It looks more and more like paper-talk.

Checking the odds with the bookies, they have a lot of names linked to that job. but clear favourite is Frank Lampard (2/7), ahead of Viera (5/1), Allegri (4/1) and quite a few others before you get to NES (20/1). Even Mourinho's getting shorter odds (16/1), and there's about as much chance of him returning to Stamford Bridge as .... oh wait, it's Chelsea, who knows?

Australia lost in the 95th minute :(

The United States are currently up 7-0 against Thailand; who've had one shot all game. This is a little mean.

damn

have i ever explained to you my beef theory of football success?

basically, the more beef you eat growing up the better you get to play

it’s all very logical, in my mind :D

Wouldn't that make Uruguay default winners of every World Cup?

yeah. per capita glory. they’re just few of them but they place well.

The USA eventually won the game 13-0...
Alex Morgan scored five...
I enjoyed a shy 2-0 Swedish victory over Chile while the US were having fun. The stadium wasn't sold out, far from it. People who came to France from as far as Chile made themselves heard, there were also lots of children.
Rain poured down violently early in the second half. Spectators decamped to higher dry places. I didn't move, out of sheer solidarity for the players and the stadium staff. I did open an umbrella once sure it wouldn't bother anyone behind me. The play stopped for over 30 minutes.
Weathermen are great: when they said play could start again, the last drops had just hit the ground.
Gonna go see Nigeria-France next monday. This one's been sold out for a while.

Ya, that had to hurt a bit...


I thought France looked pretty solid in their opener. Should be a fun game to be at. Enjoy!

It was e even more painful because Italy had a ton of attack and they were offside almost all the time, so the one time they weren't...
they'd even scored a goal in the 10th minute that was shut down by VAR.

Based off that game; and the first fifteen minutes of the Norway game (0-0 at the moment) the French are playing very attacking football, so you should get an entertaining match. They'll go pretty far; although it's apparently going to end up as a France-United States quarter final (that'll take out a contender :D)

They are a very aggressive team, I agree. (bad joke time) Even aggressive towards their own goal. Ouch, that own goal might really hurt them...

I feel really bad for Renard, but her net contribution is still +1. :D

If this ends up 1-1 it's probably a better result for Norway - South Korea are the weakest team here, so the Norwegians can get a big win and top the group. The gap is pretty big between the Europeans and the others, though.

Oh shit, VAR penalty check!

2-1 France - they were the deserved winners, but there wasn't much in it. Norway were very competitive and there was a lot of flowing football; they'll do well against Korea next game and could probably give a few teams a shake in the knockouts.

How good is Le Sommer though? That was an awesomely taken penalty.it

Yeah, true. I am enjoying watching her. And also Renard. US announcers during their first game mentioned she was the tallest player in the World Cup right now. Her header during that game really showed what an advantage she might have.

Either way, I am quite looking forward to watching France through this tournament.

so when does the group stage end?

A few weeks. "Round of 16" games are scheduled 6/22 it looks like.

thanks!

Looking at the fixture, Australia will probably play Norway in the Round of 16. :(

Just looked at the Everton fixtures for next season. Fuck me December is awful

Liverpool
Chelsea
Man utd
Arsenal
Burnley
Newcastle
Man City

That's up to the 1st January.

That's horrible! No other word for it.

West Ham's opening game is against Man C but there I don't see a block of really bad fixtures all season.

Why was that 3rd Australia goal valid? It was so very much offside!
Nonetheless Ido hope they will win it

From my understanding, the Brazil player negated the offsides by making a play at the ball that "did not include" the actual offside player. She was offside, but it didn't matter in the long run, as it was deemed not a part of the actual play that proceeded. Kinda odd and interesting call.

West Brom appoint Slavon Bilic.

It never worked out for him at West Ham but I really hope it works out for him there. Don't think I've ever heard anyone say a bad word about him.

I don't claim to understand it, but I'm not complaining :D

I like that Sam Kerr more or less assisted two Australian goals without actually touching the ball in either. Now for Jamaica.

Confirmed West Ham sign attacking midfielder Pablo Fornals from Villareal for around £27m. Great great signing, imo.

he’s coming in for arnie or for who?

No, Wilshire. Creative midfielder. Maybe rotate with Lanzini or sit just behind him.

England's probably eventually going to beat Argentina, but how good was that penalty save?

wilshire who? :D

(lol sorry i don’t recall he guy. so that bodes well i guess?)

Wilshire who? could almost be a tee shirt at the club's shop. We bought him off Arsenal last summer and he's barely played due to injury. When he's fit he's a VERY good player but the 'when he's fit' bit has always been the issue, even at Arsenal.

But he did score one of the greatest team goals you'll ever see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odxh_ZEUPlQ

Yes, the goalkeeper's saves were really impressive...

Will they try a bit more against Scotland ?
Scotland's been quite bad against a much better team - Japan, fluid team play, a delight to watch...

Well, both Argentina and Scotland will need a win to make the Round of 16 - if it's a draw Argentina will finish with two points, almost certainly not enough (and it could be definitely not enough after results tomorrow).

At this point only four teams have guaranteed spots (France, Germany, Italy and England), although Japan are almost certainly in too. None of the knock-out stage games are confirmed yet, although it looks likely that Norway v Australia will be one.

that’s some nice tiki-taka

i haven’t been following, but expect to catch up during the knockout phase

who are your favorite teams so far?

USA are the favorite.
Haven't seen Germany ; England has one of the most best players in Lucy Bronze.
Others have shown frailties.

France won thanks to a penalty retake that tastes really sour.
The team hardly got disturbed by Nigeria but found it hard to get on target.
My favorite player was, alas, the worst. She's lost much of her strike force, she missed two opportunities, trying to put the ball as far out of reach as possible to compensate for that lack of power, and missed completely.
So good she was, Gaëtane... (but I'll keep on believing in her).
And a penalty retake...
In a competition hosted by France...

Has Trump already tweeted something?

The crowd was behind the players, our hands are swollen from too much clapping.

Well, France topped the group and made the knockout stage. They'll play the third placed team from one of group C, D, or E (Brazil, Scotland, or New Zealand, but there's plenty of room).

Australia plays our last game against Jamaica tomorrow. The most likely outcome is that we'll win and finish second, where we have the Norway game I mentioned.
If Brazil do better than us (they draw/we lose, they win/we don't, they win/we win, but with a margin less than two goals), we'll finish third and almost definitely play France.
However, if we thrash Jamaica and Brazil win, we finish first and play one of Nigeria or China.

Either way, we're going to lose in the round of 16 :(

Got up to watch our game against Jamaica. I'm not sure whether it was that they're rather good or we're overrated, but they were playing a lot better than the 1-4 scoreline suggests, and their goal was a brilliant breakaway.

Four goals for Sam Kerr though :D

Okay, I've run the numbers (have I told you about my amateur statistics? no?), and France are still favourites - I give them a ~21% chance of winning.
That said, they'll probably play the US in the quarter-final, which should be a big game. So, USA/France v Germany in the final most likely.

TBH, I haven't watched any of the National League games. Don't know about the rest of Europe but certainly in England it's received minimal coverage.

well, it did over here obviously ;). I don't recall that I watched the match though. I have the tendency to change the TV channel whenever I see his face ...

I think even in England there's a limit to how much football people can take. The intense final weeks of the Prem, followed by the all-England CL and Euro finals probably left a lot of fans burnt out and in need of a break. I know I did. Plus it coincided with the Cricket World Cup.