Personally think we'll top out qualifying group. Scrape through the group stages with a win and two draws. 1-0 win against some shit side in R2. Defeat on pens in the quarters.
It's not like the Spanish team isn't used to heat though. Or maybe even some Italian players. If only.
And the season is played from August until the 1st June in Spain this year. Retard. On top of that, there are plenty of places in Spain which have sun/heat/warmth for the majority of the year. On top of that, the argument about the heat affecting players was pretty much made redundant when you realise that it'll be winter for most of Brazil when the world cup is played. Meaning the temperatures won't be overly hot anyway. Probably about your average summer day here. That's summer, in general, not when we have a heatwave.
Exactly, excluding the games played right near the equator which is extremely humid regardless of the season, it being winter will make it no hotter than any summer european world cup.
Out of curiosity, how many games will be played near the equator? I don't actually know, and sort of assume that you will.
Night time in March is much much colder than during the day in July. And it might technically be winter but it's nit going to be freezing cold in Brazil. Plus games are going to be played at hotter times of the day to suit European audiences; there's a reason up until 2010 no European side had won a World Cup outside of Europe.
I find myself having to repeat myself a lot to you. Do you read what I write or write a response to suit what you think I wrote? Or is there some amazing language barrier between two people who use the same language? Of course it'll be colder, but August in Spain, which was what we were talking about, can be like upwards of 35 degrees, probably about 25+ in the evening, when football is played (so, just to make this clear to you, I'm talking about games that kick off at 8pm Spanish time, not the whole night). Which is hotter than it's likely going to be in Brazil. I never once said it would be freezing cold. In fact, I said it would more likely be like what an average day in the summer would be like here, at the hotter points in time, when some games are played. I also never said it would be easy to go there and for Spain to win, but if they don't win, I don't think the weather will be to blame.
Couple of potentially good qualifiers tonight. Belgium v Serbia, Czech Rep v Italy, Portugal v Russia, Argentina v Colombia.
Portugal v Russia the pick. I'm gonna call: 2-1 Belgium, 1-0 Russia, 1-1 Czech vs Italy and the home team of Argentina vs Columbia the winner.
A few observations from Serbia vs Belgium: - If your cms and gk are your worst players, you'll never create many chances and any chance they have will end up in the back of the net. - Raping opposition players in the penalty area is legal. - Toby Alderweireld can play keeper with his legs. - Our coach sucks. Belgium were the better team this time around but they just don't seem that convincing. They've gotten a group where they're just good enough to beat the bottom teams and the top 2 teams in Serbia and Croatia aren't really that good. 5th favourites for the world cup would be fair on the basis of the quality of their squad but what they put on the pitch doesn't do a great deal.
They're not that special atm, especially when Hazard doesn't play. It's more the potential that people are getting excited about. They have a LOT of very good young players.
They actually are though. Courtouis is one of the best keepers in europe. Vertoghen, Vermaelen and Kompany are a great set of defenders and Alderweireld is good too and is set to make the move to a top european team. Dembele, Witsel, Fellaini, Hazard, Mirallas, Defour are all proven at top teams. Lukaku and Benteke would be the two out of the positions that you'd consider more on their potential, but even then, they're pretty good prem strikers and had great success last season as it is.