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Winner: Argentina Top Scorer: Harry Kane Dark Horse: Norway Player of the Tournament: Lautaro Martínez Cockney_Cat (UK) - Posts: 2906 - 11/06/2026 08:47:45 2678950 Link
Winner: Brazil. Top Scorer: Erling Haaland. Dark Horse: Turkey Player of the Tournament: Michael Olise GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8608 - 11/06/2026 08:54:02 2678952 Link
Winner: France Top Scorer: Harry Kane Dark Horse: Portugal Player of the Tournament: Donald Trump yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 12125 - 11/06/2026 10:47:15 2678965 Link
Replying To GreenandRed: "Winner: Brazil. Top Scorer: Erling Haaland. Dark Horse: Turkey Player of the Tournament: Michael Olise" Olise a great shout for the Ballon Dor if France go well. Watched him again against the North the other night. He plays the game at his own rhythm. Unbelievable technique and eye for a pass. My only worry for him and France is they have TOO many big stars. Potential there for bruised egos to upset the apple-cart. We've seen it previously with French squads, Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 10369 - 11/06/2026 11:58:57 2678971 Link
If Germany have a striker of note, they could win the Ballon D'Or in their game against Caracao alone if all things fall right for them. Might not have to score another goal in the competition to win the prize! PoolSturgeon (Galway) - Posts: 2139 - 11/06/2026 13:21:27 2678983 Link
Replying To Lockjaw: "Olise a great shout for the Ballon Dor if France go well. Watched him again against the North the other night. He plays the game at his own rhythm. Unbelievable technique and eye for a pass. My only worry for him and France is they have TOO many big stars. Potential there for bruised egos to upset the apple-cart. We've seen it previously with French squads," The question is who will do the grunt work for them. A lot of talent no doubt, but the teams who win tournaments are generally well balanced. Their central defence is also questionable. Hard to believe that Konate gets picked ahead of Saliba. Spain outplayed them in the last Euros, and they were put out of the previous one by Switzerland. They were absolutely awful in the last World Cup final, until a penalty out of nowhere woke them up and gave them some momentum. They have the ability to go all the way for sure, but often don't perform to their potential. WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 2883 - 11/06/2026 13:24:26 2678984 Link
Replying To WanPintWin: "The question is who will do the grunt work for them. A lot of talent no doubt, but the teams who win tournaments are generally well balanced. Their central defence is also questionable. Hard to believe that Konate gets picked ahead of Saliba. Spain outplayed them in the last Euros, and they were put out of the previous one by Switzerland. They were absolutely awful in the last World Cup final, until a penalty out of nowhere woke them up and gave them some momentum. They have the ability to go all the way for sure, but often don't perform to their potential." Yeah people tend to look at all their stars at thge top end of the pitch. But do they have the workhorses or "water-carriers" as Eric Cantona once infamously labelled current French manager Didier Deschamps. Kante isn't what he was. Tchoumeini and Rabiot are ok, but I'd have my doubts. I think Griezemann is a big loss. He was a very intelligent footballer who did a lot of the knitting-together. Teams like Spain and Argentina, who know how to look after the ball in that heat will likely go well. If Spain had a peak Fernando Torres or David Villa, they'd be hard to back against. Oryazabal is a very decent striker but he wouldn't be in the aforementioned category. Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 10369 - 11/06/2026 14:22:35 2678999 Link
Replying To WanPintWin: "The question is who will do the grunt work for them. A lot of talent no doubt, but the teams who win tournaments are generally well balanced. Their central defence is also questionable. Hard to believe that Konate gets picked ahead of Saliba. Spain outplayed them in the last Euros, and they were put out of the previous one by Switzerland. They were absolutely awful in the last World Cup final, until a penalty out of nowhere woke them up and gave them some momentum. They have the ability to go all the way for sure, but often don't perform to their potential." Yeah people tend to look at all their stars at thge top end of the pitch. But do they have the workhorses or "water-carriers" as Eric Cantona once infamously labelled current French manager Didier Deschamps. Kante isn't what he was. Tchoumeini and Rabiot are ok, but I'd have my doubts. I think Griezemann is a big loss. He was a very intelligent footballer who did a lot of the knitting-together. Teams like Spain and Argentina, who know how to look after the ball in that heat will likely go well. If Spain had a peak Fernando Torres or David Villa, they'd be hard to back against. Oryazabal is a very decent striker but he wouldn't be in the aforementioned category. Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 10369 - 11/06/2026 14:46:04 2679005 Link
Ireland joins Migration package, lovely for the rest of us. Saynothing (Tyrone) - Posts: 2731 - 11/06/2026 15:33:22 2679010 Link
Winner: Brazil Top Scorer: Yamal Dark Horse: Mexico Player of the Tournament: Vinicius Jr peiledoir20 (Donegal) - Posts: 1662 - 11/06/2026 16:23:47 2679018 Link
Winner: England Top Scorer: Kane Dark Horse: Turkey Player of the Tournament: Rice sourmilk93 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1294 - 11/06/2026 16:34:53 2679020 Link
Replying To WanPintWin: "The question is who will do the grunt work for them. A lot of talent no doubt, but the teams who win tournaments are generally well balanced. Their central defence is also questionable. Hard to believe that Konate gets picked ahead of Saliba. Spain outplayed them in the last Euros, and they were put out of the previous one by Switzerland. They were absolutely awful in the last World Cup final, until a penalty out of nowhere woke them up and gave them some momentum. They have the ability to go all the way for sure, but often don't perform to their potential." Saliba has a recurring back injury. On form one of the best centre backs in the world. Hopefully he can get fit and stay fit and himself an Upamecano will be centre backs. Konate has more potential than an awful season for Liverpool just gone. France rely a lot on a 35 year old Kante who's still effective. Himself,Messi, Dzeko, Ronaldo and probably a good few more heading towards 40 or beyond still showing the young lads a trick or two. GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8608 - 11/06/2026 17:15:03 2679027 Link
Replying To Saynothing: "Ireland joins Migration package, lovely for the rest of us." Ireland badly needs a Center-Right party as an alternative, as all of the established parties in Dail Eireann are leftist or have moved in that center left direction in recent years to gain popularity and now afraid to rock the boat. Irish National Debt is on course to be €30 billion higher at the end of this decade than at the start of it. As said before, there needs to be massive overhaul of the public sector, as its dragging the state under with the levels of inefficiencies tolerated, which in turn is causing mayhem in Health, Justice, education etc. Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1879 - 11/06/2026 18:54:57 2679041 Link
Going safe All to qualify from the Group Stage 10/1 Mexico, Scotland, Bosnia Herzegovina, Sweden, Austria, Turkey, Ivory Coast, Colombia, Norway and Uruguay. katser (Galway) - Posts: 2864 - 11/06/2026 20:01:30 2679042 Link
Winner, anybody but England. We get reminded of 66 enough without another 1. Saynothing (Tyrone) - Posts: 2731 - 11/06/2026 21:17:50 2679048 Link