UKNuck96

nature of the beast. TO maximise TV revenue games are not played concurrently, therefor you will always have this issue and its forever been one. Its just something you have to deal with in international football, oftern games during international breaks are only 3 days apart as well so its not unusual

Seoul destroying

I expect the worst it’s what happened with England, but while France are great going forward if rice can get on top of Griezman and bellingham can play around rabiot (who is their weak link in the middle, he’s prone to switching off and he is no Kante) it’s not going to be a cake walk. Our defence isn’t the best but neither is theirs. If England play defensively we lose, if we press the middle we have a chance. Walker vs mbappe will be interesting, but the plan has to be not to deal with Mbappe but starve him of service and over run the middle

Difficult start, but took control. clean sheet and also first time in history England have won knockout games in three consecutive tournaments

Going to be fun at work, I work for a French company in the UK and regularly work in Paris. Next week is in Paris I’m going to be subject to the full French onslaught

The QO is irrelevant, he has a contract for next season at 1.4 mill and is a UFA after that

It’s one of the hardest trophies in sports to win due to the attritional nature and the number of rounds. im loath to keep adding to that, but accept there is an issue with a league that has a single prize and teams that may go a very long time without not even winning but getting remotely close to it. added to the fact the league is a commercial venture based on franchises rather than clubs, so there isn’t even tenure and security for teams especially if attendance drops due to performance. there needs to be more than one carrot. Yes the Stanley cup is the ultimate pinnacle of the NHL, but maybe have some lesser cups through the year in a knockout format and not a series format so anyone could win on the night. maybe also have a play in round as I like that, and throw the cup winners into this round if they didn’t already qualify. obviously would need to be thought out more but for me the issue isn’t the number of teams competing for the Stanley cup (if anything I would reduce the number) but the lack of alternate ‘trophies and history’ In the EPL clubs at different stages have different goals from winning the league to qualifying for champions league /other European comps, to going on a good cup run. I get a huge difference between open and closed leagues but if the NHL had a knockout cup completion that wasn’t part of the regular rankings a team feasibility could be rebuilding, yet still push for wins in that way without impacting draft position

VVD hasn’t even been the best defender at Liverpool this season let along the premier league let alone the world. He has been exceptionally poor, found wanting and beaten for pace and position so often. that said he is a very experienced defender at the top level and the Dutch defence is probably one of the best and even the quality of defenders they left at home is astonishing. I do actually fancy them against Argentina. Argentine have plodded their way through the competition so far, and have come unstuck against high energy team, and havnt shot that much. while the Dutch are the highest of energy teams they are very solid at the back and can stifle an opposition. for me it has 1-1 at FT written all over it (watch is be an absolute goal fest now and me have egg on my face)

Getting seeded in pot one only is relevant normally about 6/12 months out when they use the rankings to determine it. Yes it means that you avoid the big hitters, but doesn’t mean those in pot 2 will be if a lower rank than the hosts. also with the number of teams going up to 48 and going into 16 groups of three be interesting how they do the seedlings. Tbh next tournaments structure is a steaming pile

Winner keeps Ceuta and Melilla

Only scoring a hat trick do you get to keep the match ball. the reason for grabbing the ball is to usually run it back to the centre to get the restart done quicker. You see it more often by players when they are behind on a close game

I’m well aware it’s the World Cup and not the European Championship, and well aware of Canadas placing in concacaf. I was referring to if USA, Mexico and Canada were in European qualifying groups. They would struggle

Yes you did although there is no way Canada qualifies if it was in Uefa, even USA and Mexico would struggle

First time the onion sack had bulged in 6 games against Morocco

This has aged well

The Dutch are good enough to beat the USA. Yes they haven’t been at their best but they arguable have one of the best defences in the competition and have plenty of attacking width and Gakpo looks a handful. their defence is strong enough that one of the best defenders in the premier league didn’t even make their squad.

tbh by banning it, and making it a yellow card offense has brought more attention to the issue than if they let it go ahead. From a PR perspective its an own goal. The Germany photo as well just re-emphasises it. Plus with germanys federation losing one of their biggest sponsors because of this as well its going to end up messy in court.

Because we have seen the impact it has on players. in the UK one well documented case is World Cup wining hooker cannot even remember playing games in that World Cup. in the NHL we have seen how pumped up a lot of the fighters are on pain meds. Yea he is living his dream but the dream shouldn’t destroy a person

Or move them to Quebec, push a team from the west over east to balance it up then do a round of expansions in the west.

They are just not a good enough team. they have some great players but they are now older and less fit that previous seasons. klopp requires a gengenpress which to keep up requires a lot of energy and fitness and his squad needs more fresher legs, and since they no longer hand Mane one of the key pressers from the front has gone so they are sitting off slightly which means teams are playing through them. that and Van Dijk isn’t anywhere near his previous levels, he’s not the best defender in the league any more and he’s not even the best Dutch defender in the league

Is it just me that feels bad for the kid, we have reams of history (especially the Canucks) of what happens to kids pushed down the fighting route. I have no trust in the nhl or any of the clubs that his welfare will be put before their need for enforcement.

It’s inevitable all leagues most of the world over in all forms of sports have this. Some more than others. From a commercial standpoint it was only a matter of time. Also look forward to new tips every other year with a similar design but slight tweak coming in the future as a way of getting more short sales thus more revenue.

In all seriousness though, tradition is build over time and constant chopping and changing does stop that happening. Also a good entry song doesn't need to be a hard rock song or even have lyrics. if we go with the example of my football(soccer) team - the use Local Hero by Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) who was a fan of the team as well. Its been changed but it went back to this as its Iconic for the club. It doesn't need to be a banger just something that the works. Case in point earlier this year Sam Fender was playing at the local area and a couple of the band came out and played this on the trumpet and sax at the beginning of the gig and the it got the crowd bouncing as its symbolic to the club.

Just give them the benny hill theme tune and be done with it

Are we not going to mention that they have basically copied the Disney plus logo