Come and join the football nerd talk and get in on the top, top prizes as we gear up for the greatest show on earth. And play bossa nova music on our phones.
Right, let’s do this football friends.
We’re just three sleeps — or one, for you lucky insomniacs — away from the kick-off in Brazil. And we are excited.
Most evenings throughout the tournament we’ll meet here at 5pm to discuss the daily football news, make predictions, talk about the punditry… and give away plenty of prizes.
Imagine Dundrum Town centre on an exceptionally busy Saturday before Christmas and you have some idea of the crowds thronging around Salvador’s gargantuan Iguatemi Shopping Centre.
The ground floor of the mall where fans are now arriving to collect their World Cup match tickets is jammed with hordes of teenagers and families enjoying some Sunday afternoon shopping.
Like much of Brazil what confronts you is a mess of people in which it would be all too easy to lose yourself and yet, there he is, as always, stalking me. Silently standing over me in his underpants.
I’ve been to Dundrum at Christmas. And I bet it’s nothing like Brazil.
Our man on the ground, Mikey Stafford, arrived in Salvador in recent days and this morning peeled himself away from the nearest carnvial, to file his first letter from the tournament.
File under: well jeal.
First comment of the hangout experience? Come on down Brian Guilfoyle:
“Belgium to fall apart, France to keep it together until the Quarters, and Mexico or Ecuador to turn a few heads.”
What do you make of that?
Our GAA editor Fintan O’Toole was on TV3′s Ireland AM this morning talking all things Gaelic games. Despite the fact the rest of us didn’t get out of bed til around midday and it hasn’t shown up on the player yet, we hear there was an awful case of the ‘Hoddle hands’ going on.
That game on Saturday night was some craic wasn’t it?
Fresh from merking all you tree-huggers this weekend, Paddy Power have sent us these novelty bets:
- Ireland to compete as the 33rd team - 400/1
- A player to fail a drugs test during the tournament - 6/1
- Any player to receive 2 yellow cards but no red in a single match - 100/1
- Any pundit to refer to Belgium as a ‘Dark Horse’ – 1/5
- Any goalkeeper to do a scorpion kick – 66/1
- Balotelli to display a personal slogan on his shirt underneath his kit - 11/4
Right, let’s be having you then.
We’re going to be here throughout the tournament and have a box full of goodies to give away — thanks to Budweiser — over the course of the next few weeks.
So in the comment section below, let us know who you think will win the tournament, who’ll win the Golden Boot, and how many goals will be scored in total.
So, for the slower learners amongst us, your entry should look something like:
Argentina, Aguero, 110 goals.
As Eamo might say: good luck, baby.
The winner of this one wins a Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet. We’ll announce the winner on the night of the final.
Move over, Daniel Sturridge. The Ox is on the road to recovery.
Poor ol’ Rik Mayall’s passed away today, sadly. Remember he did this Henry V-inspired World Cup song for the last tournament?
In 10 World Cup games (across 1990 and 1994), Tomas Brolin scored four times. But three of those came in America where he was granted the freedom to wield substantial influence and dictate how the side played. He was given a free role wide on the right and with Roland Nilsson offering him plenty of protection at full-back, he was free of defensive responsibilities.
His goal against Romania was superb in its creation and its execution while he kept his nerve well against Russia and popped up to deliver a killer finish in the clash with Bulgaria. His subsequent time in the Premier League with Leeds counts against him but he was an integral part of a thoroughly impressive mid-nineties’ international team.
Eoin O’Callaghan continues our cult teams series with one of my personal favourites, Sweden ’94.
They’ve only gone and given James Richardson a World Cup show. This truly is a magical time.
And his first guest, offers me the opportunity to do my John-Barnes-in-an-80s-Lucozade-ad impression.
This is one feature we didn’t have before the last World Cup; Sports Illustrated’s list of every player at the World Cup, on Instagram.
For precisely no prizes… who’d you think this is?
When did ads become Pixar mini-movies. This is solid stuff… I didn’t cry as much as the first few minutes of Up though.
God, I hate those Clones.
There was lots and lots of milky tea spat onto computer screens this evening when the newest — and youngest — member of Team Score revealed that his earliest World Cup memory is 2006.
I remember El Diego in 1986 — a full two decades earlier — and was a working journalist with facial hair at Germany ’06. So I’m old now.
What’s your earliest World Cup memory?
53. You have to look at people like the Rory McIlroys, the Brian O’Driscolls, the Kilkenny hurlers…
Eamon Dunphy, when he’s unfavourably comparing a cheating footballer, usually Ronaldo, to the ‘truly great’ sportsmen and women.
52. They’re a bit of an unknown quantity.
Likely to be said by: anyone who can’t think of anything else to say about one of the less high-profile teams.
51. “He’s never really done it for Argentina, has he?”
Likely to be said by: anyone unaware of the integral role Lionel Messi played in Argentina’s World Cup qualification.
Check out the rest of Paul Fennessy’s “53 World Cup clichés you’ll probably hear over the coming weeks” here.
Who’s up for England this tournament then? Very mature of you.
Leighton Baines confirmed his status as coolest man in football on the Three Lions’ arrival in Brazil yesterday. The indie-loving Everton full back had his trusty guitar under his arm as he disembarked.
You never saw Ashley Cole at Kasabian gigs.
Look at this picture from New Jersey today! Just look at Roy Keane putting out the cones!
Forgive us for referencing the Hoddle Hands yet again, but Keano could have been sweating buckets in a Miami stadium tunnel and Saturday night and listening to Adrian Chiles talk very…v…e…r…y.. slowly. But instead the former ITV pundit is still in camp with Martin O’Neill’s Boys in Green.
Our man in Brazil, Mikey Stafford, is wandering around the stadium in Salvador as we speak, kicking the skirting boards and knocking on plaster board. The workmanship seems to be standing up to scrutiny; he’ll have a piece up after he’s had his tea (egg and chips).
From the AFP newswire…
“Brazilian police took away the arrows that Pataxos Indians had planned to use in a traditional dance for Germany’s World Cup squad on Monday as striker Miroslav Klose marked his 36th birthday.
About 20 Pataxos dressed in traditional grass skirts, feather head dresses and bows performed the welcome dance for the Germans after training at their Santo Andre camp.
Security forces confiscated the arrows, but did not give a reason why.
Klose and his other squad members were invited to join the native dance and Lukas Podolski launched enthusiastically into the show.”
Gold.
Here’s all Klose’s international goals:
Most interesting competition yet, in my opinion, Bill:
“Germany to win, Lukaku to be top scorer, 157 goals” from Danny O’Brien. It’s a tablet he wants alright, wha?
Gary Neville has been involved in a row on a Rio beach with members of the press.
“Do you speak English? Back off. I just want to walk on the beach,” he shouted, according to The Guardian, as he presumably showed the photographer where he expected him to move on a giant iPad.
Step into the Wayback Machine, please. This craic was two years ago today:
We’re going to leave the comments open here ’til the tournament starts.
Again, for a chance to win a nice Sony Xperia Z2 tablet, tell us who’ll win the tournament, who’ll claim the Golden Boot and, as a tiebreaker, how many goals will be scored in total.
I’ve got Croatia in the office pool so I’m off to paint my livestock red and white. We’ll be back with another pre-kickoff hangout — and more prizes — on Thursday before we go kick by kick for the opener.
Please stand for the national anthem:
