Other Games - 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup Edition (+ warm-up matches): Villa-watch

[Somniloquism]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cevld1m8nxno

TBH it looked awful yesterday. I wonder how deep the "pitch" is but I think it had a sprinkler system underneath it as well.

[Dogtanian]

Yeah, it looked awful, considering it is still early days.

Pitches have come a long way, look at how good ours looks at the end of the season, but this looked embarassing.

[Meanwood Villa]

The whole GOAT thing is near impossible to judge for me, I prefer to say that Pele was the best player of his generation, then Cryuff, then Maradona, then there's a bit of a gap with no one really in the frame until Messi. Even before that you had Puskas and Di Stefano which would be an argument for the first genuine global superstar of the sport.

There's loads of good players before them even but I don't think the idea of a global 'best player' really works much before that as it really relies on TV and commercial flights to become a meaningful discussion.

I agree with this but I'd make the case Zidane was the best player of the generation for at least some of the time between Maradona and Messi

[Sexual Ealing]

The absence of Bertrand Traore from these conversations is sickening.

[paul_e]

The whole GOAT thing is near impossible to judge for me, I prefer to say that Pele was the best player of his generation, then Cryuff, then Maradona, then there's a bit of a gap with no one really in the frame until Messi. Even before that you had Puskas and Di Stefano which would be an argument for the first genuine global superstar of the sport.

There's loads of good players before them even but I don't think the idea of a global 'best player' really works much before that as it really relies on TV and commercial flights to become a meaningful discussion.

I agree with this but I'd make the case Zidane was the best player of the generation for at least some of the time between Maradona and Messi

Ronaldo as well, but neither really did it for year after year like the rest. I know that an apply to Maradona to a degree as well but his bestwas so far above anything else that you have to include him.

[cdbearsfan]

The absence of Bertrand Traore from these conversations is sickening.

He could be both the best and the worst player in the world in the space of two seconds. None of these others shysters can manage that.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I have done before.

But, okay. Fernandes is a cheating diving rat, Ronaldo is a cheating diving rat who comes across as an arrogant twat and  paid off his rape accuser.

When those two fuck off I have no problem with Portugal. Unless someone else horrible comes along.

Ah, okay, I can live with that, see, it wasn't that hard. I can't stand Ronaldo as despite being an amazing footballer his ego seems to be his main motivator, wanting to break all records rather than do what's best for the team. If Portugal fail to win the World Cup or even reach the final, it will be his ego and the ass-kissing of Roberto Martinez to him that has blocked any success. Hopefully the heat will mean he can't last more than 45 minutes but you know it will all end in tears. You'd love it here with every bloody ad featuring him shirtless and showing off his perfect Chicklets white implanted teeth.

Fernandes is just an annoying twat who could do with implants. Like Ronaldo I don't think he's a cheating diving player but the way he gets in the face of referees is a disgrace, very much like Roy Keane. I also think he's overrated but playing for ManU gets hyped way beyond his talent. Using the term 'rats' to describe a nation is offensive but in the case of Fernandes well..he does actually look like one, something I regularly point to anybody that will listen.

If you can look beyond those two you'll be treating yourself to a group of exceptional, modest, low key players that are a joy to watch. For me, Vitinha is a genius and a fucking lovely lad, as is his teammate at PSG, little João Neves, still only 21 but like McGinn on speed and two good feet. Nuno Mendes is probably the best left back in the world right now. The whole team with the two exceptions are worthy of any football fans time.

And that for me is the main question, will Ronaldo fuck up the whole team for the sake of his personal achievements? We're about to find out. Messi scoring a hattrick last night certainly won't have helped but in reality it shouldn't make the slightest difference as every man and his dog know, despite his brilliance Ronaldo is no Messi and no records broken will ever change that.

[cdbearsfan]

I think Portugal have a great chance, but would have them just below France and Spain in the second group of potential winners alongside England, Argentina and maybe Brazil and Netherlands.

[Dave]

I agree with this but I'd make the case Zidane was the best player of the generation for at least some of the time between Maradona and Messi

Without wanting to join Smirker in the ridicule corner, I've always though that his massive moments overshone a lot of career where nothing was really going on for him.

Obviously those big moments are absolutely huge - two World Cup finals (and important goals to get there), Leverkusen, stoppage time vs England in 2004. But why was the player who was able to do all that, as a nominal attacker, only scoring half a dozen goals a season for nearly his whole career?

He was obviously still really, REALLY good. But thirteen goals across 120 games in his last three seasons at Juventus? Buendia nearly got that many just last season.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

It's their best chance since 1966 when the FA and FIFA used their dark arts of moving the semi final to Wembley at the last minute.

[Dave]

When those two fuck off I have no problem with Portugal. Unless someone else horrible comes along.

To help steel your resolve:

As ever, what we’ve asked ourselves when considering the question ‘who will win the World Cup?’ is ‘what’s the worst possible option?’ because that’s just the grim way we view the world in general and this World Cup specifically.

And we’ve concluded that the worst option is that Portugal win it. Not because there’s anything wrong with Portugal as such, but because a Portugal win will please a lot of the very worst people on earth and also set off all manner of exhausting conspiracy theories. We’re quite certain we live on a bad enough timeline for this to occur.

Even at our most pessimistic moments we can’t quite bring ourselves to accept we’re on the very worst possible timeline because not even the openly and cartoonishly despicable axis of beta-male evil that is Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino could manage to successfully rig this tournament to the extent that the USA win it.

But Portugal? They are genuinely really very good. They’ve got arguably the best midfield in the whole tournament, elite players all over the park and the waning but still potent stardust of Cristiano Ronaldo.

And it’s here that the worst people will start to get involved. The Ronaldo-Messi debate will reopen, which absolutely nobody should want. The conspiracy theorists will find it ‘very interesting’ that Messi was given a World Cup in 2022 and now Ronaldo has been given one in 2026.

Pi*rs M*rgan, already setting records on the back of Arsenal winning the Premier League, will mine levels of smug hitherto undiscovered in the entire course of human history.

And worst of all, Donald Trump will be delighted at the success of Ronaldo, a man with whom he quickly bonded over shared interests. And by shared interests we of course mean ‘being six foot three and under five per cent body fat’. Don’t know what you were thinking of.

[cdbearsfan]

Ha! That's not bad. Who wrote that? (If it was you, chapeau).

[Rudy Can't Fail]

The only thing worse than ManU fans are Ronaldo fans (or Ronettes as I prefer to call them).  They're like a cult all over social media posting GOAT everywhere. I've come to the conclusion Ronaldo is actually paying for the millions of posts from some IT factory in India or they are in fact ManU fans.

[PeterWithesShin]

I never slag off Scotland, it's North England and England is brilliant.

[adrenachrome]

Ha! That's not bad. Who wrote that? (If it was you, chapeau).

"They are genuinely really very good." doesn't read like a Dave sentence.

In any case, it is an abomination.