World Cup 2022

[Lianachan]

Next up:

Nov 26h

Tunisia v Australia

Poland v Saudi Arabia

France v Denmark

Argentina v Mexico

[Heid the Ba]

Queerly enough nil nil is also the number of LGBT people acceptable in Qatar.

[Lianachan]

I don’t know whether to laugh or issue sanctions.

I’m going to miss probably all of the games tomorrow, as I have to drive to Edinburgh, do stuff, then drive home. I’ll be coming back up the road like a rally driver in the vague hope of catching some of Argentina beating Mexico.

[Мастер]

Once your keeper gets sent off you're in a spot of bother

I'm assuming you get to send in a substitute keeper, don't you? Probably one not as good, though, or he would be your primary keeper.

[Lianachan]

Once your keeper gets sent off you're in a spot of bother

I'm assuming you get to send in a substitute keeper, don't you? Probably one not as good, though, or he would be your primary keeper.

Well you need to lose the player who’s sent off and play with one less player, so the options are to put an outfield player in goals or (far more common these days) substitute your 2nd choice keeper on for an outfield player and take the hit from your midfielders or somewhere.

[Richard A]

And indeed the substitute keeper - put in, as Lianachan says, at the expense of losing one of the other team members - was less effective. Hennessey saved several shots from the Iranians; the next two, after Ward replaced him, went straight in.

[Arneb]

Read today that Gary Lineker tweeted that it is now up to Southgate to right the wrongs in a capable team that only has four points and six goals after two matches.

Smug arsehole indeed.

[Lianachan]

I’ll be coming back up the road like a rally driver in the vague hope of catching some of Argentina beating Mexico.

Mission accomplished! Got home just before kick off. Anyway, today we had:

Tunisia 0 v 1 Australia

Poland 2 v 0 Saudi Arabia

France 2 v 1 Denmark

Argentina 2 v 0 Mexico

[Lianachan]

And indeed the substitute keeper - put in, as Lianachan says, at the expense of losing one of the other team members - was less effective. Hennessey saved several shots from the Iranians; the next two, after Ward replaced him, went straight in.

It’s hard for a substitute goal keeper. Ward is perfectly capable, but coming on cold like that so late in the game it’s really hard to snap into it. As a former goal keeper (nowhere near that level of course) I do feel somewhat for him, and certainly I’d lay more blame at the door of Hennessey for going full Schumacher than I would at Ward’s door.

[Lianachan]

Nov 27th

Japan v Costa Rica

Belgium v Morocco

Croatia v Canada

Spain v Germany

I expect a draw for the last one. It’s a tricky one to pick a side, but board solidarity trumps having lived in Spain and in fact having Spanish as my first language. In terms of first one I spoke anyway. Board solidarity and Gary Lineker’s fucking smug face, natch.

[Arneb]

Much appreciated! But I think a big fat bold for Spain is the appropriate prediction...

[Arneb]

Aaahahaha! Costa Rica win against Japan! So, in the could-could-could world of football pundits, we could afford to lose against Spain and still go through if
a) the rubbing against Spain doesn't ruin our GD too much
b) we win against Costa Rica by a few goals in the last round and
c) Spain go on to demolish Japan as well.

Depending on GD (which takes precedence if points are equal), we might sqeak into the round o flast 16 with 3 pts. on GD.

We'll be fine, what can go wrong?

Come to think of it, it also opens the possibility that Spain and Japan make a contract of No Aggression in the last round, both going through after nothing has happened after 90 min. The Spaniards would certainly prefer Japan over Germany to proceed in the tournament. All of that, of course presupposes we actually can beat at least Costa Rica in the last round. Well...

[Heid the Ba]

Read today that Gary Lineker tweeted that it is now up to Southgate to right the wrongs in a capable team that only has four points and six goals after two matches.

Smug arsehole indeed.

Aye, show us your winners medals crispboy.

[Lianachan]

Day of surprises so far.

Japan 0 v 1 Costa Rica

Belgium 0 v 2 Morocco

[Arneb]

We have a first!

Canada have scored in the foorball World Cup.

[Heid the Ba]

Was it on a power play?

[g-one]

We have a first!

Canada have scored in the foorball World Cup.

Double win for me, our most successful world cup ever, plus I was cheering for the Croats anyway.

Was it on a power play?

Tough getting used to this "no PP, no PK, no fights" business.

[Arneb]

1 all against Spain? I didn't watch it except für the.last 10 min or so. Seems to have been a bit of redemption, not going under.

So we must win against C.R., and Japan must not win against Spain. Funny world.

[Lianachan]

Told you that was going to be a draw.

So....

Croatia 4 v 1 Canada

Spain 1 v 1 Germany

[Lianachan]

Tomorrow we have....

Nov 28h

Cameroon v Serbia

South Korea v Ghana

Brazil v Switzerland

Portugal v Uruguay

[Lianachan]

Gary Lineker ended the BBC coverage of the game by saying “allo allo, Herr Flick’s back in it”. I shit you not.

[Richard A]

I saw most of the 2nd half of the Germany-Spain match. Pleasantly surprised to see it was still 0-0 then. And yes, what happened after the Spanish goal was markedly different to what happened after the 1st Japanese one. If Germany play like they did in the last 20 minutes of tonight's match, they should be able to beat Costa Rica - who were pretty lacklustre for at least the 1st half of their game against Japan. (I didn't see the 2nd half.) And Spain beating Japan is not unthinkable. Let's see.

[Arneb]

Here are the rather complicated possibilities in group E, from a German perspective, with a bow and hat-off to Mactep:

Every team can still progress to the knock-out stage, and every team except Germany can still win the group. If Germany do not win against Costa Rica, Germany are certain to go out.

A) If Germany lose to Costa Rica, Germany 1 pt., Costa Rica, 6, Costa Rica are certain to progress
1) If Spain win against Japan, Spain (7pts.) progress and win the group
2) If Spain and Japan draw, Costa Rica win the group, and Spain (5pts.) progress coming in second
3) If Japan win, Costa Rica and Japan (6 pts.) progress, group winner is decided on goal difference (GD, most probably Japan)
---

B) If Germany and Costa Rica draw,, Germany 2 pts., Costa Rica 4:
1) If Spain win against Japan, Spain (7pts.) and Costa Rica progress
2) If the game's a draw or a Japanese victory, Spain (5 or 4 pts.)and Japan (4 or 6pts.) progress (on GD in both cases, because of Costa Rica's catastrophic 0-7 routing at the hands of Spain)
---

C) If Germany win against Costa Rica, Costa Rica are out, Germany 4 pts., Costa Rica 3.
1) If Spain win against Japan, Spain win the group (7 pts.), and Germany progress coming in second.

2) If Spain and Japan draw, Spain win the group (5 pts.), Japan or Germany (4 pts. each) come in second depending on their respective results:
a) Germany progress if they win their game by two goals or more, as that would give us a better GD;
b) Germany progress if they win their game by one goal and they score at least two more goals than Japan do in their draw (e.g. 3-2 for Germany, 1 - 1 for Japan), as Germany would have the edge on goals scored;
c) Japan or Germany progress based on the fair play score result of the Japan-Germany game (2-1 for Japan) if Germany win by one goal and score exactly one more goal than Japan do (e.g., 1 - 0 for Germany, 0 - 0 for Japan, 2-1 for Germany, 1 - 1 for Japan, etc.), as we would be equal on points, GD and goals scored;
d) Japan progress if Germany win by one goal and Japan score at least as many goals as Germany, as they would have the edge on goals scored.

3) If Japan win against Spain, Japan win the group (6 pts.) and Germany or Spain (4 pts. each) progress based on GD, etc.. Spain's impressive 7 - 0 against Costa Rica makes for a very high hurdle for Germany to prevail:
a) If Germany's positive GD in a win against Costa Rica and Spain's negative GD in a loss to Japan add up to 9 or more goals in Germany's favour, Germany progress on GD.
b) If the respective GDs add up to exactly 8 in Germany's favour, Germany progress on goals scored only by scoring 7 more goals than Spain (like 0-1, 7-0 or 1-2, 8-1, or 2-3, 9-2). If the respective GDs add up to exactly 8 and we score exactly 6 more goals than Spain (like 1-2, 7-0 or 2-3, 8-1), we'd be equal on points, GD, and goals scored. We'd also have a draw in the direct competition, so the fair play score would decide (Spain are better right now, with their one yellow card to our three), or, ultimately, a lottery draw. Spain will progress on goals scored if the GDs add up to exactly 8 and we score less than 6 more goals than they do.
c) If the two GDs add up to 7 goals or less in Germany's favour, Spain progress on GD.

Our midfielder, Joshua Kimmich, summed it up saying: Let's win 2 - 0 against the Ticos and hope Spain doesn't lose. Or, as I've said before: What can possibly go wrong?

ETA: I had to correct two possible outcomes, one twice, each to our disadvantage, and add a few outcomes. I hope all possibilities are as exhausted now as I am.

[Lianachan]

You need to, and should be able to, beat Costa Rica easily enough. Spain aren’t going to try too hard agains Japan, to save themselves for the next round (avoiding bookings, injuries, etc) but they’ll not let Japan win either, so that has a draw all over it. Summary: ach, it’ll be fine.

[Arneb]

[Rapturous applause in the House of Commons]Hear, hear hear, hear, hear[\Rapturous applause in the House of Commons]