DJHazey

The only way the minnows are going to really improve is playing in competitive games, not playing against top teams with considerable more talent that end up not taking the match as seriously when they're up 8-0. They gain more confidence playing well against teams on level playing field. It's good to see the League C and League D action.

If they televise them for American audiences, I'll be watching for sure.

League A Matches - Autumn 2018 6/9 - Munich - Germany vs. France 9/9 - Saint-Denis - France vs. Netherlands 13/10 - Amsterdam - Netherlands vs. Germany 16/10 - Saint-Denis - France vs. Germany 16/11- Rotterdam - Netherlands vs. France 19/11 - Gelsenkirchen - Germany vs. Netherlands 8/9 - St. Gallen - Switzerland vs. Iceland 11/9 - Reykjavik - Iceland vs. Belgium 12/10 - Brussels - Belgium vs. Switzerland 15/10 - Reykjavik - Iceland vs. Switzerland 15/11 - Brussels - Belgium vs. Iceland 18/11 - Lucerne - Switzerland vs. Belgium 7/9 - Bologna - Italy vs. Poland 10/9 - Lisbon - Portugal vs. Italy 11/10 - Chorzow - Poland vs. Portugal 14/10 - Chorzow - Poland vs. Italy 17/11 - Milan - Italy vs. Portugal 20/11 - Guimaraes - Portugal vs. Poland 8/9 - London - England vs. Spain 11/9 - Elche - Spain vs. Croatia 12/10 - Rijeka - Croatia vs. England 15/10 - Seville - Spain vs. England 15/11 - Zagreb - Croatia vs. Spain 18/11 - London - England vs. Croatia The winners of each group make it to the semifinals to be played June 2019. Hope you don’t mind, but I’ve changed the dates to the more familiar European format - Suedehead.

I enjoy International far more. There's always enough qualifiers and tournaments going on throughout the year, that I never lose interest...especially since I pay attention to all regions, not just Europe. Then you get nice little 1-2 month breaks like from the World Cup this year to the start of UEFA Nations League and the next set of 2019 Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers in September.

Europe only get 3 additional teams in 2026. Europe 13 --> 16 Asia 4 --> 8 Africa 5 --> 9 CONCACAF 3 --> 6 South America 5 --> 6 Oceania 0 --> 1 Intercontinental Playoffs (no Europe) 2 = 48.

Belgium 3-1 England France 2-0 Croatia

France 3-2 Belgium Croatia 2-1 England

This will be something like 1-1 early second half and then France pulls away.

I'm rooting for the Red Devils here.

France 4:1 Uruguay Brazil 2:3 Belgium Russia 0:2 Croatia Sweden 1:1 England (sound familiar? -- England on PK's)

Let's see this many goals from England today. " data-tag="youtube" data-tagfull=" ">

France 3:1 Argentina Uruguay 1:1 Portugal (Portugal on PKs) Spain 3:0 Russia Croatia 2:0 Denmark Brazil 3:2 Mexico Belgium 4:0 Japan Sweden 1:0 Switzerland Colombia 1:1 England (England on PKs)

I might be out but we gave everyone the result of the tournament so far!

I told everyone months ago to watch out for Iran and Morocco.

Germany were dropped from #2 to #7 from that one loss to South Korea in the ELO rankings. South Korea went from #45 to #25. Based on points, it was the third biggest upset in the history of the World ELO rankings. Norway beating England in the 1920 Olympics and Ghana beating Czech Republic in the 2006 World Cup were the only bigger upsets.

Gimenez in the 89th minute. 1-0 Uruguay.

Haha, yeah we'll see when Russia takes on Egypt, that's the real match of this group. Russia just took the energy of opening night and an inferior opponent and ran with it.

The United States has more than 40 venues that are World Cup quality while most other countries in the world are lucky to fill in the 8-10 stadiums. Also: "The 1994 World Cup, staged by the US, had the highest average attendance in the tournament's history" This can't be over-stated as far how much money gets spread among the FIFA member nations which only works (in theory) to help grow football in the world.

It's not an issue as long as the countries involved are viable, meaning they'd probably qualify anyway. This applies here accept for Canada obviously. Qatar is a joke auto-qualifier. I've made peace with the 48 teams idea, it just makes more of 'World' Cup in a way. I just wish the format was different because the groups of 3 thing is really dumb.

If Morocco had gotten the bid they would've had to have built a bunch of new stadiums and with what happened in Qatar/Brazil, I'm not into the idea of more 'slave labor' and killing in country's economy so the rich can get richer. The idea of new countries getting a World Cup all the time is cute in theory but not feasible at all. They really should narrow it down to the countries that can host it unless smaller nations group up with neighbouring nations. England, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, maybe a Scandinavian bid, maybe Poland/Ukraine/Czech joint bid, maybe Benelux, maybe Austria-Switzerland, South Africa, maybe a West African one with Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Ghana leading the way, maybe a North African with Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia. Qatar alone is a mess when a Saudi-UAE-Qatar could've been more easily established. Japan-South Korea was great, possibly China, definitely Australia, maybe a SE Asia one, but beyond that, no.

If they could just use VAR to stop strikers from 'hesitating' right before shooting. :lol: I think it'll be great if VAR takes away non-offsides plays that would been called originally and leads to more goals.

Yikes, Spain was one of my favorites to win it all. They had been 16-0-4 in their last 20 matches under Lopetegui. We'll see what effect this has. Very pleased that the World Cup will coming back to the U.S.

Russia 2:0 Saudi Arabia Egypt 1:1 Uruguay Morocco 0:0 Iran Portugal 2:3 Spain France 4:1 Australia Peru 1:2 Denmark Argentina 3:1 Iceland Croatia 2:0 Nigeria Costa Rica 1:1 Serbia Brazil 4:2 Switzerland Germany 2:1 Mexico Sweden 0:0 South Korea Belgium 4:0 Panama Tunisia 0:1 England Poland 2:2 Senegal Colombia 3:1 Japan

Yes, this is arguably going to be the most enjoyable group to watch. All four of these teams can score. Unlike Iran and South Korea, Japan always bring a lot of offensive firepower to the table from Asia. Poland, well we know what they can do with Lewandowski. Colombia and James "don't call me the English sounding form of James" Rodriguez and his running mates. And Senegal have one of the most powerful offenses in all of Africa, led by a man y'all should know well in the Premiere League with Sadio Mane.

Panama looks like a free result for everyone, but Tunisia is the one team that can threaten Belgium or England with an upset. it'd be one of those 'snatch-and-grab' things though as they aren't exactly going to light the house on fire with their offense, but they can defend well.