Russia and the World Cup

[scottish-guy]

So, after all the hype and the "It's Coming Home" malarkey (conveniently ignoring the fact that the world's first international match was actually played in Scotland):

England come 4th in the World Cup having lost three games out of seven.

Their four victories being against the mighty Tunisia, Panama, Colombia(on penalties), and Sweden.

On the only occasion they faced a team ranked above them - Belgium - they fell apart.

[arsenal]

It was an enjoyable run but only a fool judges himself or his nation by a football team.

[frequent]

There's an interesting assessment of Russia post-World Cup by Simon Kuper in this weekend's Financial Times. As it's behind a paywall I won't bother providing a link. Kuper's assessment is that Putin's screwed - hardly an original thought. The GDP of Russia continues to fall and is now, I understand, less than that of lonelywombat's home country Australia. Putin won't allow any dancing in the streets once the tourists have gone home - too much of a risk it will turn into a popular uprising

[gerefan2]

Putin won't allow any dancing in the streets once the tourists have gone home - too much of a risk it will turn into a popular uprising

Please tell, why would any Russians want to dance in the streets?
Anyway it’s only a game...