NP's 2018 World Cup Thread, Predictions, News and Fun

Group F teams Sweden and South Korea will play their first match between them soon.

Mexico's win over Germany appears to have caused seismic activity in Mexico City
https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/mexicos...d-seismic-activity-mexico-city-181244846.html

Remark on TV yesterday from a dutch fan from the Netherlands "We have the same points as Germany for the moment".
The Netherlands aren't at tthe WCup (didn't qualify), they are fan of Belgium now (northern part of Belgium speaks dutch/nederlands (sometimes called Flemish, because of some differences in dialect)). OR the Netherlands are fan of Morocco : 5 Moroccon players are coming from the Netherlands. (among them the little Mbark Boussouffa who played also at Ghent and Anderlecht in Belgium (and won the golden shoe 2 times in Belgium) and also went further away to play in a far away country). ... That far away country is "Russia" LOL (Lokomotiv Moskou and Anji Makhachkala). And now he is 33 and plays with Al Jazeera (Abu Dhabi, UAE). During his youthcarreer (so before Belgium) he played in the Netherlands for Ajax, and even Chelsea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbark_Boussoufa

I remember that once a worldcup of a while ago Morocco didn't qualify but deserved to win and go through.

I wasn't a fan of Portugal's Ronaldo, I always thought he was a show off..

Now i'll say this, Mr. Messi & Mr. Neymar can learn a thing or two from Ronaldo.

What he did for his country, is pure greatness.

Everything the other two have, is given to their clubs, they haven't done enough for the national teams.

Ronaldo, he is known to be selfish on the field, but with his team, he is all in..

what was Neymar doing last night? very good at falling in the field, big time drama. he did nothing.

I am now a Ronaldo/Portugal supporter, respect..

Enjoy today's shows everyone..

MS-Domains said:

I wasn't a fan of Portugal's Ronaldo, I always thought he was a show off..

Now i'll say this, Mr. Messi & Mr. Neymar can learn a thing or two from Ronaldo.

What he did for his country, is pure greatness.

Everything the other two have, is given to their clubs, they haven't done enough for the national teams.

Ronaldo, he is known to be selfish on the field, but with his team, he is all in..

what was Neymar doing last night? very good at falling in the field, big time drama. he did nothing.

I am now a Ronaldo/Portugal supporter, respect..

Enjoy today's shows everyone..

Click to expand...

I was a big fan of the Brazillian Ronaldo of 2002 (and 2006) etc..... He gained a lot of weight, after his career (or at the end of his carrer) probably due to a healthcondition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronaldo_(Brazilian_footballer) several times topscorer etc....

Domainstore said:

I was a big fan of the Brazillian Ronaldo of 2002 (and 2006) etc..... He gained a lot of weight, after his career (or at the end of his carrer) probably due to a healthcondition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronaldo_(Brazilian_footballer) several times topscorer etc....

Click to expand...

I was a fan too.. 2002 was his best.

He was in the opening ceremony.. hope he gets well..

one of the greats..

MS-Domains said:

I was a fan too.. 2002 was his best.

He was in the opening ceremony.. hope he gets well..

one of the greats..

Click to expand...

Indeed !! He can be named together with Maradonna and Pélé as one of the bestplayers ever. I missed the ceremony, but in the news I saw he was there. When I hear the name "Ronaldo" I first think about him (full name Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima)... and afterwards at the current Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal.

Domainstore said:

probably due to a healthcondition.

Click to expand...

or eating all the pies

Brazil was not treated fairly by the referee

Anyways...on to the fresh matches !

Sweden's performance was average at best. 1-0 against S.Korea. penalty

Considering that Sweden is why the Italians & the Dutch are not in Russia, they've got to do much better.

imo..

MS-Domains said:

Sweden's performance was average at best. 1-0 against S.Korea. penalty

Considering that Sweden is why the Italians & the Dutch are not in Russia, they've got to do much better.

imo..

Click to expand...

Agreed....they showed nothing spectacular so far....

GO PANAMA!!!!!

MS-Domains said:

Italians & the Dutch

Click to expand...

I for sure miss the Italians and especially the Dutchs

iowadawg said:

GO PANAMA!!!!!

Click to expand...

Sorry, but Belgium won with 3-0 !
Dries Mertens, not a very tall player with a world-goal (!) a "banana-goal" according to the commentator, and twice (Romelu) Lukaku, (his brother also plays soccer, but in the 1st League from Belgium).
Nearly none of the players of the Belgium national team who actually play on the WCup (and who not are on the bank) actually plays in Belgium. Most of them in other competitions, like several in the UK Premier league (England), Napoli (Italy), etc...because Belgium (België, Belgique, Belgien) has some good players for the moment, and ranks #3 in the Fifa-ranking.
Kevin de Bruyne (former Dortmund, now Manchester City) is also important. He has a very good overview over the field and the players. And Eden Hazard (also Premier League UK and his brother Torgan Hazard also plays soccer on the highest level)) is now captain instead of Vincent Kompany (because the latter missed a lot of matches due to long periods injuries).
And Vincent Kompany (Manchester City) in the defence, will come in action later on, because he injured himself very much in the last two years, and the coach don't wanna take risks, but he is very important and brings confidence in the team. And the tall goalkeeper Thibault Courtois (formerly playing in Spain, now Premier League-UK) is of worldclass ! His sister Imke Courtois is also a (very tall) soccer playster and comments and analyses the matches on the TV before in the break and after the matches, together with other male footballplayers.
There has been some uproar in Belgium just before the WCup in Russia, because Radja Naingolan playing at Roma (Italy) hasn't been called for the WCup now (although he played matches for the qualification of the so-called "Red Devils" like the team is calling themselves -just like Korea-).

Anyhow : The last match is special because against England will be something special : Half of the best of the national team of Belgium plays in the UK.

Belgium's 3rd goal was "by the book".

Sweden 1-0 South Korea

That will teach the Koreans for trying to confuse the Swedes with numbers

Belgium 3-0 Panama...
The #3 ranked team gets the job done even though Panama showed some fighting spirit...

Romelo Lukaku scrored twice....

Next game... Tunisia vs England. The North African team is the highest ranked squad from that continent...

GILSAN said:

Belgium 3-0 Panama...
The #3 ranked team gets the job done even though Panama showed some fighting spirit...

Romelo Lukaku scrored twice....

Click to expand...

Yeah, Lukaku played very well. His dreadlocks (hair) of some years ago are gone now.

And in the same group as Belgium, now began England-Tunesia (Tunesia was the first African country in the time the World Cup exists ever to make a goal or win a match back in older days).

Go England!!!!

I'm very happy that ICELAND does so well, just like in France in EURO - 2016.
The team is awesome !
And I miss IRELAND here on the WorldCup.
In 2016 at EURO 2016 the supporters were VERY FRIENDLY, and SANG FRIENDLY
SONGS EVEN for their opponents !!!
I never saw such polite supporters like from Ireland that year.

Half time 1-1... England dominating and playing well

ANd to think, there are people out there watching reruns of (are you ready for this one?):
Keeping Up With the Kardashians

hahhahahahahhaha

Tunisia 1-2 England
Harry Kane to the rescue! Captain scores dramatic injury-time winner... Justice was served at the end

Domainstore said:

Indeed !! He can be named together with Maradonna and Pélé as one of the bestplayers ever. I missed the ceremony, but in the news I saw he was there. When I hear the name "Ronaldo" I first think about him (full name Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima)... and afterwards at the current Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal.

Click to expand...

The name Ronaldo was always very unusual in Portugal. When Cristiano Ronaldo was born, his late father who was a big fan of Ronald Reagan, decided to name CR7 after the US President. Nowadays many Portuguese are naming their kids after him.

I'm also a big fan of Ronaldo de Lima, Ronaldinho Gaucho, Eusébio, Michel Platini, Paolo Maldini, Franz Beckenbauer, Zinedine Zidane, George Best, Marco van Basten and the fabulous Johan Cruyff, who was such an elegant player on the field and part of the beautiful and different "Total Football" that Holland played in the 70's, where players were constantly interchanging roles.

I'm old enough to have seen them all, including Maradona... on TV.

I was privileged to have seen Pélé (New York Cosmos) Franz Beckenbauer (New York Cosmos) Johan Cruyff (Los Angeles Galaxy) and Eusébio (Toronto Metros and New Jersey Americans) play, when I lived in L.A. California and would go see the LA Galaxy games... in the late 70's.