The reason why American soccer team sucks is because
http://www.returnofkings.com/177928/globohomo-rainbow-mafia-is-forcing-the-u-s-national-soccer-teams-to-wear-gay-pride-jerseys


I am glad the world cup event is happening in "no-nonsense place" place like Russia.

No worries about terrorist attacks there or social justice warrior parades or black lives matter idiots blocking roads and highways for protest.

Did The Netherlands qualify?

I have a long Dutch name and it's the closest I will ever come to being culturally sophisticated, I mean unless I marry into the English Royal Family which looks increasing unlikely now that Prince Harry is off the market.

Germany is a strong contender and in my opinion, the favorite team to win the world cup. France and Spain are also strong, but I hope there'll be some surprises and good games from teams like Colombia, Belgium or even Iceland.
tinyE, The Netherlands is not in this time, but you can also root for Belgium's Flemish branch or maybe even hope one day the Vatican City makes it to the world cup, that'd be really funny.

Looks like they missed it on points:

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/teams/team=43960/index.html

edit: In first round.

Sad! That was the most fun I have ever had watching Germany (apart from England putting 5 past them in 2001). But I am not expecting that to happen again: most of the senior players retired straight after the WC win.

That's debatable.

That'll depend if they are free to use whatever players they want this time around. As opposed to the lineup be contractually decided before the game based on who the sponsors want, and a player only being allowed to be substituted during a match if they are replaced by another player of equal monetary sponsorship value.

Wait wait wait wait

I get Pro Clubs, but sponsors and dictate who plays internationally?
I thought American sports were crooked, and they are, but that's nuts.

Oh, the World Cup was just one case of multinational companies after another fucking us over.

David Luiz was the defender that got most of the blame for that awful performance, and the reason he was never taken out of the field was that he was one of the faces Coca-Cola's or Pepsi's promotional campaign for the World Cup and they didn't have a sufficiently high profile substitute for him to appease the sponsors.

There's also that Fifa official who had the gall to complain that fans were getting too rowdy during the games. Gee, maybe that's why we passed a law over a decade ago prohibiting the sale of alcohol in stadiums and their vicinity. A law that FIFA pressured the government to suspend during the games in order to appease however many beer sponsors they had.

If anyone is interested, I started a prediction competition:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/gog_2018_world_cup_prediction_competition_1/page1

The reasons US Soccer didn't qualify are not because those jerseys or because SJW, but because internal conflict within. But if you happy to think that way, feel free to do so.

Germany are favorites to win the 2018 World Cup, but I hope Portugal can surprise them in the competition.

I'll be cheering for Brasil, of course. But I also hope Argentina and Uruguay do well.
....Actually I support all latin american teams.

I'm just hoping that England don't stink the place out this time.

Belgium have a very strong team on paper but they remind me of Englands so-called Golden Generation, they don't perform as well as a team as they should do.