British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

RE: FIFA World Cup 2026 - Canada/Mexico/USA

JonH · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
JonH wrote:
England v Norway

Argentina or Egypt v Colombia or Switzerland
Egypt a goal to the good after 15 minutes...

Fingers crossed!! A last 8 section to include Norway, Egypt, Colombia/Switzerland - we would have dreamt of that at the start!

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
JonH wrote:
England v Norway

Argentina or Egypt v Colombia or Switzerland
Egypt a goal to the good after 15 minutes...

0-1 still the score at half-time.

indiana · Tennis legend

Changed now.

0-2 !

indiana · Tennis legend

Err,

2-2

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Changed now.

0-2 !

And again: 2-2, with bloody Messi, who missed a penalty in the first half, getting the equaliser six minutes from normal time. furious

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
indiana wrote:
Changed now.

0-2 !
And again: 2-2, with bloody Messi, who missed a penalty in the first half, getting the equaliser six minutes from normal time.

Make that 3-2!

indiana · Tennis legend

Mental strength

indiana · Tennis legend

JonH wrote:
Stircrazy wrote:
JonH wrote:
England v Norway

Argentina or Egypt v Colombia or Switzerland
Egypt a goal to the good after 15 minutes...
Fingers crossed!! A last 8 section to include Norway, Egypt, Colombia/Switzerland - we would have dreamt of that at the start!

Ah well, can't have everything biggrin

I like having both Argentina and England still in there. But I've got no vested interest ( OK, I did for this match with a little punt when Argentina were losing ).

Been some great matches.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 8th of July 2026 10:50:15 AM

indiana · Tennis legend

France vs Morocoo

Spain vs Belgium

Norway vs England

Argentina vs Switzerland

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Two interesting contributions to the Beeb's live discussion page prompted by Egypt's cry of "foul" over the result of last night's match & the call by the Egyptian FA for an investigation into alleged "double standards" in the conduct of the match:

All this talking of a fix was started by Trump poking his nose in.

and

As much as I hate to say it, the Balogun situation has left a huge stain on this World Cup and nothing now can be trusted. I believe there is favouritism going on with Messi and co, similar to what happened in Qatar.

indiana · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
Two interesting contributions to the Beeb's live discussion page prompted by Egypt's cry of "foul" over the result of last night's match & the call by the Egyptian FA for an investigation into alleged "double standards" in the conduct of the match:
All this talking of a fix was started by Trump poking his nose in.
and
As much as I hate to say it, the Balogun situation has left a huge stain on this World Cup and nothing now can be trusted. I believe there is favouritism going on with Messi and co, similar to what happened in Qatar.

Yes, I'm far from convinced by the Egypt case.

Disallowing their 'goal' was absolutely fair by the rules of the game - clear foul and, however far back, same phase of play.

Whereas there was an arguable, but not clear, penalty area foul against Egypt before the Argentina 3rd goal.

Different incidents to be judged separately, so not "double standards" or "racism" (!), Egypt. But yes, the trouble with the Trump / FIFA thing is that it gets others more paranoid about fixes etc and really does reduce trust. Disappointingly even Mark Chapman was at it on Radio 5 Live - "creating a rod for their own backs" by err perfectly correctly disallowing a 'goal'.

JonH · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Stircrazy wrote:
Two interesting contributions to the Beeb's live discussion page prompted by Egypt's cry of "foul" over the result of last night's match & the call by the Egyptian FA for an investigation into alleged "double standards" in the conduct of the match:
All this talking of a fix was started by Trump poking his nose in.
and
As much as I hate to say it, the Balogun situation has left a huge stain on this World Cup and nothing now can be trusted. I believe there is favouritism going on with Messi and co, similar to what happened in Qatar.
Yes, I'm far from convinced by the Egypt case.
Disallowing their 'goal' was absolutely fair by the rules of the game - clear foul and, however far back, same phase of play.
Whereas there was an arguable, but not clear, penalty area foul against Egypt before the Argentina 3rd goal.
Different incidents to be judged separately, so not "double standards" or "racism", Egypt. But yes, the trouble with the Trump / FIFA thing is that it gets others more paranoid about fixes etc and really does reduce trust. Disappointingly even Mark Chapman was at it on 5 Live - "creating a rod for their own backs" by err perfectly correctly disallowing a goal.

I understand the VAR process for reviewing a goal and that is what caused the looking back to start of the phase, so don't think there was anything wrong, specifically, in that - albeit, I am not sure I like it and do wonder if we let VAR extend too far in its jurisdiction.

My concern is that the stepping on the foot was a v soft foul - probably, yes, a foul but a lot less haven't been given (Argentina had one similar v Austria) and it is inconsistency in applying the rules that is always an issue in these things. Not to say it shouldn't have been a foul, just that it was v clearly accidental and could easily have not been given. If they hadnt scored, it wouldnt have been even reviewed I guess?

Egypt just fell apart and it was desperately disappointing to see. I don't think Argentina have offered anything special in their knockout games v Cape Verde and Egypt, and are looking like a one trick pony - a superior Portugal - to my eyes.

Last 8 with predictions:

France to beat Morocco by 2-1

Belgium to beat Spain 1-0 AET

England to beat Norway 3-2 AET

Argentina to beat Switzerland Pens after 1-1 draw

Semis

France to beat Belgium 2-0

England to beat Argentina 2-1

Final

I will stop there. Ha. (France to win 3-1)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
Two interesting contributions to the Beeb's live discussion page prompted by Egypt's cry of "foul" over the result of last night's match & the call by the Egyptian FA for an investigation into alleged "double standards" in the conduct of the match:
All this talking of a fix was started by Trump poking his nose in.
and
As much as I hate to say it, the Balogun situation has left a huge stain on this World Cup and nothing now can be trusted. I believe there is favouritism going on with Messi and co, similar to what happened in Qatar.

Now the Egyptians are calling for the officials in charge of their match against Argentina to be kicked out of the World Cup! Smacks of sour grapes to me.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Trump's meddling in FIFA disciplinary matters has wider repercussions: Jarell Quansah's been given a two-match ban because his offence was deemed "serious foul play" - the Beeb:

The Football Association was considering whether to appeal, but under the tournament regulations there is no avenue to contest the ban. However. BBC Sport has been told that the FA made very strong representations to Fifa over the process that reached the Quansah red card decision, arguing that the referee was shown a still image of the tackle and slow-motion replays before being shown the incident in real-time on the pitchside screen, and that this could have resulted in 'outcome bias'.

The contention that Folarin Balogun should have suffered the same punishment is discussed later in the article & points up the inconsistencies in FIFA's approach to disciplining offending players furious