2022 Qatar World Cup

Is there a website somewhere to make custom brackets ?

Spoiler i don't think Canada will advance from group stage, but rarely are we pathetic in any sport (exception made of football until recently) so i hope for a win vs Morocco and put a good fight vs Croatia and Belgium. That's as much as we can hope for.

One player to watch: Ismael Kone in midfield, great potential

Warrior wrote:Is there a website somewhere to make custom brackets ?

Spoiler i don't think Canada will advance from group stage, but rarely are we pathetic in any sport (exception made of football until recently) so i hope for a win vs Morocco and put a good fight vs Croatia and Belgium. That's as much as we can hope for.

One player to watch: Ismael Kone in midfield, great potential

I did mine on MLS website

Warrior wrote:Is there a website somewhere to make custom brackets ?

Spoiler i don't think Canada will advance from group stage, but rarely are we pathetic in any sport (exception made of football until recently) so i hope for a win vs Morocco and put a good fight vs Croatia and Belgium. That's as much as we can hope for.

One player to watch: Ismael Kone in midfield, great potential

Where's your prediction challenge thread

Didn't think people were interested this year since the hype is minimal

I'll do it tonight

Two months without club football and a World Cup where your NT didn't get qualified
Terrible
I suffer this thing

Basically the whole Goallegacy to World Cup, even Kaladin from Qatar because it is... in Qatar, even Casciavit from Canada

But not me

BarcaLearning wrote:Whats everyones opinion on female refs in mens games?

Cant often help but feel women after all can be more sentimental n hence may affect their rational decision making in games? Havent paid too much attention so far but definitely the world will all see them at the WC according to Thimmy video above

I have no particular opinion on women officiating in men's sports, but I think these female referees will be scrutinized in the Qatar world cup, and it might establish particular impressions on female referees as a whole for a lot of people. I imagine they'll have to perform under more pressure than their male counter-parts, which isn't really fair, but that's how it is.

Robespierre wrote:Basically the whole Goallegacy to World Cup, even Kaladin from Qatar because it is... in Qatar, even Casciavit from Canada

But not me

I'm pretty used to it at this point, but it's particularly frustrating when you have 3-4 players on your NT who deserve to be there, and they're being dragged down by the lack of quality in the rest of the team  

*sensibly chuckles in Namibian*

Any fantasy league from Goal Legacy on the Fifa website?

I expect there will be a lot more “surprises” in this WC than ever before. I for one don’t intend to enter any polls or bets this time around as I usually do!

My reasoning is
1) it’s pretty obvious that the europeans, all of the traditional strong are weaker than normal, based on Nation’s cup results etc.

2) the timing of this WC, has resulted in cramped club schedules and as a result more injuries and therefore a number of players have either not made squad lists or they are not in top shape.

3) timing and location of this WC will result in more hot humid conditions which will affect play of most countries.

4) I see the ‘other’ SA teams also weaker than normal, based on how dominant Argentina and Brasil have been, were as normally there is 2 or 3 countries legitimate contenders.

5) the fifa ranking based on historical results rather than current team performances. For example, Canada was clearly the better team over both Mexico and USA in past two years, yet is ranked well below the other two. That has resulted in both Mex, USA have better chances of advancing beyond group play. I suspect there may be other cases like this one.

in reply to 3) on your list...

isn't the whole idea of playing this WC at this specific time to play it during Qatar's winter time? Or are the winters still very hot in Qatar?

It’s the equator! Winter there is like the hottest summer for most of us!

Early group games will likely be the hottest with highs of 26-28°C (78-82°F) possible.  

Knockout matches will then be played exclusively in the evening to further mitigate the heat in Qatar.  

The knockout rounds also won't start until December which is officially the start of winter in Qatar with average daily temperatures dropping to between 19-26°C (66-78°F).

doesnt seem that bad honestly, although I believe it favors South American teams a little

pfft, imagine complaining over 26-28 degrees Celsius... inferior Europeans

Who’s complaining?

I’m simply saying there are a host of reasons why there will be a number of surprises this time around with only two teams seemly legit contenders.

Bottom line from my perspective, this time around there may be an outsider winning all or getting far in tournament. Certainly not the normal situation for making bets.

i would say each world cup has it's own special attributes, whether it is vuvuzelas, a Jabulani ball, or high altitude of Johannesburg in South Africa... or heat in Qatar, or annoying Americans in 2026, or the Zika virus in South America....

at the end football is football and the best teams will still make it the farthest.

Do you have a reading comprehension issue? I listed 5 reason on why there may be a lot of surprises this time around and you focused on only the environmental one. If it helps your comprehension, ignore the 3rd point!

calm down, old-timer, i wasn't attacking you

Agreed. There will always be some issues. the best team will win it...I am not expecting a lot of surprises...
As for point 2), should not the players coming to the WC be in good form? At the end of the season, they should be exhausted.

At the end of a normal season, they are not playing double the amount of games in a single month, than normal.

i get where you are coming from, Bill, and again i am not attacking you, but footballers these days are pretty much drilled to be robots. With the amount of international friendlies and international tournaments, the top players basically never get an extended rest. So yea, i just don't buy it that this world cup is going to be in any way significantly different.

In WC Teams will play at most 7 games in one month—roughly a 3 to 4 days gap in between whereas it's common for them to play two games per week during the peak time of the season.

Being a reporter these days means evoking outrage out of every little thing and writing articles based on a tweet. Truth be told, real journalism is long dead

Can you really blame them, though? Just look at the Cristiano Ronaldo thread on here. Journalists successfully established an agenda to the interview that a ton of people assumed to be true before it was even viewable by anyone. Objective, mainstream journalism has been rare for as long as I remember, I don't think this is anything new.

I still clearly remember almost every single member in our RM section buying into the Spanish media rumor that Martin Ødegaard was an egocentric, diva that was causing issues for RM's Castilla team. Nothing but blatantly manufactured information that those journalists never faced any consequences for.