Iceland Qualifies for World Cup

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Over the weekend, Iceland became the smallest (pop~330,000) nation ever to qualify for the World Cup of Soccer.

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In a match played in Reykjavik, Iceland sealed its place in Russia with a 2-0 victory against Kosovo.

Trivia question - prior to this weekend, which was the smallest nation to have qualified ?

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Trinidad and Tobago?

 

I would if I could.....

Did I see that The Netherland is out?

I'll tell you what: this year there is some very serious money being bandied about with the acquisition of players for the various teams....I wouldn't mind just a small portion of what they are offering.

 

I wasn't surprised to see that Argentina was able to suddenly get a hat-trick and find themselves in the list going....

 

It's probably just as well. The players for their own 'football' teams won't even honour their own flag.

The NHL's players are not permitted to play in the Olympics, no matter which country they come from.

And the World Cup is being held in Russia - a nation for whom the USA has nothing but economic sanctions and trash talk. Despite the fact that Russia transports the USA's astronauts to the international space station.

On a World stage, disrespect like that would only be a detriment to any sport. The USA is not ready for that level of competition yet.

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Losing those two first games screwed them big time

 

Well I have to say, the US team didn't actually light it up in the last WC, Germany shut them down like they had never played soccer before, so no great loss, and they didn't actually play inspired this time anyway, so they would likely have gotten smoked!

 

I want to say in hindsight, that my comments were abrupt and rude. And it is hard to ignore the fact that my team is not under discussion.

And it is a shame that that really good USA player, Pulisic, won't be playing. He is young though, so hopefully next time.

The hockey issue - that one is on us. If we can crow about hockey being our national sport, then how come we don't have our own league ? Can you imagine a Finnish team playing in a Swedish league ? The Finnish fans wouldn't stand for it.

And frankly, this whole infatuation which pro sports has with politics nowadays is becoming tiresome, in my opinion.

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Yes, and there was also that free goal that Panama got in their game, without which the USA team would have advanced.

I should not have spoken so abruptly - there's already too much damn politics in sports - sorry.

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Great to see the Iceland support in the stadium.

 

I've got to agree with yo on this Insp. And what with the rather LARGE sums of money that are being bandied about with the purchasing of players in the English and European Leagues.....Seems like a recipe for corruption to me??

Oh, wait...With FIFA in control, that isn't possible!! Never going to happen!!! How could I possibly think that???

 

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AK, I like Formula 1. But there's always something about it that seems suspiciously secretive.Sinister almost.​

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And at least over here anyway, they are masters of maintaining their image. So if you have any stories, they'd be good to hear. ​

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I do have one F1 story.

Mercedes has told Hamilton and Bottas that they're both out of jobs if they ever collide with each other in a race again.

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