GENERAL World Cup Thread

A lot to like about that England side. Great energy. Direct football. Good to watch

I have, let's just say, a special ability to tune into TV stations around the globe.

It really puts into perspective how great the World Cup is and how much it brings the world together, over the past few days I've flicked through over 40 different stations around the world all showing even the most minor of games in dozens of languages.

Ironically we complain about RTE/BBC/ITV but it looks like most other countries are way more ads compared to analysis.

So with almost every team having played their opening game are people still saying that this is a bloated mess that they are not interested in or are they enjoying the entertaining games every night?

Definitely the latter for me.

Is there any argument to be made that RTÉ should only do live coverage of the World Cup if Ireland qualify? Leave Irish fans who really want to watch it to their own means of obtaining the games?

To our own means? What are we supposed to do - call up FIFA and negotiate individually?

Nothing much to get excited about there but at least we are finally getting around to the 2nd round of the groups.

I've been watching world cups on RTE since 1978, I can't find any reason to watch them on any other channel if they are available on RTE.

I quite like sitting down to game in the dead of night, tho 12pm would be the latest for me…couldn't watch a game from 2 am or later

Tho overall i think it's lost a lot of it's magic, watching teams from South America for example and seeing players you know from clubs like Brentford, Palace or Sunderland has watered down the mystique to say the least

I've enjoyed the World Cup so far. It has been a step up from 4 years ago.

The extra games are great but the time is a bit rough.
5pm, 8pm and 11pm are great times for games when it falls.

Also interesting that a lot of the big name players got off to good starts this round. Golden boot could be very interesting

Hopefully it goes up another level once the knockouts come around.
But overall it's the most I've enjoyed a world cup in a long time

A little bit of good news from the USA:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/17/world-cup-cape-verde-goalkeeper-mother-visa-vozinha

I was watching the DRC v Portugal game yesterday and sure enough the DRC scorer, someone you would expect came from some obscure club in deepest Africa or Eastern Europe, actually plays with Newcastle Utd

I coined the term for whas happening in soccer and many elite sports the Nerflixisation of the sport.

In this case, FIFA (same as UEFA, the GAA to a certain extent, European Rugby, and the big US sports) favour quantity over quality. They favour constant low intensity content,they can be followed by half watching,like a lot of the slop on Netflix that most folks half watch while they scroll on their phones.

Historically,these big tournaments were a novelty, as above you watched all the available games with interest and discovered new players,new teams, and were more invested. Now it's mainly just background noise,but once it's on in the background and you observe the adverts that's ok with FIFA.

Is it better or worse? It's different that's for sure, but there is no way any sane person could consume all the games fully,you have to pick and chose. We have to be careful though,we have a very Euro-centric and even Anglo-centric view, almost what right have the African or Asian teams have to share the spotlight or get their slice of the pie. We all know FIFA and Gianna only being them along to butress his own powerbase, but they have as much right to stink the place out as the likes of this Czech team has