Fog Dude
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FA Cup Third Round
Boreham Wood 1-3 Wimbledon
Kidderminster Harriers 1-2 Reading
Leicester City 3-0 Watford
Port Vale 0-1 Brentford
West Brom 2-1 Brighton & Hove Albion
Wigan Athletic 0-3 Blackburn Rovers
Hull City 1-0 Everton
Swansea City 3-2 Southampton
Yeovil Town 0-2 Bournemouth
Charlton Athletic 1-3 Norwich City
West Ham United 3-1 Leeds United
Nottingham Forest 1-2 ArsenalLigue 1
Metz 1-1 Strasbourg
Nantes 0-0 Monaco
Lyon 2-2 PSG -
Following years of pestering from my parents, I eventually took 21 lessons in a manual with a top local instructor at the age of 29. After 7 months he said he wouldn't take any more money off me since I obviously wasn't taking it all in – or at least, not retaining all the important information and muscle memory needed to progress and be safe on the road. It might've helped if he'd properly stuck to providing lessons at the same time each week instead of in a random slot at short notice once every 3 weeks or so but there's also the factor that I'm not interested in the mechanics of any vehicle that doesn't handle like the ones in Mario Kart.
Then I had one lesson in an automatic with a different instructor that went all right, but I went off to Sussex for 10 months soon afterwards and have never really had the inclination to pick it back up since that time. I was taking revision for a potential theory test seriously that whole time, mind... on the DS, mainly.
The only lasting thing that came out of that experience was that I thought I'd be honest when applying for my provisional and actually book an eye test, so I've had to wear specs of increasing strength ever since.
Obviously I know a lot of people my age who do run a car and see what a huge drain that is on their finances. On the other hand, public transport links in deepest Somerset aren't exactly frequent, comprehensive, well-integrated or great value for money either.
I don't care much about the different manufacturers of cars (which is a great disappointment to my Dad and Grandad), but it does irk me when people don't leave the diacritics in on brand names like Citroën or Škoda. Which I'm sure will come as a great shock to many of you.
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The final scores went into the top of the thread on Sunday night, and seven matches survived this time out. The table's been updated too, with joint second-highest scorers Rory and Shy Dad having an upward trajectory at the expense of Briefcase and Stinky. TildeGuy extends his lead over MVP RULZ at the summit, whilst I just about made it into double figures and ultimo picked late, so things might start getting interesting at the foot of the standings again as well.
The designated 'wildcard' fixture – since there were enough games to make it worthwhile – was match #6 where FC Hollywood came unstuck at Meadow Lane in front of over 9,000 fans (the goals are on BT Sport's YouTube channel if you fancy a laugh). Only Rory and I saw that one coming as everybody else clearly bought into the Wrexham hype. In case you're wondering, game #6 wasn't the clash at The New York Stadium because the randomiser only works after the fact, so it picked 6 out of 7 rather than out of 10.
Elsewhere, last-gasp away wins for Tottenham and Torquay proved fruitful, whereas Hull and Bolton coming unstuck on the road caught most people out. A score draw at Stamford Bridge and a stalemate in Durham were generally good for at least one-pointers.
So, instead of 20 results over Christmas and New Year we've only ended up with 11 in the end. We're gonna attempt a 15-strong card for the 'bumper' Cup round next and see how many of them last until the weekend...
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The game at the
RicohBuilding Society Arena has fallen, so I'm going to assume that it's Keith's fault somehow. The opening post has been amended to reflect this.Premier League
Leicester City 3-0 Norwich City
Watford 2-1 Spurs
Chelsea 0-0 LiverpoolChampionship
Blackpool 1-1 Hull CityLeague One
Rotherham United 1-0 Bolton WanderersLeague Two
Harrogate Town 3-1 Port Vale
Hartlepool United 2-2 Oldham AthleticNational League
Notts County 2-0 Wrexham
Yeovil Town 1-2 Torquay United -
The few results we actually had in the end were up in the first post on... Monday, because, well, it's easy to lose track of which day of the week is which over Christmas, isn't it? So, at a time when we'd normally get a double round, we've finished up with less than half of a regular one after Hull-Blackburn fell on Boxing Day morning itself, on top of all the other meetings already lost. There was no real point in picking a 'wildcard' out of just 4 possible outcomes, especially as none of the scorelines yielded any three-pointers at all.
Some significant movement in the standings despite nobody scoring more than 4 or fewer than 2, though, as Rory once again overtakes Stinky in mid-table, ultimo moves further clear of the duo at the bottom and most importantly of all, TildeGuy reclaims the lead ahead of MVP RULZ.
Both EPL matches survived but the scorelines weren't exactly straightforward to guess. The wins for Man City and Arsenal did at least prove more fruitful in terms of one-pointers. The exact scores at Boundary and New Douglas Parks (the latter apparently dubbed 'The Fountain of Youth Stadium' by sponsors at the moment) should've been more gettable, but the problem was that not as many people bet on away victories in the first place!
Had I known earlier in the year that there'd be a new variant of the virus looming over us this winter, I'd probably have added some of Tuesday night's matches to the card just in case. But just as I'm bad at predicting football scores this season, so I was useless at foreseeing the latest pandemic developments as well. I'm therefore going to risk it and only put 10 fixtures that are ON at the time of writing into the next card. That should appear in the original post shortly.
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Half the matches have already fallen to virus outbreaks and it's only Thursday evening. The opening post has been amended accordingly. Anyway, my picks:
Premier League
Manchester City 3-1 Leicester City
Norwich City 1-2 ArsenalChampionship
Hull City 1-3 Blackburn RoversLeague Two
Oldham Athletic 1-0 Scunthorpe UnitedScottish Championship
Hamilton Academical 1-1 Kilmarnock -
The final scores went into the initial post on Sunday night. There was a full complement of 10 of them in the end, despite the devastation wrought upon the schedule this past weekend (including two outright cancellations in the Trophy). We were unlucky to have caught one of the few postponements one round prior. The table's since been recalculated too, so I'm putting this out now even though it could wait since there obviously aren't any matches this coming Saturday.
The designated 'wildcard' fixture was match #1, Arsenal's 4-1 victory at Elland Road in the evening game, which earned two thirds of participants a bonus point each for getting the correct result. I got my second and last D2D bet of the season wrong as my pick let me down at Arbour Park, which is famously equidistant between London and Reading. Six out of eight other players rightly disagreed with me to claim their easy bonus points.
As is to be expected, that made me the worst performer for the round so I'm now a dozen points adrift at the bottom and last season is looking ever more like a fluke. It's now Vegeta I'm chasing, mind, as they had a below-average haul whilst ultimo was joint top scorer. Fellow double figures merchant Briefcase is now the clear main challenger to the duo at the summit, who both found different routes to getting 8 points this time out, so it's as you were up there.
D2Ds will now take their usual break over the Christmas and New Year period. The remaining seven plus the knockout rounds of the FPL Cup will be spread over the final four months of the campaign. The way the calendar's worked out, I've decided the next two weeks won't be double rounds, though a tentative 'bumper' round has been pencilled in for Week 23, and we should still get the traditional double header at Easter too.
Back to the round just gone, then, and draws at Spurs and Hamburg proved more fruitful than those in Cornwall and the Dordogne. Périgord winning on penalties was arguably the shock of the round in France but we didn't feature the inevitable upset involving Torquay in the FA Trophy. Away wins for Ajax and Monaco, alongside a League Cup triumph for Celtic, also turned out to be easy to guess beforehand, whereas victory for Hertha in a five-goal thriller caught everybody else out. At least I foresaw a home success there, somehow...
A festive set of 10, comprised of currently-ON Boxing Day clashes, will go live at the top of the thread very soon.
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Since it's my D2D week, I'll make my picks a bit earlier than usual:
Premier League
Leeds United 1-1 Arsenal
Spurs 2-1 LiverpoolFA Trophy Third Round
Slough Town 0-3 Eastbourne Borough w/me
Truro City 1-2 Dagenham & RedbridgeScottish League Cup Final
Celtic 2-0 Hibernian (@ Hampden)German Bundesliga
Hertha Berlin 1-0 Borussia Dortmund
Hamburg 0-1 SchalkeFrench Cup Round of 64
Bergerac Périgord 0-2 Metz
Red Star 1-3 MonacoEredivisie
Feijenoord 2-2 Ajax Amsterdam -
On 12/14/2021 at 2:07 PM, Statto said:
Vince/Bruce must really hate Minnesota for some reason.
Didn't vote for Reagan but did vote for Ventura. That's my theory anyway.
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The results were put into the original post on Sunday night, and the new table was figured out soon after that. The lead has changed hands again as MVP RULZ was top scorer (and the only player into double figures) and TildeGuy was the worst performer, whilst everybody else was bang average. There's no change in the bottom two, but Briefcase does overtake Shy Dad in mid-table. The wildcard match should've been #3, but that was off so it rolls over to #4, Leicester C v Newcastle Utd, meaning everybody except Rory gets a bonus point.
We might have to get used to pandemic-related postponements again, unfortunately. Of the nine matches that went ahead, wins for Chelsea, Leicester and Manchester United's men and Liverpool and Sheffield United women were generally good for one-pointers, but two score draws in Italy proved harder to foresee. Also tough to guess beforehand was the exact margin of Liverpool's victory at Burnley plus a close-fought Hampshire coastal derby that went to extra time.
There was a complete dud at Fairfax Park, as Crystal Palace came unstuck in Somerset. Third in the Championship and with their gaffer having just won that division's Manager of the Month award, the Eagles largely weathered a hostile reception but succumbed to a Bridgwater goal just before half time. Manchester United will now have to visit the Westcountry in the next round.
A new card, featuring games that are set to go ahead at the time of writing, will be up in the first post shortly.
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As alluded to above, the Brighton v Spurs game is now OFF and the initial post has been edited accordingly. This will mean Tottenham have failed to fulfil 2 of their last 3 league matches plus a European tie. Time to ban the club from all football-related activities for a while for non-compliance? Anyway, here are my picks for the remaining 9 matches:
Premier League
Chelsea 3-0 Leeds United
Norwich City 1-1 Manchester United
Leicester City 2-1 Newcastle UnitedWomen's FA Cup Third Round
Burnley 1-2 Liverpool
Stourbridge 0-3 Sheffield United
Bridgwater United 0-1 Crystal Palace
Portsmouth 1-0 SouthamptonSerie A
Venezia 0-0 Juventus
Udinese 2-2 AC Milan -
The final scores went into the opening post on Sunday night, and the table was updated shortly afterwards. Shy Dad got his D2D bet right, and half the other participants wrongly thought a team fuelled by an energy drink could snatch a point in Brazil. That gave him 8 bonus points, enough to make him top scorer for the week and move him up into fifth. In a high-scoring round (I even had to make the cell with the average in a few pixels wider this time!), TildeGuy would otherwise have been the best performer and so leapfrogs MVP RULZ at the summit to lead by five. Stinky and ultimo also made it into double figures, with the latter moving off of last place in the process and going three points clear of the wooden spoon spot.
In fact, ultimo was only a late Carlisle consolation away from an even bigger haul, as our sole men's FA Cup tie was the randomly selected 'wildcard' fixture... which in the end Tilde got full marks for. Most people thought there'd be an upset or at least a replay earned there, but the real shocks came in less obvious places. A dominant performance by Sam Kerr and Fran Kirby caused guesses in the women's final to be generally good for one-pointers as Arsenal's recent form showed it could collapse regardless of gender once it came up against decent managers.
Elsewhere, widely expected away wins for Liverpool, Man City, Real Madrid and Valencia all proved fruitful. The last of those involved Iago Aspas getting himself injured and then suspended which must be worrying for Celta Vigo fans as they're pretty much a one-man team. Further new-manager home victories at Villa and Newcastle didn't turn out too badly either, whilst another last-minute equalising thunderbolt from Neal "Neil" Maupay produced a mixed bag of guesses at worst.
Right, no D2D next time, so just a straightforward set of 10 to go live at the top of the thread very soon.
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Premier League
Newcastle United 0-0 Burnley
Southampton 1-0 Brighton & Hove Albion
Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 Liverpool
Watford 1-3 Manchester City
Aston Villa 2-0 Leicester CityMen's FA Cup Second Round
Carlisle United 1-1 Shrewsbury Town2020-21 FA Women's Cup Final
Arsenal 0-1 Chelsea (@ Wembley)La Liga
Real Sociedad 1-2 Real Madrid
Celta Vigo 2-1 ValenciaSérie A
Atlético Mineiro w/Shy Dad 2-2 Red Bull Bragantino -
On 11/27/2021 at 5:43 PM, Shy Dad said:
Please can we stop picking Scottish Cup games? The damn things are more random in scores than the lottery numbers 😂
Looks like someone posted that when they were still sour over the Kidderminster result. 😝 I take all feedback on board, but I'm not inclined to accede to your request after I already inadvertently insulted Scotland last week (but one mistake of that nature in 13 years isn't bad going, I suppose). We've got the League Cup final to come soon, then the next round of this season's competition will involve Premiership sides. We already don't bother with the qualifiers or Round 1 north of the border, whereas in England we start with the last qualifying round. We've also never covered the Scottish Women's Cup, unlike its English equivalent. And Scots seem to be overrepresented here on the forum so they shouldn't miss out more than they already do.
I also disagree that the results were a crapshoot. Clydebank and Clyde might seem evenly matched, but it was a small upset and Rory and I at least went for a draw in that one. The Hamilton outcome might've been a dud but it was also a huge shock. Those things will happen sometimes. The real impossible scoreline was at Chambéry RFC where it very nearly was a rugby score! The two Austrian home wins caught a lot of people out too, despite being league matches. At least progress for Toulouse proved fruitful. The 'wildcard fixture' was match #1, Palace v Villa, and only two participants rightly saw Gerrard's victorious start continuing at Selhurst Park.
The stalemate at Carrow Road and the score draw at Stamford Bridge turned out a bit tougher to foresee. Rory got his D2D wrong and everybody else took advantage to claim their pair of bonus points. The team he picked seem to think Lithuania should still be under German occupation. But then again, so does the first verse of the German national anthem. This completes all the first-choice D2Ds for the season.
Since we seem to have done the round-up in reverse this week, here's the table at last. MVP RULZ was joint lowest scorer and now only leads by one point over TildeGuy, whilst ultimo suddenly finds himself two points adrift at the bottom. Briefcase and Stinky still can't be separated in mid-table.
A new card, featuring the first of the second-choice D2Ds, will be up in the first post shortly.
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Premier League
Crystal Palace 1-1 Aston Villa
Norwich City 0-0 Wolves
Chelsea 3-1 Manchester UnitedSome Scottish competition or another (they all look the same to me)
Auchinleck Talbot 1-3 Hamilton Academical
Clydebank 2-2 ClydeFrench Cup Round 8
Chambéry 0-2 Auxerre
Trélissac 0-3 ToulouseProper Bundesliga
Austria Klagenfurt 2-1 RB Salzburg
Austria Vienna 1-0 Sturm GrazA Lyga
Panevezys 9-0 Hegelmann Litauen w/Rory -
2 minutes ago, Shy Dad said:
Rangers lost so I'm just happy about that. Mistakes happen, I'm happy with everything as it is.
Thanks for that reassurance. It means a lot.
I won't deny that I too had a little chuckle at then-managerless Rangers yet again throwing away a chance at a domestic trophy, but that wasn't really the point of the apology.
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The results went into the original post on Sunday night, and I eventually got the table right late on Monday. The German outcomes are listed under 'DFL' now so there shouldn't be any further objections to that. That was me deliberately cutting corners but I don't think it affected anyone's ability to make an informed pick. I consider that matter closed but I'll address the unintended mistake in a moment. Anyway, Tilde cut MVP RULZ' lead by another point so it's now down to just 2. Joint lowest scorer Stinky Dad slips down to fifth, while I'm now back behind ultimo and 4 points adrift at the bottom.
Wins for Dortmund and comfortable progress for the two favourites in Portugal generally proved fruitful, with Rory getting the exact score right for Estoril Praia (whom I have actually seen play in a Portuguese Cup tie). Nobody foresaw such big home victories for Watford and Liverpool, with the former proving to be the final nail in the coffin for OGS' spell as Man Utd manager. A score draw at the Weserstadion and a narrow reverse for the visitors to Tannadice turned out to be more of a mixed bag.
The trend of new head coaches doing well did more good than harm with an opening success for Stevie G at Villa Park, but a triumphant return from injury for Raúl Jiménez went against the form book and so caught most people out.
So, we can't really avoid it any longer. Another bit of housekeeping, and this time one I wasn't anticipating. I don't make a note of what competition a match is being played in on my spreadsheet because it's usually obvious. I've even started to write the wrong competition sometimes but then corrected myself before publishing. But this time the complete and utter lapse was inexcusable.
Where a cup tie is being played at a neutral venue, I put the teams in alphabetical order, as I noted as recently as a few weeks ago with the rearranged Women's Cup semis from last season. I know sometimes another team is designated first 'for administrative purposes' but we all know that's bollocks so I ignore it. I also typed the FPL Cup semi-final draw only a week ago according to those guidelines. Therefore, I should never have written that fixture down as "Rangers v Hibernian" in the first place. I listed it wrong when the draw was made and it's caused an avoidable kerfuffle a few weeks later.
Entering it as a Premiership match with Rangers at home instead of a cup tie at Hampden probably caused people to guess differently from how they otherwise might have done, and for that I'm sorry. The fair thing to do would be to declare all picks as null and void except: the person who pointed out the mistake was Rory. And he was the only one to get it right. And it is also this round's designated wildcard match. So it'd cost him 3 points rather than just the one. Unless it causes uproar, I'm going to leave it as it is.
Equally, I'm not going to punish myself for the error because I'm already in last place and proving that last season was a fluke! I'm also about to start a new job. So, since I'm going to get a lot busier and will have even less time to focus on this, I'm afraid I can't guarantee it won't happen again. I've already been slacking on these updates lately, as you can probably tell by the timing.
A new set of 10, including Rory's D2D, will be in the initial post soon, but I'll make sure to double check everything first...
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1 minute ago, 69MeDon said:
Three of the YouTube clips on WWE's official channel this morning are those bizarre Vince segments.
But hey, Survivor Series was already established decades ago as the event where we're encouraged to get inordinately excited about an oversized egg with no decent payoff.
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8 hours ago, air_raid said:
Not to go off on a tangent but there was a good 20 years where there was stuff I only had old WWF Magazines for reference until eventually everything that ever happened started going up on YouTube and I could finally start piecing together reality vs bollocks. Like, did Coach ACTUALLY manage the Beverlys if they only showed up on Coliseum already with The Genius? Was Battle Kats finisher as cool as it sounded? Was there actually any real hype for Bundy coming back to feud with Bret? Did Big Bully Busick even exist?
No, I don't think Jonathan Coachman ever managed the Beverly Brothers.
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7 hours ago, RoryFice said:
Okay, if you look at the opening post you'll see I acknowledge that this round involves the top two German divisions and I just wrote it like that for neatness. Perhaps I should've put 'DFL' instead as a catch-all term?
I hold my hands up about the League Cup though. I was reminded last night of the other semi-final fixture (Celtic v St Johnstone) and thought to myself "hmm, wonder why we didn't feature that competition in the FPL?" But of course we are in fact doing so. And this is probably a sign that I should start making space in the spreadsheet to note what tournament matches are taking place in, so that we don't get any further lapses like that one.
They tend to use the word 'eliminátoria' rather than 'rodada' down there for a round of the Portuguese Cup, by the way.
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For years it felt like you could dip in and out of the MCU stuff knowing that they'd be one of the big summer blockbusters that you could catch if you want to and, has others have pointed out, know more or less what you're gonna get. I only went to watch the first Iron Man because I was visiting my big sister while she was studying and she hadn't paid her leccy bill so we were looking for stuff to do out in the city every day. Then I didn't see another Marvel film until Avengers Assemble, because I was a uni student myself by then and my mates were going to see it anyway. And I later caught Age of Ultron and Doctor Strange, both of which were... fine, and I wasn't bothered by the rest.
Since about 2017 it's seemed that none of the entries into the comic book canon have been intended as standalone pieces, as beancounters to force audiences to fear missing out on Ant-Man in case it means they won't understand a offhand reference in Infinity War. I confess I adored Endgame but it can't really be judged as a film on its own merits because following most of it relies on having seen not just its immediate predecessor, but Captain Marvel and Thor: Ragnarök too.
I'm sure I'll get a kick out of No Way Home next month, but your average cinemagoer need to be able to bring to mind prior events of Civil War, the last two Avengers crossovers and the last seven live-action Spider-Man films to get the most out of it. And it'll be over 150 minutes long too. So much for just switching your brain off in front of a popcorn flick for an hour and a half!
Something like The Grand Budapest Hotel isn't my cup of tea, but I'd have to presume that it's at least a complete story that doesn't require knowledge of previous examples of its creator's oeuvre like The Royal Tenenbaums, for example.
The pandemic has affected things slightly, but the original 'Phase 4' dates announced at San Diego Comic Con two years ago shows that Disney had planned to saturate the market with new releases every few months even before that.
And yes, they're kids' films. But Keith is right to be wary of people who object to describing them as such.
The correct response to anybody who doesn't enjoy them is pity rather than hatred. Or even agreement, in the case of some of the output.
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Premier League
Aston Villa 2-2 Brighton & Hove Albion
Watford 2-1 Manchester United
Wolves 1-2 West Ham United
Liverpool 3-1 ArsenalScottish Premiership
Dundee United 1-1 Aberdeen
Rangers 2-0 HibernianGerman Bundesliga
Borussia Dortmund 0-1 Stuttgart
Werder Bremen 1-0 SchalkePortuguese Cup Round of 32
Serpa 0-2 Estoril
Caldas 1-3 Os Belenenses -
The final scores for both the actual matches and our own FPL Cup clashes were up in the opening post on Sunday night, and the table was recalculated soon afterwards. The right-hand side is nice and colourful so you can easily see at a glance who's through to the semis and who's out. Said semi-finals are tentatively scheduled for a possible 'hybrid' international/club round in late January:
FPL Cup Semi-final draw:
Briefcase vs. ultimo the great
MVP RULZ vs. Rory Fice.
No bonus points this week since the random 'wildcard' fixture was a dud. Match #2, Montenegro v Holland was selected and everybody wrongly thought that the Dutch would win, but it ended in a score draw. Other than that, scores were generally high as is typical of an international round. The two Dads had subpar performances for different reasons, whilst Briefcase moves up a place thanks to a haul of a dozen. TildeGuy closes the gap on MVP RULZ by two points, whereas ultimo is once again a full point adrift at the bottom and not just there on alphabetical order alone.
Away from Titograd, triumphs for Turkey, Wales, Germany, Spain and Nigeria all proved fruitful. Successes for Croatia, Ireland and Ghana produced more of a mixed bag of guesses beforehand, but Serbia's Fulham-assisted last-minute winner in Portugal led to the only other pointless outcome.
One more bit of housekeeping relevant to the round just gone – this week I started a 2022-23 season spreadsheet, about 6 months earlier than ever before. Next season is going to be unlike any other and that'll be by design, not by the accident of a pandemic like the past couple of campaigns. You'll probably be given a choice of whether we take a break for the World Cup or carry on, and how late we'll expect the season to finish based on that decision. That'll be in the form of a poll in next year's sign-up thread which still feels a long way off, but if anyone has an opinion on the matter, feel free to drop it in this thread too.
I agree with the consensus around here that tournaments are great but interruptions during the club season for internationals are something we could do without. Thing is, Qatar 2022 is going to straddle the line between both, so you can never start planning for it too early really.
Anyhow, with that out of the way, a proper set of 10 domestic games will be put in the first post shortly.
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2 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:
San Marino has a population half the size of Wrexham. You could put Cristiano to stud in that country for as long as it takes to produce a generation of footballers and they’d still be shit. The problem you have is that they should only really be playing teams around their level but you’d think they get the bulk of the money they need to run a national team from getting hammered by the likes of England.
That's what the Nations League was meant to sort out, but the balance between the competitions is still weighted towards the traditional format. They'll be back in Division D2 in June and September, but that group only involves 4 matches. Whereas for the main World Cup qualifiers they've just played 10 games, of which at least 8 were against much stronger opponents (depending on how you rate Andorra) and largely considered a waste of everybody's time.
Today I learned...
in Off Topic
Posted · Edited by Fog Dude
Diane Morgan can currently be heard doing the voiceover for those Zoopla ads, which means she's alarmingly comfortable with leaving housing to market forces instead of seeing it as a fundamental human right. I therefore conclude that Cunk on Britain was just being off the wall for the sake of it rather than genuinely satirical.