Despite really looking forward to seeing this World Cup get underway, I’ve struggled to get into it, in truth.
The shite kick-off times have really dampened my enthusiasm. It’s Sunday afternoon as I write this and, at the time of typing, I’m yet to see a decent game. All the good ones have happened during the night, and other than Granit Xhaka’s Switzerland playing out a bore-draw with Qatar, I’ve not seen much of the action from the Sunderland players, so it’s all felt a bit meh so far. I’m holding
out some hope that I’ll get a bit more into it… but is anyone else a bit like me and struggling with a lack of (World) Cup fever?!
Mind, the coverage from the British TV stations hasn’t helped either. I want to boil my face in hot oil every time I hear Sam Matterface and Lee Dixon on ITV, and even in the highlights I was forced to hear Alan Shearer drone on during the Brazil v Morocco game… although, props to massive Lads fan Guy Mowbray for forcing him to talk about Sunderland’s fantastic season – you can always tell how much it pains auld Weetabix Heed to do it. He could have really driven the knife into his heart by asking him about Talbi’s goal in the derby, but we can’t be picky, I suppose.
It does make you wonder, though, who on earth the people are at these big companies that appoint the likes of Dixon and Shearer to co-commentary for games. Do they not care? Do they not read the reaction on social media? Surely there isn’t a single licence fee payer asking to hear what Alan Shearer has to say (not even those on Tinyside, I’d presume), and Dixon genuinely sounds like he’s given up altogether… he must have friends in high places.
As much as I really wanted Wilson Isidor to break their hearts, you’ve got to say fair play to the Jocks for turning up in numbers for their opening game. Their rousing rendition of Flower of Scotland genuinely got the hairs up on the back of my neck and, given FIFA have absolutely ripped the arse off the paying punters for tickets (to the tune of over $1,000 for standard seats), they turned up in numbers to watch their team win their first game at a World Cup finals since 1990.
Hopefully, with tougher tests against Chemsdine Talbi’s Morocco and Danny Collins’ Brazil coming up, Isidor can shine and show the sort of lethal form in front of goal that has seriously endeared him to Sunderland supporters over the last couple of years.
Speaking of Talbi, it was great to see he got on in that game against Brazil and that he actually contributed. Sadly, we can’t quite say the same for Omar Alderete, who got rinsed for one of the USA goals as Paraguay fell to bits and were decimated by the rather impressive hosts, who are a lot better and a lot more talented than I had realised. I’m just glad I never stayed up till daft o’clock to watch it.
Ah well… let’s see how the rest of this week goes, and whether I start to really catch the bug.
In more important news, the 2026/27 fixtures are out this week, on Friday, so there’s something to really look forward to from a Sunderland perspective at least. I imagine that most of you, like me, immediately look at when we’ll be playing the two games against the Mags, then look at the opening day, then the final day, and then the festive games… in that precise order.
All I’m hoping for is that we don’t get a promoted team on one of the first two matchdays. It’s the worst time to play them, as we discovered last season when we faced Burnley at Turf Moor in their first home game of the campaign, and we could do with a bit of luck in that regard. Give me someone bang average again!
The fact that fixture release day is rolling round again just shows how quickly things turn around. By the time the players have returned for pre-season training, we’ll either be right at the end of the World Cup or just after it has finished, so there’s no rest for the wicked, I’m sure.
I wouldn’t be shocked if Régis Le Bris is already back from his jollies and at the Academy plotting and scheming to get ready for the summer – he doesn’t strike me as the type of bloke who likes too much time off.
Even when he’s on holiday, I bet half the time he’s thinking about his work or talking about it to someone… he’s a proper ‘all-in’ type of bloke who doesn’t seem to switch off from the reality of being a Premier League gaffer, and whilst I bet that annoys the life out of his poor missus, I’m over the moon that he’s our manager. Footy is all about marginal gains, and having someone who works twice as hard as anyone else gives us such a huge advantage when planning ahead of the new campaign.
Lastly, and certainly not least, I just wanted to welcome all of Roker Report’s new contributors to the gang, who join us ahead of the 2026/27 campaign to add even more talented voices to our already excellent pool of voluntary contributors.
You may have noticed some new names amongst our daily output over the last week or so, and that’s because we’ve been joined by a whole host of newbies who answered my call when we put a post out on social media a few weeks ago.
Some might say they’re glory hunters (not me, of course, but some might say that… “wheeeeeeeere were you when we were shite?! etc…), but they’re joining the crew at the best possible time as we enter Sunderland’s first season as a Europa League outfit – so getting to write about our jaunts across the continent to see the Lads compete with some of the best sides in the world should be really fun and interesting.
Welcome to the madhouse, everyone!
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