A WORLDCUP HOSTED PARTLY IN THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. IT COULD HAVE HOSTED THE TOURNAMENT ALONE, BUT THIS WAY THESE INFERIOR COUNTRIES HAVE A CHANCE ON GENERATING INCOME, SO THOSE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS DON`T NEED TO CROSS THE BORDER.

YOU DONT EVEN NEED TO WATCH THE GAMES BECAUSE THE WINNER IS KNOWN ALREADY https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/48964113/fifa-world-cup-predictions 



now seriously, I wish everyone happy watching, going to be great games after the groupphase

Looking forward to England making it 60 years without winning.

Beat me to it lol.

As a brazilian, World Cups are one of the most important events around here. But I have no faith in Brazil anymore. Not when our "best" players looks like a bunch of Tiktokers instead of the greatness we had up to the 2000s.

Crazy it starts tomorrow already.

World Cup is such a cultural event around here as Alex noted above, from now on we have about 40 days where it's all about the World Cup around here. I love this atmosphere.

Hope to watch some great matches, Brazil is not particularly strong for some time now, I still do think a top 4 is possible, but it's either going to Spain or France if things go as I expect, Spain played the best football these last 4 years, so I think they have the best chance, Spain beating Portugal in the finals is my guess, but as they are likely to run into France during the semis it could do either way.

We are very likely to have Argentina vs Uruguay (massive rivalry, potentially breaking into a huge fight) and if Argentina wins we could have Argentina vs Portugal and Messi vs Cristiano meeting, I really hope that meeting happens.

I don't know if it's just me, but feels that Finland may be more excited about the World Cup than almost any other country that has never qualified themselves. I've been watching pretty actively since 1990 and I don't really watch football other than Champions League finals and such, some Olympics and European championship playoffs and Finland in qualifyings.

In lots of sports I'm always unhappy about tournament systems. The old 32 team system was one of the few I had nothing to complain about. The new 48 team isn't.
Simply put, I hate the "best 3rd of group" thing. I never want to see that, results against different opponents being compared. It just add to luck-in-draw factor: the same teams that have easier group to qualify directly also have it easier to get points. And you have first playoff round where some group winners play a group third and some group second and some group seconds each other.

The problem comes from 48, that's a bad number to have any kind of good system. Either you have this, have too many matches (say, 8 groups of 6), too few matches (with 16 groups of 3 and 16 team playoff, 2/3 of teams would only play two games) or using the otherwise best system of 16 groups of 3 with 32 team playoff (though still 16 teams only play 2 matches and other 16 3), there's the risk of a match where both want to draw because that's enough for them to move on.
IMO they should've made it 40 teams, 8 groups of 5 and then 16 or 32 team playoff, matter of opinion. If you had to expand from 32 at all, it's really all for money.

Luxembourg's record still stands: having played at every single qualification for the world cup and never ever qualifying.

If Argentina vs Portugal really does happen in the quarter final i can't even imagine how many viewers worldwide that would bring, Messi vs Ronaldo for their last ever World Cup is Fifa's wet dream

Mexico 2 - 0 South Africa

That was a good show from Mexico, but man, 3 red cards...

The game was actually pretty bad.
Good victory for Mexico to move from groups tho.

Mexico showing the world how to do a World Cup, too bad they couldn't do the same on the field. The worst match I've ever seen them play in a World Cup