Anyway work today was a shitshow which is nothing new on a Friday where if something's going to go wrong it will go wrong, we had a massive delivery (I ended up putting 8 cases of the same dried apricots into the overs.) But this isn't about today's shitshow it's about my store manager going off the deep end, last Friday was just as much of a shitshow but one that could be avoided the delivery came in late but we had no excuse for not clearing it and it was pretty much down to me not having the motivation and a colleague of mine throwing a strop because the store manager pulled him up for ignoring health and safety (he has no reason to thow a strop about her doing part of her job) and becoming less than fucking useless (he took SIX HOURS to not finish a juice delivery that could be done in two and a half) this pissed off one of the night shift managers (who actually has his shit together) but by the time I spoke to him he had calmed down and was trying to find solutions one of which was floated by the store manager and shot down for "being a waste of time" the solution was to start splitting the delivery into each separate aisle to help the new starts get used to where everything is (I found this method of working helpful when I was new) and it didn't even need to be for forever, it just needs to be for two months at most. Also they got their priorities wrong with the newbies' training, getting the till trained before anything else rather than trained on equipment that they actually need to use for their jobs and leaving more experienced colleagues having to tidy up after the newbies because they aren't allowed to do it themselves. Basically the store's a shitshow and I'm stuck doing work I'm not payed to do most nights.

As for the world cup, it's interesting to say the least, certain results actually surprised me but I'll talk about them in each group.

 

Group A

I expected Uruguay to win this group but what I didn't expect was Russia to do as well as they did or Egypt to be as woeful as they where. I know why Egypt where that bad, it's a combination of the coach being shit and the Egyptian FA effectively using the team as political tools. Although the Russians probably had extra motivation of not being tortured and executed by the KGB if they lost.

 

Group B

Results also ended up mostly how I predicted them. But I expected Spain and Portugal to get more points than they did, with Spain edging out the group (extra motivation with this being Iniesta's last world cup and everything.)

 

Group C

Again I expected France to top this group (although they where less then convincing) but I thought the other three teams all had equally good chances of getting through so I don't have much to say about Denmark finishing second. Althought France vs Denmark game was absolute shite, it was as if they where both playing for a draw and it didn't pick up until Fekir and Mbappe came on (obviously no one told THEM to play for the draw) I refuse to believe that a team with all of France's talent (Even if it was pretty much the B team) can't break down a team parking the bus. They oculd have gone through with the full 9 points.

 

Group D

I expected Iceland to do better than they did but I think Croatia wanted revenge on them for the Euros, I actually thought that Argentina would top the group but as it turns out Sampaoli is a shit manager and Argentina rely too heavily on Messi. Nigeria didn't impress me much outside their home kit and I'm still not convinced by Alex Iwobi.

 

Group E

Again I expected Brazil to top the group but Neymar is seriously starting to piss me off with his antics (the over acting and his ego) you'd never see a player like Ronaldhino or Kaka doing what Neymar does and he doesn;t deserve to be considered one of the best anymore. Second place was always going to be a toss up between Serbia and Switzerland, I'm actually glad Switzerland got through as this means I get to see more of Xhaka and Lichsteiner which is always a good thing.

 

Group F

This was the most surprising group. I was fully expecting Germany to top the group woth Mexico or Sweden coming second but they were absolutely dogshit in this tournement and I think I know why, Low made bad team selections (no proper out and out striker and leaving Sane at home or example) but the team's also missing the leadership and experience that Schweinsteiger, Lahm and Klose all provided really showed as the team looked disjointed and bereft of leadership and finally he placed too much faither in Neur, Neur was just back from injury and ter Stegen should have been starting. But yeah this was the most surprising group.

 

Group G

The only group that fell within my predicitions almost entirely (I was expecting Tunisia to beat England just to claim that scalp) with Belgium topping the group and England coming second. Nothing much to say on this one.

 

Group H

This was the most entertaining group imo, I was honestly hoping that Japan and Senegal both went through as both teams really impressed me. I am sad that there are no African teams in the round of 16 but I'm excited to see if Japan can go further as their football is actually quite nice to watch. Hopefully Columbia can find their form from 4 years ago and knock England out as well so I don't have to watch that annoying as fuck advert again.

 

So yeah those are some of my thoughts on the group stages. I'll probably do these entries a bit more frequently now that we're into the knockout stages and there's less teams. I'm hoping France can progress further as well and I think that they can win it if they get their shit together.