeland, it was quite powerful, seems to be a lot of time added on to the halves of football so far as it looks like the officials have maybe been told to crack down on time wasting.

 

[Biggles]

National pride on full display as the Welsh players and supporters absolutely belt out the national anthem. So far though, the US is completely dominating the match play.

Second half the US went to sleep and allowed Wales back into the match, with the Welsh pressure eventually paying off. The draw between the US and Wales puts England in a very strong position.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Why is there so much added time at the World Cup?

The four matches at the World Cup so far have had much more stoppage time added on at the end of games than usual, but why?

www.bbc.co.uk

An interesting read about why all of yesterday's matches had such long stoppage time. The referees are finally clamping down on dead ball time-wasting and shoving it onto the end of matches. For these first few rounds, it's going to be crazy with multiple halves having at least 10 minutes of added time, but with any rule change that can be actioned pretty easily by players - if it's draconic to start with, they'll soon realise that it's beneficial to stop the stupid time-wasting and just get on with the game.

Please keep this up referees

 

[Jimlaad43]

 

[MagpieRacer]

Saudi Arabia currently leading Argentina, Argentina had 3 goals disallowed for offside in the 1st half. This would be a heck of a result for the 2nd lowest ranked team in the tournament.

Argentina almost look out of ideas, they have struggled to beat the offside trap and are now struggling to break down Saudi defensively.

 

[Blitz24]

Argentina decided today is a good day to shock everyone and stumble. Saudi Arabia wins 2-1 in the biggest World Cup upset of recent time and less than 100 miles from home.

 

[MoLiEG]

Lol Argentina.

And well, we the Mexiboys are just doing as expected: He have no strickers. No strickers, no goals.

This was a winnable game if we had a semi functional 9, what a shame. Argentina is going to destroy us and Saudi Arabia is going to send us home.

 

[Joey D]

Argentina is going to destroy us

Given Argentina's performance against the Saudis, I'm not so sure about that.

You guys got a massive break that penalty was saved.

 

[MoLiEG]

Given Argentina's performance against the Saudis, I'm not so sure about that.

You guys got a massive break that penalty was saved.

Lewa was awful on that Penalty kick. We got incredibly lucky. If they play barely decent football were are screwed. Argentina just has to pretend they are facing Venezuela and they will get the 3 points.

Also, le Champion Chris Je... I mean, France, just pulverized the Socceroos.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia
Denmark 0-0 Tunisia
Mexico 0-0 Poland
France 4-1 Australia

Only one place to start, and that's Denmark-Tunisia...

...Nah just kidding, in Lusail which will host the final was one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history, Saudi Arabia who are 54th in the world ranking beat Argentina who are one of the tournament favorites, Messi scored a penalty on 10 minutes before Al Shehri and a stunning goal from Al Dawsari eventually gave Saudi the win, Argentina didn't actually do that much in attack, although they obviously had a lot of possession and chances the Saudi goalkeeper didn't have a lot to do.

Australia took the lead against France thanks to a strike from Goodwin after 9 minutes, but then France predictably turned it around with two goals from Giroud and one each from Rabiot and Mbappe, Giroud now tied on 51 goals with Thierry Henry at the top of the France leading goal scorers.

Denmark couldn't break down a stubborn Tunisia and Lewandowski had a penalty saved by Mexico legend Ochoa who also made some other good saves.

 

[Blitz24]

I'm sure this news is only good for FIFA!

 

[coyb20]

Morocco were really convincing today, they could get to the Round of 16 I think…. Im worried about Croatia, looking beyond Perisic, Modric, Kovacic, they dont have the team they did in 2018 and starting Lovren was a mistake…Looking forward to Germany Japan

 

[Touring Mars]

So much for keeping politics out of football...

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Japan just beat Germany 2-1...

 

[kowalski__1]

Japan just beat Germany 2-1...

All these upsets and draws are messing with my picks in the soccer pool,groan...still fun but..

 

[Jimlaad43]

France and England are the only "big" teams to have turned up to this World Cup so far.

Spain and Belgium up later today to see if they are here too.

EDIT: 3-0 after half an hour, Spain have definitely made their mark so far

EDIT 2: Spain 7-0 Costa Rica
Spain are here and mean BUSINESS!
Gavi got on the scoresheet, becoming the 3rd youngest player to score in a FIFA Men's World Cup.

 

[Joey D]

I'm really pulling for Canada. I know it's a long shot, but I'd like to see them at least get their first World Cup goal.

Also, I just caught the tail end of it on TV, but is Harry Kane out for Friday's game?

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Morocco 0-0 Croatia
Germany 1-2 Japan
Spain 7-0 Costa Rica
Belgium 1-0 Canada

Another day and another shock, Japan came from 1-0 down to win after two substitutes Doan and Asano bother scored in the second half and the second goal was really good, Germany took the lead with a Gundogan penalty, and they missed several big chances.

Just total dominance from Spain against a poor Costa Rica side, Ferran Torres with two including a penalty plus one goal each from Olmo, Asensio, Gavi, Soler and Morata. Gavi became the youngest player to score in a World Cup since Pele, Gavi is 18 years and 118 days old, biggest win of the tournament so far.

Morocco Croatia was a decent game with two good since cancelling each other out, Canada were actually the better team in there game but couldn't really finish, they had a penalty saved by Courtios from Davies and Batshuayi scored for Belgium.

 

[Famine]

Now, it's not in my nature to be suspicious and sceptical, but...

Qatar2022.qa, November 19 (via Internet Archive):

Wikipedia, November 21 (via Edit History):

Fifa.com, November 11 (via Internet Archive), vertically shortened:

Official attendance at Senegal vs. Netherlands, November 21, via FIFA.com

Qatar2022.qa, November 24:

Wikipedia, November 24:

Fifa.com, November 24, vertically shortened:

And the stadium did not exactly appear to be bursting at the seams...

Qatar officials claim 41,721 spectators were at match – in 40,000 capacity stadium

Less than full stadiums follow claims from tournament’s chief executive that Qatar had been ‘gripped by football fever’

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[MUSC4EVER]

They are for some reason making up the attendance figures even though there have been a lot of empty seats at the stadiums.

 

[Famine]

They are for some reason making up the attendance figures even though there have been a lot of empty seats at the stadiums.

Indeed, but FIFA editing its own website to legitimise the fakery is insane.

 

[Jimlaad43]

The figures probably represent the entire number of people in the stadium, once you account for players, officials, staff and security, but that is obviously not what an Attendance figure is supposed to represent.