PT Barnum may have been right 150 years ago, but The Greatest Show on Earth these days gets underway this afternoon, despite the shameful corruption displayed by Fifa. By comparison, the Olympics is a sideshow. My first experience of the World Cup was watching Scotland play Zaire in 1974. For 20-odd years the tournament had participation value for Scotland, even if the joy of being there was short lived.
These days the joy is all about being a neutral football fan and soaking up the drama and brilliance from the game.
Statistically it is difficult to look past Brazil, who will benefit enormously from home advantage. European teams have never won the tournament in the Americans, where Brazil and Argentina have won every competition since Uruguay triumphed in the last time the tournament was held in Brazil 64 years ago.
Leo Time
Lionel Messi was, until recent times, the undisputed best player on the planet, but his position in the all-time greatest list is in considerable dispute. Ask an older Barcelona fan, who has watched Cruyff, Maradona Ronaldo and Messi all do their stuff at the Camp Nou, and they are likely to tell you Leo is by far the better player. His stats as a striker bear this out, but ask an Argentinean, and he’ll scarcely get a mention in the same breath as Diego. There is not even a debate that Messi is the greatest Argentine.
After giving a spectacular display of goal-scoring prowess in 1982, then 25-year-old Diego Maradona singlehandedly led Argentina to their second World Cup in 1986 and back to the final four years later. By Comparison, 26-year-old Messi has looked comparatively pedestrian in his two previous tournaments. He’ll be 30 by the time of the next tournament, which will be held in the completely different environment of Russia. If Messi is to be considered an all-time great, he needs to take Argentina to the final. If his career ends without an outstanding World Cup, he’ll slip somewhere between Eusabio and Cruyff in the list.
I’d like Belgium to win. Belgian clubs and FA go about their business correctly and brought a remarkable bounty of talent to Brazil. It’s always been easy to back Brazil but I’m still not over the Neymar thing. The guy is an abomination in the Brazil No. 10 shirt, a vastly over-rated charlatan. Anyone but Neymar, please.
Bertie Auld live chat, tomorrow, 1pm, on CQN. Be there.
Visit the CQN Bookstore to get Tommy Gemmell to sign your personal copy of his tome, All the Best.
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1,110 Comments- Pages:
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oldtim67
18:35 on 12 June, 2014
Opening ceremony on STV IN 2 minutes..THEN GAME AT 8pm
Bhoylo83
Didn’t see Pele play at his peak but I have to say Maradona, in the 86 World Cup ,came as close to single handedly winning the tournament that I’ve ever seen.It has to be Maradona for me;however,if Messi does the same this time round I may reconsider.
I prefer Ronaldo to Messi….there I said it:-)
twists n turns
Ha! Ha! Almost a ‘snap’ – took Celtic Charlie & Sail and Return (jockey’s colours the Hoops) in an ew double.
Only noticed them when betting your tip – got 14/1 (thumbs up).
FingersX’dCSC!
bhoylo83
18:12 on 12 June, 2014
Fully agree …… Without a doubt, Messi is the best….and I saw all 3 in the flesh…..Messi is the mhan
Paul67 et al
Well 1974 was a good starting point, Scotland could have done better, and it was won by a very good team indeed. As for Brazil 2014, well there are a few European teams which could get close, including Spain. This is Neymar’s first World Cup so let us give him a bit of leeway, don’t forget Scott Brown had been chasing him since the Scotland-Brazil game at the Emirates a couple of years earlier.
Croatia have a chance tonight if both Modric and Rakitic are on the top of their game. Off to get organised!
Praecepta
I watched sail and return skate in a couple of runs ago…at Bangor I think. Good luck
ESTADIO. 1753
Absolute belter,mate.
A real tour-de-force.
Great to have you back on,bud.
Praecepta
Ah I see sail and return was 3rd. Ew dbl is on …….
Aiden Bhoy
I’ve heard the reason why he hasn’t signed yet is because he injured himself lifting the pen.
67 Heaven
Not being a smart arse but Im sure its a 9pm ko, wouldnt want to put anyone through an extra hour of this totally crap itv “build up” would you
HH
Re Naymar and Brown.
In defence of Scott,I was shouting for him to take Neymar out.
I’d have done so too,but I probably wouldn’t have taken the extra coupla kicks at him.
Even with Neymar’s histrionics,the ref had no intention of sending him off till Fabregas intervened.
I thought that demanding that the ref show a card earned one. Seems not,only for the wee teams.
twists n turns
Just finished 3rd @ 7/1 – down to Celtic Charlie to break evens/ or £1 profit.
Was just a wee daft interest bet. :-)
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H0VUadyYZTM
blantyretim is praying for the Knox family
18:38 on
12 June, 2014
9pm kick off oldtim.
Pity your so far away,we could have a wine tasting session while watching the game.
Bhoys ,Tunein radio app has William Hill station ,gives you race commentary
BMCUW
I wish Broony had broke his leg given the outcome.
Is it just me or is the stadium fairly empty?
Oldtim
aye….8(
TWISTS N TURNS
I was always of the opinion that a sending off should be worth your while!
THEGLASGOWCELTICWAY
Congratulations on the family season ticket,bud!
Proud of you.
celticway
have you seen any of this opening ceremony ? Id be getting into stadium 5 mins before kick off
Is the opening ceremony in a different stadium from the opening game? Stadium itself doesn’t appear to be that big and about a quarter full?
BMCUW
Is leftclicktic outta town at present? Ain’t noticed him posting?
BMCUW
The way he’s been acting since we got it?I could see it being revoked.
preacepta, that’s the ones. You can access them just before Killermont and the bridge over the Kelvin.
Is it part of the Science Park?
The first world cup I can remember watching is 1970. This is the first time since I am not that excited about it.
FIFA and Eufa, both registered charities, leave me cold. Sponsorship seems to have a higher priority than promoting the game and ethics. .
Is there a point to these opening ceremonies??
That STV presentation is embarrassing beyond the extremes of prickishness.
In the pub we’ve swapped the commentary from English ‘I love you cannavarro’ Chiles to Arabian ‘I’d rather have carnal knowledge of a camel’. And then they bring on that mammary gland ‘Wright’.
I have more empathy with a deceased language than I will ever have with that bunch of ….wait a minute I’ve no ‘a’s left. So they’re twits.
W it min who just s id ‘1966’.
I give up.
Put the juke box on.
Hail Hail (the ‘a’s are back)
Estadio
Opening ceremony?
Stadium looks half full/empty.
HH!!
monteblanco
17:11 on
12 June, 2014
Any Ex Pats
A friend of mine is running a new ( legal ) site for TV access
http://www.noborder.tv
Means you can watch the World Cup coverage from BBC and ITV among other things
No idea if this is any use, any feedback welcome
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Cheers Monteblanco – please pass my thanks on to your mate. I’ll make use of this when I head off to my new job in Algeria next week. HH!!
Venez sur la France
The happiest person in Britain will be Mrs Chiles knowing that her twat of a husband is away for the next 5 weeks.
Unfortunately the rest of us need to listen to him!!
Im away to water the plants…this is boring, back for ko….
Surely the organisers of the Commonwealth games can beat this opening ceremony??It just looks like a disorganised crowd on a park.
Dallas Dallas
Not sure but I believe that its owned by Glasgow Uni. Think ‘thems’ used it years ago when there was a problem at MP (or before it was ready).
I’m watching the US Open Golf until the game starts.
TWISTS N TURNS
He seems a bit quiet the last few days.
Maybe his Mum put him on the naughty step,haha!
I’ll call him tomorrow,check he’s cool. Gives me a good excuse to do so…
Why didn’t they just blow up some blocks of flats?
No imagination the Brazilians.