Fifa World Cup 2026

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#3505465 23-Jun-2026 14:39

Batman:

Messi is inspired. played the entire 90 mins and becomes the GOAT

He makes Football look easy.

I dare say, so do Mr Mbappe and Mr Haaland.

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Batman

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#3505761 24-Jun-2026 11:01

huckster:

Batman:

I hope I don't jinx the footy but normally WC matches are boring where nobody wants to lose.

England play tomorrow..... 😝

you were a week early.

it's happened! the inevitable English snoozefest!

but mainly because English players were either selfish or uncreative. about 5-6 times they got into the box and instead of squaring it to unmarked team mates they each had to shoot for goal from impossible angles.

and Kane skied a ball from 2 metres out to sum it all up.

Handsomedan

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#3505764 24-Jun-2026 11:04

Batman:

it's happened! the inevitable English snoozefest!

but mainly because English players were either selfish or uncreative. about 5-6 times they got into the box and instead of squaring it to unmarked team mates they each had to shoot for goal from impossible angles.

and Kane skied a ball from 2 metres out to sum it all up.

It felt like "England of old", with the less creative, more selfish and more negative looking game plan.
Here's hoping they play their final group game with some flair.

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#3505954 25-Jun-2026 09:09

Handsomedan:

It felt like "England of old", with the less creative, more selfish and more negative looking game plan.
Here's hoping they play their final group game with some flair.

wow all over the internet showing Ghana denied a clear penalty by the Fifa biased clowns. (adding on to the NZ-Egypt incident)

i have seen red cards shown for less in this tournament, but hey we must not let England lose.

(to be fair England have been so clearly clowned so many times in the past by biased refs so maybe this time it's their turn to be lucky? but still!)

elpenguino

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#3505978 25-Jun-2026 10:58

Referee controversy is part of the spectacle. Personally, I don't buy into the idea that my team would have won if it just wasn't for that decision, or the other decision. If the team scored more goals, that would have helped them !

I see some of these games are played in sweltering conditions and some stadia are air conditioned ! Only in america.

As climate change intensifies around the world, having the WC in summer will become less and less feasible. Yes, I don't want to see games broken into TV friendly quarters either but keep the hydration breaks to stop players collapsing mid-game.

Some of the big teams are starting to fire - some are still spluttering ( cough - England - cough ). They need to do something strong against Croatia to get through and we know Croatia can beat England. Which of the big names will be the first to be sent home ?

La Penguina asked me earlier - where's Italy ? Well ...... that's a story in itself.

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, Wisdom is knowing not to put it in fruit salad.

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#3506027 25-Jun-2026 14:42

elpenguino:

La Penguina asked me earlier - where's Italy ? Well ...... that's a story in itself.

and why China never qualifies for the World Cup also. I don't think they have ever qualified. I think kicking ball is not their natural ability! (neither is mine)

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elpenguino

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#3506031 25-Jun-2026 15:00

Batman:

elpenguino:

La Penguina asked me earlier - where's Italy ? Well ...... that's a story in itself.

and why China never qualifies for the World Cup also. I don't think they have ever qualified. I think kicking ball is not their natural ability! (neither is mine)

China was mentioned too - but yes, no China or India, that's ~half the world's population right there. Or not, in this case.

I checked and China qualified once, in 2002.

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, Wisdom is knowing not to put it in fruit salad.

wellygary

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#3506034 25-Jun-2026 15:13

Asia and Africa typically get $crewed over in the allocation of WC spots, which is a heavily Euro/S America stitch up :)

9 of 46 for Asia and 10 of 53 for Africa,

South America are the most likely to get in with 6 of 10, then Europe who got 16 of 54....

invisibleman18

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#3506281 26-Jun-2026 11:57

elpenguino:

Some of the big teams are starting to fire - some are still spluttering ( cough - England - cough ). They need to do something strong against Croatia to get through and we know Croatia can beat England. Which of the big names will be the first to be sent home ?

England beat Croatia 4-2 in their first game. They have Panama, on paper the weakest team in group, in the final game.

elpenguino

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#3506299 26-Jun-2026 12:33

invisibleman18:

elpenguino:

Some of the big teams are starting to fire - some are still spluttering ( cough - England - cough ). They need to do something strong against Croatia to get through and we know Croatia can beat England. Which of the big names will be the first to be sent home ?

England beat Croatia 4-2 in their first game. They have Panama, on paper the weakest team in group, in the final game.

You are right. I am suffering sportsball result overload.

So, will we see a massive result or massive upset ?

I was about to mention one result I saw online but here's a gripe to share. Due to pesky work taking up my time, I don't watch anything until the evening when La Penguina also watches. We take a random approach to watching what we fancy from that day's action - we don't watch in order of play , for example.

The number of times the commentator spoils results by talking about what happened in other games is frikkin annoying.

So I might deliberately go all day without hearing any results, sit down to watch a couple of games and the blithering idiot tells you the result of game 1 during game 2.

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, Wisdom is knowing not to put it in fruit salad.

invisibleman18

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#3506345 26-Jun-2026 14:46

Yeah the spoilers are annoying if trying to watch games out of order. I'm a crazy person who tries to watch almost every game and managed most so far. Generally getting up early enough before work to watch the early game, then can watch a half and maybe a bit more of the 2nd on the way in, then the rest and a bit of the 3rd game at lunch time, then more on the way home then finish the last one later.

Yes I do also have a wife who is not really into it (just watched the NZ games), but we did actually meet during the 2018 World Cup so she can't say she didn't know from day 1. I'm sure there are plenty worse things people's partners could be doing.

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elpenguino

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#3506854 28-Jun-2026 15:05

Yesterdays NZ game was a tough watch and I realised half way through that it doesn't look like NZ is going to win this world cup either.

Well done Belgium, they ripped the NZ defence apart like a paper bag.

On another note, I like the rules which have sped up the game. There's virtually zero rolling around on the pitch after a slight brush against someone's leg and the no one mucks about at corner or throw in time.

Rugby should take a leaf from footballs book and speed up their game and hurry up with those slow walks to the line out, for example.

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, Wisdom is knowing not to put it in fruit salad.

kobiak

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#3506860 28-Jun-2026 16:24

best game of the tournament AUSTRIA vs ALGERIA so far.

Did not know who to support, so screamed for each opportunity, goal, save and OMG what a last 2 minutes triller :D

helping others at evgenyk.nz

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#3506944 28-Jun-2026 21:35

kobiak:

best game of the tournament AUSTRIA vs ALGERIA so far.

Did not know who to support, so screamed for each opportunity, goal, save and OMG what a last 2 minutes triller :D

i told my son the last 7 mins is worth the $45 i paid for the pass lol

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#3506945 28-Jun-2026 21:36

interestingly on my TVNZ pass it's only showing 12 matches in the round of 32

there should be 16?

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