Ronaldo ‘outraged’ at his treatment by Spanish tax authorities
- accused of defrauding authorities of €14.7m
Posted on 06/16/2017 12:51:34 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
With a year still to go before the 2018 World Cup begins, it may be that thoughts of next summer's tournament are far from the front of your mind.
But the Confederations Cup, which gets under way in Russia on Saturday, might change that - and not just because of the football.
Many of the issues that surround Russia's hosting of the World Cup are likely to come under the spotlight over the next few weeks, as teams from around the globe compete at Fifa's test run.
Questions over hooliganism, corruption allegations and claims workers have been abused provide a complex background to the eight-team event.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Matches are a bit early in the day US Time, but at least not in the middle of the night. ;)
Saturday, June 17
Russia vs. New Zealand, 8 a.m.
Sunday, June 18
Portugal vs. Mexico, 8 a.m.
Cameroon vs. Chile, 11 a.m.
Monday, June 19
Australia vs. Germany, 8 a.m.
Wednesday, June 21
Russia vs. Portugal, 7 a.m.
Mexico vs. New Zealand, 11 a.m.
Thursday, June 22
Cameroon vs. Australia, 8 a.m.
Germany vs. Chile, 11 a.m.
Saturday, June 24
Mexico vs. Russia, 8 a.m.
New Zealand vs. Portugal, 8 a.m.
Sunday, June 25
Germany vs. Cameroon, 8 a.m.
Chile vs. Australia, 8 a.m.
Wednesday, June 28
Semifinal No. 1, 11 a.m.
Thursday, June 29
Semifinal No. 2, 11 a.m.
Sunday, July 2
Third-place game, 5 a.m.
Championship game, 11 a.m.
"We are looking forward to it, we are not panicking, we are not worried," said Hudson. "If you look at Russia, I actually believe that the prospect for them is even more intimidating. They can't possibly lose to a team like New Zealand."
Bizarre that Australia is in the Asia group now; I don’t think Oceana was even given one slot (I remember their #1 team had to play off against #5 or something like that in the South American group to go to the World Cup), so I guess they figured their chances were better.
Yes I’m 99% sure that is why the Aussies moved to the Asian group. Better chance to qualify.
As always, thanks for the ping and the many links.
Here is a good item that includes what teams the players are from (i.e. Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Ricardo Quaresma (Besiktas), Gelson Martins (Sporting), Andre Silva (Porto), Nani (Valencia)):
Confederations Cup 2017: Squads, fixtures, results and odds from tournament in Russia
We might be relying on youngsters, but I doubt there are many better more exciting youngsters than Joshua Kimmich, Julian Draxler, Julian Brandt, Leroy Sané, Niklas Süle, Timo Werner and Leon Goretzka. Our future looks very bright indeed and I look forward to seeing how they cope with the pressures of tournament football. - Harald
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