Gareth Southgate has confirmed that England will take the knee before tomorrow’s game against Iran 🏴 pic.twitter.com/cuEYUr6Ttg
— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) November 20, 2022
SportsMole:
England’s latest quest for major tournament glory begins with their World Cup 2022 opener against Iran in Group B at the Khalifa International Stadium on Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile, their opponents are competing on the biggest global stage for the third time in a row but are facing an uphill battle to finally progress beyond the group stage.
Another attempt to emulate the heroes of 1966 awaits Gareth Southgate’s young, effervescent crop, and should the Three Lions continue the theme of going one better at major tournaments under the 52-year-old, the empty suitcase that Declan Rice brought along to carry home the World Cup trophy will come in handy….
The world’s 20th-ranked nation will expect to be battling Wales and the USA for second place in Group B should England ride off into the sunset as expected, but Team Melli are one of a number of nations to have become embroiled in pre-tournament controversy.
The Ukrainian FA requested the expulsion of Iran from the World Cup over allegations of the Asian nation supplying weapons to Russia for the ongoing war in Eastern Europe, but Carlos Queiroz’s side are now preparing to compete on the finals stage for the third time in a row.
It will not come as too much of a surprise to learn that Iran have never progressed beyond the group stage of the World Cup in its current format, and they have only ever won two games in the tournament, one of which came against Morocco on the opening matchday at Russia 2018….
British actor, comedian & writer:
Message to the @England football team at the #WorldCup for the game v Islamic Republic of Iran 🇮🇷 on Monday. We think it would be amazing if you did this. It would mean more than you could ever imagine. pic.twitter.com/SHtz8oB9IJ
— Omid Djalili (@omid9) November 19, 2022
ETA: Oops…
Thousands of supporters including #eng and #usa fans facing ticket chaos as FIFA's app crashes. Story here with @JeffreyCarlisle: https://t.co/TxkVxoQkFx
— James Olley (@JamesOlley) November 21, 2022
On The Road – Albatrossity – Flyover Country Birds, and more
JML
Can’t believe Southgate is starting ol’ Slabhead (McGuire). He’s so out of form that he’s only gotten 3 starts in the premier league this season, he’s looked old, slow, and confused when he did play. Might blow up England’s chances all by himself.
Chief Oshkosh
Anybody follow England enough to hazard a guess as to whether their players will do the snip gesture, assuming they score?
marklar
The day after the Club Q massacre, FIFA threatens to give yellow cards to players with LGBTQ Social Justice armbands.
That’s my World Cup comment for the day.
JML
Once again, FIFA proves they have no idea how to handle concussions and head trauma with this injury to the Iranian keeper. Ridiculous that after 10 minutes of treatment they allow him to continue and then he drops a few minutes later and has to be removed. Just absurd.
Scout211
@marklar: I was going to post that. Here’s the story from CNN.
Amir Khalid
@JML:
Harry “Slabhead” Maguire was a really good defender at Leicester City, before he went to Man United, and had a good Euro ’21 for England. It’s just at United that he has been comically bad. (YouTube has some hilarious highlight reels of his defending blunders.) Maybe Gareth reckons he’ll come good for England again.
Kevin
England should have no problem with this group in my opinion. As much as I would love the USMNT to beat them they are stacked. And just like that 2-0 over Iran.
Uncle Cosmo
Bastards need to find out in the strongest possible terms.
Gin & Tonic
The current issue of The Economist has an editorial (they call them “leaders”) entitled “In Defense of Qatar.” Agree with them or not, your choice. Here’s a gift link, hope it works.
Tony Jay
Not watching. There’s nothing I can do about the deplorable corruption of FIFA, the cowardice of the English FA or the scumminess of the Qatari Government, but I can control what I point my eyeballs at and it’s not going to be this fake World Cup.
Fuck ’em.
cmorenc
@Tony Jay: Not-watching is not going to make the WC go away, at least so long as enough of the matches are competitive contests rather than mismatches (e.g. Equator v Quater. and so far England v Iran). FIFA and WC have the momentum of an establshed base of keen world interest in soccer and the WC which the corrupt crew who run FIFA are counting on (and probably correcly) to carry this WC over any humps of revulsion or objection to selling out to hold WC22 in such a ridiculously ill-suited host country and ill-suited season.
I wish the top soccer leagues had been willing / able to put up more resistance to this (or any future instances) of such intrusively disruptive interruptions to their regular seaons, because the long-term result is that FIFA may view this as establishing a precedent that FIFA can choose whatever timing suits the climate / situation of whichever future potential host country has offered the heads of FIFA the most attractive kickbacks for selecting them. It will need to be the leagues in conjunction with the top national team organizations that mount the resistance, because it’s doubtful there is a large enough proportion of top players willing to commit to boyotting WC selections in timely fashion in order to successfully dissuade FIFA heads from serving themselves first and the game/players a distant second.
HinTN
With you 100%, @Tony Jay:. This is a travesty.
Paul in KY
@Chief Oshkosh: You may assume they will score :-)
Paul in KY
@JML: I had never seen a soccer match with 14 mins of injury time (especially in 1st half).
SW
Will not be watching. Absolutely loathe the execrable FIFA. Too bad. It’s a beautiful game.
Paul in KY
England up 6-1 near end of match. Complete whupping.
JML
@Paul in KY: Absolute travesty that they didn’t take the Iranian keeper off immediately. as a friend of mine texted this morning, “the Miami Dolphins training staff would like a word”.
Had to go to work before the goals started spinning. Rough beat for iran, who is a better team than this. I did see that Slabhead conceded one, though. Maybe Southgate will realize that you can’t start a player based on loyalty to their performance in Euros. but I doubt it.
Gonna try to see some of the USMNT this afternoon, really hope they don’t lay an egg against Wales, who are a solid and smart team.
kindness
FIFA…..I mean GD. We’ve read about how corrupt they are for decades now. I only vaguely follow soccer but do pay attention to stuff like the world cup. Well, OK, I don’t watch the games but follow the results. Insert make fun of American sports fans here.
Alison Rose
Too early for me to watch on the West coast, but dang, kudos to Iran for scoring 2 against England and chipping away at that damn goal differential.
Geo Wilcox
I don’t watch mob oriented sports of any kind, which means I don’t watch any sports. They are all a racket of money, bribery, and bull shit.
Paul in KY
@JML: It’s going to take our best game to beat Wales. Any other time for Wales & I would be rooting for them.
Paul in KY
@Alison Rose: Thought the penalty decision was good. If that had happened to a team of mine, would want the penalty given.
Gin & Tonic
@Paul in KY: Wales eliminated Ukraine, so no love lost from my side.
Geminid
@Alison Rose: I want to see Iran do well in this tournament. They are playing for their fellow citizens, not the government.
Alison Rose
@Geminid: Eh, well…I do too in a sense. Except that it’s pretty much guaranteed England will win our group, and I want the US to at least advance to the Round of 16. Thus the best I wish for Iran is 3rd place :P
Paul in KY
@Gin & Tonic: Understand. I watched that match. Ukraine boys were/are a credit to their nation!