He agreed to join Real Madrid after the tournament and the Spanish FA only found out 5 minutes before the Real Madrid press release. Not great for them but I can understand the response. 14 wins, 6 draws, 0 losses in his two year tenure.
We seem to have two World Cup threads. So I am reposting from the other one. Last night I saw Poland's last friendly against Lithuania before flying out to today to their camp in Sochi. The score was Poland 4-0 Lithuania and the opposition were very poor. The match was notable for 3 VAR decision which were in fact correct: - Robert Lewandowski's direct free kick went in off the cross-bar (clearly crossed the line which the refs did not originally see) - Grzegorz Krychowiak's back heel goal was later dissallowed for a correct handball decision (ref missed it again) - Penalty correctly awarded for a Poland penalty converted by Kuba laszczykowski (ref missed the event and initially gave a corner). This was my first live experiecne of VAR and I admit that the decisions were correct, however the communcation system was poor causing real confusion in the stadium. I really thought the score board had an error only to discover that a goal was dissallowed after being officially announced. Surrealistic! To add a QPR spin to this post, Lewandowski scored a great goal from a direct free kick. I don't recall one from the R's during all of last season.
And the winner is ..... Belgium? An interesting tongue in cheek analysis. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/44431262
Must admit that I really can't get excited about the World Cup at the moment especially with a hugely underwhelming opening game tomorrow.......
I admit that I am looking forward to it. True, tomorrow's opener seems to be boring and I will give it a miss.I will probably go supermarket shopping and will ensure that I stock up on beers! But I am looking forward to Spain v Portugal on Friday night. Then there are a few potentially interesting matches over the weekend. England on Monday. Poland on Tuesday ... and so it goes on!
Agree Ski, Spain and Portugal could be the game that gets the juices flowing especially now as Spain have sacked their manager........
I had predicted Spain to win 2-1. Now with this change, who knows what will happen. It should have a negative effect, but football is not logical. It may even help them win World Cup (similar to Denmark in the Euro). It is part of the fun!
I now get why Trump is so excited about the 2026 World Cup. Despite the fact that the bid started when Obama was president (I doubt we'll see a tweet about that). But seriously, football is the perfect game for him. Look at the facts: It's the only sport that involves building a wall Deals are done in back rooms, and contracts are pretty meaningless The turnover of manager jobs is almost as high as the turnover of staff in the White House AND Trump's been busily faking injuries since Vietnam
I am moderately excited as there will be some good footie on display but I have a concern that folk are saying, 'There is low expectation for the England team so we might do well'. There is low expectation for a reason!! Nevertheless, 'Come on Engerland'!!
Whilst I'm a bit fed up with the choice of Robbie Williams over Pussy Riot for the opening ceremony (there'll be no riot, but there will still be a pussy) I'm more interested in the game - not because of the teams, but it's finally starting. Anyone know - does the actual match start at 4pm UK, or is that just the opening ceremony?
That is the match time. What time is the World Cup opening ceremony? The curtain-raiser for the 2018 World Cup will start at 3:30pm (BST) on Thursday June 14, just 30 minutes before the opening game between Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Are they going to have a full military parade with tanks and missile launchers, with the Central Committee on a platform wearing fur hats? I hope so, that would be brilliant.
