°µÍø½ûÇø

So......France vs Croatia or England.

Amazing.

I think we're looking at La Belle France vs Les Rosbifs*.

Ooo...la-la....tomorrow will be quelle surprise!

*I corrected the spelling post-comments

I think we could well be in the final and maybe win if we play well with no silly mistakes.

SimCityAT wrote:

I think we could well be in the final and maybe win if we play well with no silly mistakes.

I think there's a good chance.   England have been very disciplined.

Last night, the French were constantly at the Belgian's goal area.  It was the same when England were playing Sweden.  You could see the constant attacking.  I reckon it'll be full on relentless pressure against Croatia.

I saw a news article that said 25 million (in the UK) watched England vs Sweden.  It will be even higher tonight I am sure.  And if we're in the final, the whole country will be watching.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimCityAT wrote:

I think we could well be in the final and maybe win if we play well with no silly mistakes.

I think there's a good chance.   England have been very disciplined.

Last night, the French were constantly at the Belgian's goal area.  It was the same when England were playing Sweden.  You could see the constant attacking.  I reckon it'll be full on relentless pressure against Croatia.

I saw a news article that said 25 million (in the UK) watched England vs Sweden.  It will be even higher tonight I am sure.  And if we're in the final, the whole country will be watching.

There are 10,000 England fans over in Russia, so that will boost the team's spirit.

SimCityAT wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimCityAT wrote:

I think we could well be in the final and maybe win if we play well with no silly mistakes.

I think there's a good chance.   England have been very disciplined.

Last night, the French were constantly at the Belgian's goal area.  It was the same when England were playing Sweden.  You could see the constant attacking.  I reckon it'll be full on relentless pressure against Croatia.

I saw a news article that said 25 million (in the UK) watched England vs Sweden.  It will be even higher tonight I am sure.  And if we're in the final, the whole country will be watching.

There are 10,000 England fans over in Russia, so that will boost the team's spirit.

I believe some shops (Lidl, Aldi) in the UK will close early if England is in the final.  It could be 1966 again.  Harry Kane is the top goal scorer (with 6) so we've a very good chance.   

In unbelievably unfortunate timing, we're at a wedding on Saturday and the majority of the wedding takes place at 18h CET.  Kick off for 3rd/4th place is 16h CET (17h Moscow time).  So it should be over by the time the wedding takes place.  If it does into extra time, I am sure many of the attendees will be surreptitiously looking at their phones during the ceremony.

I would have thought you would be supporting Croatia since it used to be part of Hungary...

fluffy2560 wrote:

If it does into extra time, I am sure many of the attendees will be surreptitiously looking at their phones during the ceremony.

It is when they jump out of their pews while the bride and groom are saying their vows and all are shouting "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL" that might give the game away....

fluffy2560 wrote:

Les Rosbiefs.

Les Rosbifs. Tu parle français comme une vache espanol.

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

Les Rosbiefs.

Les Rosbifs. Tu parle français comme une vache espanol.

²Ñ±ð°ù³¦¾±.Ìý

I did that from memory and it's a long time since I attempted anything in French.

What have the French got against Spanish cows?

Moo.

fluffy2560 wrote:

[What have the French got against Spanish cows?

The Common Agricultural Policy. Why do you think they built a wall between the two countries, I believe it is called  the Pyrenees.

SimonTrew wrote:

I would have thought you would be supporting Croatia since it used to be part of Hungary...

Who is "you"?

But anyway we did support Croatia in their last match against the Russians.   Wasn't because of Hungary, it was just because we could not support Russia.  If France face Croatia, I think we will have to support Croatia. But that ain't gonna happen.  It's France vs England!!!

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

[What have the French got against Spanish cows?

The Common Agricultural Policy. Why do you think they built a wall between the two countries, I believe it is called  the Pyrenees.

They can always vote to leave.  Vote with their hooves.

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

If it does into extra time, I am sure many of the attendees will be surreptitiously looking at their phones during the ceremony.

It is when they jump out of their pews while the bride and groom are saying their vows and all are shouting "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL" that might give the game away....

I think the scoring comes later - after the party. 

Ooo...err...missus....

But then what are we going to do with all the Catalan, Occitan and Aragonese cows?

We could smuggle them in as American judges, each dressed in a muumuu.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I think the scoring comes later - after the party. 
Ooo...err...missus....

Well I hope the groom knows when  to push it in to touch...

I am not sure they are still doing them but Aldi were doing a six-pack (500ml bottles) of Marstons and various other beers that Marstons now owns, I think there were Pedigree, a couple of light ales, I forget exactly but bottle conditioned English light ales and dark ales.

THey were 3000ft for six bottles so not cheap but not ridiculously expensive either. A six-pack of them if they are still doing them would be good, I don't remember seeing them the other day but they were moving quite slowly so may have been at the end of the aisle I only went in for washing powder and wasn't really looking.

You know, those kind of specials they have from time to time. Had I any confidence England would get this far (they usually crash out in the second round) then not only would I have laid a bet on it but got a few beers in. Dreher or Soprini IPA (both very good I think, I cannot make my mind up which I prefer) must suffice.

England are slightly the odds-on favourites in the betting in England (I checked the prices this early this morning just out of interest, so that would have excluded today's shop betting) but it is going to be biased towards England on English betting, just out of partiality rather than any rational bet (if there is such a thing), so I imagine the "true odds" are something nearer evens. THis is what I mean by "value betting" a discussion we had before, that my value would be to bet on Croatia as I get better odds if I believe that Croatia and England have about the same chance to win, I might as well bet Croatia and get better odds. I am not planning to bet and wouldn't know how to from Hungary, I suppose I could use a credit card but I only ever bet with cash I actually have and can afford to lose, not on credit.  But the bookmakers show where sentiment is and it is only slightly in England's favour.

That"s pissed on your bonfire hasn't it.

All credit to Southgate, he brought in a young team I think more to give them experience for the next World Cup and deliberately kept expectations low. Which is good because even now the English papers are not going  to just blame him for everything if England loses this evening. Belgium and France played very evenly yesterday and I think it could ahve been anyone's game,. it was a bit of lady luck, that is all. Both goalkeepers performed brilliantly, it was a great game to watch.

SimonTrew wrote:

.....

You know, those kind of specials they have from time to time. Had I any confidence England would get this far (they usually crash out in the second round) then not only would I have laid a bet on it but got a few beers in. Dreher or Soprini IPA (both very good I think, I cannot make my mind up which I prefer) must suffice.
......
All credit to Southgate, he brought in a young team I think more to give them experience for the next World Cup and deliberately kept expectations low. Which is good because even now the English papers are not going  to just blame him for everything if England loses this evening. Belgium and France played very evenly yesterday and I think it could ahve been anyone's game,. it was a bit of lady luck, that is all. Both goalkeepers performed brilliantly, it was a great game to watch.

I dunno, France had higher possession of the ball, certainly in the first half.  But I agree at the end of the day the score showed it was evenly matched. Southgate will definitely not be blamed, he and the team have done brilliantly.  Considering how bad we've been for years, getting to the semi-finals is a brilliant job.  He'll be remembered.   

My problem is not beer, it's food. Beer might be Guinness or just a cup of tea.  We should have an easy prepared traditional British food that the kids will eat - last night we had "home made" pizza (bread maker makes the dough, pizza sauce easily made from tomatoes - all very easy).   

I'm thinking but where to get decent sausages, preferably Cumberland ones? Mrs Fluffy will be on the job for the sausages but I suspect we'll have to wing sausage-wise.

SimonTrew wrote:

But then what are we going to do with all the Catalan, Occitan and Aragonese cows?

We could smuggle them in as American judges, each dressed in a muumuu.

Don't you mean a "moo-moo"?

Or was that too obvious?

Make your own sausages, we do.

Sausage skins you can get from the butchers mrs fluffy will know the word I don't (the missus is in Manchester, England at the moment) but you get the sausage skins the proper pig entrails from the local butcher, any huzenhentes. We have a sausage maker but really no need do a Generation Game job and get the fluffiettes to squirt the mince into the skins with onions and herbs whatever is your fancy a twist every four inches ten centimetres or so and really it is very easy to make sausages.

Easier with an attachment to a mincing machine where it is continuous process and just keep pusing it through the mincer into the skin, surely you have a mincing machine?  A manual one is better, we got a motorized "Silverline" i.e. ALDI one from, er, ALDI, and it is pretty crap because it goes in fits and starts and you get very lumpy sossages and it needs constantly cleaning out, better with a manual mincer with attachment.  Why not make a bit of fun of it like on the Generation Game, why not.

To get the csiga Cumberland sausages the spiral i dunno how they make them go in a spiral, I imagine the attachment has a blade that pushes more filling down the left hand side than the right but that is purely a guess, i.e. on the fixed side of the attachment with the holes in it, the mincer essentially, they would be wider bore on the right than on the left so more meat goes through that way, but that is purely a guess on my part. Obviously on the rotational part it makes no difference becaue it is rotating. Since it is the rotational part that is fixed to the drive part of the machine first and the fixed part afterwards i.e. a bit like a clutch, I can see how that would work, but it is just a guess.

I don't think Tesco do any English sausages we tend to import them i.-e.- missus brings them with her from England together with sherbert dib-dabs etc, as they are kinda one of those things you can't get. Instad of rusk just use bread it will do at a push. Herbs etc to your liking.  You can use the paxo stuffing that I think you can get in Tesco or its own brand of same, which has rusk in it.

Simon "Two Kitchens" Trew

Telcos do Britsh bangers, also Irish from time to time, Aldi and Lidl also have British weeks. In Austria we have a gent that makes them. Britwurst. He also does port pies, black pudding and bacon.

SimCityAT wrote:

Telcos do Britsh bangers, also Irish from time to time, Aldi and Lidl also have British weeks. In Austria we have a gent that makes them. Britwurst. He also does port pies, black pudding and bacon.

Mrs Fluffy has gone to Tesco with the kids to search the aisles.

SimonTrew wrote:

...Make your own sausages, we do....

Too complicated......the game starts in 2h and then there's Sunday for the final. 

I doubt we can make anything here at that kind of lightning speed.

Toad in the Hole successfully eaten during 2nd half.

Now in extra time and on the red wine.

Bit of a nail biter so need anaesthesia!

Oh well, it's only football.  There's 3rd/4th place on Saturday.

Unusual final on Sunday though - France vs Croatia.

Well 4 - 2, not a score I would have liked, but, oh well another World Cup over and done with for another 4 years.

SimCityAT wrote:

https://i0.wp.com/www.theafricanprogres … roatia.jpg

Well 4 - 2, not a score I would have liked, but, oh well another World Cup over and done with for another 4 years.

Yes, indeed. 

Own Croatian goal was a bit much but the guy redeemed himself with that odd goal around the goalkeeper.  At the end of the day, the French still won.  I'm just "meh....", bah-humbug.  I'll be putting away my England flags now for 4 years (really I should have them out for St George's Day). 

We have to wait until 2020 and Qatar.   I believe the next one will take place around Xmas time which is kind of interesting.  The reason apparently is the weather - it's the "cold" season there and better for playing.   Might be other influences about them holding it there. Don't know for sure.

It's a bit funny holding a tournament there because I've found most Arabic people are not very interested in football.  It's not like other countries where you see kids just having a kick around.   In places like Bangladesh, I've seen them playing impromptu cricket but not football.

I wonder if we'll all be in this forum in 2020 and we can all take it up again?!   Unless we do the European Championships?

fluffy2560 wrote:

We have to wait until 2020 and Qatar.   I believe the next one will take place around Xmas time which is kind of interesting.  The reason apparently is the weather - it's the "cold" season there and better for playing.   Might be other influences about them holding it there. Don't know for sure.

Yeah Quatar......

Summer (June to September) is very hot with low rainfall. Daily maximum temperatures can reach easily 45°C or more. Winter is cooler with occasional rainfall. Spring and autumn are warm, mostly dry and pleasant, with maximum temperatures between 25°C and 35°C and cooler night Temperatures between 15 and 22°C.

SimCityAT wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

We have to wait until 2020 and Qatar.   I believe the next one will take place around Xmas time which is kind of interesting.  The reason apparently is the weather - it's the "cold" season there and better for playing.   Might be other influences about them holding it there. Don't know for sure.

Yeah Qatar......

Summer (June to September) is very hot with low rainfall. Daily maximum temperatures can reach easily 45°C or more. Winter is cooler with occasional rainfall. Spring and autumn are warm, mostly dry and pleasant, with maximum temperatures between 25°C and 35°C and cooler night Temperatures between 15 and 22°C.

What's the best football temperature. I'd have thought 18--22 C maybe?

This means, all games have to be played at 2am!!!

BTW, I was at Doha airport at least twice to change planes.  One of the most deadly dull airports I've ever been to.   Absolutely boring. Dubai is very boring and naff airport but Doha, I can hardly keep awake even talking about it.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimCityAT wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

We have to wait until 2020 and Qatar.   I believe the next one will take place around Xmas time which is kind of interesting.  The reason apparently is the weather - it's the "cold" season there and better for playing.   Might be other influences about them holding it there. Don't know for sure.

Yeah Qatar......

Summer (June to September) is very hot with low rainfall. Daily maximum temperatures can reach easily 45°C or more. Winter is cooler with occasional rainfall. Spring and autumn are warm, mostly dry and pleasant, with maximum temperatures between 25°C and 35°C and cooler night Temperatures between 15 and 22°C.

What's the best football temperature. I'd have thought 18--22 C maybe?

This means, all games have to be played at 2am!!!

BTW, I was at Doha airport at least twice to change planes.  One of the most deadly dull airports I've ever been to.   Absolutely boring. Dubai is very boring and naff airport but Doha, I can hardly keep awake even talking about it.

2 am, hmm whats the time difference? That would be kind us watching then games? Oh bugger they are 1 hour ahead of us

SimCityAT wrote:

...
2 am, hmm whats the time difference? That would be kind us watching then games? Oh bugger they are 1 hour ahead of us

I believe that there was a discussion about airco'ing the entire main stadium there.  No idea if that came to anything. 

On Xmas Day, they are +2h ahead of us in HU. I think they don't observe DST.

I would not fancy kicking a ball in those temperatures all the same. It was enough with 33°C here today

SimCityAT wrote:

I would not fancy kicking a ball in those temperatures all the same. It was enough with 33°C here today

A kickabout at say 27 C would be alright as long as it was not too strenuous.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimCityAT wrote:

I would not fancy kicking a ball in those temperatures all the same. It was enough with 33°C here today

A kickabout at say 27 C would be alright as long as it was not too strenuous.

Early games would be fine but as it went on would be tougher, well for England etc... Not so much for Italy, Spain or are used to the hotter temps.

SimCityAT wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimCityAT wrote:

I would not fancy kicking a ball in those temperatures all the same. It was enough with 33°C here today

A kickabout at say 27 C would be alright as long as it was not too strenuous.

Early games would be fine but as it went on would be tougher, well for England etc... Not so much for Italy, Spain or are used to the hotter temps.

I don't really know how many stadiums there are in Doha.  If they'd only got one, it'd be a bit rubbish as the scheduling would be awfully difficult.   I thought though they were spending billions on it.  Makes you wonder how such a country could cope with many rowdy and unusual people hanging around in the place.  And then again, there's the sanctions issues currently ongoing.  If they are still going in 2022, it's going to be an odd one for sure.

I think for playing in higher temperatures perhaps all it would need is a 3 week acclimatisation camp.  It would be far worse if the World Cup was held in Kathmandu or even Denver.   Probably 3 mons minimum.

The whole tournament would go for longer as there could not be 4 matches in one day if just one stadium? My personal feelings it should never have been given to them.

But look at Brazil and the Olympics and them building new stadiums etc....

Hang on should have googled it first

Under its proposal to FIFA, Qatar will build 9 new stadiums and renovate 3, with the 12 venues divided among 7 host cities. The 7 host cities are Al-Daayen, Al-Khor, Al-Rayyan, Al-Shamal, Al-Wakrah, Doha and Umm Slal.

After the Cup it is planned to dismantle parts of the stadiums and send them to developing countries to make 22 new stadiums.

Climate controlled stadiums
Qatar's bid organisers say that the stadiums will be zero-carbon emitting and climate controlled (The Fifa World Cup is always held in Europe's off-season in June and July, and during this time Qatar's average daytime high is in excess of 40 °C). The stadiums will take measures to reduce solar radiation and warm winds, and provide soft air conditioning to provide adequate climatic conditions (these measures have not before been deployed on stadiums of this size).

So does not look too bad after all?

SimCityAT wrote:

The whole tournament would go for longer as there could not be 4 matches in one day if just one stadium? My personal feelings it should never have been given to them.

But look at Brazil and the Olympics and them building new stadiums etc....

...........So does not look too bad after all?

Yes, looks good.  The national team have a stadium with a fully retractable roof and presumably full climate control.   The Qataris certainly have the money for it - drop in the ocean.   

I still find it odd they want to host it but it looks like a vanity project at any cost for someone - rumours of corruption have abounded.  The Middle Eastern style doesn't encourage participation in team sports as far as I know.  All they seem to like sports wise is whizzing about in the desert in 4x4s, camel racing and hunting with falcons.

On the other hand, in South America, football is from the cradle to the grave and a real opportunity to get out of the slums.  Pele a great example and Maradona a much less great example.  How the mighty can fall (i.e. or even ).