grahamruthven.bsky.social
I write/talk about football • Total Soccer Show 🎙️ • Guardian/FotMob 📝 • The Soccer Dispatch newsletter 🗞️ • Fantasy Utd founder 📱
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Always one of my favourite things
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Landon will get him
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Haha that's nuts
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It will be an alien concept to a lot of European fans. But once it happens once, they'll get used to it. I can guarantee, though, there will be a Daily Mail column after the first storm delay complaining about the 'Woke Cup.'
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There was Germany-Denmark at Euro 2024. Besides that? Struggling to remember one. That was first time I could recall a lightning delay at a European game. I was at Romania-Slovakia at Euro 2024 and they continued playing as lightning actually struck the stadium more than once.
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Very, very rarely. I was at Romania-Slovakia at Euro 2024 and lightning was literally striking the stadium! No delay.
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Oh it will
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Think it’s just one those things - ball not going in. Those three goalless games have collectively had an xG of 6.55
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What a silly choice of stadium for that fixture 😂
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I literally just thought of you at those games 😂 You'll never see a goal again
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I said stadium selection and ticket prices have been an issue.
But the flip side of pretending everything is fine is pretending everything is a disaster.
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The last World Cup was missing the European champions. Did that discredit that tournament?
This tournament has its challenges, but it's very Euro-centric to claim nobody cares.
I'm sure some people don't care. Also see Palmeiras fans taking over Times Square or Boca fans mobbing Miami Beach.
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So what's the measure here - sell out every single NFL stadium or the whole thing is a dud?
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This isn't the World Cup. There isn't another country in the world that would be getting these sort of attendances. What do you think Palmeiras-Porto would draw in Manchester? Would it be 46k?
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For whom, though? I'd say only for the person who decided to play that game at that time in that location. If that game is played at LAFC's home stadium, 22k is a sell out.
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Ticket prices have been an issue. Those attendances could have been even higher had FIFA not been so greedy.
However, I don't think it's accurate to say nobody is going to these CWC games.
That, however, seems to be the narrative from much of the English media.
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To use that game to discredit 55k fans turning up for Benfica-Boca or 80k at Atleti-PSG seems disingenuous.
If there's a problem, it has been with the selection of stadiums.
46k were at Palmeiras-Porto, yet because it was in an NFL stadium those fans rattled around a bit.
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You got a good game, if not the result you wanted!
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While I accept the wider point, this game will be getting big viewership here. Channel 5 is free-to-air (terrestrial). Can almost guarantee more people watching this than an average UCL match on TNT (subscription).
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I’m going to make an effort to watch a couple of their games in full. Seems like a good time!
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😘
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I haven’t watched a game this one-sided since Switzerland were in Nashville a few days ago
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I think it’s filled in even more since kick off. It’s pretty full.
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Don't bother. The TV app is gubbed. Can't get it to work. I'm watching on Channel 5.