Are there any decent pubs left in Wycombe? Would be good to know as I only tend to visit for the football. The one by the station had a patch of being decent.
Absolutely awful penalty by Ayew, much as I loathe Uruguay they desrve their lead.
The other game has been a bit flat as Portugal seem to be more than happy with not losing so are sitting pretty deep & hoping to cath Korea on the break
Poetic justice would have been Ghana actually winning, but holding on to make sure Uruguay go out in the most painful way possible is not a bad consolation.
I do objectively admire Uruguay for punching above their population weight so consistently, but on a subjective level they are almost always an obnoxious team.
I am not sure what par normally is for non-European or South American teams in the last 16, but the fact we will have at least six (pending what happens with Cameroon) makes this really fun, especially as they represent four different regional bodies:
I think it has already been decided unfortunately.
Long term direction of travel has surely got to be a 64 team tournament with a round of 32 knockout. There would be loads of football (probably too much) but only 1 extra round.
I hate it whenever anything moves away from a perfect 16 (as in the Euros) or 32 (as in the WC), such as the NFL adding a 17th game and extra wildcard and having rumors of a 33rd franchise at some point.
I hate any 3rd placed team going through as in the 24 team tournaments, but we will be in that spot with 48 teams. It also is very convenient for the big countries, as they are less likely to get knocked out in the group stages, taking away some of the drama we have seen over the past couple of days.
A 64 team WC would be better for symmetry but still favour the big countries, as each group would be weaker and easier for the better seeds to qualify from.
Qualifying would become a bit absurd for the big teams in South America and Europe yes. And the likes of the USA in their region. Suspect in Europe there is some way to phase out WC qualifying and do it through the Nations League somehow.
If they must do 48 teams (which risks putting quantity over quality) I would prefer giving the eight best performing winners in the groups a bye, with the other 4 plus the 12 second place teams playing a “qualifying” knockout match.
groups of 3 with two qualifying sounds dire and means the lesser teams only get to play two matches instead of 3.
Comments
Are there any decent pubs left in Wycombe? Would be good to know as I only tend to visit for the football. The one by the station had a patch of being decent.
Absolutely awful penalty by Ayew, much as I loathe Uruguay they desrve their lead.
The other game has been a bit flat as Portugal seem to be more than happy with not losing so are sitting pretty deep & hoping to cath Korea on the break
I wonder if Ghana will blame anyone but themselves this time...
I also live outside of the area and only travel in for the football but friends tell me that the General Havelock is still okay.
ha ha ha lol the look on Ronaldo's face when Korea scored their second
Meaningless to them really though isn't it. Already qualified, already won the group.
That should have been a pen for the clip on Cavani, surely?
Possibly but I think he paid the price for the persistent diving by the lot of them over the course of the match.
Uruguay's post final whistle behaviour towards the ref was outrageous.
Overall pleased for South Korea.
Glad Uruguay are out with that behaviour.
They were robbed, but lol.
I wonder if Uruguay will blame anyone but themselves this time...
(Narrator: "Of course they did")
They really should bottle the tears of Luis Suarez. They would make millions.
Poetic justice would have been Ghana actually winning, but holding on to make sure Uruguay go out in the most painful way possible is not a bad consolation.
I do objectively admire Uruguay for punching above their population weight so consistently, but on a subjective level they are almost always an obnoxious team.
I am not sure what par normally is for non-European or South American teams in the last 16, but the fact we will have at least six (pending what happens with Cameroon) makes this really fun, especially as they represent four different regional bodies:
USA
Australia
Morocco
Senegal
Japan
South Korea
Excellent!
Best World Cup group stages by a country mile.
be a real shame if they abandon the four team two qualify format for the next one.
actually fixtures for next round don’t throw up too many enticing looking games - hope reality lives up to games so far.
Did you see Nunez roughing the pen spot up? What a clown.
Uruguay were a disgrace at the end, they deserve to go out just for that. I Won't miss players like Suarez tbh
I think it has already been decided unfortunately.
Long term direction of travel has surely got to be a 64 team tournament with a round of 32 knockout. There would be loads of football (probably too much) but only 1 extra round.
Surely it can't ever get to that level, as it'd basically make qualifying utterly pointless?
And mean you'd either have to extend the World cup for a week or 2, or cram 5 or 6 games in a day?!
I hate it whenever anything moves away from a perfect 16 (as in the Euros) or 32 (as in the WC), such as the NFL adding a 17th game and extra wildcard and having rumors of a 33rd franchise at some point.
I hate any 3rd placed team going through as in the 24 team tournaments, but we will be in that spot with 48 teams. It also is very convenient for the big countries, as they are less likely to get knocked out in the group stages, taking away some of the drama we have seen over the past couple of days.
A 64 team WC would be better for symmetry but still favour the big countries, as each group would be weaker and easier for the better seeds to qualify from.
If ever there was a game at this tournament that was going to get properly feisty, it was Serbia v Switzerland.
3rd in a group qualifying is ugly, but imagine how non competitive the qualification campaign would be.
It's already almost impossible for England not to qualify, imagine top 2 in the group being automatic, and then 3rd being playoffs.
In a group of 5-6 containing the likes of San Marino and similar!
Serbia know they're out, so they're just trying to start a scrap (and succeeding). I rate it.
First time since 1994 that no team has won 3/3 group games
England top the combined group table.
Cue Senegal shocker
Qualifying would become a bit absurd for the big teams in South America and Europe yes. And the likes of the USA in their region. Suspect in Europe there is some way to phase out WC qualifying and do it through the Nations League somehow.
I don’t think the 48 team format leads to 3rd place teams going through. It will be 16 groups of 3. Top 2 go through to create a knockout round of 32.
Downside is the group stage will probably be dreadful, with lots of convenient draws in the last game.
Upside is you get 16 more head to head knockout games, which will probably be quite entertaining.
If they must do 48 teams (which risks putting quantity over quality) I would prefer giving the eight best performing winners in the groups a bye, with the other 4 plus the 12 second place teams playing a “qualifying” knockout match.
groups of 3 with two qualifying sounds dire and means the lesser teams only get to play two matches instead of 3.
They can't do it that way as the key principle to allow fair play is all teams must play their last game starting at the same time.