We live in a Messi world; let’s all just cheer up a bit, people…

Don’t be the guy who watches Lionel Messi become the highest goalscorer in World Cup history and has a pop at the referees.

Oh and don’t be part of the Celebration Police or a racist. Be nice. Watch Ronaldo and England and then mail theeditor@football365.com

Cheer up everyone, there’s a World Cup on

It must be so depressing to be some people. To go through life with a relentlessly cynical, negative perspective on everything. I mean, come on people, let’s cheer up a bit!

Paul Murphy thinks it’s bad that we ‘fawn’ over the greatest player to ever live. A man who, at nearly 39, is doing things that most players couldn’t achieve in their prime. He’s scored 5 goals in 2 games, he’s the top scorer of all time in the World Cup, but why should we celebrate or make a big deal of that? Let’s all just be cynical and make comments about biased referees instead.

For the record, despite Danny Murphy’s bizarre claims that he got the ball, that was a stonewaller. Not one, but two Austria players took out the player. It was a definite penalty.

We’ve also had moans about Scotland having fun. Thanks for the feedback, but we’re having a great time. Even if we don’t score another goal, get battered by Brazil and go out in the last 32, it will still have been a great tournament.

There was even funnier commentary from William, who says that no one would ever be hyperbolic about a white Spanish Catholic. Well, they may not be Spanish, but I can think of two white Catholics in this World Cup who get ‘fawned’ over on a fairly consistent basis. Just an utterly bizarre point of view, that one.

Not to mention all the moans about England, whether it’s players in the wrong position, tactics, or whatever.

So come on lads, let’s all cheer up, eh? The World Cup is on and, even though the time difference is a killer, there has been loads to enjoy and celebrate. This is football, it’s meant to be fun!
Mike, LFC, Dubai

…When dealing with a narcissist you need to stop responding to them as they are fueled by the anger they create. It’s the grey rock method if you want to know more. Celebration police are such narcissists so please stop rising to the bait.

Countries celebrate making it to the World Cup, scoring a goal, getting a point. The more reason you have to celebrate the better. If you’re waiting to celebrate ‘it coming home’ then you might wait another 60 years so good luck to you.

Fans having a great time is surely exactly what we want to see and when your team gets knocked out, find another team to adopt and something else to celebrate.Or just be a miserable bastard, your choice.

Cheers,
Jon, Cape Town (Come on England and good luck to everyone else too except when we face you)

A small point on Maradona v Messi

In fairness, the one thing everyone always remembers about Maradona in ‘86 was that he famously didn’t get any dodgy decisions going his way.
Doug, AFC, Belfast

…A 5’5 guy punching the ball into the net over a 6ft+ goalie and it counting is cheating and getting help from FIFA.

Come on now. Messi the best of all time, Ronaldo arguably 2nd but it isn’t even close. Time to all move on.
Moses

Will Scotland get a third-place slot?

Time for another update on whether three points will be enough for Scotland to make it through to the knockouts. Apologies to anyone not interested in this but, honestly, when they’re showing us on the telly what might happen based on current group standings halfway through the second round of matches, someone somewhere needs to put together a proper analysis.

Same logic as before. I’m dividing the expected third place teams into three groups.

First, six third-place teams almost certain to be finish above Scotland:

Group B. When Bosnia beat Qatar we’ll have three teams on at least four points
Group D. Paraguay and Oz would both go through with a draw in the last round. Will become a common theme here.
Group H. Spain are through and exactly one of Saudi and Cape Verde will go through. So all down to whether Uruguay can avoid defeat against Spain. But with a draw almost certainly winning the group for Spain, a draw works for both sides.
Group J. Algeria need a draw against Austria to get second place and a R32 game against Ivory Coast. Algeria need a draw against Austria to make it to the knockout.
Group K. DR Congo¡s earlier draw against Portugal will see them through to 4 points
Group L. Croatia play Ghana with both needing a draw to go through.

Next up, three third place teams almost certain to finish behind Scotland:

In group A, Czechia won’t beat Mexico and South Africa won’t beat South Korea
In group E, Ecuador won’t beat Germany
In group G, Iran play Egypt with a draw would put both through with Belgium. But Egypt have nothing to lose by going for the win and topping the group, so let’s say they do that.

Leaving these three fighting over two remaining places:

Group C. Scotland to finish in three points, negative goal difference, hopefully -1.
Group F. Sweden will finish on 3 if they lose to Japan. Currently on zero goal difference.
Group I. Senegal will be third on 3 points when they beat Iraq. Currently on -3 goal difference.

And then, if Scotland lose by one goal to Brazil, Sweden go through if they get nothing better than a two goal defeat against Japan and Senegal need to bet Iraq by two goals. So Scotland look like going out with Iran, Czechia and Ecuador.

Whichever of the three goes home, England still get DR Congo in the round of 32. And if Scotland survive they still get Mexico.
Steve Mills

England to start with same XI?

Wont be that surprising if Tuchel starts with the same team given that they are the ones who responded to the half time team talk against Croatia. We won’t fully understand Tuchel’s perspective until we see who starts in the knockouts. Right now Saka isnt fully fit, Stones needs minutes and Gordon is a better presser than Rashford so the same team makes sense. I’d be totally happy to see Mainoo come in for Rice but that’s clearly not gonna happen.

The truly fantastic thing about this squad is that we have multiple players that can add quality off the bench. England substitutions are often a case of desperate tilting at windmills. This summer we can actually bring rapid goalscorers plus decent midfielders and defenders off the bench or into the side as needed.

Tuchel is doing a great job of getting the subs and squad players to buy into the team ethic. In the US heat having rapid goalscorers coming off the bench could make all the difference and if they’re not starting they’ll be fresher if we get to the latter stages.
Ben Teacher

Anthem time?

There is a small part of me that laments that no Celtic blood courses through my veins. Our countries have been at loggerheads for centuries yet the people are often the nicest, friendliest and funniest people you will ever meet. And as for drinking…

As for National Anthems, I’ve yet to experience anything close to 50,000 Welsh belting it out at Cardiff Arms Park. After that you could probably have even stuck a red shirt on me and I’d have played like a man possessed.

Alas, our National Anthem seems better suited to Royal Coronations or Funerals. It certainly doesn’t move me like some of the others. Heck, every time I hear the “Marseilles ” it brings a tear to my eye thinking about what it means to the French.

I’m not an anti-royalist but why can’t we have something that stirs our loins? Hymns such as “Abide With Me” would be replacing dull with dull and whilst no popular song springs to mind, at a pinch I’d even be willing to sing along to “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and I’m a MUFC fan.

“We Are The Champions” would be arrogant and premature. No to “Wonderwall” and “Its Coming Home” is too football specific.

No for me there is only one clear candidate… “Vindaloo” by Fat Les!
Adidasmufc
(Easy enough for even players to learn)

Why Hydration Breaks are okay, actually

On the topic of ‘hydration breaks’.

This will be a very unpopular opinion, but I expect them to stick around and eventually move into all major European leagues, and you know what?, I think I’m not that fussed and will learn to live with it.

We all know the whole thing is an ‘ad break’ designed as a hydration break. But at the end of the day it ends up benefitting all parties. Players do get a small breather and tactical break, it may not always be necessary in cooler climates, but a short break doesn’t hurt and towards the end of long seasons i think will be welcome. Broadcasters can sell more advertising, which then trickles down to our clubs in larger broadcasting deals. So it is one of the simplest ways to bring more money into the game, and I’d prefer the ‘hydration breaks’ over the ‘overseas game’ which will no doubt be the alternative (already attempted by Barca and Milan).

The hope will be that broadcasters do it ‘tastefully’ by not cutting away completely. I wouldn’t mind some extra banners or even a quick strategic cut to pundits ‘brought to you by X’. I’d hope they don’t go to full ads like they do in US sports.

It is also a change that can quite easily be implemented across all leagues and rules without needing extra technology or investments, which is a big consideration when talking abt rule/structure changes. So federations can maintain fairness across the board. Even if EPL doesn’t implement this, you can be sure LaLiga and Serie A will do so if it means greater broadcasting deals to catch up to EPL.

Will it change the flow of the game a little? Yes.
Will it fundamentally change anything? No.
Will we start referring to these as ‘quarters’? not officially, but obviously they are.

If given the choice I would take these hydration breaks over the 39th Game or playing league matches overseas. Those will generate more revenue too BUT actually will be at real expense of players, fans, environment etc.

Unpopular I know, but i’m a realist.
Hats

More feedback for William after his (far) right of reply

Further to William’s attempted defence of his mail earlier, if he wants to write mails which are ‘full of humor, satirized the behavior of the media’ I would suggest that making it funny would be a good start (it wasn’t) and obviously a work of satire (it wan’t, and clearly I’m not alone in thinking that!).

I stated where I had read reports about the match which didn’t make any issue of Yamal’s parentage, skin colour or religion, but William still doesn’t bother to do this, leading me to believe he is bullshitting about whatever he read or saw as an excuse.

In his defence he says ‘it went totally over your 75 IQ head’. The thing is, Donny Trump also accuses people of having a low IQ, more often that not directed at black people or other people of colour, so this doesn’t really help him here.

And is ‘I live in a country right now where everyone is brown and that is fine by me’ the new ‘I have lots of black friends, honest’?
A, LFC, Montreal

…I know we should leave it but William—or should we call you ‘Wilhelm’?—the press tends to get worked up into a heightened state of hyperbole over anyone who is half decent irrespective of where they come from or what they look like.

If you even took a second to step away from your ‘common sense’ newsfeed then you might see that in the UK we tend to go mad over just about anything Harry Kane or Declan Rice do and that’s mainly because they are good. It’s the same everywhere else. Why is this? Because people tend to like good players and when people like something it tends to get clicks.

Yamal was 16 when he started playing for Barcelona which is special. Mbappé won a World Cup at 17 as did Pelé, so – you know – that’s kind of a big deal hence the attention and the over-the-top reaction to everything they do. If they were white, I’m sure that would make you happier because good forbid someone who is Black or even Muslim might be good at something eh?

No one mocked the Japanese for cleaning up, we all thought it was cool. Everyone with half a brain loved the Norwegian photoshoot because it was cool and original. We don’t hate white people and love anything ethnic; we just love stuff that is funny, original, spectacular and genuinely breathtaking, showing us the possibilities of humanity.

If Harry Kane or Haaland does it, I am just as blown away as when Yamal or Mbappé do it, and the press tend to get into a w**kfest over whoever does it just as much as you did when you pulled out Austria in the work sweepstakes.

All the best,
Brett – hoping Jude Bellingham scores the winner in the Cup Final to see your racist head twist off

…Oh, William, Leicester again.

“I’m not bigoted just right. If I wasn’t right your woke brainwashing wouldn’t have kicked in and forced you to write an angry reply.”

What utter arrogance. And he’s right and anyone who doesn’t think he is is “woke”.
Dan, London

…Only just caught up with William and his blubbing – very interesting little excretion of words near the end of his tirade too:

Let’s all just hope Spain don’t win the thing like media wants as the “diversity won the World Cup” propaganda will be turned up to not just 11 but 11 trillion. Fingers crossed Norway, Argentina or Japan win it so save us from that nightmare.

My thesaurus fell apart after writing this.

Two of those three teams are highly unlikely to win the World Cup, and the favourite(ish) team mentioned are conspicuously (on the surface at least) all white.

The complete sidestep of France who are clear favourites with the bookies is so very telling. Gonna be really annoying for hard of thinking bigots like William if their hugely talented and hugely diverse team win. Again. Mind you, England – same odds as Argentina currently – winning is presumably gonna annoy him too, given our squad’s diversity.

What is it you are scared of Willy? We’re all just human beings – well, jury is still out on you there, but you get my general point. When I look at Yamal, I just see an outrageously talented kid. When the commercial ghouls running the FIFA hype machine look at him, they see an ad man’s dream, as two statistically ridiculous cash cow player’s careers draw to a close. When you look at him you see skin colour, background, and religion. Because you’re pathetic.

Your argument fell apart after I wrote this.
RHT/TS x

(Japan’s goalie is half Ghanaian and was born in America by the way William, you absolute bumbaclart)