The Soccer Thread (Version 8)

I did a story at Euro about English fans going to Russia—after they were attacked with almost military precision in Marseilles. I didn't find one who was still going to go. That was before the Russian spy stuff.

Even if the English team still goes, I can't imagine many English fans will. I think this World Cup is going to be very weird.

 

Or a creative way to get #Wengerout.

 

I got my daughter who lives in France tickets to see France-Denmark in Moscow (the other two Les Bleus games are in cities you'd have to use internal Russian airlines so fuck that). I wonder if it'll even happen.

 

Oh, it will happen. But I think it's going to lack some atmosphere and quite possibly be seriously violent. Russia is a hard place in a lot of ways. Moscow and Saint Petersburg are fine, but some of the other cities are really tough. Also, I have to say, a lot of the group stage seems like a foregone conclusion, and there are a lot of bad games likely. The opener is Russia v. Saudi Arabia. That sucks. Uruguay and Egypt should laugh through that group.

I love football, and even I'm not all that excited for this World Cup. Selfishly, I can't help thinking that Russia won the right to host it over England. What a different experience that would have been. I would have based up in London and taken trains everywhere. Perfect.

 

Salah broke some ankles and put Liverpool up 1-0 in 4th minute over Watford.

 

BTE, no reply?

 

That was extremely reminiscent of the time Messi ate Boateng's soul.

 

I think even BTE will agree that if you fly domestic in Russia, you're taking your life into your own hands.

 

By the way, Man U still alive for some hardware as they move on to the FA Cup semis.

 

They looked like an LvG team yesterday. Everyone just seemed to want to pass it to the person that they were supposed to instead of trying to break down an inferior squad.

 

Can't pose an explanation for that, but they WERE playing an inferior squad (Brighton & Hove) so I guess they decided to reel it in one time for this tie.

 

Ibra to MLS.

Zlatan is coming to MLS: Ibra signs with LA Galaxy