FIFA World Cup 2026 - USA/Canada/Mexico (Part 2)

Yeah, for them it must be something like it is for Peter Schilling :joy: A lot of people don’t even know who Baccara are; I think this song is going to make a comeback thanks to the World Cup and the global attention.

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Well, if Scotland scored a bit more it would be…

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https://x.com/LangmanVince/status/2069589994600058919

https://x.com/FootyHumour/status/2069699297134735772

https://x.com/StaySoof/status/2069512845113643338

https://x.com/thewakeninq/status/2069363091612086497

https://x.com/England_Pod/status/2069502471798440368

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https://x.com/ScotNational/status/2069505724477042908

https://www.thenational.scot/news/26222177.us-city-donates-10-500-scottish-childrens-hospital-tartan-army/

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Such excellent deadpan humour.

I’ve hoped, completely in vain, that this would not spill out to the foreign media. Sigh, sigh, sigh.
https://x.com/WarMonitors/status/2069713880582909976
I would probably not have posted it to you guys if the cat was not already out of the bag :laughing:

Magnus thinks this is very undignified and that parliament should be a sacred place, not a circus, and was irritated when this happened

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I am much, much more a fan of this. Sad that only the prince and the princess was able to watch the game live, hundreds went to the Royal Palace after the game, to wake up the king (he was there, flag hoisted, means he is in residence) in case he was unfortunate enough to be asleep.

https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/norwegian-fans-take-dawn-world-cup-party-palace-gates-wake-king-2026-06-23/

It’s around 4.30 AM.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xZwRLX2BxZ4

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I don’t know I think it’s rather good business from broke Barca haha

Knockout stage as it stands now…

Some of the matches have changed a bit by now. And things certainly won’t stay this way, either. But it’s interesting to keep an eye on.

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Boston probably thinking, are these lot really from the same island

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Almost certainly. Italia 90 was the last time we had a tournament with this structure. The calculations are changed a bit by it still being 2 points for a win but this was the break down.

4 points and you are almost certainly in. 3 points without a fucked GD and you’ve got a good chance

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I am sure you’ve discussed this already but how the flippity flip did the ref not give a penalty to Ghana for Konsa going in two footed and not even touching the ball?!

I’m almost embarrassed that England got away with that,

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That is interesting how much it has changed in just a couple of days. The last time I looked it EVERYONE was in the lower half the draw giving the US basically a free hit to get the semis in the top half before coming up against the Germans. It looks far more balanced with only a couple more days of play

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Was just a coming together Jim. He had every right to go for the ball. I think the Ghanan came into Konsa’s space

[/meaningless pundit comments]

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The BBC post match coverage I think had an ex-ref who said that was a dead cert penalty and he is baffled why VAR did not intervene decisively.

Thankfully I didn’t waste my time watching the match live. I was enjoying Queensryche live instead.

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It was astonishing. Two feet off the ground, and contact made on the thigh of the attacker with absolutely no touch on the ball. It was wild enough that if you wanted to claim it wasn’t a legitimate attempt to play the ball and give it a DOGSO red as well as the penalty I’d have been ok with that.

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What was more embarrassing was Shearer in the live comms pretty much glossed over it. That’s just not right. You have to call that out.

I think it is likely less a case of basic pro-england bias, and more a reflection of how many people in the game have no effective framework for what is and is not a foul and just go by gut instinct and then rationalize it with (bad) explanations after the fact.

If you back to the Maca-Doku one a couple of years back I am absolutely convinced that the pundits and experts who claimed it was the right decision simply believed that a potentially title deciding penalty should have to be a more consequential foul than that and emotionally landed on it being not a foul and then could not see how ridiculous the arguments they made in defense of that sounded. Because to them everything starts with the emotional gut reaction and explanations for it come later

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Interestingly, at the time, the commentator said, ā€œI think Doku is in trouble hereā€, meaning a straight red. It then was downgraded to not even a foul and all the post-hoc rationalisation started.

In fact they asked us to deny the evidence of our own eyes: ā€œHe touched the ball firstā€ - it bounced of Maca’s chest on to his foot which was soundly planted in his ribs. ā€œMac Allister moved into his spaceā€ (whatever that means): He was actively flinching away trying to avoid a broken ribcage.

I still don’t know how Pickford has a foul awarded to him after he took out the Ghanaian forward. It frankly looked like a betting scam.

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With the final round of group fixtures getting under way on 24 June, it’s time to start plotting your country’s path to World Cup glory on 19 July.

But with 32 of the 48 teams advancing to the knockout rounds, new tiebreaker rules, and a table of third-placed teams to keep track of, staying across the various permutations is far from simple.

As it stands, England, sitting top of Group L, and Scotland, third in Group C, are on course to meet in the last 16 in Mexico City (6 July, 01:00 BST).

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