World Cup: Belgium and France set up all-European semi-final (No Latin American Teams Left)

FourFourTwo. Com ^ | July 27, 2018

[11th_VA]

It was a day of Europe vs. South America as the quarter-finals got under way, with the former continent emerging triumphant on two occasions. Together with Brazil's loss, Uruguay's 2-0 defeat by France means there are no longer any CONMEBOL nations left standing. France will fancy their chances of going all the way after its comfortable victory over the Uruguayans on Friday. Raphael Varane and Antoine Griezmann got the goals for Les Blues, which has now kept three clean sheets.

[Pappy Smear]

Since no USA this year, I decided to go all in on Belgium. Kinda scoped out the teams ahead of time, and using various standards, and personal country preference, decided to settle on Belgium. And it has paid off.

Go Red Devils!

[ccmay]

That would be a strange sort of racism since the majority of the players on France’s team are black. Even their few white players are diverse with Spanish and German names. Only two ethnic Frenchmen usually start (Giroud and Pavard).

Lloris is a native Frenchman. It isn't a Spanish name. His father is from Roussillon (French Catalonia.)

[ccmay]

It was quite a party. I climbed atop the Bastille with many others.

That's quite a trick, considering the Bastille was torn down in the Revolution more than two hundred years ago. Did you mean the Colonne de Juillet?

[ccmay]

half of those 90 minutes seem to be spent rolling on the ground crying like little sissies when somebody barely touches them

The NBA has some world class divers and drama queens too.

[wardaddy]

I lived in Brasil during Maradonna years when Argentina rocked and São Paulo was wild during FIFA

Argentina versus The German Machine

France beat Brasil

But I don’t know fùtbol well

Did not know non nationals played on cup teams besides their own

Sounds like cheating

[Figment]

Who gives a flip?

[Figment]

For once in a long time. I agree with her

[Roman_War_Criminal]

While I will give you that soccer fans are a bizarre bunch for the most part (costumes and drag to go around), I can’t help but notice that every time I go to an NFL game (not NCAA), the atmosphere is full of anger like you mention with international soccer games.

MLS games in America have a much more family friendly atmosphere IMHO.

Some of the most Nationalistic fans are International Soccer fans.

[FenwickBabbitt]

Sorry, as I wrote earlier I was talking about “ethnic” Frenchmen. I should not have used native, since some people still use it like you did to mean native-born. I was using it to mean “indigenous,” as it is commonly used nowadays as in “Native American.”

Also, I do not think talking about American football teams is at all comparable. First, our football teams are not national teams, representing the entire country. Secondly, the U.S. from its beginning as an independent country has been primarily populated by immigrants and their descendants. France has only recently become a home to millions of immigrants (yes, I know they also had much smaller numbers prior to that), and their immigrant populations are still a long ways from being the majority.

It is not illegitimate of me to question whether there is some sort of bias against ethnic Frenchmen within the French soccer world. No other country in Europe has so few of their own indigenous population representing their country. This is, believe it or not, something that is actually openly discussed in France itself. For example, England’s team has many black players on it (most of whom have English names and sometimes are part English ethnically themselves), but it also has many ethnic English players. Having a diverse team doesn’t have to mean excluding the indigenous population, as mostly has happened in France.

[FenwickBabbitt]

I doubt they are non-nationals, in that they have gotten citizenship from the country they want to play for. For example, Samuel Umtiti is from Cameroon and I believe has obtained French citizenship. Numerous other people born in France have gotten citizenship through their parents or grandparents for other countries and now play on many African national teams. The French team is mostly made up of the children of immigrants though.

The Swiss team has several people from the former Yugoslavia on their national team, but most came as children during the fighting there in the 1990s. So they aren’t doing any cheating. It’s just that small immigrant groups can sometimes be very overrepresented on some of these national teams. Now, some people believe that the teams should somewhat reflect the actual make-up of the country that’s represented. Others think that doesn’t matter at all, even in international contests.

If you’re interested, here’s an article from the WaPo about the 82 foreign-born players on the various world cup national teams this year: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/sports/world-cup-countries-of-birth/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.042b16f272d5

[romanesq]

Well, it’s the Bastille square but they still call it The Bastille. Of course the former prisons are long gone but the square remains.

Yes, I climbed the July Column in the middle of the Bastille Square and it’s almost 200 years old. You wouldn’t be able to do that again without arrest.

[Mozzafiato]

Still I wonder how many World Cups a UK team would have won. Imagine Georgie Best in his prime on a UK team.

Best's prime would have been the 1966, 1970, 1974 World Cups. England won anyway in 1966. In 1970, nobody was beating Brazil, including a UK team with Best. In 1974, England was lousy and didn't even qualify for the World Cup.

[dfwgator]

In 1974, England was lousy and didn't even qualify for the World Cup.

Ha ha, because of the 'clown' Tomaszewski.