World Cup

[Squirrel]

Anyone?

[Mike Sixel]

I've been watching like crazy. It's been fun so far. 

[NYCTK]

Not a fan of the expanded format. But we're finally starting to get some drama. 

Tonight, I'm pulling for Iran to defeat Egypt by a greater margin than Belgium in their match against New Zealand to give us a potential USA-Iran matchup. 

[Squirrel]

So disappointed Erling didn’t play today! I get it, sort of, but that’s likely was supposed to be a really good match up … and the coach sits Erling 

[Mike Sixel]

Has England ever played this sport before? They look awful. 

[ashbury]

2 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Has England ever played this sport before? 

[Mike Sixel]

Just now, ashbury said:

Did you watch the first half? But yes, they played slightly better in the 2n....

[ashbury]

3 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Did you watch the first half? 

No.  I was just trying to be factual.

[Mike Sixel]

I despise penalties deciding matches. 

[The Great Hambino]

I thought the expansion to a 32-team knockout round would result in a bunch of boring squash matches

It's still early in the round, but I've been very wrong so far

[Squirrel]

On 6/29/2026 at 6:31 PM, Mike Sixel said:

I despise penalties deciding matches. 

That’s something that has been debated in the sport. What would you do instead? Just have a sudden death round? Let it go until someone scores, however long it takes?

[Squirrel]

Wow, this Croatia-Portugal game is incredible

[The Great Hambino]

On 7/1/2026 at 11:06 PM, Squirrel said:

That’s something that has been debated in the sport. What would you do instead? Just have a sudden death round? Let it go until someone scores, however long it takes?

There's the rub.  PKs are an entertaining but not terribly fair way to decide advancement, but there just isn't any better solution.  It's like choosing ADP for payroll services - they suck, but every other alternative sucks a little bit more (mini work-related rant on a holiday weekend I needed to get off my chest)

The most interesting alternative I've heard is the team that has the most corner kicks advances, since that's a pretty decent indicator of which team has been more aggressive and controlled the game more.  But I feel like if that were in place, it would create really weird play where teams are trying to create corners instead of scoring goals, so it might cause more problems than it solves

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, The Great Hambino said:

There's the rub.  PKs are an entertaining but not terribly fair way to decide advancement, but there just isn't any better solution.  It's like choosing ADP for payroll services - they suck, but every other alternative sucks a little bit more (mini work-related rant on a holiday weekend I needed to get off my chest)

The most interesting alternative I've heard is the team that has the most corner kicks advances, since that's a pretty decent indicator of which team has been more aggressive and controlled the game more.  But I feel like if that were in place, it would create really weird play where teams are trying to create corners instead of scoring goals, so it might cause more problems than it solves

No interest in the corner kick idea!

Keep playing until someone scores? Start taking a guy off on each side after the first 15 minutes to create space?

I don't know what a good answer is....