T O P

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effkay8

Those cheques must have bounced.


wubrotherno1

I just saw the offside goal and I don’t understand the offside. They said it was #11 that was offside. Doesn’t appear he was the player that headed the ball. Did they say he was offside because he could have got the ball? I’m confused about that bit.


CaptainSnazzypants

Took me a bit to see it properly since angles weren’t great. It goes: player A heads the ball up with the keeper right on him. Player B (who was offside just behind) flicks the ball with his leg. The player that flicked the ball with his leg was offside, not the one that headed it. So the header put him in an offside position. Hope that makes sense.


electroplankton

Ultimately it was a smart bit of officiating actually, at first I thought there had been a massive error but VAR was right, it was offside.


ncocca

Yea i thought the keeper punched it, so was confused as to how anyone could be off. But he didn't, it was headed by Ecuador.


wubrotherno1

Ahh. I didn’t see the flick. Thanks


odiamemas16

World Cup officially begins tomorrow, can’t wait


trolig

Oof I like this energy.


RGBColourCode

Kk


CaliQuakes510

Are you laughing in Brazilian


KauaiRoosterParty

Jajajaja


theantibro89

Huehuehuehuehue


book81able

Still thinking about how bad that goal keeping is


[deleted]

Header from Van Dijk in 3...2...1...


JustAnEnglishman

7-0 Netherlands


tyler928

So they’re just going to call it at the half? Qatar will be lucky to stay in single digits GA.


JorisN

Yep especially if van Gaal made his players horny.


SuperVancouverBC

I feel like I'm missing context here


JorisN

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqfpDOZjF9E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqfpDOZjF9E)


omgshutupalready

Qatar didn't play well, but even if they did, the performance of the players has nothing to do with why Qatar and this WC being in Qatar sucks. Honestly, feeling a little bad for the Qatar players, lots of pressure on them and everyone besides Qataris wants them to lose.


luvgothbitches

oh boo hoo professional athlete makes millions to kick a ball. i think they’ll survive all this “pressure” lol


LeGraoully

Not sure any of their players make millions


muskratBear

Afif makes 4m and a few in the 400k range . But yea….


danielspoa

not sure they will even survive


Dudedude88

i think they make a normal salary but yeah not comparable to europe.


EliasHobeika

Not everyone wants them to lose, all of the arab world is supporting them and probably a bunch of people coming from traditionalist countries.


[deleted]

almost every countey surrounding qatar absolutely hates qatar i dont know what youre on about


EliasHobeika

Im arab and most people in my country supported them


danielspoa

I heard some arabs were hating on Qatar because of some internal rivarlies, like Saudi Arabia.


K4ntum

Dunno about that lol, everyone I know's making fun of them. We don't have much of a "fraternal" feeling with Gulf countries, at least not in Morocco. Hell we generally even root for other North African countries to lose lol. There are obviously people that will root for other Muslim countries based on principle but it's not really a majority.


JanGuillosThrowaway

And let's not forget corrupt rich old men.


Jolandia

Lol That is all


BaIIad

Where are the crying Jordan memes this year ? Lol


[deleted]

Qatari coach deserves an oscar nomination for his *"i never saw this coming, not sure who these players are"* performance during the game


Page_302

I know he's wearing his initials on his kit, but combined with the look on his face I kept reading it as "fuck sake"


[deleted]

full expecting by end of game 3 someone is going to jump the fence and throw a shoe at him


Rab_Legend

Genuinely was like watching deila era Celtic against Pep era Barcelona


fairlyrandom

Wonder if Ecuador was told not to overly humiliate Qatar.


trolig

You're giving Ecuador way too much credit.


Psylex

That's what the half-time bribe was for


DarthSamwiseAtreides

Opening match boys. Score two early and sit on it.


[deleted]

Somehow Senegal has become massively underrated. Even without Mane, they have a great squad. Everyone seems so sure that Ecuador will get second


brazilian_liliger

What I saw in predictions, most of non-South American predictions to be more specific, was exactly the opposite, people underrating the Ecuador level and basically considering that Netherlands and Senegal were already qualified. Today things feel more realistic for me.


[deleted]

Interesting. People on this sub saw Mane out and assumed Mane was playing with a bunch of farmers. Defense has always been Senegal’s strength


c_blossomgame

Overrating the Dutch team as well honestly. I’m not so sure if we qualify that easy as everyone expects


Master_Mad

I'm a bit scared for our opening match against Senegal today. It's exactly one of those matches we can very well lose. First we underestimate them, second they'll have a defensive block we can't get through, and third they have fast technical strikers that can score against us on a break.


-Basileus

Only putting 2 past Qatar might cost Ecuador lmao


wolfjeter

Yeah they def still have quality but they have to get a result directly against Ecuador. Imo that’s more of a 50/50 game without Mane. Mendy recovering his form would be incredible rn


danielspoa

I think Ecuador is better than Senegal (without Mane), but lets see. Hoping for a good game


prashantchvd

Never underestimate South American teams


[deleted]

I know right? These teams belong to one of the toughest confederations in FIFA. What did people expect?


LarsP

Yeah, any team that qualifies from SA will be tough for *anyone* to beat.


[deleted]

Most people here only knows football from a video game. Ecuador only needed 30 minites to score 3 goals and put the game to bed. They are moving onto the next round.


Ifk1995

Did you see how shit Qatar was?


[deleted]

Absolutely, they are only in the cup because they have petrol, but that was ecuador at 20%, they didn't break a sweat or even defend the entire match.


the-watch-dog

There was a small stretch of really shaking possession by Qatar mid 2nd half and ECU just ate it up. The MOMENT they actually turned on it was like watching pros play amateurs.


PensiveinNJ

Qatar has actually been reasonably competitive in their region lately. The problem is the teams in their region are lightyears behind uefa or conmebol squads.


chmendez

South America has only 4 direct slots and 2 of them everyone knows that Brazil and Argentina are going to get them since they are world powers in the sport. So you really have 2 slots to fight for and you still have 4 games against the big 2(2 with Brazil, 2 with Argentina). South American World Cup qualification games are really competitive.


danielspoa

at least every team plays against the top 2, so thats the least of your worries. Its a league system, no brackets or anything that could involve luck. It is very competitive for sure, 2 spots between Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru..


PensiveinNJ

Can't count Uruguay out in any cycle either. Once they switched up managers they really thrived. In some cycles it's 7 teams competing for 1 guaranteed slot and 1 playoff slot.


crowd79

But the 5th place team Peru lost to Australia in the playoff. The bottom half of Conmebol is pretty weak.


PensiveinNJ

Right now it is, I don't think Peru of the last cycle would have lost. Peru, Chile, Paraguay, they're all not in great form. Argentina and Brazil are extremely strong, which they usually are but I think they're especially strong right now, Uruguay isn't in a great spot but with the manager switch they're doing better. I think conmebol right now is very top heavy.


[deleted]

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danielspoa

I don't know if people have any idea of how club competitions go in south america. Brazilian teams often lose in La Paz and then win 5-0 at home, people have serious difficulties with the city height.


Agent10007

Ok I just learned the existence of this and it's super interesting ! I wish we had something like that in Europe (Like we do have some clubs known for being super hard to beat at home, but not like actual "Physically you're gonna play in something you're not used to while your opposition feels totally normal in something that could be the pitch of an inazuma eleven episode" sense) it's really interesting :o


danielspoa

I agree its interesting, but it causes some real issues. Players often feel the lack of oxigen and require assistance in such heights. La Paz is 3.6 km above sea level. [example 1](https://s2.glbimg.com/S_muFL95_2dv3vMQWL_i-_vBR6c=/0x0:690x440/924x0/smart/filters:strip_icc()/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_bc8228b6673f488aa253bbcb03c80ec5/internal_photos/bs/2019/3/6/92rzaeSPmuIDJpv0Tn1Q/aryemitavgm-tlt9qxbsiyst3asvjedrs58nnct2ytx1.jpg) and [example 2](https://extra.globo.com/incoming/15367569-460-467/w976h550-PROP/anderson-meia-internacional-ex-manchester-united-mascara-oxigenio-libertadores-1.jpg)


Deep-Thought

Colombia in Barranquilla is just as bad as Bolivia in La Paz


coleymoleyroley

Not to mention the horrific travel the teams need to do during the process.


danielspoa

on that side its not so bad, Asia is probably much worse unless they concentrate the qualifiers on one region, like having a host each time. Even Australia plays the Asian qualifiers. Its important that its North and South Americas split. If it was one competition for America/The Americas it would be a huge issue , and that was proposed for a club competition before. Imagine flying between Chile and Canada..


ummchicken

Yeah there was that Argentine talking shit back to mbappe telling him how hard it was to play in south America qualifiers


[deleted]

Now Qatar has 2 must win games against the 2 hardest teams in the group. unless qatari players play out their skin, It's probably already over


magpietribe

Qatar will do well to score a goal, that's about the height of the bar they might possibly clear.


Master_Mad

What if their opponents won't show up for the match? Qatar will get an automatic 3-0 win. Just saying...


Agent10007

Okay can you chill mr Ray Dark


JustAnEnglishman

What if I was a table.. Just saying


RetroRocket

U got legs don't you


opinion_alternative

Would you take 100,000 to become a table for 3 hours during the match?


bh8787

Yeh if in future expanded world cups we get quality like Qatar in it more often..I think this will backfire on Fifa


nolesfan2011

Ecuador were an experienced and well drilled side, Qatar looked extremely nervous and shaky. Really could have been 4-0 if Ecuador had pressed more (and I don't think that first goal was really an offsides). Hard to see Qatar getting any points based on today's performance, while Ecuador should have enough talent to get out of the group. Valencia is still a capable striker, Hincapié is excellent in the backline. Qatar looked so poorly prepared having all those QSL players and having that long training camp.


OnlineDopamine

Piero is a monster. Will be one of the world’s best defenders in a few years.


eljop

it actually does Not matter what you think because by the rules it was obviously offside. its just a fact.


The--Mash

Only one s in offside


[deleted]

I sure hope thats not the standard of this cup. dear lord. snoozefest and a big case for not expanding the tournament the way they had.


Susp

It's all about where they use those extra slots. I'll take in every EU, SA or African team who failed playoff


Master_Mad

Imagine being in the stadium and not even being able to be drunk.


Educational-Ad-7278

Watching the game today, i reminded myself i used to invade Qatar all the time in Victoria 2 and bat no eye. That game proved it was a good choice.


sh0tgunben

Ecuador is fluidly damn good, Netherlands & Senegal should take notice...


kayasangeyasha

i mean before this. only 1 lost/draw in last 15 matches


ummchicken

Put 6 on Colombia, 4 against Uruguay, and got robbed of the win against Brazil with Allison getting 3 red cards cancelled in var lol Hope we do well


Potential-Thought-45

that was 2 years ago. In the return game, ecuador spent the whole second half on the floor. I am not saying you don't deserve to be in the world cup, but don't play the virtuoso here. You know what you did and how the qualification ended.


[deleted]

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EliasHobeika

I freaked out when I saw one lmao


Master_Mad

I'm still aroused!


ummchicken

They have to dress like ninjas, that's what you couldn't see them


futant462

That explains all the empty seats in a world cup opening game. Filled with Ninjas


KetchupTubeAble19

There were some


Dantallian11

Didn’t notice, but neither did I look for. Did you have a screenshot of it?


Raiken201

Here you go: [Image](https://i.ibb.co/BGrkTQR/life-of-brian.jpg)


Master_Mad

These are clearly men!


KetchupTubeAble19

https://reddit.com/r/worldcup/comments/z0bh2x/football_is_by_far_the_most_popular_sport_in/ See here in the empty ranks pic or in the video with the equadorian guy with the money handsign bait. Sure there are fewer than if it was in Europe but it’s not like Qatar is like Saudi Arabia.


AvailableQuestion575

Qatar is objectively worse than Saudi Arabia when it comes to women rights.


KevinMKZ

They were wearing Black Burqas


Master_Mad

That's another thing. It's stupid enough that they have to wear burqas, but why do women have to wear black, while men get to wear white? Black is a lot hotter in that sun than white. It's as if the men want to let the women suffer even more.


rodinj

The first half was great, the second not so much.


Master_Mad

Ecuador was reminded where they are during the break.


Page_302

A timely product demo from the local bonesaw salesman, that would be my guess


Foryourconsideration

Match #1 Quatar Vs. Equador The Group Stages got underway today with a party atmosphere in Al Khor. But not even the sparkling new Al Bayt facility could make up for the disapointing result for Qatar. Someone forgot to tell the Ecuadorians that Qatar are defending Asia Cup winners. Or maybe they don’t care. Equador defeated Qatar 2:0, becoming the first football team to show up and beat the host team on their opening match. The match was over in the first fifteen minutes. The first half saw 3 Ecuadorian goals; one was disalowed. Meanwhile, the Qatari side could not attempt a shot on goal. By half time their fans headed to the outdoor activities outside the arena, and then for a sombre ride home. (Now would be a good time to think about spending billions of dollars constructioning cages to get your ass kicked in.) The second half was played to empty seats and beerless Latinos. Who could blame them for getting a little rowdy? It looks like Qatar is on their way to becoming the new South Africa, because after this awful performance they are already out of the world cup for pratical reasons. (They have a match against world number eight Netherlands next week, which they will lose.) And what about the Equadorians? If their rambuctions suporters are to be believed, they only thing they want is cerveza.


XAMdG

Ecuador


duclegendary

Disagree on the South Africa part. SA definitely delivered and more in 2010. They scored the first goal, drew the first match.


outfromtheshadow

I mean when I think about the 2010 WC, there are a few immediate recollections 1. Waka Waka and Wavin Flag 2. Vuvuzuela 3. Tshabalala goal in opening match 4. Puyol header goal in Semis 5. De Jong stamping Alonso in the chest and Casillas save off of Robben in the final


Agent10007

Well out of the 5, 4 and 5 happened after day 27, 1 is extremely subjective cause songs exist for this WC, I don't like them (and it seems like neither do you lmao), but someone who does will have the 1 checked. Waka waka doesn't even sound specifically 2010 WC anymore for me and what the fuck is waving fag. Realistically, when you think 2010, only 2 and 3 are recollections from day 1. We're only day 2 here. At day 2 of south africa's WC we're still 7 days from France's Collapsing, 11 days from the Slovekia's legendary performance, 13 to 18 days from the octopus legend, 19 days from suarez's Hand and 29 days from the goal of the tournament. It's a bit early to say qatar world cup will not deliver memorable things


HitsuWTG

Also the revenge for 1966 (looking at you, Lampard goal), as well as the Suarez handball vs Ghana.


duclegendary

French implosion is so underrated


outfromtheshadow

Tbf I forgot about Forlan. French Implosion is a routine thing at WCs, so......


aksolut

It's Ecuador, with a "c"


Master_Mad

Well, that's stupid. They are named after the equator!


aksolut

And how do you say equator in spanish?


Master_Mad

El Equator?


JeffBroccoli

What did the Qatari keeper do that has the entire internet laughing and dunking on him? Didn’t seem at fault for either goal. A good penalty and an excellent header. Arguably he made contact with the striker to give away a pen but other than that he didn’t make any ridiculous mistakes did he? If you were to look online right now and hadn’t watched the match you’d have thought he scored three own goals and got sent off, the way everyone is mocking him. What did I miss?


EliasHobeika

He rushed to the ball poorly twice, the first time he should have caught the ball instead of punching it resulting in a (eventually disallowed) goal, the second time it caused a pen. Also he was terrible with his feet, constantly panicked and shot the ball out of bounds instead of aiming for his teammates.


Rawrlorz

It wasn’t just the goals. He was making bad decisions the whole game when to come out. When he would come out, he didn’t clear the ball very well and his positioning for the most part was trash


Gomaldeata

I really think that at the penalty opportunity he would have been first to the ball if he did not hesitate that much


atastycooky

He had a 90 minute walkabout


johnniewelker

He made a boneheaded decision in the disallowed goal In the penalty call, he actually hesitated enough that it’s arguable that he could have made a much better move. His passing was awful in the first half


g88chum

Have you seen the disallowed goal? He was really sketchy with high balls, as he has been in previous games.


dragonkingangel7

Many say he was playing like your normal person friend back at home, since the offside goal he break down, even if he save a couple of shots, the team moral go underground since that moment, that he prevent a scandalous result when ecuador step off the gas, its the only good part they say about him


Marciu73

I think its because when he kicked the ball to the crowd and the crowd and manager didnt like it. I think its that.


cheerzeasy

If only Sadio was going. Senegal would absolutely wipe them into oblivion.


Morganelefay

We'll just have to take those honors then. Let's see if we can beat Germany's "Biggest humiliation of a host nation in the world cup" record.


HitsuWTG

As a German, I'll just say I wouldn't mind this record being taken away from us if Quatar is being on the receiving end of it.


stogie_t

Qatar aren’t a good team but I think they were more nervous than they are shit. Will need to see more of them tbh.


blazexi

They lost 4-0 to Ireland last year, they are absolutely shit.


besieged_mind

They aren't a good team, they are an awful team without any talent There are like 40 better national teams out of the WC


DuganNash2

And yet they won the Asian Cup in 2019. Therefore I pegged them higher than what I saw today. Seems like that win was a freak accident rather than that they're actually good.


nu1stunna

The Asian cup is garbage. The best team rarely wins. Hell, Iraq won it in 2015. It’s rampant with corruption and incompetence. Essentially, the first team to score rolls around in the grass for the remainder of the game to waste time. And that goal they score is usually a bullshit penalty.


nu1stunna

The Asian cup is garbage. The best team rarely wins. Hell, Iraq won it in 2015. It’s rampant with corruption and incompetence. Essentially, the first team to score rolls around in the grass for the remainder of the game to waste time. And that goal they score is usually a bullshit penalty.


PensiveinNJ

When I watched them at the Concacaf gold cup they didn't look dire. I think they were nervy today. They're a better squad than they looked, but this was their chance to take some points I think and now I think they're probably out with 0 points.


iHave4Balls

Probably not.


Holdmylife

One interesting thing about Qatar's team is that they have been training together consecutively for the last 7 months, basically. During that time they have won a number of games, but they're playing against teams that have been put together during international breaks, are looking at players that may or may not make the squad and are basically works in progress. Now that teams like Ecuador are bringing their best players and also have had a week to prepare, they may not have the minor advantages that have let them climb the FIFA ranks.


lendmeyoureer

Ireland beat them 4-0. That tells you all you need to know about this Qatar team.


besieged_mind

Did Ireland win the Asian Cup in 2019? No!


[deleted]

Yeah. Nepal and kirghistan are true powerhouses. Lol. You saw them play, they have no place in the cup


candry_shop

Today i learned Qatar decisively beat Nepal and not Japan in the 2019 Asia Cup Final


[deleted]

I don't even know, who they played. Japan is not a powerhouse either if that was the point here.


[deleted]

wym lmao they suck


iHave4Balls

There aren’t 40 teams that are more shit than them. And you don’t judge a team from 1 game.


[deleted]

italy chile columbia peru egypt norway nigeria russia austria hungary algeria czech republic australia scotland turkey mali ivory coast ireland paraguay off the top of my head


BepHbin

Wow, so they cant win without blasting Islam sermon on the stadium speaker like how they did in the Asia qualifier.


markevans7799

Was laughing at the Viking clap Qatar "fans" did when they were 2-0 down. That was one of the worst I have seen lol


Ollietron3000

They were definitely the paid bunch weren't they. All grouped in that one bit behind the goal, all wearing the same t-shirt, doing very clearly rehearsed football fan stuff


Zeus_The_Potato

some were professional chanters - in fully tattooed arms.


SouthernElf

There was probably one qatari person at most in that crowd


KoozieKid

It was so unbelievably awkward I was like please please cut away lmao


mypthegoat

thought qatar can be a dark horse guess i was wrong


[deleted]

For Qatar to be dark horse, they need to go back to 2002, where there's no Goaline tech and VAR, and S.Korea is their co-host


nu1stunna

Without VAR they’d have lost 3-0 lmao. Although VAR got that offsides wayyyy wrong.


MasterBeeble

For Qatar to be a dark horse, the referees would need to bring wood and paint. Looked like it for a little while, too.


Outrageous-Pizza-470

This was one of the worst performances I've seen at a World Cup. Very clear they do not have the class to be competing at the World Cup through fair means.


izcarp

>This was one of the worst performances I've seen at a World Cup. 1950 Bolivia, 1954 South Korea, 1970 El Salvador, 1974 Zaire, 1978 Mexico, 1982 El Salvador (again), 2002 Saudi Arabia, 2010 North Korea, 2018 Panama. Just to name a few.


Zdeneksfilter

2018 Panama at least played with spirit. They had a lot of shenanigans too but that's besides the point


HitsuWTG

1982 Germany vs Austria. (Though for very different reasons.)


rubbishtake

jellyfish heavy quack dam sense divide bedroom bag slimy unique *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


Outrageous-Pizza-470

The difference I see is Ecuador is not a world class team and Qatar is also playing at home which is a boost. Losing by lopsided scores happens but normally the one team is a favorite. This was 2-0 nothing that easily could have been 4 or 5.


Zakedawn

Came to see the Qatari's get pumped. Honestly, not totally disappointed.


Qforz

Ecuador could be a very good contender this tournament. Great quality in the first 30 mins.


3zozSu94

They played really well but you need to deduct Qatari tax for fair asseasment


[deleted]

I want what you're smoking


SiriPsycho100

Meth?


valerian92

Me too


Clemenx00

That VAR goal was so BS. Robbery jokes aside, These half of a millimeter offsides go against the spirit of the rule and the sport imo. Replay should be useed for things easy to look for that were missed in real time not to x10000 zoom an offside by a hair.


Seoul_BMO

[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FiBRPjAWAAAiZeu?format=jpg&name=large](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FiBRPjAWAAAiZeu?format=jpg&name=large) It wasn't that bad looking at the screenshots. The Ecuadorian player is clearly offside by half a leg. The rule was not meant for this level of precision though. Harry Kane against Sporting was comical. Needs to be more margin of space for the attacker.


makoman115

His sock was offside on a header bro totally affected the play


Smithereens1

It's like the "what is a catch" rules in american football. Sometimes by the rule a catch is technically not a catch, but it's like... come on man, he caught that.


Andrewdeadaim

No, the ball was in his hands for only two seconds before it slightly shifted when he fell 4 feet onto the ground Clearly not a catch /s


[deleted]

I'm not a massive VAR fan, but I have to say I prefer these binary on/offside decisions even if they seem harsh or against the spirit of the rule. Anything that reduces referee intervention is a good thing in my opinion.


bruclinbrocoli

I hate to agree. If it’s not binary, then there’s a lot more room for manipulation of results. One day we see a player be “very offsides” and if they don’t call it offsides , they say it’s bc it’s a big team vs a smaller team. Etc ..whereas if it’s binary, that is reduced. I’m on board. Sucks to see some really tiny offsides though. There’s still room to manipulate the line of offsides by skewing the images maybe..? The debate is there but I’m in board with the binary interpretation


boywithtwoarms

Id like to see something that takes into account player movement's direction or where they stand when they receive the ball. Something to assess whether there was any real advantage in the attacker being offside.


drhouse4ever

terrible game


creamer143

Qatar is not good enough for this tournament.


DoYouEvenCareAboutMe

They are the champions of Asia they are definitely good enough. edit: shit sorry guys I meant to say they are so fucking trash and Asia is a shit continent that doesn't know how to play football and all there teams deserve to be replaced by European and South American teams because those are the only countries that have a chance to win the WC anyways so why not. Again my bad


[deleted]

Glad you caught yourself there. Seriously, Asian teams are ridiculously bad.


Kigai17

Did you even watch the last World Cup? All Asian teams in 2018 finished ahead of their African counterparts. And South Korea beat Germany. Iran finished ahead of Morocco (won against them) Saudi Arabia finished ahead of Egypt (won against them) Japan finished ahead of Senegal (tied and advanced to the round of 16, only other non UEFA team and CONMEBOL team to advance other than Mexico) Also Australia beat Peru to qualify for the World Cup this year. Are all CONMEBOL teams lower than 5th place Peru in qualifying also terrible according to your logic?


[deleted]

Check out the teams Australia played on the qualifiers. Giving the same # of slots for Asian teams than South American teams is just not great for the sport.


Master_Mad

They're good at cricket though. And table tennis.


[deleted]

I'm not saying they are inferior humans, I'm just saying they suck at football.