# World Cup 2018 **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 7, 2018, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615 "2018-06-07T18:09:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 82
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1622 "2018-07-08T18:23:33Z")
The German developmental system remains strong and unified, the national teams in the near future will be among the ones to beat. It’s easy for me to say but the German public would be making a mistake overreacting to an outlier like the team’s performance at this WC. It’s been a great, fun tournament and the only trend I would dare to openly say is that the physical style of South American national teams is (very) gradually falling behind the swift tactical games of the European sides. Having ventured that opinion, the '22 final will now surely feature Brazil v Uruguay or some such. ---
**Author:** ![Shearer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/57b2e6/32.png) [@Shearer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shearer)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1623 "2018-07-08T19:02:58Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > [England's World Cup heroes could miss start of the Premier League season](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-cup/2018/07/08/englands-world-cup-heroes-could-miss-start-premier-league-season/) > > EPL fans, do you even care? Isnt this rare and exciting World Cup run more important to you than a couple of matches in yet another EPL season? Nobody cares. Nobody is thinking about the PL right now. The World Cup is a lot more popular than club football, 20 million TV sets were watching the match. The Champions League final never gets close to that, never mind a PL game. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1624 "2018-07-08T19:04:05Z")
> [@Knight\_Of\_Few\_Words](#): > > Any particular reason why? “It’s coming home!” Especially since that started after making the QFs (or round of 16? prematurely in either case) and the only good team they played they lost to. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2018, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1625 "2018-07-08T19:38:21Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > “It’s coming home!” > > Especially since that started after making the QFs (or round of 16? prematurely in either case) and the only good team they played they lost to. Those seem like unnecessarily mean and churlish reasons. You will support any team over England because their supporters are happy and singing? That they’ve had to play the teams that they were scheduled to play? I get a more than a hint from you that you’d be biased against England no matter what they did, what they sang or who they played. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1626 "2018-07-09T03:14:36Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Those seem like unnecessarily mean and churlish reasons. You will support any team over England because their supporters are happy and singing? That they’ve had to play the teams that they were scheduled to play? > > I get a more than a hint from you that you’d be biased against England no matter what they did, what they sang or who they played. Who said I support any team over England? I only claimed to support 3 teams over England. Out of the teams that made the QFs I would have preferred England over Russia and Brazil. Who said anything about me being upset that they’re happy or singing? I didn’t even know that was a song. You seem to be projecting a hell of a lot of intent on two sentences. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1627 "2018-07-09T06:22:55Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Who said I support any team over England? I only claimed to support 3 teams over England. Out of the teams that made the QFs I would have preferred England over Russia and Brazil. > > Who said anything about me being upset that they’re happy or singing? I didn’t even know that was a song. > . Then you only make yourself look foolish, for being prejudiced against a country for a line in a song. If you took the bother to understand the lyrics of the whole song, you’d know that it’s actually about us recognizing what failures we been but to keep the faith. “30 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming” ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1628 "2018-07-09T06:42:24Z")
> [@The\_Librarian](#): > > I’d say > > France > > Belgium > > Croatia > > England Of course you would. Tell us more Nostradamus! ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1629 "2018-07-09T07:06:52Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Who said I support any team over England? I only claimed to support 3 teams over England. Out of the teams that made the QFs I would have preferred England over Russia and Brazil. Fair enough, I’m happy to be corrected. The “anyone but England” refrain is one commonly used by people who are anti-England no matter what the circumstances. > [@](#): > > Who said anything about me being upset that they’re happy or singing? I didn’t even know that was a song. Then I don’t know why you referenced “it’s coming home” as a reason for not supporting England, what manifestation of that phrase has turned you against them? ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1630 "2018-07-09T11:54:20Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Then I don’t know why you referenced “it’s coming home” as a reason for not supporting England, what manifestation of that phrase has turned you against them? It’s been spammed on every portion of the internet I frequent since after the group stage. From the context it’s been used in, it comes across as very arrogant. Like person A says they think France or Brazil looked good and then 6 people reply with “Harry Kane is god, it’s coming home!” Might be perverted from the original intent, but definitely reads as: “We invented the sport, England winning returns the world to its rightful order. As proof that we deserve this, look at our triumphant wins over Panama and Colombia!” **SanVito** , :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1631 "2018-07-09T12:41:58Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > It’s been spammed on every portion of the internet I frequent since after the group stage. From the context it’s been used in, it comes across as very arrogant. Like person A says they think France or Brazil looked good and then 6 people reply with “Harry Kane is god, it’s coming home!” I’m sure that on forums populated by other nationalities they’ll be equally “arrogant” about the abilities of their own team. It should be no surprise that as the team gets further in the tournament, the excitement and hyperbole increases. Honestly, if you think the English fans or press have been arrogant then you’ve not been here during the build-up. The narrative has been about respectability and getting better. Not a hint of expectation. Even now, the sober assessment of pretty much and England supporter I speak to is that it is a coin-flip against Croatia and both France and Belgium are probably better. But hey, at this level anything is possible over two games and be honest, you aren’t expecting sober reflection from excited fans. > [@](#): > > Might be perverted from the original intent, it very definitely is. > [@](#): > > but definitely reads as: “We invented the sport, England winning returns the world to its rightful order. As proof that we deserve this, look at our triumphant wins over Panama and Colombia!” Now who’s reading too much into things? It really is no more than happy fans, surprised at the team’s success singing a nostalgic and wistful song about disappointment and occasional flashes of hope in the darkness. Very few people are saying we deserve to win it. As for the relative performance, Brazil conceded more against Belgium than we did and lost by the odd goal. We beat Sweden more heavily than Germany did, Switzerland drew with Brazil and were just beaten by Sweden who we handily beat. We scored more against Panama than Belgium did and conceded less goals against Tunisia than Belgium did. The point is, the above tortured justification is bollocks. It means nothing. All you can do is play the team that’s put in front of you on the day in question and do your best to win. If you do that then you deserve to advance and when that stops happening you go out. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1632 "2018-07-09T12:52:32Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Of course you would. Tell us more Nostradamus! Post your predictions, we’ll see how terribly wrong I am. 😃 My predictions in this thread are only slightly worse that a random coin flip. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1633 "2018-07-09T13:37:05Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > I’m sure that on forums populated by other nationalities they’ll be equally “arrogant” about the abilities of their own team. It should be no surprise that as the team gets further in the tournament, the excitement and hyperbole increases. Honestly, if you think the English fans or press have been arrogant then you’ve not been here during the build-up. The narrative has been about respectability and getting better. Not a hint of expectation. Even now, the sober assessment of pretty much and England supporter I speak to is that it is a coin-flip against Croatia and both France and Belgium are probably better. But hey, at this level anything is possible over two games and be honest, you aren’t expecting sober reflection from excited fans. > > it very definitely is. > > Now who’s reading too much into things? It really is no more than happy fans, surprised at the team’s success singing a nostalgic and wistful song about disappointment and occasional flashes of hope in the darkness. Very few people are saying we deserve to win it. > > As for the relative performance, Brazil conceded more against Belgium than we did and lost by the odd goal. We beat Sweden more heavily than Germany did, Switzerland drew with Brazil and were just beaten by Sweden who we handily beat. We scored more against Panama than Belgium did and conceded less goals against Tunisia than Belgium did. > > The point is, the above tortured justification is bollocks. It means nothing. All you can do is play the team that’s put in front of you on the day in question and do your best to win. If you do that then you deserve to advance and when that stops happening you go out. Iirc, SK is an Argentina fan. Make of that what you will. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1634 "2018-07-09T13:42:42Z")
> [@The\_Librarian](#): > > Post your predictions, we’ll see how terribly wrong I am. 😃 > > My predictions in this thread are only slightly worse that a random coin flip. As are mine but ill give it a go anyway: I’m picking Belgium to ride their momentum to defeat France. Contrast the French difficulty in shutting down Argentina vs Belgium’s excellent team defense against Brazil. England over Croatia. Going into the round of 16 it would have been different but Croatia hasn’t really impressed in the last two matches while England have improved. In the John Cleese World Cup Final I have to go with Belgium. They have been excellent all tourney and if they beat France I think they will win it all. England are mi gente but I have to go with head over heart. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1635 "2018-07-09T13:49:00Z")
If its England v Belgium, then we see England win 2-0, as the high wire game of the Belgiums fades late in the second half and Kane and Vardy score, after MacGuire and Cahill hab kepth the Belgium forward line quiet France v England; the French run out 3-1 winners as the French prove too good, Waste of Sterling gets a goal late in the game. I think Croatia will beat both of Belgium or France if they get through. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1636 "2018-07-09T14:03:35Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Iirc, SK is an Argentina fan. Make of that what you will. Nope. The only national team I’m a fan of is the US. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1637 "2018-07-09T14:10:28Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Nope. The only national team I’m a fan of is the US. That’s fair enough. We all have our likes and dislikes. Ill have to come clean and admit I would hate to see the French win. ---
**Author:** ![dominic65](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7bcc69/32.png) [@dominic65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dominic65)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1638 "2018-07-09T15:16:52Z")
It’s true that “it’s coming home” is all over social media, Reddit, etc. and even as an England fan I can see how it could be annoying. I wonder if you have to be English to understand the context and slightly self-deprecating nature of if? The phrase “football’s coming home” was originally used in the marketing of the Euro 1996 championships in England, and yes, it alludes to England, or the UK, as the birthplace of association football. A song written on the back of that became a popular football anthem, so popular that Germany’s fans borrowed it when they won Euro 96! I don’t think fans today mean by it that England are somehow rightful holders of the World Cup. The songs lyrics are, as others have said, wistful and hopeful, not arrogant. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1639 "2018-07-09T15:53:30Z")
> [@dominic65](#): > > It’s true that “it’s coming home” is all over social media, Reddit, etc. and even as an England fan I can see how it could be annoying. I wonder if you have to be English to understand the context and slightly self-deprecating nature of if? > The phrase “football’s coming home” was originally used in the marketing of the Euro 1996 championships in England, and yes, it alludes to England, or the UK, as the birthplace of association football. A song written on the back of that became a popular football anthem, so popular that Germany’s fans borrowed it when they won Euro 96! > I don’t think fans today mean by it that England are somehow rightful holders of the World Cup. The songs lyrics are, as others have said, wistful and hopeful, not arrogant. I think almost every German football fan appreciates “Three Lions” as the best football song ever. Maybe we have been a tad more successful in the WCs and Euros, but you can’t beat the English on pop songs. And no, I won’t link to German footie songs, they ALL suck. ---
**Author:** ![Knight\_Of\_Few\_Words](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f475e1/32.png) [@Knight\_Of\_Few\_Words](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knight_Of_Few_Words)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1640 "2018-07-09T17:10:56Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > “It’s coming home!” > > Especially since that started after making the QFs (or round of 16? prematurely in either case) and the only good team they played they lost to. ‘It’s coming home’ is typically used with a great deal of irony. It’s repeated in the chorus of a Lightning Seeds song, since its release the lyrics have been updated a few times: _“30 years of hurt, never stopped me dreaming.” “40 years of hurt, never stopped me dreaming.” “50 years of hurt, never stopped me dreaming.”_ Here’s a few more quotes from it: \*[Spoken Intro: Alan Hansen] {ex-footballer turned commentator} I think it’s bad news for the English game We’re not creative enough, and we’re not positive enough [Verse 1] Everyone seems to know the score, they’ve seen it all before They just know, they’re so sure That England’s gonna throw it away, gonna blow it away But I know they can play, 'cause I remember …So many jokes, so many sneers…\* And this was written before our nadir of 2008-2016… Most people are genuinely surprised and happy that we’ve beaten both Columbia and Sweden. We’re also aware we haven’t beaten a truly top-class side yet. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615/1641 "2018-07-09T17:26:17Z")
The 1998 version has the words > [@](#): > > Gareth Southgate, the whole of England is with you. :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615.md?page=81) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-cup-2018/815615.md?page=83)