December 01, 2017

Are You Ready for Some Football?: The World Cup draw was conducted earlier today. An Iberian showdown in Group B, while Groups D and F look, if not quite Groups of Death, at least Groups of Moderate Discomfort. The U.S. is in Group I.

posted by holden to soccer at 12:41 PM - 6 comments

Is group A as shady as it seems?

posted by tron7 at 03:47 PM on December 01, 2017

A) The draw was conducted inside the State Kremlin Palace. B) Russia was the first ball selected. C) Russia received a fairly easy Group A. I'll go full-blown conspiracy theorist: did Putin play with the balls before the draw?

In Group B, who was the last team Portugal would have wanted to face? Diego Maradona now may be more hated in Portugal than in England.

Group G: England is England ... you could group England with Basingstoke, a SportFi club and 23 random players and they'd still figure a way to screw up.

posted by jjzucal at 03:53 PM on December 01, 2017

Is group A as shady as it seems?

If it were any shadier they'd be using it as a stadium canopy in Qatar 2022.

posted by Ufez Jones at 04:08 PM on December 01, 2017

+100 on the tinfoil

posted by billsaysthis at 06:41 PM on December 01, 2017

Putin has an extensive background in meddle urging.

And Maradona looks more like a JFK conspirator than a JFK conspirator does.

posted by beaverboard at 09:38 PM on December 01, 2017

I think the intercontinental playoffs showed that CONCACAF and CONMEBOL may not be as strong as the countries' individual rankings suggest.

It could have been worse for us, but we have a chance. Although finishing second would probably give us Argentina in the Round of 16.

posted by owlhouse at 09:51 PM on December 01, 2017

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