Who will win the 2018 World Cup?

  • Argentina

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Belgium

    Votes: 1 12.5%
  • Brazil

    Votes: 1 12.5%
  • Colombia

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • France

    Votes: 1 12.5%
  • Germany

    Votes: 5 62.5%
  • Portugal

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Spain

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other (please specify below...)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    8
  • Poll closed .

jfy1999

Moderator
Staff member
Apr 25, 2015
4,408
250
Birmingham/Austria
With 30 days to go, I thought I would make a poll which will close approximately 10 days into the tournament so voters can change their selection based on how well the teams are performing in the group stages.

I would be amazed if England went beyond the second round given our recent record in major tournaments :bag:
 
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  • #2
The 23-man squad has been named and is England's third youngest in World Cup history.

Goalkeepers:
Jack Butland (Stoke), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Nick Pope (Burnley).

Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Fabian Delph (Manchester City), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Harry Maguire (Leicester), Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur), John Stones (Manchester City), Kieran Trippier (Tottenham Hotspur), Kyle Walker (Manchester City), Ashley Young (Manchester United).

Midfielders: Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur), Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Jesse Lingard (Manchester United), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea).

Forwards: Harry Kane (Tottenham), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Jamie Vardy (Leicester), Danny Welbeck (Arsenal).
 
Not much interest in the poll at present. Perhaps it's because football fans on F4A are resigned to another England debacle and can't be bothered.

I don't know whether it's because i'm getting older and older but, although I'm still a big fan of the game of football, I've become resigned to the fact that I shan't see England win the World Cup again in my lifetime and consequently have less interest in the competiton than once was the case.

My first experience of watching the World Cup on tv was in 1954 (I was born towards the end of WW2) when the finals were held in Switzerland. Eurovision (nothing to do with some song contest) was in its infancy and the BBC (the only channel in Britain) showed only a few of the games live with the doyen of British football commentators, Kenneth Wolstenholme (I would put Bryan Moore at number two, sorry Motty), behind the microphone at all the matches so far as I can remember. There were constant losses of picture as the line broke up.

I did see the 1966 World Cup win on live tv though even if there was some help from a linesman from Azerbaijan, described as 'Russian' at the time and for many years after.

For many World Cups since then I've found myself abroad and have had to watch on tv from such places as the USA, Canada, Switzerland, Austria and Spain. Not all these countries are as fixated on association football (I refuse to use the term soccer) as others and consequently I wasn't always able to watch England's matches. This time I shall be in Ireland for part of the tournament so I hope that if a telly is handy I might at least watch some of England's expected limited presence.
 
Not much interest in the poll at present. Perhaps it's because football fans on F4A are resigned
At least they get to go! I'm not much of a football fan but it would've been nice if Wales had qualified to build on the Euro's and i think Scotland fans have probably forgotten what it's like to go to a tournament!
 
At least they get to go! I'm not much of a football fan but it would've been nice if Wales had qualified to build on the Euro's and i think Scotland fans have probably forgotten what it's like to go to a tournament!
When England won the World Cup in 1966 there were just 16 countries in the Finals in England. Over the years the number of countries in the Finals has been increased and now stands at 32. FIFA has decided this will be increased again for the 2026 Finals when 48 countries will take part in the Finals.

This will be a huge logistics challenge for whichever country is nominated and will rule out some. Some people believe the Finals should be held jointly in more than one country although FIFA apparently is not keen despite a precedent set in 2002 when the Finals were hosted jointly by Japan and South Korea.
 
In 1966 I was a 15 year old on a school trip to Switzerland and watched the final in a room of 15/16 year olds plus quite a few Swiss who were supporting West Germany and strangely a Group of American College girls from Michigan whose didn't have a clue what was going on .

A great memory and the ball was miles over the line, happy .days
 
If they play the same way as the England Rugby team did on Saturday I would question them even turning up!
Eddie Jones needs to change his ideas (not that it bothers me as I support Ireland)!
 
If they play the same way as the England Rugby team did on Saturday I would question them even turning up!
Eddie Jones needs to change his ideas (not that it bothers me as I support Ireland)!
I say carry on Eddie!Lol
 
I don't worry too much about friendlies whether football or rugby. I'd have preferred England to have lost to Nigeria and Costa Rica and then beat Tunisia and Panama in the World Cup rather than the other way around. Same with England rugby in South Africa - better to lose there and do well in the World Cup than vice versa, although of course ideally the football and rugby teams would do well in friendlies and competitive matches.
 
I don't worry too much about friendlies whether football or rugby. I'd have preferred England to have lost to Nigeria and Costa Rica and then beat Tunisia and Panama in the World Cup rather than the other way around. Same with England rugby in South Africa - better to lose there and do well in the World Cup than vice versa, although of course ideally the football and rugby teams would do well in friendlies and competitive matches.
With rugby the summer and autumn games are more important than football friendlies are because they go towards the world ranking which decide the Rugby World Cup seedings for the teams already qualified. As an example Wales in 2014 had an awful autumn internationals dropping down to 9th in the world. This meant that when the groups were drawn for the World Cup in 2015 they were in pot 3 and got drawn with England and Australia and we all know what happended at that World Cup! I do think World Rugby changed it so that the seedings were decided for the 2019 World Cup in 2 years before in 2017. This summers games are still important. For Ireland winning a tour in Australia will be considerd an important precursor for the World Cup, for England winning in South Africa might save Eddie Jones job, for Scotland in Canada and the US it'll be about development and for Wales in Argentina it's about creating squad depth for the World Cup. For the Southern Hemisphere teams it's about proving they are the best!
Good luck to England but i really hope they don't win the World Cup as English football wouldn't ever shut up about it! lol.
 
With rugby the summer and autumn games are more important than football friendlies are because they go towards the world ranking which decide the Rugby World Cup seedings for the teams already qualified. As an example Wales in 2014 had an awful autumn internationals dropping down to 9th in the world. This meant that when the groups were drawn for the World Cup in 2015 they were in pot 3 and got drawn with England and Australia and we all know what happended at that World Cup! I do think World Rugby changed it so that the seedings were decided for the 2019 World Cup in 2 years before in 2017. This summers games are still important. For Ireland winning a tour in Australia will be considerd an important precursor for the World Cup, for England winning in South Africa might save Eddie Jones job, for Scotland in Canada and the US it'll be about development and for Wales in Argentina it's about creating squad depth for the World Cup. For the Southern Hemisphere teams it's about proving they are the best!
Good luck to England but i really hope they don't win the World Cup as English football wouldn't ever shut up about it! lol.
FIFA takes friendly matches into account towards its rankings too - goodness knows why when managers alter complete teams from one game to the next or put on six subs during a match (Southgate did both in England's recent friendlies). To me they are just public practice matches. As a result of its record in the period leading up to the draw in the current World Cup, England's ranking meant they were in pot 2 of the draw but it didn't do them any harm in theory as they finished up in a group with Panama and Tunisia, plus Belgium (the pot 1 country). Despite England's poor recent World Cup record none of the pot 1 countries really wanted to draw England from pot 2 in their group.

On reflection you are right about rugby non competitive matches being taken more seriously (than football) within the sport, perhaps for the reasons you set out. It might run deeper though. Until the leagues came into being in the 1980s all top rugby club matches were one-offs or challenge matches. Some Sunday newspapers produced unofficial league tables based on the results but they were unscientific because not everyone played each other. The top English club would regularly play the top Welsh clubs, something that doesn't happen now except in the minor events like the British and Irish Cup for second tier clubs/reserve teams of top tier clubs, or was as I think the cup has been scrapped. Furthermore, some clubs (Bristol for example - one of the top British clubs in the UK until 30 years ago) occasionally put out two first teams on the same day. In England the John Player knock-out cup began in the 1970s prior to the leagues coming into being. The only competitive league competition prior to the club leagues was the Five Nations. So possibly the ethos in the oval ball game towards non competitive games is not the same as that in the round ball version.

I know you were joking about England winning the World Cup (you can afford to because they won't) but over the years I've noted that many from the other home countries always seem to want whoever is playing England to win. Murray the tennis player said so (although he later tried to say it was a joke) and Denis Law the famous Scottish footballer (who plied his trade in England) is on record as saying the day England won the World Cup in 1966 he was on the golf course, had a terrible round and when he heard England had won smashed his club in frustration. I think many English people are quite happy for one of the other home nations to win at football or rugby (or anything else) if England can't. I would certainly want Wales or Scotland or Ireland to win the rugby World Cup if England could not.
 
Murray the tennis player said so (although he later tried to say it was a joke) and Denis Law the famous Scottish footballer (who plied his trade in England) is on record as saying the day England won the World Cup in 1966 he was on the golf course, had a terrible round and when he heard England had won smashed his club in frustration.
It has to do with the rivalry between the nations generally and the fact in sport England is generally better than the Celtic nations and mostly beats us!
 
It has to do with the rivalry between the nations generally and the fact in sport England is generally better than the Celtic nations and mostly beats us!
England and Wales have a broadly similar results history in rugby matches between the two - different with association football though:

Rugby football: England 62 wins, Wales 57 wins, 12 draws
Association football: England 67 wins, Wales 14 wins, 21 draws

Scotland

Rugby: England 75 wins, Scotland 43 wins, 18 draws
Association: England 48 wins, Scotland 41 wins, 25 draws

Ireland

Rugby: England 76 wins, Ireland 49 wins, 8 draws
Association: Difficult to research because prior to Partition there was one team for Ireland (as in rugby now) followed by separate teams for the Republic and Northern Ireland.
 
So if England are flying out from BHX today, have they already requested their flight plan for their return flight?
If the unthinkable were to happen and England won the World Cup (yeah, I know, I know!), I bet the return flight wouldn't be to BHX. Couldn't possibly have success associated with anywhere other than London :rolleyes:

Kevin
 
A slight tangent but it was announced today that the 2026 finals will be held jointly in the USA, Canada and Mexico. Football is only really a major sport in Mexico and that country hosted the 1970 and 1986 finals. The USA was the venue for the 1994 finals. So this will be the third finals to be held in Mexco (albeit partly this time) since England held its solitary finals in 1966.

Not only are the finals being held across three countries but there will be 48 countries at the finals which will go on for five weeks. If this is to be the number in future it's hard to see how a single country will be be able to host the finals again. 48 countries represents nearly a quarter of all countries affiliated to FIFA. If they go on increasing the number of finalists we'll reach the stage where every FIFA-affiliated country turns up at the finals.

The football world keeps saying that too much football is played and players burn out yet they then decide to enlarge the World Cup finals.
 

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