The Syndicate

Golden wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 8:52 pm

Sloonei wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 8:51 pm

Golden wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 8:50 pm

Sloonei wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 8:49 pm I take it they’re the Chicago Cubs of soccer.

Nah, they’ve just had a bad run. More like the Celtics.

Hey they won 10 years ago!

Probably about when Arsenal last won too. Arsenal are always in the mix, they’ve had glory days in the past, but now they just never quite seem to be the best.

Oh I got the impression they were hardcore historical losers.

just google image search for "the last time arsenal won the league" and prepare to be won over by this club, sloon.

i guess a better team for sloonei would be the spurs.

As Golden said, I’m a Red Sox fan. You can’t complain about a title drought until it reaches the 5th decade.

The club league season is starting soon, right?

Tottenham is the perfect club for a Red Sox fan tbh.

Belgium was my Croatia. I’d love Croatia to win but I can’t hate on the French side, they have looked wonderful the whole way.

Whoever comes third, it’s a first for that team. Croatia will also make history either way. France have finished in both positions. Both Belgium and England have finished fourth.

If Croatia wins, they will leapfrog Spain in the overall World Cup results table. If England also came fourth, they’d also pass England due to their third place finish in 1998. They are also only the 13th country to make a World Cup final, every World Cup finalist without a title is European (Sweden, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Netherlands)

I’ll probably try to just follow along with some of the leagues and see who I naturally end up rooting for, like I’ve done with Croatia here. I hope I can actually follow through with school and all.

People had pagers before color TV?

JaggedJimmyJay wrote: ↑Thu Jul 12, 2018 1:30 am People had pagers before color TV?

Yeah that struck me as pretty weird.

Tottenham Hotspur last won in 1960-61.

According to Wikipedia "One of the first practical paging services was launched in 1950 for physicians in the New York City area. Physicians paid $12 per month for the service and carried a 200-gram (7 oz) pager that would receive phone messages within 40 kilometres (25 mi) of a single transmitter tower."

Also "It was not until the mid-1960s that color sets started selling in large numbers, due in part to the color transition of 1965 in which it was announced that over half of all network prime-time programming would be broadcast in color that autumn."

So.... yes! Except it's false to say Colour TV didn't exist; it just wasn't mainstream.

Sloonei wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 9:05 pm The club league season is starting soon, right?

yep, next month.

I'll just go back to my 4 year hibernation from football, thanks.

dunya wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 5:38 pm anyway, this is the last watchable world cup I've decided thanks to melatonii. the next one will have 48 teams. FORTY EIGHT! holy crap, what a snooze fest. nothx.

fake edit: I just googled before I posted, and nooooooooooooooo, that's going to happen in america/mexico/canada 2026. enjoy that. i won't be watching.

To be fair.

It will have a round 1 with 48 teams.

And then a round 2 with 32 teams which afaik is identical to the current one.

So maybe just start watching in round 2?

Belgium 2-0 England
France 2-1 Croatia

Dragon D. Luffy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 12, 2018 9:42 am I'll just go back to my 4 year hibernation from football, thanks.

nooooooooooooo. let's do one of these for the Champion's League

and then there the euros in 2 years, DDL. you gotta do that one.

I don't even watch euros.

Nor I know anyone in real life who does, tbh.

I was reminded last night that the next World Cup is the extra morally ambiguous one in Qatar.

Belgium 2-1 England
France 1-0 Croatia

Dragon D. Luffy wrote: ↑Thu Jul 12, 2018 10:10 am Nor I know anyone in real life who does, tbh.

you need new friends, man.

Belgium 4 England 3

no one's gonna care about playing defense in this game.

Belgium 3 England 0

France 3-1 Croatia
Belgium 2-1 England

france 1-0 croatia
belgium 2-2 england (england on pens)

france 1 -1 croatia (croatia wins)

Belgium 2-1 England
Croatia 1-0 France

Croatia 1 France 1 (Croatia on pens)
England 2 Belgium 4

Sloonei wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 9:32 pm I’ll probably try to just follow along with some of the leagues and see who I naturally end up rooting for, like I’ve done with Croatia here. I hope I can actually follow through with school and all.

There's loads of different leagues, some of them with radically different styles. Some are faster, some more physical, some completely crap tbf. It's not really linear, depends on what draws you in. That said, La Liga and the English Premiership tend to have the best games, with the Bundesliga and the Italian league following behind, after that there's like 10 different leagues with positive and negative things about them. I'll echo Liverpool as a fun club to follow, just because their manager has a really positive approach to the game and they're usually very entertaining.

Belgium 2-1 England

Fox just abruptly cut to commercial in the middle of play.

Both French goals were frustratingly preventable, but I fully believe in Croatia’s ability to fight back. Very good game so far.

France are deserving winners. Croatia won my heart though and that’s clearly more important.

I think TS standings are relatively static after that game. Congrats to France tho (Griezmann for golden boot/Brennan for more points 2018)

I think I can comfortably say after this tournament: football > football.

Sloonei wrote: ↑Sun Jul 15, 2018 1:29 pm I think I can comfortably say after this tournament: football > football.

I think that when it comes to what I most respect when considering format, athleticism, and reach: football > football.

When it comes to what I most easily invest emotion into, I might still be stuck at football > football.

However, football might continue to close that gap with football if prominent health concerns don't improve quickly.

I'm confused.

Dragon D. Luffy wrote: ↑Sun Jul 15, 2018 2:12 pm I'm confused.

When we say football we are referring to the sport of football, played between two sides of eleven each, with the goal of delivering a ball the scoring zone. Football, on the other hand, refers to the sport played between two sides of eleven with the goal of delivering a ball into the scoring zone.

Great game. Was thankful for pogba and mbappe, before that the result was feeling very unlucky. Croatia mostly had the better of that game, but if you subtract the own goal, the 50/50 handball and the mistake Lloris only made because they were three up, France still win 2-1, so ultimately everything felt as it should be.

And yay I picked the golden glove!

Congrats France. Croatia went down like warriors.

For a country rarely on the world stage, Croatia made a name for themselves and should be proud of their work (2nd is nothing to scoff at)

This world cup was exciting, entertaining and memorable for all of the right reasons. It's one I will remember fondly.

i'll be finalizing points and winners soon. 1st 2nd and 3rd place will receive prizes, as promised. (:

semi finals results

France 1 - 0 Belgium
England 1 - 2 Croatia

JJJ
France 2-1 Belgium - 2 pts
England 2-1 Croatia - 0 pts

DDL
France 2-2 Belgium, Belgium wins on pens. - 0 pts
England 2-1 Croatia - 0 pts

dunya
France 1-1 Belgium (France wins) - 1 pt
England 1-0 Croatia - 0 pts

Buckaroo
Belgium 2 France 1 - 0 pts
England 1 Croatia 2 - 3 pts

Golden
Belgium 3 France 2 - 0 pts
Croatia 0 England 0, Croatia on penalties. - 1 pt

nutella
France 1-2 Belgium - 0 pts
Croatia 2-0 England - 1 pt

wolbre
England 2-0 Croatia - 0 pts
Belgium 2-1 France - 0 pts

melatonii
France 2-2 Belgium. France on penalties - 1 pt
England 2-1 Croatia - 0 pts

Sloonei
France 3 Belgium 2 - 2 pts
Croatia 1 England 0 - 2 pts

finals results
Belgium 2 - 0 England
France 4 - 2 Croatia

Golden
France 1 Croatia 0 - 1 pt
Belgium 3 England 0 - 1 pt

Sloonei
Croatia 1 France 0 - 0 pts
Belgium 4 England 3 - 1 pt

dunya
Belgium 2-1 England - 1 pt
france 1-0 croatia - 1 pt

DDL
Belgium 2-0 England - 2 pts
France 2-1 Croatia - 1 pt

JJJ
Belgium 2-1 England - 1 pt
France 1-0 Croatia - 1 pt

wolbre
France 3-1 Croatia - 2 pts
Belgium 2-1 England - 1 pt

aflickering
france 1-0 croatia - 1 pt
belgium 2-2 england (england on pens) - 0 pts

melatonii
france 1 -1 croatia (croatia wins) - 0 pts

nutella
Belgium 2-1 England- 1 pt
Croatia 1-0 France - 0 pts

Buckaroo
Croatia 1 France 1 (Croatia on pens) - 0 pts
England 2 Belgium 4 - 2 pts

Golden Ball - Croatia's Luka Modric (no one)

Golden Glove – Thibault Courtois (3 points added for Golden)

Golden Boot - Harry effing Kane (no one...)

Final winner - France (5 points added for JaggedJimmyJay)

Final Player rankings!

1. [mention]Dragon D. Luffy[/mention] - 59 points -
2. [mention]Golden[/mention] - 53 points -
3. [mention]wolbre04[/mention] - 52 points -
4. [mention]Sloonei[/mention] - 51 points -
5. [mention]aflickering[/mention] - 51 points -
6. [mention]JaggedJimmyJay[/mention] - 49 points -
7. [mention]dunya[/mention] - 47 points -
8. [mention]Iai[/mention] - 47 points -
9. [mention]BuckarooBanzai[/mention] - 45 points -
10. [mention]melatonii[/mention] - 44 points -
11. [mention]nutella[/mention] - 44 points -
12. [mention]Choutas[/mention] - 10 points -

Thank you everyone for playing! Congrats to DDL, Golden and wolbre especially for your 1st, 2nd and 3rd place final rankings. DDL you were a beast all game! I'll PM you for details if you would like your prizes.

Shout out to Sloonei / JJJ for greatest comebacks of them all after being in the bottom for so long.

see ya'll again in the euros 2020

What we've learned here is that the more football you watch, the worse you perform in predictions.

Nice job to those who placed, and thanks for running the action dunya!

Thanks for running this, dunya! It was pretty fun.

Missing that first day cost me a chance at some sweet sweet prizes. Thank you dunya. This thread helped me to stay more invested in the games, tbh. I had a reason to follow every team, rather than just the ones I was predisposed to root for.