partickthedog

There should be a repechage like in canoeing to give Japan an opportunity of getting back in. Someone mentioned earlier on in this thread a best of the rest team made up from nations that did not qualify for the World Cup. For all sorts of reasons that would not be practicable, but could fans from the non-competing nations (and therefore not (or at least less) prejudiced) form a jury to elect "fastest losers" from each round to move forward to the next round?

Enigmatic with a capital E. Totally different personality type from anyone I can remember at least in recent years, and that is going to be intriguing. Also good to have an advocate for southism. Why should north always be at the top of the map? With his preference for being a number 10, will be interesting to see whether Erskine & Storer can be accommodated in the same team or whether they will necessarily be alternatives. A re-kindling of the Erskine/Lawless type partnership from 6 seasons ago would be welcome.

Has your thinking on France now changed?

Mexico to beat Brazil. Brazil may think that Neymar is the king, but Mexico will score with a free header when there is NeymarKing at a corner. Would have fetched my coat if it were not so hot.

8 games in the round of 16, 4 in the quarter finals, 2 in the semis, plus 3rd place play off and real final makes 16 games in total. I guess 10 games without extra time.

Mexico to beat Brazil

PartickderHund finally gets something right in a BB Competition! Wruff Wruff! He who laughs last laughs latest, or something like that.

Absolutely. He needs to find somewhere to store his pent up aggression and convert it into kinetic energy.

Croatia to horse Denmark.

Would have been a great Saturday trip, but on a midweek evening, not so good

There is not much of a "safe mid-table", as unless we are outstandingly good or outstandingly bad, there will be a long period of the season when we will have the potential to go either up or down. 60% of the teams will in some way be caught up in the final promotion and relegation scenarios, and some others may be close to either or both. There is a slightly different feel from our previous stint in the old First Division. Without the play off at the top end, apart from our run to 2nd place under Ian McCall and of course the final league winning season, we did manage to finish in a fairly consistently boring 6th or 7th place most seasons without major relegation or promotion alerts. That will no longer be so easy to achieve.

BB. I have to take Uruguay to beat Portugal as I have Luis Suarez down as top scorer and he needs a few more games to catch Harry Kane. I will also take the opportunity to throw out a random two part World Cup question to see who jumps in first. Name all 3 current or past Liverpool players who scored in the World Cup today, and which of the 3 has scored the most goals in the tournament so far?

Should we not put Slater up top?

Most sets of fans, for example Poland & Columbia, seem to be totally harmless when put together, unless there is some historical antipathy of which I am unaware. The intermixing party spirit may even be a positive factor towards enjoyment, as seems to be the case in 6 Nations Rugby. Some combinations are of course a powder keg of toxicity, but presumably these are readily identifiable. However, all it might take is an inflammatory incident or gesture on the pitch to turn benign cohabitation into belligerent confrontation.

Must be good if he is Slater rather than Slated.

I would go beyond that and say that I am happy to follow the Jags in all situations good, bad and indifferent.

Did anyone else notice Joachim Loew mouthing the Teutonic equivalent of the words Get it Recht up you, PartickderHund, as Tony Kroos' shot nestled in the top corner? The German squad has been seriously rattled by the pre-tournament revelation that I was the only expert pundit to predict that Mexico and Sweden would qualify from this group.

Will not answer for Sandy but would answer for myself. I would never wish for the club to be relegated, partly because we all know through bitter experience that hammering a piton into a slippery slope can be difficult, and a downward slide can rapidly gain momentum. Yet as Thistle fans we need to have a self-righting mechanism. Once you are in a given situation, there is no point in looking back and wishing that certain events of the past could be undone. You have to embrace the present situation (whether you wanted it to happen or not), identify the positive aspects of the new reality, discern the rays of hope and press forward cheerfully. So measuring the present level of happiness against the degree of happiness that may or not have applied in an alternative universe that does not exist is an impossible exercise. As a Jags fan, I am happily looking forward to all the good things and the different challenges season 2018-19 in the Championship will bring, and the bad things I will deal with as and when they come along.

BB. I would have to dissent from the above and say that I am hoping for a 13 goal thriller with all the Ss--Switzerland 6 Serbia 7. I would happily give up my measly single bonus point for such a feast of entertainment (especially as 6 other dudes would be getting the bonus point as well which sort of spoils the uniqueness).

The mystery of what happened to Jason Banton is resolved. He is apparently a real human being who does exist.

Fair enough. Croatia v Nigeria last weekend was surprisingly poor as well.

My recollection (which others can correct) is that the ball was played through or back to Neil Alexander in the Hearts goal. Banzo was our furthest forward player and moved in to close Alexander down. Although Alexander was clear favourite to get first to the ball, he did not have much time to spare and Banzo was coming on at a fair pace. Alexander touched the ball to the side to give himself a little more space. Banzo in mid run instinctively tried to twist his body to intercept and the unfortunate combination of running fast in one direction and suddenly twisting in the other direction caused him to catch a foot in the ground with devastating consequences for what may at first have seemed to be quite innocuous. Certainly no contact involved by, or blame attaching to, any other player (and of course just sheer bad luck for Banzo).

You must have missed Spain v Portugal

Sounds like the sort of guy who might play for Juventus

Can you teach us the words of the Sean McGinty song? What is the best tune for it?