2018 World Cup discussion and information thread

[Vasilije69]

The Russia world cup will miss a lot of Football stars. like Gareth Bale, David Alaba, Alex Sanchez, Bravo and most important player is Arien Robben. if you love football then you will miss those charismatic performances in Russia. I think European qualifying system should be revised. at least another 3 countries deserve to play at this biggest stage of Football.

Besides them, there are some more very good players that will miss Russia. Jan Oblak, Stefan Savić, Virgil Van Dijk, Miralem Pjanić, MarekHamšik, Arturo Vidal, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and so on. What a pity...

[joebrook]

it is very sad to see the Netherland is not able to qualify to the Russia world cup 2018. another sad news is that Arien Robben has retired from the international level of football. we will miss him in the orange jersey. so, Netherland has started to lose thier golden generation. i believe that every football fans will miss him badly.

He should have stayed on to guide the upcoming youths in the team, They will really not have any senior player to look up to when the time comes and that will be bad for the Dutch national team as whole but he can rescind his retirement when his country really needs him.

[cicciobtc]

here are the 8 European teams that will play the playoffs (the 4 best teams in the ranking will play against the 4 worst ranked)

Switzerland (1134 points)
Italy             (1065 points)
Croatia         (1012 points)
Denmark      (1001 points)

Sweden               (872 ponts)
Northern Ireland (889 points)
Ireland                 (866 points)
Greece                 (681 ponts)

the playoffs will be drawn on October 17, while the matches will be played in November

So in total, 4 teams are going to join the the rest in Russia next season. Without doubt Italy and Croatia are sure going that is if they dont face each other when the lot is evenly drawn.

Italy, Switzerland and Croatia are clearly favorites, but Denmark is the weakest in the first group and can be beaten by any team in the second group.
The elimination of Italy (4 world cups won) would be really clamorous!

Dont be so sure,Italy striking ability is very poor,Ireland always fight never give up,Denmark time to time is playing really well,thay won 4-0 against Poland,Greece is dangerous

But i ve been reading about new UEFA idea,Legeu of Nations,kind of national LM,what you guys thinking about it,clearly done to generate more money,but it can be to much for players

Yes, the Uefa Nations League will start in September 2018 and will be subdivided into 4 divisions and there will be promotions and relegations.
This competition will replace unnecessary friendly matches and will also award 4 seats for the European Championship.

Here are the 4 divisions:

DIVISION A - Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, France, England, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Iceland, Croatia, Netherlands
DIVISION B - Austria, Wales, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey
DIVISION C - Hungary, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Albania, Norway, Montenegro, Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania
DIVISION D - Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Latvia, Far Oer, Luxembourg, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Malta, Andorra, Kosovo, Gibraltar,San Marino.

[yoseph]

The Russia world cup will miss a lot of Football stars. like Gareth Bale, David Alaba, Alex Sanchez, Bravo and most important player is Arien Robben. if you love football then you will miss those charismatic performances in Russia. I think European qualifying system should be revised. at least another 3 countries deserve to play at this biggest stage of Football.

Besides them, there are some more very good players that will miss Russia. Jan Oblak, Stefan Savić, Virgil Van Dijk, Miralem Pjanić, MarekHamšik, Arturo Vidal, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and so on. What a pity...

The Chileans absence in the World Cup is really a big blow and to make matters worse they are the current South American champions, i am beginning to have a feeling that this World Cup is going to really suck.

[bajing]

It seems the world cup this time less interesting because many star players who will not feel the heat of this world cup like gareth bale can not bring wales to qualify for the world cup, arjeen roben can not bring the Dutch qualify to the world cup and many more.

[karmakeddon]

There are a lot of star quality players that will not be attending the World Cup in Russia. But then again, let's look on the bright side. Maybe we will discover some more newer players and especially youth players who might step up and do well for their country when it will really matter.

I'm kinda hoping Iceland reach at least the Group of 16 again. If that happens, it will be very good for Iceland as a country and also as a team. Some of the players in their team might even attract coaches from big clubs and get to sign them.

[kpcian]

It seems the world cup this time less interesting because many star players who will not feel the heat of this world cup like gareth bale can not bring wales to qualify for the world cup, arjeen roben can not bring the Dutch qualify to the world cup and many more.

Yeah, European football is the main attraction of the modern football time. but some of the biggest football countries are not getting the chance to play in the final stage because of lacking opportunity, that is why we are going to miss some of the star players in the Russian world cup. so the policy should be reconstrued to give a balanced opportunity for every continent.

[buwaytress]

Going to be pretty difficult for a betting guy like myself (haha) to pick the four European teams left to progress into the finals at Russia. Most people will feel this will come down to the draw, and my guess is that the Italians would be first choice to go through whomever they're drawn against. Their quality will eventually see them through, at least none of their potential opponents have enough firepower to break down their defence.

Then again, that very result might be the the strategy of both Irish teams and Greece. Remember them winning the Euros on draws and penalties? Ugliest Euro ever but hey it worked out! So I would say at least one of these 3 should go through on a dogged performance.

Switzerland are the silkiest but they're just not deadly enough. I'd tip Croatia and Denmark to make the cut.

So: Italy, Croatia, Denmark and Ireland.

[cicciobtc]

Infantino n.1 of Fifa has stated that he wants to introduce VAR Technology (Video Assistant Referee)  already in the next 2018 World Cup.
He wants to avoid that there are other obvious (and decisive) mistakes as the ghost goal of Panama.
I think Football is the most popular sport in the world and it is absurd that technology has yet to be officially introduced.

Currently the Var is already used in Serie A and Bundesliga. In 2018/2019 it will also be introduced in the Premier League, while in Liga in 2019/2020.

[tyz]

I wanna share my bets for tonight. Feedback is always welcome.

Poland vs Montenegro # Poland wins first half @ 1.68
 
Denmark vs Romania    # Double Chance, draw or win Romania @ 3.00
 
Slovakia vs Malta # under 4.5 golas @ 1.46

Lithuania vs England # Win England @ 1.26

Germany vs Azjerbaidschan # over 3.5 goals @ 1.47
 

5 of my 5 bets were correct last match day of World Cup qualifications. Poland won 4 - 2 against Montenegro. Denmark and Romania played 1 - 1, so I also won my double chance with excellent odds. Slowakia vs Malta ended 3 - 0, so under 4.5 goals, won also. England won 1 - 0 against Lithuania and Germany vs Azjerbaidschan ended 5 - 1. Both won, too. Pretty nice gain overall 

[Nahl]

It seems the world cup this time less interesting because many star players who will not feel the heat of this world cup like gareth bale can not bring wales to qualify for the world cup, arjeen roben can not bring the Dutch qualify to the world cup and many more.

indeed those players will not playing at world cup 2018 but there is no worried because this event still have plenty star players such as Hazard from Belgium, Neymar from Brazil or Messi from Argentina and do not forget Ronaldo from Portugal so i don't think world cup will be lack of interest and most people can't wait for this event even though still there are several months remaining before kickoff

[joebrook]

Infantino n.1 of Fifa has stated that he wants to introduce VAR Technology (Video Assistant Referee)  already in the next 2018 World Cup.
He wants to avoid that there are other obvious (and decisive) mistakes as the ghost goal of Panama.
I think Football is the most popular sport in the world and it is absurd that technology has yet to be officially introduced.

Currently the Var is already used in Serie A and Bundesliga. In 2018/2019 it will also be introduced in the Premier League, while in Liga in 2019/2020.

The Video assisted referee system is going to ensure fairness in the game, I quite remember England goal which was disallowed in their game against Germany and the Germans then went on to win in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. I believe that the VAR should implemented in the major league games across Europe and preferably the entire world.

[Pab]

VAR is cool technology,it is used in Poland mostly for goal verification,thanks var some teams won games what thay will lose without VAR

If we are talking about players what will not attend in Mundial.Chile players were drunk night before game
others Roben is old,Oblak good goalkeeper but nothing special.Instead we havenew generation of players
Mbape,Lukaku,Rushford,Asunsion,Isco,Dybala and more.It will be first Mundial for Lewandowski even
It will be very interesting Mundial

[karmakeddon]

The playoffs for the remaining berths for the UEFA region has been announced. The matches will take place between November 9-11 and the second leg November 12 - 14. The 8 teams for this playoffs will be Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Northern Ireland, Sweden, Republic of Ireland and Greece. The first 4 was automatically seeded with Switzerland getting the top seed  while the bottom four will go in unseeded.

[joebrook]

The US men soccer team manager Bruce Arena has resigned his position due to the fact that he couldn't qualify the team to the FIFA WORLD CUP,  he took over from Jurgen Klinsmann who was having a hard time with the team but Bruce Arena was expected to qualify but he couldn't even reach the playoff games.

[szpalata]

Infantino n.1 of Fifa has stated that he wants to introduce VAR Technology (Video Assistant Referee)  already in the next 2018 World Cup.
He wants to avoid that there are other obvious (and decisive) mistakes as the ghost goal of Panama.
I think Football is the most popular sport in the world and it is absurd that technology has yet to be officially introduced.

Currently the Var is already used in Serie A and Bundesliga. In 2018/2019 it will also be introduced in the Premier League, while in Liga in 2019/2020.

The Video assisted referee system is going to ensure fairness in the game, I quite remember England goal which was disallowed in their game against Germany and the Germans then went on to win in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. I believe that the VAR should implemented in the major league games across Europe and preferably the entire world.

Well it's also going to take some excitements out of the game if it I should played fairly because when certain teams get cheated it gives more dimensions to the tournament and weaker teams finally wake up and give off their best and the surprises makes the tournament exciting.

[PatronRH]

After reading some opinions on the qualification of talia at the World Cup, I made sure that only a minority knows the history of the Niratzouri and its traditions and habits especially in the qualifications. To do this, I want to mention that Italy is in the World Cup by a percentage of 100% and what happening is not surprising at all.

[gameofthronne]

VAR is cool technology,it is used in Poland mostly for goal verification,thanks var some teams won games what thay will lose without VAR

If we are talking about players what will not attend in Mundial.Chile players were drunk night before game
others Roben is old,Oblak good goalkeeper but nothing special.Instead we havenew generation of players
Mbape,Lukaku,Rushford,Asunsion,Isco,Dybala and more.It will be first Mundial for Lewandowski even
It will be very interesting Mundial

I hope no, soccer without drama is sucks!

[SoulEaterRR]

After reading some opinions on the qualification of talia at the World Cup, I made sure that only a minority knows the history of the Niratzouri and its traditions and habits especially in the qualifications. To do this, I want to mention that Italy is in the World Cup by a percentage of 100% and what happening is not surprising at all.

Without Italy, the world Cup will not be as spectacular. It is clear that they will leave the group, but to win the world Cup they will not succeed. There are much stronger teams that will compete for this trophy.

[Lucius]

Today was drawing of play-off and as you can see above there is some good and interesting games which will be played next month for win last four european spots for Russia 2018.

On first sight game between Sweden and Italy seems the most interesting,and Switzerland,Croatia and Denmark look like favorites against Northern Ireland,Greece,and Republic of Ireland.What are your opinions about these games?