The 2018 World Cup

[MIJB#19]

No VAR required this time.

[AlexB]

No doubt about that one!

For the first one, there was slight nick on the ball by the defender, but the follow through brought Grieszman down - doesn’t matter about the touch beforehand

[cougarfreak]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

No VAR required this time.

No kidding. That could have been a red card. Almost looked like it was totally intentional.

[Groundhog]

Even as a total homer, I think it was a penalty against AUS. But hey, easier to say that after the AUS penalty goal....

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by cougarfreak

No kidding. That could have been a red card. Almost looked like it was totally intentional.

Red card only if it clearly stops a goal - if it’s in the box and a penalty, stopping a goal scoring opportunity is no longer a red under the triple jeopardy rule

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Even as a total homer, I think it was a penalty against AUS. But hey, easier to say that after the AUS penalty goal....

I’m supporting Australia - drew them in my office sweepstake.

Winner takes all, how do you rate my chances?!

[cougarfreak]

Originally Posted by AlexB

Red card only if it clearly stops a goal - if it’s in the box and a penalty, stopping a goal scoring opportunity is no longer a red under the triple jeopardy rule

I didn't know that, thanks.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by AlexB

I’m supporting Australia - drew them in my office sweepstake.

Winner takes all, how do you rate my chances?!

... well, we managed to beat powerhouse Honduras to qualify for the cup in a home/away series. Barely.

[Groundhog]

Australia's passing is woeful.

[Groundhog]

Strangely, I think the worst thing to happen to Australian soccer was having a ton of money pumped into our national league. Too many guys staying home instead of playing in the better quality Euro leagues, and I think it really shows with the lousy fundamentals.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

Welcome to the modern Era.

" "

[AlexB]

That’s unlucky, but one of the few times France moved the ball and ran forward with any sense of purpose

[MIJB#19]

Just imagine where we'd be without the technology, Australia would be leading 1-0 and everybody would call disgrace and call them the luckiest team in the world.
And Seppi Blatter would still call it the charm of the game.

[AlexB]

I think the second goal would been given without VAR - my first thought was the ball was clearly over the line, it looked much closer on the replay.

BBC said they were checking for offside in the build up rather than checking the goal itself.

[Groundhog]

Ah well, decent effort by the Aussies. Despite the loss, we looked better today than in just about any of the qualification games I saw over the past year.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by AlexB

I think the second goal would been given without VAR - my first thought was the ball was clearly over the line, it looked much closer on the replay.

BBC said they were checking for offside in the build up rather than checking the goal itself.

I wasn't referring to VAR, but to the goal/no goal technology inside the referee's watch.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

I wasn't referring to VAR, but to the goal/no goal technology inside the referee's watch.

Ah, gotcha

My initial thought was it was a goal, think it would have been given without the watch. But then again, so should Lampard’s , so I can’t be sure!

[MIJB#19]

First 25 minutes of Argentina vs Iceland have been entertaining.

[Critch]

Argentina needing a goal and they've got two holding midfielders on the pitch, Dybala on the bench and Icardi sitting at home.

Good game though, the open air viewing party in Reykjavik looked miserable.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by Critch

Good game though, the open air viewing party in Reykjavik looked miserable.

7 degrees celcius in summer

And while Iceland truly perfected defensive play, i agree that Argentina just did not adjust their tactics accordingly and Plans A,B and C consisted of giving the ball to Messi and hope for the best.

[Critch]

The commentary team for the Peru v Denmark game is terrible. Fox's coverage has been variable so far, this is the worst yet.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Critch

The commentary team for the Peru v Denmark game is terrible. Fox's coverage has been variable so far, this is the worst yet.

Agreed. I’m certain this is the crew who will be doing all the Mexico games as well which will no doubetdly make me want to mute audio for tomorrow’s match.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Agreed. I’m certain this is the crew who will be doing all the Mexico games as well which will no doubetdly make me want to mute audio for tomorrow’s match.

Just checked the schedule, they're not the commentators for Mexico v Germany. Tony Meola though, so still probably worth muting.

[whomario]

Perfect example why VAR is a good thing. That foul on peru is sth you can't actually see as a Ref and basically take an educated guess based on context (did he bumble the touch and decided to fall or did he get hit). Ref went with the bumbled touch theory (which it was, making it a fair assumption) because he couldn't see the contact, but now there's a fail safe in place.

Terrible penalty though after all that

Peru pretty impressive and Denmark very static and uninspiring so far.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by Critch

Just checked the schedule, they're not the commentators for Mexico v Germany. Tony Meola though, so still probably worth muting.

At least you have crews/teams and not just 1 guy without any actual background in soccer droning on and on and on like it's the case in germany If it weren't so much more convenient, with higher definition and reliable to stream our channels legally ...

[Critch]

2006 World Cup Directv had German language rights in the US, I watched most of the World Cup on there as it showed every game in HD, it was great. Commenters didnt say much, no graphics getting in the way on the screen, just the base feed.

I dont speak German though, so that might have helped.

[whomario]

Tough one for Peru, who played a really good and entertaining brand of football. But at some point not scoring is ineptitude and not just bad luck.

[whomario]

Decent win for Croatia, who looked pretty good for the most part on both ends of the pitch. Better after they inserted an additional Centre mid and moved Modric up front.

Nigeria very basic and i doubt they take any points in the other 2 games.

[Abe Sargent]

EL TRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

[kingfc22]

Counter-attack clinic on creating chances. Operative word here "creating" vs. "completing".

[bhlloy]

I’m pretty stunned how tactically nonchalant Germany look right now. Lots of possession but very little cutting edge, very few killer balls and seemingly no urgency to get players into the box to take advantage of the good positions they are getting in out wide.

[Critch]

Until they brought on Brandt and Gomez, they looked like they could play for a week without scoring. Ozil, Werner, Mueller were all crap. And Kimmich crosses were useless too.

[Karlifornia]

Wowwww...I wish I had watched this in a taqueria or Mexican bar..

[bhlloy]

The crosses were bad for the most part, but until Gomez (and Brandt) came on it looked like they had 4-5 of the exact same player who were content to stand on the edge of the area and ping it back and forth and then take a terrible shot right at Ochoa or over the bar. So many players trying to play the exact same role and take the exact same space from each other.

There were a few decent crosses just crying out for somebody to get on the end of but most of the time there was nobody in the area even if the cross was decent. I have no idea what position Werner was playing but useless is the right word for sure.

I was also really happy to hear he had dropped Ozil (who is the most overrated player in the world IMO) and replaced him with Draxler, so to then decide he was going to force both of them into the lineup just seems like a spectacularly terrible decision. Low is a great manager but he got this completely wrong.

[kingfc22]

As an Arsenal fan, completely agree on Ozil.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Karlifornia

Wowwww...I wish I had watched this in a taqueria or Mexican bar..

Watched the goal scored in a Taco Mac. Definitely more Mexican fans than German.

[MIJB#19]

So much for VAR being an improvement. Brazil got hosed.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by Critch

The commentary team for the Peru v Denmark game is terrible. Fox's coverage has been variable so far, this is the worst yet.

Completely disagree. LOVED that commentary. I get annoyed that so many think that the British style of commentary is the only proper way to call a soccer match, so I enjoyed the more Latin American style with two LigaMX commentator pros.

---

On another note: MEXICO!!!!!!! What a win! Exciting that instead of playing scared, they went for it. Osorio managed an amazing match!

[cuervo72]

I mean, he was raised on the British style of commentary at least.

[Critch]

It wasnt the style, it was the one-sidedness.

I started off wanting Peru to win, by the end I was cheering for Denmark to hold on.

[bbgunn]

Just catching up here on the thread. Haven't missed much World Cup action, though - but I do miss good English-language commentary. The Japanese commentators scream way too much. They start screaming the minute a counter attack starts.


Some random thoughts:
* I've never been much of a Mexico fan, but for the first time I found myself cheering for El Tri last night, simply because I can't stand the German national team. They seem to be smug and arrogant, and maybe for good reason, but I can't stand that. Similar to the U.S. team this past qualifying cycle. Anyway, unfortunately it was past 12:30 am and I had to go to bed to get ready for work, but I did see the Lozano goal before hitting the hay. Great work in the penalty box.
* Russia: five goals? Seriously?
* Not sure why everyone picked Brazil as the favorites this time around. Yeah, they got hosed in the Swiss game (haven't seen it yet; it's on my HDD), but I felt they weren't going to win it. Support for the team back in Brazil is at an all-time low, and morale must be taking a hit because of that. (See this article from the Guardian.) Que pena. Brazil is usually my team, but it's hard to get behind them if their own countrymen are having trouble doing so.
* About the Cristiano Ronaldo hat trick... Obviously the guy is amazing (I like him a lot more than Messi and Neymar), and when you get your set pieces there's something to be said about converting your chances, but was his performance that impressive, considering he was given a penalty chance and a free kick, and the third goal should have been stopped by De Gea?
* Nobody's talking about the Costa Rica manager taking the ball off the pitch from a Serbian player at the end of that match? Shouldn't he be getting a lot of flak for that?

[Warhammer]

I thought the ball was out on Serbia, so the coach was trying to give it to his team to get the ball back in play.

[kingfc22]

What an awful game to watch. Germany and Mexico should have no problems getting out of this group.

[Shkspr]

I think you have to lay Costa Rica's lack of preparation for this match on the video editing crew. Once they left that tape in the locker room titled "A Serbian Game Film", nobody on the coaching staff had the stomach to watch it.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

What an awful game to watch. Germany and Mexico should have no problems getting out of this group.

Don't sleep on Sweden. The Italians did and look what happened. Germany has to come out focused for that match.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Shkspr

I think you have to lay Costa Rica's lack of preparation for this match on the video editing crew. Once they left that tape in the locker room titled "A Serbian Game Film", nobody on the coaching staff had the stomach to watch it.

:slow clap:

[Arles]

Originally Posted by bbgunn

* About the Cristiano Ronaldo hat trick... Obviously the guy is amazing (I like him a lot more than Messi and Neymar), and when you get your set pieces there's something to be said about converting your chances, but was his performance that impressive, considering he was given a penalty chance and a free kick, and the third goal should have been stopped by De Gea?

Well, Messi had a PK and multiple close free kicks and came up empty. Neymar also blew a late free kick chance. After watching Messi, Neymar, Suarez and Mueller piss away all their chances, seeing Ronaldo go 3-3 is pretty impressive.

[bhlloy]

Belgium coached by Roberto Martinez looking exactly like you would expect Belgium at a major tournament coached by Roberto Martinez to look

[cartman]

Belgium finally woke up. Lukaku with a couple of great goals.

[cartman]

England is all over Tunisia at the start of this game. Tunisia's starting goalie got injured and came off not too long after England scored their first goal.