World Cup 2026

[Willo of Whiteley]

Egypt’s Manager has had a mad one saying they deserved to win.

They absolutely shat the bed for the last fifteen minutes, looked knackered, stopped tracking back and devoid of ideas.

They lost because they totally capitulated.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

1 hour ago, Saint NL said:

 

Egypt manager could be in a spot of bother after trying to activate the racism protocol erroneously. He was doing the crossed arms signal to the ref when his team were under pressure, trying to force a pause in the game. Then completely forgets about alleged abuse, not a good look for him.

I didn't realise he was doing it before the ref had gone over. I only saw him doing it when the ref was there.

Honestly, I thought he was declaring his fandom of a girl band with the gesture. I forgot that was the racism one until the end. Then I thought he was indicating that it was racism against all of Egypt.

I checked with the FIFA arbitration panel, all of whom are called Ptolemy, and they said that's nonsense.

[LiberalCommunist]

Frustrating how they let the argies off the hook, but its down to them, not the ref. Some of the last minute defending was criminal. Painful to watch unfold. 

[Turkish]

8 hours ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Argentina vs England final - written in the stars. Or is that in Infantino’s fairytale storybook?

err it's not 😂

[Turkish]

Difficult to see beyond France really, they've got so much quality going forward they'll have too much for anyone else. If we get past Norway which is by no means going to be easy you'd like to think we'd beat Argentina, hopefully the closeness of the games will start to take it's toll on their older team. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

2 hours ago, Sheaf Saint said:

They've got a pretty fair grievance in fairness. If VAR is going to intervene and disallow that Zico goal for a very minor foul in the build up, then they have to at least review Argentina's 3rd goal as well for consistency. 

The argument against that is that if they had deemed it a foul on Salah and disallowed the goal, then the ref has to award a penalty to them and it wasn't enough of a foul to justify that. But we've seen VAR give penalties for less in this tournament - like the one they gave Mexico against us.

The tators said that there's a different threshold for a penalty review to the foul leading to the disallowed second. Apparently a penalty review is it's own thing.

No idea if that's right or not.

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

Personally I'm struggling to see anything happening other than a Morocco v Switzerland final.

[Saint NL]

I know we all love stats, XG being a particular favourite, but the Fouls Per Card (FPG) stats show a curious trend.

 

 

(Insert your own conspiracy theories here)

[Saint Pete]

10 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

I don't know why players attempt these stupid 'run up and thump it' penalties. Just do a stuttering run up and stick it the other side of the keeper FFS!!

Well, actually if you watch the pens again, both Davinson Sanchez and Akanji did stutters in their run ups to their awful penalties! 

[Saint Fan CaM]

10 hours ago, washsaint said:

errr.....hate to break it to you but that's impossible as England will play Argentina in the semis if both get through the quarters

Yeah that was kind of my point - the man can make things happen. Fell a bit flat though. 😂

[Saint86]

1 hour ago, Saint NL said:

I know we all love stats, XG being a particular favourite, but the Fouls Per Card (FPG) stats show a curious trend.

 

 

(Insert your own conspiracy theories here)

Not even in respect of these stats, but i find it hard to believe there is anyone who doesn't think there is a least a degree of interference and fixing in this world cup. The integrity of the whole competition just feels incredibly tarnished to me.

[washsaint]

29 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Yeah that was kind of my point - the man can make things happen. Fell a bit flat though. 😂

😄

[Holmes_and_Watson]

1 hour ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Yeah that was kind of my point - the man can make things happen. Fell a bit flat though. 😂

Never look back. Never explain. 🙂

[Disco Stu]

5 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

My mate said the Sam’s just before Argentina scored their first.

He is now firmly ridiculed in the chat and if we lost say to Argentina in the semis, it’ll probably go down as ridiculously as the time another of my mates said Harry Kane is a one season wonder. 😂

Some things will always be brought up, and never lived down.

I said it after Argentina scored their third. We're a stronger side than Egypt. We shouldn't be worrying about Argentina.

Edited 11 hours ago by Disco Stu

[skintsaint]

3 hours ago, Turkish said:

Difficult to see beyond France really, they've got so much quality going forward they'll have too much for anyone else. If we get past Norway which is by no means going to be easy you'd like to think we'd beat Argentina, hopefully the closeness of the games will start to take it's toll on their older team. 

Think Spain have the tools to do France, but the winner of that game will definately win the thing.

[Saint86]

6 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

Think Spain have the tools to do France, but the winner of that game will definately win the thing.

Don't know what you're talking about Skint, "its coming home!!!!"

[skintsaint]

3 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

Don't know what you're talking about Skint, "its coming home!!!!"

If its any consolation, my predictions on anything football related these days don't pan out 😅

Edited 11 hours ago by skintsaint

[whelk]

3 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

I said it after Argentina scored their third. We're a stronger side than Egypt. We shouldn't be worrying about Argentina.

Don’t worry we’d be winning Euros and WC every two years if we’d just had a decent manager. All other countries are piss poor and we never attacked them hard enough 

[Disco Stu]

2 hours ago, whelk said:

Don’t worry we’d be winning Euros and WC every two years if we’d just had a decent manager. All other countries are piss poor and we never attacked them hard enough 

While it would be interesting to know how we might have done in our last two Euros finals with a manager with some tactical nous, we shouldn't dwell on hypotheticals 😂

Edited 6 hours ago by Disco Stu

[Disco Stu]

France and Spain look stronger than anyone on our side of the draw. It's theirs to lose you'd imagine.

Edited 5 hours ago by Disco Stu

[Winnersaint]

10 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Egypt’s Manager has had a mad one saying they deserved to win.

They absolutely shat the bed for the last fifteen minutes, looked knackered, stopped tracking back and devoid of ideas.

They lost because they totally capitulated.

A bit like us at OT in 24/25 season.

[RedArmy]

1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

France and Spain look stronger than anyone on our side of the draw. It's theirs to lose you'd imagine.

Will be interesting to see how Spains defence holds up against a team that’s scored 12 goals in their last 3 games. 
 

They’ve been nothing special going forward, but yet to concede a goal and that has dragged them to the quarter finals. 

[Gloucester Saint]

8 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Not even in respect of these stats, but i find it hard to believe there is anyone who doesn't think there is a least a degree of interference and fixing in this world cup. The integrity of the whole competition just feels incredibly tarnished to me.

Whilst I don’t agree with the Egyptians that they were robbed, although sympathetic to them losing last night late on as I wanted them to win, there’s disquiet from the French camp that an all Argentine officials group has been chosen tonight for their game v Morocco.

Infantino has form for chicanery which helps Messi - eg World Club Championship when it should have been Galaxy as the MLS Shield winners but he invited Inter Miami instead. 

He gets on with Trump for good reasons - you can’t trust either of them any further than you could throw them. Corruption is in the bloodstream.

Not seen direct evidence of match fixing bar the Balogun cheating by him and Trump yet I have to say, but is Infantino capable of it? 100%.

Edited 4 hours ago by Gloucester Saint
Form, not firm

[Saint_clark]

7 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

I said it after Argentina scored their third. We're a stronger side than Egypt. We shouldn't be worrying about Argentina.

Agreed, I don't fear Argentina. Norway however can keep it solid and compact defensively and have an absolute machine up front in Haaland. 

[Sheaf Saint]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ce8m526mjmeo

"A golden boot race for the ages... battle that feels genuinely generational... sharpened by numbers and defined by rarity".

Nothing whatsoever to do with the expanded format and the number of shit teams with shocking defensive records that qualified then huh?

[AlexLaw76]

1 hour ago, Sheaf Saint said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ce8m526mjmeo

"A golden boot race for the ages... battle that feels genuinely generational... sharpened by numbers and defined by rarity".

Nothing whatsoever to do with the expanded format and the number of shit teams with shocking defensive records that qualified then huh?

More evidence that this is the greatest World Cup ever (tm)

Edited 2 hours ago by AlexLaw76

[The Kraken]

1 hour ago, Sheaf Saint said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ce8m526mjmeo

"A golden boot race for the ages... battle that feels genuinely generational... sharpened by numbers and defined by rarity".

Nothing whatsoever to do with the expanded format and the number of shit teams with shocking defensive records that qualified then huh?

It’s a bit from both columns tbf. 

[Saint86]

1 hour ago, Sheaf Saint said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ce8m526mjmeo

"A golden boot race for the ages... battle that feels genuinely generational... sharpened by numbers and defined by rarity".

Nothing whatsoever to do with the expanded format and the number of shit teams with shocking defensive records that qualified then huh?

The entire tournament and any associated records have been hugely devalued. Let alone with the blatant corruption and manipulation by fifa.