World Cup General Discussion Thread - 2030 The Jokes On You

Seems like Allan Nielsen actually scored in 1998 v South Africa.

 

I feel like a vampire when my hungover never dies and I wouldn’t stake anyone’s life on it , let alone my own .

 

Patrick Ney-meh Jnr

 

Before he joined us ?

 

Maybe, but the way added time is being so liberally added is leaning towards a rugby union style clock stop which I don’t think is the best for the game. A 60 minute time with stopping the clock for stoppages has been mooted for a while.

Either that or we’ll be still at the Vic gone half 10 midweek if the directive is implemented domestically.

VAR will be VAR though I guess.

 

Personally I’d at least like to see it trialled. Watford are are not a **** house team in the slightest and in years gone by it’s been very frustrating when we come up against a team like Burnley when they ‘manage’ the game against us. It would stop teams like that immediately which I can’t see as being a bad thing for football, if what you actually want to see is football.

 

1994 team was pretty dry as well!

 

You’re right. Richarlison joins Mo Johnston and Andre Carrillo as the only former hornets to score at the World Cup. Gerry Armstrong is the only Watford player to score at a World Cup.

 

I watched the first half before switching to Nothing Like A Dame.

Those Serbian chaps are not to be triffled with I suspect!

 

Hmm, I doubt Marseille would have been offering him 45k per week either though.

 

Nice bit on Robert Page featuring Watford on BBC right now.

 

Did I just hear that Saka started his career at Watford ? Didn't know that.
Before I blew my top at another prospect being stolen by the bigger clubs I see he left for Arsenal at the age of 7 per Wiki ("anyone can edit Wiki") ...
"Having previously played for youth teams of Watford,[18] Saka joined Arsenal's Hale End academy[19] at the age of seven."

 

So, have Iran picked up their game today or are they playing a team on their level?

 

A bit below their level, I'd say. Bale is a passenger apart from dead ball kicks.

 

I don’t think Wales are very good

 

I was wondering that. It's been a very engaging, well-matched first half.

I have a regular debate with friends about where international sides would sit in the English league system if they were club sides. I think Wales would be a decent Championship side. Are Wales better than Cardiff and Swansea?

 

Iran's best player has caused mayhem for Wales. Take a step forward Conor Roberts. Schoolboy error square pass across the face of the pitch with the opposition lurking. Idiot.

Admittedly, it's effing hot down there but Bale and Ramsey need solar panels attached to them to get them going.

It's like a Cup Final. Bloody tense.

 

The issue with the way they’ve run it in the World Cup is that most games will go from maybe 95-100 minutes including stoppage time to getting on for 110+ minutes every game. That’s pretty insane extended over a season. Players are already stretched as it is.
I do like the fact they are trying to combat gamesmanship but needs to be tweaked.
Maybe have the ref warn the team first, then add a minute for the next and subsequent offences and then dish out the cards from the third offence.
The issue with stopping the clock is when do you do that and for how long? Just when it goes out of play? What about free kicks? How long do you give a team to take a free kick? Do you introduce a free kick clock similar to the snap clock in NFL?
Introducing a stop clock would be a nightmare personally.

 

Teams ranked 19 and 20th in the World playing in a literal cauldron. FIFA thinks they are evenly matched too.

 

The point about loading on the players is valid when they throw it in all of sudden in a World Cup but if it became the norm there's no reason players couldn't train for that. And frankly, if it meant the intensity of play overall had to drop (say) 5% but in return as fans we saw timewasting largely eliminated so there was more 'in play' time that would be a fair trade of in my book.

I think the actual application of it isn't too hard. As you say, other sports already do it, there's no reason why football couldn't adapt.

 

It would surely be easy wouldn’t it, whenever the ball isn’t in play stop the clock. I don’t think it’s rocket science. If someone wants to take an age lining a free kick up that’s up to them, but in the NFL they have a timer for such things which again would be incredibly easy to implement.

 

It's a beautiful morning out there. Just taken the dog for a long walk. Will have a coffee and read the paper for a bit now #boycottheworldcup

 

My dad was Welsh and I want them to do well, but Iran need a good tournament to help protect their players after their courageous protest.

 

Sorry not to see Bale and Ramsey off. Bale's done nothing, Ramsey full of mistakes.

 

That Azmoun is a player I really like..

 

Lol that was a red card all day long….not sure what Hennessy thought he was doing. The covering defender was there too.

 

Absolutely sickening attempt at an interception. Completely wild knee to the face. That's worth 2 red cards.

 

Wales aren't very good are they?
Why isn't Bale playing?

 

Funny that Iran perform when they sing their national anthem. Another example of the pointless distraction of virtue signalling.

 

Hot, stop, start, Bale and Ramsey compete passengers against a fired-up Iran. Ramsey going off will have no detrimental effect on Wales.

 

Ha ha ha. Yeah, there's definitely causation there, absolutely no doubt about it. Why not just scrap the football and have a big sing-off between countries instead? After all, there's already a European version, held every May, and it's very popular. Whoever belts out their anthem the best wins. England are already up against it after a couple of players got the words wrong on Monday but they've been working on it in training and hope to be better tonight.