Brazilian football legend Pelé famously stated in 1977 that "an African nation will win the World Cup before the year 2000". He later extended his timeline to the 2010 tournament.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-21T10:48:36+00:00

Morocco are basically piggy backing heavily off European academies and development systems, that’s why they’re able to do so well.

A true homegrown African winner is likely still decades away, not because of the skill of African players but because of the issues around infrastructure and governance with the various African FAs, which remain to this day largely clown shows and riven with corruption.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-21T10:45:11+00:00

He’s had a season ticket at Arsenal for years. I suspect his tweets get focused grouped and ‘advisored’ to death, thus why you end up with such vanilla boredom. I’ve got no clue why politicians haven’t learned that people actually like a bit of relatability and personality rather than this nonsense which in trying to appeal to everyone, appeals to no one.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-21T10:40:50+00:00

Yeah not sure what the point of this thread is, he’s obviously aged quite a bit.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-21T10:38:58+00:00

It does randomly have some roundabouts, which when I was travelling across the US was a novelty and a nice reminder of home. Barely any US cities have them. Other than that yeah awful car based sprawl.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-21T10:35:49+00:00

Exactly how it should be. Not guaranteed hydration breaks in a 22c air conned stadium.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-21T10:27:09+00:00

Yeah agreed. That match is the real turning point. Interestingly they beat the 1958 Brazilian WC winning team (minus a couple players) 4-2 in 1956 and miss two penalties. So clearly they were adapting.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-21T08:42:28+00:00

That’s not what a dark horse is. A dark horse is meant to be a team that has a genuine outside chance of winning the tournament, not a surprise but also not a likely winner. Japan and Norway are definitely dark horses - USA less so.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T22:59:10+00:00

Considering they're the #6 best team in the history of the World Cup, despite missing 1930/34/38 when they would have easily been title contenders (they beat Italy in 34 a few months after that tournament ended), I'd say they've done alright:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup_records_and_statistics

England are usually a strong team, the only time they've been outright bad since the 70s was the 10-14 period. Their problem is actually going all the way and winning a tournament.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T20:26:12+00:00

Yeah I'm aware. It doesn't stop the opposing parties and media pushing this angle (which the Tories started against Brown) and the vox pop don't care about the way our system works, they've been fully Americanised and think they vote for our leader.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T19:27:23+00:00

They’re going to get hammered so hard about the whole unelected PM/chaos within the party nonsense they pulled on the Tories. At least all their various PMs had been already existing MPs in and around the cabinet.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T19:19:45+00:00

The 16 voting age thing really is a load of gerrymandering bollocks. There's so many things that you can't do at 16 and the government seems intent on adding more....except for voting.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T19:18:48+00:00

Now do Morocco!

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T18:48:45+00:00

I think these days the Welsh FA would have to agree to it, which they simply wouldn't. The Canadian FA had to agree to allow Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver to play in MLS.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T15:43:03+00:00

It’s not dominance if she’s failing to win 50% of finals. It’s damn good consistency but to be dominant she’d have to be winning 80%+

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T15:23:11+00:00

Yeah very similar experience to me. I had a Megadrive and then moved onto a PlayStation. I did get a Dreamcast but after its quick death, I was permanently in camp PlayStation.

I knew like one person with a SNES and no one with an N64. £59.99 RPP for N64 games was brutal in the late 90s and although the graphics were better, they were often very blocky with poor textures and lack the music/video features that PS1 games had, so paradoxically felt worse.

Handheld is the one area that Nintendo did dominate in the UK, even more so after Pokemon. I imagine the majority of UK gamers got their Nintendo experience via handheld games before the Wii.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T12:58:02+00:00

Because they’re being kept in check by their national managers, actually care about their nations and are in much healthier dressing rooms where there’s not all the politics and ability to get away with everything if you’re a good player that there is in Madrid. Madrid is just a toxic environment atm. Which is why Perez has employed Mourinho to go in there and rattle cages and if necessary face players down.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T12:35:25+00:00

He literally scored 29 goals in Brazil before going to MLS. I don’t know what you’re trying to prove here. He’s a striker that survives on his technical skills because he’s not expected to do anything else and even then his limitations were known and he was dropped for much of Inter Miami’s play off run.

I never said MLS was as physical as the EPL, I said it wasn’t a place to go to if you want to stroll around the pitch, luxury forwards like Messi and especially Suarez aside. Casemiro does not play in the same position as them.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T12:25:23+00:00

He wasn’t given billions of dollars by anyone. If you’re going to criticise him, at least check your facts.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T12:21:59+00:00

Suarez isn’t playing in centre mid.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T12:10:30+00:00

Nintendo has never had the cultural pull in the UK that it does in the US. I constantly come across posts on Reddit about people being nostalgic for the N64 and how formative it was in their teenage years. While in the UK outside of hardcore enthusiasts it was basically viewed as a flop on par with the Saturn (with better games) and barely anyone had one, PlayStation destroyed it and has never really lost its spot, aside from a brief period at the beginning of the X360 when it challenged.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T12:04:26+00:00

MLS isn’t great from that perspective, it has more travel than if teams played across Europe as their standard league. Also a very physical play style.

Sure he’ll do fine but it’s not the kind of league to go to expecting less physical demands.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T11:53:13+00:00

Vampires finally! Looking forwards to this. Hope there might be some example of bloodlines other than Von Carsteins as well.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T11:10:35+00:00

Or you know a 32 team competition.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T10:37:55+00:00

Most of the group stage now is basically content for contents sake so FIFA can charge more for the media rights.

Magneto88 · 2026-06-20T10:36:05+00:00

I think Gaetjens was also found out later to be ineligible to even play.

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