THE AMOUNT OF PENALTIES IS TOO DAMN HIGH!
But yeah, seems like there's a penalty almost every game.
Heh, I wondered if it were high, and it is. EPL has one penalty roughly every five matches. The last World Cup had 13 penalties in 64 games, roughly the same one in five ratio the EPL has.
This World Cup so far is 8 penalties in 14 matches. Small sample size and whatnot, but if it keeps up it would be nearly three times as many penalties awarded as were awarded in 2014.
Have there been any improperly awarded yet though? I think I've seen 4 or 5 of them live, and they seemed decent calls.
Great question, and I don't believe any have been wrong. I think we're seeing the effect of VAR revealing some of the crap that players have been getting away with.
What's puzzling is how it has caught some fouls that were missed (the penalty in the South Korea game) and still missed some others that were more obvious and shown on replay.
Expect a lot of the same fouling strategy from Panama that you saw from Tunisia. It's the CONCACAF way. And honestly, as obnoxious as it is, it's probably the "right" strategy for much less-talented teams.
Oh absolutely. They were rather aggressive in their tackles against Belgium.
It was so cool driving home from work to see the game, and seeing all kinds of people dress up, getting to a big screen showing. I love the WC atmosphere.
It was so cool driving home from work to see the game, and seeing all kinds of people dress up, getting to a big screen showing. I love the WC atmosphere.
This. And this is what I am missing this time around. I am watching anyway as I love the sport, but I miss the "casuals" being interested. During the last few tournaments, the casual fan here was engaged, even after the US was eliminated. People talked about the games during the day, we had the games on in the breakroom throughout.
Since the US is not involved this year, I am not seeing any of that, and it makes me sad.
Wow, what a crazy beginning! Sanchez tries to pull a Suarez 2010 and it doesn't work out.
Also, no James. They sure are giving Japan every opportunity!
Back in 86 I watched a Uruguayan try to murder Gordon Strachan about 35 seconds into the game and get a straight red, so Carlos Sanchez had to work harder to try to break that record.
Back in 86 I watched a Uruguayan try to murder Gordon Strachan about 35 seconds into the game and get a straight red, so Carlos Sanchez had to work harder to try to break that record.
I can't imagine that attempting to murder Gordon Strachan would ever be in the attackers best interests.............
Scotland played 89 and a half minutes with a man advantage and couldn't score, so the game ended 0-0.
A win there would have put Scotland into the knockout rounds for the first time, something they still haven't managed, 32 years later.
I’m impressed with Japan. They’ve done one heck of a job creating chances through creativity and working around the box, which I’m a little surprised by.
What do people think of the Fox coverage in the US? Seems fine-ish for live broadcast but their website content is awful, imo. Highlights take forever to publish, individual highlights only play the goal once through so instead of seeing it a few times in various speeds and angles I'm constantly clicking replay, and so on.
Like...how am I not able to see a highlight of the handball from the earlier match by now? Why do you only have a live action replay of the sneaky free kick by Columbia? Where are my angles and slow mo? Is this 1997 video rendering technology taking you days to post things?
With that goal in the first half "Own Goal" is now leading the Golden Boot competition with four, to Ronaldo's three.
This is good news for England, because Own Goal is their second all-time leading scorer, with 50.
I feel "Own goal" should be noted for a very capable assist on that second goal as well.
Can someone explain to me why Poland's goalie was so far out of goal, anyway?
Because he's the only one who noticed there was a Senegal player running in off the sideline and knew he had to make it first. But he lost that race.
What a weird thing. It really seems the ref messed that up good.
Can someone explain to me why Poland's goalie was so far out of goal, anyway?
As an Arsenal fan, Szczesny gonna Szczesny
What do people think of the Fox coverage in the US?
Their live coverage has been a little poor. There are times where they cut to a player closeup as a kick is taken and or a pass is made and you miss out on some action. Also their inability to dual window some highlights of previous scoring chances/close calls is lacking. There is room for improvement.
I don't think Fox has any control about the cameras during the game.
I am going to take a guess that he is a Benfica fan!
You'd be correct, sir.
Have any of you watched the matches on Sling? They apparently have a commentary-free tactical cam that has made me very jealous.
TSN picking up the international feed means it's never a bad broadcast up here. The in-studio stuff is of course devoid of insight but I don't watch the pre/post-game or halftime stuff for any soccer, better to check out what's being said on the game on Twitter.
Fox has a commentary-free "cable" cam on its website.
The top down view makes it like watching a game in the Football Manager 3D engine, including shouting "what are you doing!?" at tiny players.
Russians blood doping?
Russians blood doping?
Egypt have been pretty poor to be honest. The Russians have probably been told ‘do well or else it’s the Gulag!’ Or something. Maybe.
Russians blood doping?
Given the age of their squad, and the fitness levels they've shown so far, it's definitely a possibility.
Own Goal now up to five for the tournament.
105 million Euro bid incoming from Man United.
Own Goal now up to five for the tournament.
105 million Euro bid incoming from Man United.
Yet another one of the promising young players Mourinho spurned who turned into a star.
By a distance the best gif to come out of the WC thus far.
projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2018-world-cup-predictions
Great way to keep track of potential outcomes.
Bracket tab you can dig deeper into how the tournament might play out. To what I mentioned before we are not far from a scenario where all the favorites end up on the same side of the bracket. Could end up with a Russia/Uruguay vs Spain (2nd), France vs Argentina (2nd), Brazil vs Germany (2nd), Belgium/England vs Japan/Senegal/Colombia/Poland?
Still think anything can happen in that last group. Doubt it will all play out like that but its in the cards with Germany Spain and Argentina not winning their first games.
Spain could easily still come first but much less out of their hands. 2nd round of games is going to be tasty.
Biggest obvious ones are Argentina vs Croatia, Germany vs Sweden and Poland vs Colombia.
Germany Sweden being the most interesting imo. Swedes grab a draw and Germany goes into the last game not knowing if a win and 4 points total is even enough to get 2nd.
2nd round of games is going to be tasty.
I'll say! I was already discussing with a neighbor how the second round is usually better because the teams now have context for how well they have to do. That wasn't even considering the epidemic of underperformances we've seen. These teams are going to be out for blood.
Still trying to wrap my head around Russia giving two of the most convincing showings so far; they look very legit, but is it real?
Still trying to wrap my head around Russia giving two of the most convincing showings so far; they look very legit, but is it real?
I mean, I'd like to knock them by saying they beat arguably the worst team in the competition, and a team whose entire fate rests on one player who is clearly not fit...
....but you gotta play the team that's infront of you (cliche alert!). Thus far, Russia has looked more convincing than Germany, Argentina, Brazil, France.... everyone but Belgium, really.
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