****The Official Soccer Thread for 2022****

Handicapper General said:
The French instantly surrendered and begged for mercy?
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Final score was Iran 2 - 0 USA.

The French, and all the other neutrals in the crowd, cheered on the Iranians, just for shit and giggles. Interestingly, I remember much of the game saw particular groups of Iranian fans wearing t-shirts and holding up banners with some politician's name and a movement written on them. The FIFA officials tried their hardest to keep them off the cameras, so that they wouldn't be broadcast around the world. Most in the crowd had sympathy for the protesters, obviously trying to get a message about an opposition politician back to Iran. I even got one of the t-shirts as a souvenir. Probably still got it somewhere.

Wasn't til years later we realised that the ones in the crowd were the fundamentalists, far more extreme than the pretty moderate government in Iran at the time. Pretty sure they took over in Iran at some point in the intervening years. I suspect Christopher Hitchens would have seen the humour in the situation.
 
Welsh Raider said:
So, in 'sahker' news, Wales have qualified for the World Cup. When they get there, in the group stage they'll play England (boo! hiss!) and a couple of diddy teams in Iran and the USA.

Fun fact - when Iran and USA played in 1998 in France, I was at the game. Interesting experience.
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You forgot to mention it is the first time since 1958 that the Little Dragons qualified.

Don't worry. Big Daddy England will remain you coal miners who your superiors are. Glendower can try to call up all the spirits from the vasty deep that he wants. It won't matter. Harry Kane will just channel Edward I.
 
Darkenblot said:
You forgot to mention it is the first time since 1958 that the Little Dragons qualified.

Don't worry. Big Daddy England will remain you coal miners who your superiors are. Glendower can try to call up all the spirits from the vasty deep that he wants. It won't matter. Harry Kane will just channel Edward I.
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Yep, first time since 1958. At which tournament Wales lost 1-0 in the quarter finals to eventual winners, Brazil. An 18 year old Pele scored the only goal and later described it as the most important he ever scored in a world cup, so tight was the game. Had the great John Charles for Wales not have been injured, it may well have been a different result.

Wales came very close in 1977 and 1985 and closer still in 1993 but then entered a wilderness so it's good to see them finally getting there.

Edward I, well, quite. Yma o hyd as the Welsh crowd sang tonight.

EDIT: Apologies for the indulgence, but it's not such a bad link, given Darkenblot's history reference.
Yma o hyd - a Welsh song sung adopted by the Welsh football crowd that describes conquest by Edward, repression and a language banned by Henry VIII onwards, but - Yma o hyd - we're still here.

 
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Hungary's victory was their first on English soil in nearly 70 years, while it was the Three Lions' heaviest defeat at home since losing 6-1 to Scotland in 1928.

#FireSouthgate
 
Darkenblot said:
Hungary's victory was their first on English soil in nearly 70 years, while it was the Three Lions' heaviest defeat at home since losing 6-1 to Scotland in 1928.

#FireSouthgate
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Pretty sure most people would say the defeat to Hungary in 1953 was more comprehensive, ergo 'heaviest'. It finished 6-3 so obviously only a 3-goal deficit as opposed to the 4 this game, but by all accounts, the Hungarians showed the English how to play football that day back in 1953.

I spoke to the great Johnny Haynes about it once, in the late 90s. He started playing for England a couple of years later, but knew most of that team. He reckoned they all said that Puskas and Hideguti played them off the park; Billy Wright, Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortensen and all of them. If it hadn't been for that defeat, most historians agree that Alf Ramsey (who also played in that game), when he became England manager, would never have started the tactical changes that led to the World Cup in 1966.

Following year the Hungarians beat them 7-1 in Hungary. They also pissed on everyone else too. They were a hell of a team and would have won the World Cup in '54 if the Germans hadn't been doped up for the final.

Anyway, pretty ridiculous to fire Southgate for that one game, especially in a friendly. Nobody gives a shit about friendlies. Not sure anyone seriously wants him out.

PS Scotland beat them 5-1 (not 6) in 1928 - the Wembley Wizards. Ask any Scot!
 
Southgate lost me after the Euro final.

He plays too hesitant for a squad loaded with offensive talent. He is the Grudenheimer of football managers.
 
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