OlympicsFan

The fact that many big teams are missing clearly hurts the quality. I guess there are two ways of looking at it: 1) Teams like Iceland get such good results, because they play great 2) Teams like Argentina get such bad results, becaue they play bad For me it's 2) and in my opinion the reason is that players from big leagues are just overplayed, they clearly don't look fully fit. For some people it's most important to have close games, but for me the quality of the match is more important and i don't see how anyone could believe that the overall quality has been great so far, looking at the amounts of goals scored by penalty/freekick/corners.

I hope that Poland qualifies for many more major tournaments in the future, so far their fans are the best/loudest in my opinion, of course behind the russian fans.

France, England, France ... ? I think you meant France, Brazil, Spain or Germany?

Now it should be obvious to everyone that having this tournament during ramadan is completely unfair, african players clearly don't have enough stamina. They are punished for being religious.

So far i only watched Germany vs. Mexico and Portugal vs. Spain, based on the results so far i don't think that i missed much. Tomorrow i will have more time to watch some games, but all matches look boring, so my next match will probably be Argentina vs. Croatia, which should be a great game.

I expected Poland and Colombia to win. Colombia played with only 10 almost the entire game, so they are excused. Poland should have done much better based on their qualification results, but then again their individual players don't really look better than those of Senegal, so i guess this isn't a huge shock. Nice that Germany isn't the only european nation that lost a match anymore and even nicer too see an african nation finally winning. I think those results make the group even more unpredictable. I think no matter which teams advance, none of them has a great chance to make it to the quarterfinal, same is true for all the teams in group A. Maybe Uruguay might do something against Portugal ...

In 1982 Germany still reached the final, i would take that here too.

Argentinian fans won't like to hear that ... Congrats, i know how bad the situation for many people in Mexico is and i know how passionate mexican fans are, you deserved this. Now you just need to secure the first place, because against Switzerland/Serbia you would have a realistic chance to finally reach the quarterfinal, while i don't see you beating Brazil.

And again ... you don't seem to know what kind of player sane is. Sane needs a lot of space (which Germany didn't have today) and loses a lot of balls (which broke germany's neck today), he wouldn't have helped this team at all today. The real problems are: - Players clearly didnt have the right attitude - If you cant produce decent full-backs, you should play with a back three (Rüdiger, Boateng, Hummels) Germany beat this mexican team 4:1 last year with its B team, the difference is that those guys were really motivated. I thought that Germany would reach the semifinal and then lose to Spain, but now i am not sure whether Germany will even get out of the group. I think Germany needs to rebuild for 2020 with young players, something like this: Ter Stegen, Tah, Süle, Rüdiger, Kimmich, Goretzka, Weigel, Sane, Gnabry, Havertz, Werner and then in 2022 Moukoko will be old enough to play, so everything will be good, german fans just need a bit of patience.

He only scored one goal against them in 2014 and none in 2010 ... ?

#firstworldproblems ... So what exactly is the problem? Too old, too poor or both?

Argentina proves me right, they are not among the favorites. Apart from their attack, their team is weak and Sampaoli somehow found a way to even make their attack look weak. Why doesn't Dybala play?

Didn't look too convincing, just sad that Kimpembe and Coman don't play for them.

I feel sorry for Portugal, the spanish goal was clearly irregular and never should have counted. I guess not only Real has a deal with the referees.

Why was Qatar forced to buy foreign athletes? Their own athletes can't compete during ramadan, so they had to buy athletes who were able to compete during ramada.

I think you have to decide for one nation. I support all african nations, europe and south america has won enough, it's time for an african nation to win it. I support Nigeria as they have a german coach.

That's exactly what a person brainwashed by western media would say. Try to discredit me as much as you want, but there is a clear agenda by having the world cup at this exact date. Think about it: The first time a world cup is played in a muslim country, it will be played at a completely different date, why is that? Why did so many nations try to take the world cup away from Qatar? Let me help you, it's because they are afraid that muslim countries will beat them if the world cup doesn't take place during ramadan.

I remember that we had the same problem during 2014 world cup when Algeria played Germany. Even if the date is changing, it always seems to be during the world cup. What was first world cup or ramadan? Western nations are trying to bring muslim people to break ramadan by forcing them to play during ramadan, think about it.

This is imo the only reason why an african nation never won the world cup. Think about this: Why has Turkey never won the world cup? Western nations conspired to have the world cup at this time of the year so that african nations are too weak to beat them, in 4 years it will be very different.

I guess my prediction of 1:1 was a bit off then ... I still don't see Russia getting out of this group, but if Russia can win against a saudi arabian team that just only lost by one goal against Germany, then what does that tell us about the current strength of the german national team?

Not surprising considering the standard of living there, i think it's much more difficult for them to stay inury free + i don't think that the question whether you get funding is just based on your performances and potential + it's probably much more difficult to focus on sport over there and block out everything else.

Deußer and Ahlmann won't be at the WEG for Germany.

I don't think so, Echevarria will be remembered as one of the biggest legends of athletics once he retires, even bigger than Pedroso. I think it's only a matter of time until he will break the 9 m mark and i doubt that anyone of us will live long enough to witness another man jumping 9 m, so you guys better follow all his competitions very closely, because history is about to be rewritten. Another thing that amazes me is how many talented athletes Cuba produces in triple/long jump and boxing/wrestling, not to mention their talent production in baseball ...

[hide] Preliminary Round June 14th - June 28th, 2018 32 Nations, 8 Groups, the 1st and 2nd Nations from each Group will qualify for the Round of 16 Group A Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 14th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) Russia 1 1 Saudi Arabia June 15th 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+5) Egypt 1 2 Uruguay June 19th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Russia 1 1 Egypt June 20th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) Uruguay 2 0 Saudi Arabia June 25th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+4) Uruguay 2 1 Russia June 25th 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+3) Saudi Arabia 0 1 Egypt Group B Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 15th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) Morocco 2 1 Iran June 15th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Portugal 1 2 Spain June 20th 2018, h. 15:00 (GMT+3) Portugal 1 0 Morocco June 20th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Iran 0 2 Spain June 25th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Iran 1 2 Portugal June 25th 2018, h. 20:00 (GMT+2) Spain 3 1 Morocco Group C Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 16th 2018, h. 13:00 (GMT+3) France 3 0 Australia June 16th 2018, h. 19:00 (GMT+3) Peru 1 1 Denmark June 21st 2018, h. 16:00 (GMT+4) Denmark 2 1 Australia June 21st 2018, h. 20:00 (GMT+5) France 3 1 Peru June 26th 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+3) Denmark 1 3 France June 26th 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+3) Australia 1 2 Peru Group D Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 16th 2018, h. 16:00 (GMT+3) Argentina 2 0 Iceland June 16th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+2) Croatia 2 1 Nigeria June 21st 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Argentina 2 1 Croatia June 22nd 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) Nigeria 1 1 Iceland June 26th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Nigeria 0 2 Argentina June 26th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Iceland 1 2 Croatia Group E Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 17th 2018, h. 16:00 (GMT+4) Costa Rica 1 1 Serbia June 17th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Brazil 3 0 Switzerland June 22nd 2018, h. 15:00 (GMT+3) Brazil 3 0 Costa Rica June 22nd 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+2) Serbia 1 1 Switzerland June 27th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Serbia 0 3 Brazil June 27th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Switzerland 2 1 Costa Rica Group F Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 17th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) Germany 2 0 Mexico June 18th 2018, h. 15:00 (GMT+3) Sweden 2 1 South Korea June 23rd 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) South Korea 1 2 Mexico June 23rd 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Germany 2 1 Sweden June 27th 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+3) South Korea 0 2 Germany June 27th 2018, h. 19:00 (GMT+5) Mexico 1 1 Sweden Group G Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 18th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) Belgium 3 0 Panama June 18th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Tunisia 1 2 England June 23rd 2018, h. 15:00 (GMT+3) Belgium 3 1 Tunisia June 24th 2018, h. 15:00 (GMT+3) England 1 0 Panama June 28th 2018, h. 20:00 (GMT+2) England 1 1 Belgium June 28th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Panama 1 1 Tunisia Group H Date & Time Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 June 19th 2018, h. 15:00 (GMT+3) Colombia 2 0 Japan June 19th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+3) Poland 2 1 Senegal June 24th 2018, h. 20:00 (GMT+5) Japan 1 1 Senegal June 24th 2018, h. 21:00 (GMT+3) Poland 1 2 Colombia June 28th 2018, h. 17:00 (GMT+3) Japan 0 1 Poland June 28th 2018, h. 18:00 (GMT+4) Senegal 0 2 Colombia [/hide]

8.83m for 19 yo Echevarria, 47.41s for Samba & 47.81s for Warholm, 69.67m for Dacres & 69.59m for Gudzius, 49.84s for Naser, 12.38s for McNeal & 12.48s for Williams so far in Stockholm ...