DJHazey

March 2023 Matches Group A | Mar 25 | Spain vs Norway Group A | Mar 25 | Scotland vs Cyprus Group A | Mar 28 | Scotland vs Spain Group A | Mar 28 | Georgia vs Norway Group B | Mar 24 | France vs Netherlands Group B | Mar 24 | Gibraltar vs Greece Group B | Mar 27 | Netherlands vs Gibraltar Group B | Mar 27 | Ireland vs France Group C | Mar 23 | Italy vs England Group C | Mar 23 | North Macedonia vs Malta Group C | Mar 26 | England vs Ukraine Group C | Mar 26 | Malta vs Italy Group D | Mar 25 | Croatia vs Wales Group D | Mar 25 | Armenia vs Turkey Group D | Mar 28 | Wales vs Latvia Group D | Mar 28 | Turkey vs Croatia Group E | Mar 24 | Czech Republic vs Poland Group E | Mar 24 | Moldova vs Faroe Islands Group E | Mar 27 | Poland vs Albania Group E | Mar 27 | Moldova vs Czech Republic Group F | Mar 24 | Austria vs Azerbaijan Group F | Mar 24 | Sweden vs Belgium Group F | Mar 27 | Austria vs Estonia Group F | Mar 27 | Sweden vs Azerbaijan Group G | Mar 24 | Serbia vs Lithuania Group G | Mar 24 | Bulgaria vs Montenegro Group G | Mar 27 | Hungary vs Bulgaria Group G | Mar 27 | Montenegro vs Serbia Group H | Mar 23 | Denmark vs Finland Group H | Mar 23 | Kazakhstan vs Slovenia Group H | Mar 23 | San Marino vs Northern Ireland Group H | Mar 26 | Slovenia vs San Marino Group H | Mar 26 | Kazakhstan vs Denmark Group H | Mar 26 | Northern Ireland vs Finland Group I | Mar 25 | Israel vs Kosovo Group I | Mar 25 | Belarus vs Switzerland Group I | Mar 25 | Andorra vs Romania Group I | Mar 28 | Switzerland vs Israel Group I | Mar 28 | Romania vs Belarus Group I | Mar 28 | Kosovo vs Andorra Group J | Mar 23 | Portugal vs Liechtenstein Group J | Mar 23 | Bosnia-Herzegovina vs Iceland Group J | Mar 23 | Slovakia vs Luxembourg Group J | Mar 26 | Luxembourg vs Portugal Group J | Mar 26 | Slovakia vs Bosnia-Herzegovina Group J | Mar 26 | Liechtenstein vs Iceland

Maybe but all four teams in a group will always have a way in, right down to the last match, so there's that.

FIFA is set to ratify a new format for the 2026 World Cup. The 48 teams will be put into 12 groups of 4, with the top 2 teams and 8-best third place teams advancing to a Round of 32 knockout stage. This increases the number of matches from 80 to 104.

Nice podium for Alonso and Aston Martin. Great debut for Sargent in 12th and Williams getting a point.

I don't know, I thought people were saying Arsenal was doomed a bit early, considering City lost points at Forest and Arsenal still has a match in-hand to gain 3 extra points that City can't. Though they do have tough road matches remaining (City, Newcastle, Liverpool, Forest) -- but I'm just hoping for anything but City winning again.

What alot of people think happened is this (but obviously have no hard evidence to support it other than the sequence of events the past year) -- Tom and Giselle were having marriage troubles, for whatever reason, though most people believe it's because Tom kept playing for so long, often saying he planned to play until he was 45 years old. (which is exactly what he has done) -- Tom signing a contract to be a TV analyst on Fox for NFL games after retiring certainly would not have helped his marriage either. So, Tom could've retired because he was trying to save the marriage then realized it was ending anyway, so that's why he decided to play another years (until age 45) because the divorce was already iminent.

I will be happy if Logan Sargeant somehow manages to snag a single point for USA during the season, though even that is highly unlikely.

Copa America 2024 will be hosted by the U.S. like 2016. It will have all 10 South American nations as well as the Top 6 CONCACAF based on the latest CONCACAF Nations League.

Rooting for Bengals vs. 49ers and for the Bengals to reverse them losing to the 49ers twice in the 1980s for their first ever title.

It has to be the iconic Icelandic team Stjarnan team. Here's an old highlight reel of what they used to do: NHpAYlas7lA

My own rankings I keep that I also updated today: 1. Brazil 2. Argentina 3. England 1 4. Netherlands 3 5. France 5 6. Spain 1 7. Portugal 1 8. Belgium 5 9. Italy 3 10. Germany 1 11. Denmark 12. Uruguay 13. Croatia 3 14. United States 1 15. Colombia 1 16. Canada 3 17. Japan 3 18. Morocco 11 19. Mexico 2 20. Iran 4 21. Switzerland 2 22. Poland 1 23. Australia 4 24. Serbia 2 26. South Korea 2 27. Senegal 4 29. Cameroon 3 32. Ecuador 3 35. Tunisia 3 36. Wales 2 45. Costa Rica 2 46. Qatar 2 47. Saudi Arabia 1 49. Ghana 12

I get the cites aren't chosen like this and the countries are the ones that bring the bids, but a lot of these choices make no sense. Morocco alone and we're just asking for more human rights violations to build that many venues. Spain-Portugal-Ukraine is a geographical nightmare. Having Saudi Arabia 8 years after the Qatar mess when they have a lot of the same discriminatory laws would be a joke. The South American one makes the most sense given those options. The best one (besides the Spain-Portugal-Morocco one I mentioned above) was the Ireland-UK event which would have been awesome having venues like Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Cardiff, London, Manchester, etc. in the same World Cup.

I like the idea that was proposed at one point of Portugal, Spain, Morocco. First intercontinental World Cup but still makes sense geographically. Plus, Morocco rising in international spotlight deserves a look and would only need to have like 3 stadiums I'd imagine with the rest going for Spain/Portugal. Having Ukraine on the other side of Europe is just insane. If you want Ukraine, have Poland and Ukraine like the EUROS, especially since Poland has been such huge ally for Ukraine during the war.

ESPN's Best XI Emiliano Martínez | GK Achraf Hakimi | DF Joško Gvardiol | DF Théo Hernandez | DF Sofyan Amrabat | MF Jude Bellingham | MF Luka Modrić | MF Antoine Griezmann | MF Lionel Messi | FW Julián Álvarez | FW Kylian Mbappé | FW Other Receiving Votes Dominik Livaković | GK Romain Saïss | DF Nicolás Otamendi | DF Enzo Fernández | MF Alexis Mac Allister | MF Hakim Ziyech | FW Mohammed Kudus | FW

The way a game finishes can clinch greatest game though, especially when we are still talking about almost an hour of running play including stoppage time. (79th regulation to 125th of end gane)

Well Mack needs to re-do his greatest World Cup games list because there is a new #1. What. A. Game.

2 advancing from a group of 4 is the perfect formula; I hate how third place finishers will advance. However, since FIFA already screwed that up, 12 groups of 4 is the lesser of two evils.

Time for the Cup to come back to the Western Hemisphere!

Morocco 2-4 Croatia Argentina 3-2 France

They've only lost 4 matches since the beginning of 2019 (something like 34-4-10) so the rankings say they're #1 in the world. Granted, it could be argued they don't play against European competition in competitive matches between World Cups, but they also don't play in qualifying groups with the like of Faroe Islands, San Marino, or Liechtenstein. I would say in at least 75% of their matches, they play top countries. Even when they play the lower ranked teams in South America, such as Chile or Paraguay, those two would challenge to win most European qualifying groups that the top European team gets to coast through and rack up great results. Either way, rankings are hard to read for those factors, but the bookies have to look at some stats as well as they amount of talent from European club teams the Brazilian squad has. I would just say at this point, Brazil should have won at least 1 World Cup since 2002, if not multiple, but they're getting the title of 'choke artists' more than anything. It's not because they're being ranked too highly, if you ask me.

France 0-0 Morocco Argentina 1-2 Croatia

It's so dumb when managers think they're smarter than everyone by having their best players wait until fifth...no, it is always important on the big stage when everyone is nervous and the success rate of each kick drops considerably compared to non-competitive matches or during regulation time. You haver to get off to a good start, that is of paramount importance so you put pressure on the other team to keep up with you. Not having Neymar step up and take the first kick for Brazil was ridiculous.

Neymar never even got to take a kick? The Brazilian coach should be fired for that.

But they still have some guy named Neymar, 1-0 Brazil.

This goes into extras and potentially PK's it begins to heavily favor Croatia because this Croatian squad has far more experience in those situations at a major tournament than this Brazilian squad does.