England National Team

[weimaranerblues]

Just too many players selected who are injury prone or not had playing time. Form not relevant at all....

[Sir Stealth]

Noni Madueke was born to miss a penalty in England's heartbreaking quarter final penalty shootout defeat in this World Cup

[AjaxAndy]

Eze probably in because he's equally as comfortable on the left of we want a different option to Gordon and Rashford maybe?

Or just big game experience possibly.

I'm not overly fussed either way tbh, I don't think either makes the difference between winning it or not.

[Goaljira]

Also had a look at the group fixtures today. I reckon I'll watch less than 10 of them. Going to be a rough world cup.

Also are the stadiums even going to be full? they've got like Switzerland v Qatar in 70,000 seaters. Can't see locals paying $200 to watch that.

Theres not a single game worth staying up.past midnight for, which is helpful. But I'd have probably watched nearly all of them if they were in the daytime.

[777Kidnappings]

Theres not a single game worth staying up.past midnight for, which is helpful. But I'd have probably watched nearly all of them if they were in the daytime.

I like the mid afternoon and tea time games. Its a treat when theres nothing else on. Not a chance ill be staying up to watch any of this, I honestly keep forgetting its on.

[AjaxAndy]

Yeah hate these timings for the games, means I'll barely watch any. Nothing better than putting the TV on at 2pm and watching something random like Serbia Vs Uruguay and it ends up being a cracking match.

Won't be any of that with this one sadly.

[blueToffee]

Also had a look at the group fixtures today. I reckon I'll watch less than 10 of them. Going to be a rough world cup.

Also are the stadiums even going to be full? they've got like Switzerland v Qatar in 70,000 seaters. Can't see locals paying $200 to watch that.

Think they'll probably resort to handing out a lot of cheap, possibly free tickets as I think they did in the club world cup too to try and fill these places.

There is decent interest to attend a World Cup in the US but I think mainly for the teams you'd expect to have a following. This expanded format I would guess is going to hurt attendance for these early rounds, particularly when adding in all the increased travel costs and all the other price gouging nonsense as even if you resort to giving away the tickets it could still be super costly experience.

It'd be a bit of an embarrassment to FIFA, but they probably don't care as they likely still will make stupid money from the later rounds where they can price gouge all day long and people will still pay.

[Shogun]

Think they'll probably resort to handing out a lot of cheap, possibly free tickets as I think they did in the club world cup too to try and fill these places.

There is decent interest to attend a World Cup in the US but I think mainly for the teams you'd expect to have a following. This expanded format I would guess is going to hurt attendance for these early rounds, particularly when adding in all the increased travel costs and all the other price gouging nonsense as even if you resort to giving away the tickets it could still be super costly experience.

It'd be a bit of an embarrassment to FIFA, but they probably don't care as they likely still will make stupid money from the later rounds where they can price gouge all day long and people will still pay.

You wonder as well how many fans of these teams are going to travel as well. Like I looked at Switzerland who would normally bring a decent amount of fans but they've got two matches in California followed by a match in Vancouver. You wonder how many of their fans are going to attend all three matches.

I know US sporting events are expensive generally but it seems absurd for this world cup when you put travel expenses into the equation.

[velimski]

Yes, from a fan's perspective, you want the host cities to be relatively close together.

I've been to a few tournaments, and my favourite would have to be Euro 2004 in Portugal. You could literally (and we did) get in the car or catch a train from one end of the country to the other in a day.

Hundreds of thousands of fans from various countries all crisscrossing paths and generally having a blast. I wasn't even following England per se, just out there for the experience.

[Gash]

Is there a reason why Canada, USA and Mexico decided to co-host? I presume a lot of Canada won't be used obviously and most of the games will be in the south but geographically it must be a bit like the whole of Europe being host which would be an absolute ballache.

[Cereal Killer]

At least the next one isn’t on three different continents…

[Audrey Horne]

Maguires wife now wading in hahah

Madness

[NickNack]

Had to laugh at the reply to this comment about Maguire on the BBC:

“A grown man’s mother berating the England manager for not selecting her 33 year old son is beyond pathetic.”

If Dan burns mother has the teams best interests at heart she should be berating Tuchel for picking him.

[Gash]

Maguires wife now wading in hahah

Madness

His mum and brother have chimed in too, it's fucking pathetic and just another downside to social media.

[777Kidnappings]

Maguires wife now wading in hahah

Madness

Its really random. Hes just not been selected. It hardly needs comment beyond his own disappointing. Incredibly odd for anyone to be calling it disgusting