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***Official*** 2018 World Cup thread (and Drinking Guide) (1 Viewer)

Group A and H look the weakest. maybe C too. 

bunch of groups with 2 tough teams and a couple teams who knows.

I thought F looked the toughest, but Lineker thought B. 

stilll just a massive pit in my gut about this ####### thing
Yep but just keep saying "Chúpalo México!" to yourself a few times. It seems to be helping me a little. 

 
I will root for Nigeria as it's the most like the U.S. imo.  Huge pool of athletic, strong, clueless soccer players, lol.

 
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I would typically just wait until the games start and see which team strikes my fancy, but at this time I'm leaning toward generally supporting the 5 CAF teams. They have the best shirts, best voodoo, crazy managers.  An African team beating Russia would almost be a Jesse Owens in Berlin - type event.

 
Current World Cup Odds (Sky Bet):

Brazil 5:1
Germany 5:1

France 11:2

Spain 13:2

Argentina 8:1

Belgium 14:1

England 20:1

Portugal 25:1

Croatia 33:1
Russia 33:1
Current odds:

Brazil  5/1

Germany 5/1

France 11/2

Spain 6/1

Argentina 8/1

Belgium 11/1 - along with England got a little bump up

England 16/1

Portugal 25/1

Croatia dropped to 40/1, Uruguay and Colombia moved up to 28/1

 
Opta has updated their predictor

Brazil favored w/ a 14.2% chance of winning, GER 11.4, ARG 10.9, FRA 10.5 & ESP 9.3.  Then there's a big drop down to BEL at 3.8%.

They have Morocco ranked lowest at 0.5% which seems like a flaw in their system.  Morocco has beaten three WC teams (Korea, Egypt, Tunisia) this year.

 
I'm rooting for Poland, for several reasons. Lewandowski is awesome, I have Polish ancestry, plus Russians would be seriously pissed watching them win on their home soil (along the same lines, I'm cheering for all the African teams too.)

 
I'm rooting for Poland, for several reasons. Lewandowski is awesome, I have Polish ancestry, plus Russians would be seriously pissed watching them win on their home soil (along the same lines, I'm cheering for all the African teams too.)
I have Polish ancestry also, but the Irish part of me makes me drink to forget the Polish part... 

 
okay so went alternate reality.  I used 2 methods.  In both cases the USA bumps Iran from pot 3 to pot 4 and bye bye Panama.

Method 1 imagines a world where the slips of paper were put in the balls alphabetically by country and then everything else happened the same way at the same time.  Yes this is ridiculous since a longer name would change the timing of the next ball drawn etc but let's roll with it.  

The USA would be in Group G:

Belgiun-England-USA-Morocco

Method 2 has the slips put in by ranking order and then everything else drawn on same order.

The USA would (again) be in Group G:

Belgium-England-USA-South Korea.

So rest easy knowing we would be screwed.

-QG

 
okay so went alternate reality.  I used 2 methods.  In both cases the USA bumps Iran from pot 3 to pot 4 and bye bye Panama.

Method 1 imagines a world where the slips of paper were put in the balls alphabetically by country and then everything else happened the same way at the same time.  Yes this is ridiculous since a longer name would change the timing of the next ball drawn etc but let's roll with it.  

The USA would be in Group G:

Belgiun-England-USA-Morocco

Method 2 has the slips put in by ranking order and then everything else drawn on same order.

The USA would (again) be in Group G:

Belgium-England-USA-South Korea.

So rest easy knowing we would be screwed.

-QG
Six months of Morocco jokes would be fun :shrug:

 
Link to Group match schedule

Some games I am looking forward to:

6/14 - Russia v. Saudi Arabia - not glamorous, but I'll watch at least part of it
6/15 - Portugal v. Spain
6/16 - Peru v. Denmark or Argentina v. Iceland
6/17 - Sunday - might watch all 4: Germany v. Mexico, Brazil v. Switzerland, Costa Rica v. Serbia and Sweden v. South Korea
6/18 - :meh: - Belgium v. Panama, England v. Tunisia - really only one game in this entire group that I want to watch, and these are not it...
6/19 - Colombia v. Japan :shrug:  I will probably root for Colombia as one of my dark horses
6/20 - Spain v. Iran - Spain was the team I drew in the 538 calculator - not sure if they are as compelling as in past years, but always fun to watch
6/21 - Argentina v. Croatia
6/22 - Brazil v. Costa Rica - special mention of Nigeria v. Iceland - two extremes, should be entertaining
6/23 - Germany v. Sweden
6/24 - England v. Panama, Poland v. Colombia
6/25 - Uruguay v. Russia - maybe Saudi Arabia v. Egypt
6/26 - Denmark v. France - Eriksen v. Lloris
6/27 - Mexico v. Sweden
6/28 - England v. Belgium

 
The only thing that makes me feel better about the US being absent from the World Cup is we would have pulled Group H and then not made it out somehow.

That’s about the only thing worse than just not even qualifying.

 
Got my tickets for Brazil v. Costa Rica in Saint Petersburg and Belgium v. Tunisia in Moscow. Gonna have to go all in on Belgium here and get a KDB shirt for this trip. Beer and frites all day.

 
Literally have nothing to bill for today.  Is it too early to start firing off my overlong team previews that turn out to only be about 80% accurate on squad composition?

 
Start with Serbia. Because I'm that guy, yes I am.
Yeah, no.  Jesus, I can't even really figure out what the hell Argentina's midfield is going to be.  That team is literally nothing but other-worldly forwards and poop throughout the rest of the lineup.*

*  OK, Otamendi is pretty good and maybe I'm unfairly writing off Mascherano, who is absolutely drinking the blood of virgins right now in a bid to stay forever young and fearsome.  

I think Brazil, Spain, and Germany are the easiest to preview at this point.  Maybe France.  None of them are without questions, but I feel reasonably certain I know who will be in contention for all of those starting spots.  England might be fun.  I'm usually optimistic about them and I'm super pessimistic right now.  Which means you should place your Harry Kane Golden Boot bet now.  

 
Yeah, no.  Jesus, I can't even really figure out what the hell Argentina's midfield is going to be.  That team is literally nothing but other-worldly forwards and poop throughout the rest of the lineup.*

*  OK, Otamendi is pretty good and maybe I'm unfairly writing off Mascherano, who is absolutely drinking the blood of virgins right now in a bid to stay forever young and fearsome.  

I think Brazil, Spain, and Germany are the easiest to preview at this point.  Maybe France.  None of them are without questions, but I feel reasonably certain I know who will be in contention for all of those starting spots.  England might be fun.  I'm usually optimistic about them and I'm super pessimistic right now.  Which means you should place your Harry Kane Golden Boot bet now.  
Not to steal your thunder but top of head I go (for England)

                       Pickford

Walker      Stones     Cahill       Rose?

            Dier            Henderson

Sterling           Alli                     Rashford

                    Kane

As always, I like the lineup but they'll disappoint.

 
#######it, am I going to have to follow this thread too?

P.S. Russia is winning this thing... write that down. 

 
With the USMNT out of it, I think I'm most looking forward to the Women of the World Cup threads across the innerwebs.  

Oh, and I'll probably watch every game and become angrier at the Hex.

 
With the USMNT out of it, I think I'm most looking forward to the Women of the World Cup threads across the innerwebs.  

Oh, and I'll probably watch every game and become angrier at the Hex.
I need to start work on the new Drinking Around the World Cup dashboard.  I’ll be accepting drink nominations via PM or if there’s interest I could start a thread (don’t want to spam this one)

 
Michael Cox discusses one of the great quirky phenomena of world cup preparation - scheduling friendlies with non-participating countries who are in regional proximity to your group stage opponents.  https://twitter.com/Zonal_Marking/status/976091223877439488

Here's Group G:

Michael Cox‏Verified account @Zonal_Marking 4h4 hours ago

G: BELGIUM, TUNISIA, ENGLAND, PANAMA. Panama! Panic stations! Where is Panama? *gets out globe* Oh, next to Costa Rica. And therefore, we have Belgium v Costa Rica, England v Costa Rica AND Tunisia v Costa Rica between now and the World Cup. Outstanding. 10/10, well done everyone

 

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