What a great start for England in the World Cup!! The goals kept on coming and coming and we couldn't have hoped for a better start to the games! A 6 : 2 win today, despite losing a silly last minute penalty was a near to perfect start to the world cup for English fans. Whilst I have the upmost respect for the Iranian national team, when it comes to the face off between the two teams, there is no question on where my support lies.
Group B
The Group B team in this year's world cup is an interesting combination. England, Wales, USA and Iran.
Source : Fox Sports
England and Wales
England are Wales are brothers (or sisters?), both are part of UK and have their own national football team. And in case you're wondering why they have separate teams, this is all due to historical reasons. England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland all have their own football associations which are the oldest in the world, pre dating FIFA. This has enabled each of the four nations to have its own teams in international tournaments.
I guess some other FIFA members would question why UK can or should have four separate teams and they'd like that reduced to 1 team per country like everyone else. History comes with baggage and baggage can't always be offloaded that easily. For the 4 UK nations, national pride plays a large part. There are many Welsh, Scots, and Irish who are very proud of their heritage and want to represent their own nation. Either that or nothing. Consolidating 4 teams into 1 will reduce the chances of many UK players getting into the national team, and that's another reason why the 4 nations want their own separate team. The flip side of this means their opponents face 4 comparatively weaker teams instead of 1 stronger one. And for this reason, there's really no urge to push for changes. Why rock the boat?
England will play Wales next week. Wales may be a home nation, but sorry, it's still gonna be England for me.
England and USA
UK and USA have this "special relationship" that dates back to the second world war during the Churchill/Truman era. The special relationship was cemented further in the 80s by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. The Americans are more commonly known as our cousins across the pond, a little more distant than our Welsh, Scottish and Irish sibling nations.
I know in USA, football or soccer as our cousins call it, is nowhere as popular as basketball, baseball, American football or ice hockey. In fact, I wonder how many Americans care or even know that the world cup is on at the moment? 😃 Having just watched USA vs Wales play, the US team is very fast. Perhaps that's an American thing where they like fast sports. The game ended with a draw, and credit to Wales on their first World Cup game since 1958.
Anyway, as much as friends go, there are no friends on the football pitch. No prizes for guessing who I will be rooting for on Friday.
England and Iran
Tricky relationship here. As a country, Iran is pretty much a billy no mates around the world, and US and UK are two of Iran's two biggest enemies. But as a national team, I think it's fair to say that the Iranian national team are playing for the people and not the country.
As I said at the beginning of my post, I have the greatest respect for the Iranian national team. England winning 6 : 2 today was a massive triumph for us, but I do feel for our opponent. However, as sports goes, to not give it our all and hold back would be a total disrespect to the Iranians. The team has been vocal in voicing their views against the regime and the World Cup is the best platform to bring the Iranian protest to the foreground again.
Source CNN
FIFA and Qatar would like everyone to just focus on football and nothing else. Forget about the thousands of migrant workers who died when building the stadiums and were never compensated. Forget about Qatar's U-turn banning alcohol sales in the stadium at the last minute. Forget about the £175 people paid for a night's hotel but ended up sleeping in a tent. Forget about Mahsa Amini's needless death. Forget about the LGBT community who are not allowed to exist in Qatar.
Enjoy the games, but please don't forget.
Sorry, I can't watch this event, the fake world cup, held in a homophobic, misogynistic, country with appalling human rights, especially the treatment of the migrant workers who built the stadiums, 6500 from the subcontinent are known to have died whilst being part of the workforce. a country where the wealth is shared only between a few families. They are not a footballing nation it is all about money.
The WC run by FIFA a corrupt organisation, where backhanders were gratefully taken under the table in many forms, cash and sexual favours in particular, not only to the head of the organisation Giovanni Infantino but to anyone in a position to make decisions.
A complete shutdown of the footballing world to accomadate this event is a farce, just to satisfy a cash greedy country.
the sooner it is over the better tbh
Spot on!
cheers @phortun 👍, like i said to LUT I would boycott the sponsors too but I love macadees too much 🤣
:D
I find it sn absolute disgrace how Sebb platter now says it shouldn't have been awarded to Qatar. I mean does people have no shame?
Where there's money to be made there will always be corruption doesn't matter if it's first or third world country, rich or poor country
I would boycott the sponsors as well as the games, but I love macadees too much 🤣😂🤣
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I sensed sarcasm and anger in this post.
I knew nothing about football and its teams as it is not a popular game in my country. The story that you told about four different teams for one country makes sense. Since second world war the people are taught to take pride on their nationality the most.
National pride is a great thing and rightly so, but is also the source of conflict and war in some places l.
What is a popular sport in your country? Cricket?
Yup. It's cricket
Hello livinguktaiwan
England need to make one team.If they do so they can win a world cup.😄😄
You are right evryone should forget what happen before at the time building stadium. It was unexpected and unwanted.. may be hurriedness is to blame. But USA , England , India banned Zakir Naik for supporting terrorist activities , money laundering and hate speech among tribes. He must not be allowed to make an speech at the opening ceremony. From official news channel it is further known he gonna promote Islam through out the world cup.. It is ridiculous to invite such a controvercial person in an event where he is no business with football.. This is pathetic..😂😂FIFA is going to be criticised further.
I haven't been following Zakir Nailk's latest, but hopefully he isn't at the World Cup in an official capacity. Based on what we've seen so far, Qatar claims to welcome everyone so they're not going to ban him and cause more controversy.
Btw, I was advocating for people to NOT forget about all those issues.
Such things should never be forgotten. I'm a big supporter of Argentina, but sometimes I don't feel comfortable watching the games. It's interesting that this cup is even in Qatar. Anyway, I don't want to get into political issues anymore.
You must have been quite devastated yesterday!!
This year's world cup is over shrouded by too many issues, takes the enjoyment out of everything.
I totally agree and yes I was shocked yesterday, I didn't expect Argentina to play so badly.
@tipu curate
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Well said Pauline, well said. For me, a huge football fan, it´s been hard to join the boycott but I have been doing my best to ignore the tournament. You might have actually seen my rant over the Qatar World Cup. In my book, it´s the most atrocious, disgusting and despicable thing in the history of football...
I can understand your sentiment and annoyance and I'm sure many around the world feel the same. Money talks and sadly many of the not so friendly nations have enough and are willing to throw unlimited amounts around to buy what they can't otherwise get as a team player.
Well, FIFA has been corrupt pretty much since day one and the football public around the world kind of got used to it, as horrible as it sounds, but with this WC in Qatar, it was the first time ever that they (FIFA) are more or less directly responsible for the death of thousands of people. That´s a whole new level of their disgustingness. If the WC was given to any of the other countries that wanted to host it this year, there wouldn´t be those tragic deaths...
From last night, I saw England got a good team this year.
Too bad about the 自相残杀 situation.
Let's just hope England can keep it up all the way to the end
If history is any indication I say they won't :p
Noooooooooooo 😫😫😫
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