World Cup 2018 countdown!!!!

[TitoFan]

I'm excited!!! It's that time again. I'm partial towards Brazil, and any South American country would suit me fine. The only country I really, really, really don't want to win it all is Germany.

[Freedom]

I'll be wearing my England football jersey during the World Cup.

[smashup]

On paper Belgium should win it, some quality players but failed to gel and deliver in Euro 2016, too many egos in the team maybe

England will do well to get out of the group stage i reckon and it could be 3 games then home time again

Argentinas Group (D) has some cracking matches in it

Should be some fierce beatings dished out by the Russian ultras again, the Egypt and Saudi fans (if they have any) will be targeted for being Muslims.

[TitoFan]

England will do well to get out of the group stage i reckon and it could be 3 games then home time again

Well, if rankings are to be believed, England could very likely be facing Colombia in the Round of 16. Panama or Tunisia getting out of Group G would seem very unlikely.

[Mark TKO]

I've never know the build up be so quiet in this country - guess we've learned our lesson in the past and now expectations are next to nothing particularly for those of my generation.

We've had the golden generation who did fuck all, with their effort justifiably questioned, and we reached an all time low when we folded, clueless against Iceland two years ago. We don't get upset when we exit a tournament now just angry.

At least we have youth this time and no prima donnas up their own arse who don't give a shit so that's a plus.

I was never a big Beckham fan but I'll say one thing for him - despite his wealth he was the one guy who you could guarantee would give 110% on that field for his country.

We've had our near misses which were coupled with bad luck....but still.....

I don't know maybe a couple of good performances in group and get to quarters and they start believing then who knows.

The Germans have never had so called 'superstars' really and have always had a TEAM with unbelievable mental strength. They'll be there or there abouts come the latter stages I'm sure.

[Memphis]

Who's doing Panini then?

I've been drawn in by some proper hardcore Panini nerds at work. One bloke has got them going back the late 60's. Apparently it costs £700 to complete it. I'm not having that.

Anyway. Really looking forward to the World cup, especially the early umpteen games a day lark.

England, no expectations but they really ought to be looking at last 8 if fixtures pan out the way they 'should'

The usual suspects to be there or there abouts.

[TitoFan]

Well, surely the scheduling gods had a soft spot for England this time around as they put you in with Panama and Tunisia.

I took a page out of my fantasy football prep routine and looked at some rankings from different orgs. Each by themselves are probably about as wrong as you or I, but consensus rankings are usually pretty dependable, IMO.

England's ranked a consistent 9th by 3 out of the 4 orgs I looked at (Mirror, CBS Sports, Sporting Life). The Guardian is a bit more pessimistic and ranks England 13th.

Still.... Panama has rankings of (gasp) 31st, 28th, 23rd, and 28th again). Tunisia is ranked 29th, 31st, 25th, and The Guardian didn't even bother ranking them.

Also, interestingly enough, Colombia, England's likely opponent in the round of 16, is ranked lower than England by all four orgs (though admittedly not by much).


So let's see. I understand the pessimism but who knows?



I myself would like to see Brazil win and pull away from Germany in all-time Cups.