2020/21 Soccer Thread: Messxit?

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Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick as Bayern Munich recovered from having Alphonso Davies sent off to beat Stuttgart 4-0.

Good win for Brighton tonight. Newcastle were shocking. Time for Bruce to walk I reckon, he'll get lynched if he shows his face in these parts right now.

Still hope for Fulham fans if you ask me, game in hand or not

Yeah... That was not fun.

2 points from a run of 3 quite winnable matches because Bruce was playing for nil-nil.

West Ham vs Arsenal is bananas.

The Hammers have scored five goals so far and aren't winning.

And only got a single point out of it.

One for the neutrals, indeed.

So, is ANYONE playing football in London right now good?

He's got an 8 FKs in FM, mind.

He's going to spend the rest of his career blasting sixty yarders into the stands, like Roberto Carlos.

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I'm sure that'll go over well.

(Norway would have to actually qualify, of course.)

Portugal were amazing against Azerbeijan... They won with an own goal.
Impressive how this manager... managed to get 2 trophies.

@WhoScored wrote:

Kai Havertz has scored more goals in 156 minutes of competitive action for Germany this season (2) than in 1596 minutes of playing time for Chelsea across league and European competition (1)

There has been some debate in another forum I frequent about ditching the offside rule altogether. I disagree with that (quite strongly) as there are plenty of managers out there who’ll go with a 9 man defence and an Andy Carroll type player to just loiter in the box for the long ball forward. It would be dire to watch and set the game back decades.

The point is there’s nothing wrong with the offside rule, it’s the implementation and use of VAR that’s the issue. A ‘clear daylight’ rule is probably the best ‘clear and obvious error’ interpretation I can think off for VAR. It’s not difficult to get right. They have to get rid of this mm line business though. That’s just ridiculous.

Sorbicol wrote:

There has been some debate in another forum I frequent about ditching the offside rule altogether. I disagree with that (quite strongly) as there are plenty of managers out there who’ll go with a 9 man defence and an Andy Carroll type player to just loiter in the box for the long ball forward. It would be dire to watch and set the game back decades.

The point is there’s nothing wrong with the offside rule, it’s the implementation and use of VAR that’s the issue. A ‘clear daylight’ rule is probably the best ‘clear and obvious error’ interpretation I can think off for VAR. It’s not difficult to get right. They have to get rid of this mm line business though. That’s just ridiculous.

Yeah, I can't get behind scrapping the offside rule. Most of the best attacking teams play a high line and scrapping the rule would mean they'd have to defend in a different way. I think it would more or less eliminate pressing from the game (which I think is quite exciting when done well).

"Clear Daylight" still has you interpreting whether there's mm of daylight between players. VAR is absolutely the problem. Until there's technology like goal-line technology but for offsides I think we're better off just living with human error.

Roke wrote:

"Clear Daylight" still has you interpreting whether there's mm of daylight between players. VAR is absolutely the problem. Until there's technology like goal-line technology but for offsides I think we're better off just living with human error.

Almost by definition, "clear daylight" isn't going to be mm, it's going to be several cm's at least. You know, capable of seeing it with the naked eye on the screen. I'd be a little concerned it would give too much advantage to the attacking team though.

Until you can fully automate the offside validation, you'll always have a problem, regardless of using clear daylight, the Wenger model, or whatever that still requires manual validation.

Thierry Henry quits social media until companies act on racism and bullying

The Frenchman, who recently stepped down as CF Montréal coach for family reasons, published a strongly worded statement on Twitter on Friday saying he would remove himself from social media by the following morning.

He said: “Hi Guys, from tomorrow morning I will be removing myself from social media until the people in power are able to regulate their platforms with the same vigour and ferocity that they currently do when you infringe copyright.”

I like this framing, and also, glad to hear you're giving up social media forever Theirry.

They've done test games with no offside rule, and they've reportedly been terrible.

I will continue to say that VAR is good, and only the implementations of it can be bad. VAR is simply using footage we already had to see more accurately what has happened - how can that be bad?

But I certainly agree that offside and VAR have produced some "game's gone" moments, no doubt about it. I think they should implement an official margin of error if they want to keep drawing those lines. Like, if you appear to be less than half a foot offside, no call. In spirit, "clear daylight" is a pretty good idea.

slazev wrote:

Until you can fully automate the offside validation, you'll always have a problem, regardless of using clear daylight, the Wenger model, or whatever that still requires manual validation.

Not really. It requires the great, mythical, and apparently increasingly lost ability known as "common sense".

As I said, its not hard. Really. The first rule is "if you can't tell with the naked eye it's offside, then it's not offside". VAR should not be checked to see if a goal is offside or not. It should be used to check if the referee or their assistants have made a "clear and obvious" error in allowing a goal to standard when it was clearly offside. It's not hard. If you need to draw any sort of line on a screen to see that, then it's not offside

Yeah, that common sense is very subjective. I still think you'd continue having bad calls.

Speaking of bad calls, why isn't there goal line technology in the world cup qualifiers?

slazev wrote:

Yeah, that common sense is very subjective. I still think you'd continue having bad calls.

Speaking of bad calls, why isn't there goal line technology in the world cup qualifiers?

Not sure why there isn't.

Watching it live I kept waiting for them to cut to the VAR review or the Hawkeye equivalent only to realize it wasn't happening.

Caught Portugal vs England u21 yesterday.

England were terrible. Like really bad. With the amount of EPL players in the mix I thought the overall talent level might carry them but nope.

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I think it's nice that DCL has found a use for first-generation iPods.

Germany lost their World Cup qualifier tonight. Against North Macedonia.

Sorbicol wrote:

Germany lost their World Cup qualifier tonight. Against North Macedonia.

Pathetic display from Germany. They didn't even rest their Bayern Munich players and their D was horrid as usual. Time for them to take a look at Low...

Timo Werner. The hell happened?

It's like that Nike ad where a 15-year-old and Cristiano Ronaldo swap bodies.

whispa wrote:
Sorbicol wrote:

Germany lost their World Cup qualifier tonight. Against North Macedonia.

Pathetic display from Germany. They didn't even rest their Bayern Munich players and their D was horrid as usual. Time for them to take a look at Low...

Low is leaving after the Euro.

Have they reached a new Low?

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Jonathan Wilson on the Swiss system's change to the Champions League is terrific

https://www.si.com/.amp/soccer/2021/...