I’ve enjoyed the matches, and the silly punditry plus also the fact I’m watching it for the entertainment and not the anxiety and heartbreak and sometimes success that follow me when I watch Liverpool.
Also enjoyed following on here with others.
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Have not watched much. Other than individual players and a sprinkling of sides, the overall quality of play has been mediocre.
The US side are laden with MLS players and elite league backbenchers. I am astounded they have gotten as far as they have…which I attribute solely to the manager.
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Least they’ve moved on from the war.
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While being forced to play under different conditions than everyone else. We will never know if that made enough of a difference to their results, but ignoring everything going on away from the pitch during a competition like this is precisely why sports washing works to the degree it does.
I am not entirely against it, but think they made incredibly strange choices in the organization of it that made it feel like a bad choice. The lack of consistency over kick offs, resulting in only a single game being played yesterday was an absolute farce. It was disappointing how little rode on the last round of games and how little real competitive tension there was, and I think a lot of that has to do with the not just the possibility of qualifying with a 3rd placed finishes, but the switch to head to head as a tie breaker within a group. I think I could live with both of those in isolation, but the fact the tie breaker for the various 3rd placed finishes was GD created a really weird inconsistency that I think caused problems as well.
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For international standard football it is a decently strong side, possibly the strongest 1-11 they have ever had, but gets weakend pretty quickly with only a couple of absences (as we saw against Turkey).
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They’re celebrating the battle of Falkirk in 1200 and something
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I think that is a good shout - Japan doesn’t have quite the cutting edge they would really need, but I think Brazil is still really struggling with their attacking flow and Japan will force them to be more disciplined in defence than they have been. Brazil had a hard time in qualifying with quite a few teams that focused on controlling the middle and then counterattacking aggressively, which seems to be central to Japan’s approach.
Still the expected gap in raw talent, but less than we once would have expected. Quite looking forward to this match
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Oh maybe not then.
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Morroco had them and I expect Japan will play similarly I expect it will be close.
Ian Darke - “Brazil are coming into ominous form and are getting better as the tournament goes on”
No, they started off playing against Morocco and then got to play Haiti and Scotland 
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What is Guimarães doing? Trying to whip up the crowd and then delivered a limp corner kick. Dickhead.
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Brazil do have a reputation that’s outdated by about 60 years.
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Who was that guy next to Fabinho … 
I’m sure Vicious Jnr was attempting to foul him then…
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Brazil is moving the ball well though.
Good place for a freekick for Japan. Casemiro a yellow? Surprise!
why does brazil start casemero
Every 4 years for 30 years there is the conversation about how this isnt the Brazil of previous cycles. People continue saying that no matter how many times they go into a world cup trying to win it with an attritional physical side like this from 12 years ago…there is more flair at LB in that side than there is from the remaining 9 outfield players not named Neymar
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It actually is astonishing that Brazil has so many unlikable players in a single side.
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ronaldinho looking healthy