The Big Shiny World Cup thread

[Mar]

After the first half I've just watched if the Aussies get through someone will be rubbing their hands in glee. Mind Denmark are making hard work of it.

Might be neither. Tunisia just gone 1 up v France

It's France's backup players from the looks of it.

[Hoboh]

No one to blame but theirselves have Denmark, good Australian break and parked the bus, well done Australia

[Worthy4England]

After the first half I've just watched if the Aussies get through someone will be rubbing their hands in glee. Mind Denmark are making hard work of it.

Might be neither. Tunisia just gone 1 up v France

It's France's backup players from the looks of it.

Quite. But as with most things you can only play what's in front of you...Couple of lads in midfield were absolutely excellent for 75 minutes. All France when Griezmann and Mbappe came on, but I think the Tunisia MF legs had gone by then.

[TANGODANCER]

Shock result maybe (not that it benefits them any) but Tunisia showed nothing is impossible. Oz result is more important as it puts Denmark out. Greizaman made a massive difference to France, but Tunisia held on for the win. Just a good job it wasn't in the knockout stage. France threw everything in (with a bit of a helpful ref, for me) but to no avail on all that really matters; one goal more.

"Sudden death" is the name of the game now and nowhere to hide for the faint-hearted...

[Mar]

Shock result maybe (not that it benefits them any) but Tunisia showed nothing is impossible. Oz result is more important as it puts Denmark out. Greizaman made a massive difference to France, but Tunisia held on for the win. Just a good job it wasn't in the knockout stage. France threw everything in (with a bit of a helpful ref, for me) but to no avail on all that really matters; one goal more.

"Sudden death" is the name of the game now and nowhere to hide for the faint-hearted...

Not sure how knocking Denmark out is that important. Denmark always strike me as one of those teams that look like they should be good but aren't, yet we end up being dismissive of teams like Tunisia because we presume they're not as good as Denmark when in reality they may be better. Maybe its a pro-European thing.

It's good that France are now looking beatable, not that we should be using Tunisia as the model for that as I suspect France let their guard down somewhat for the Tunisia game whereas I don't think that'll be the case for the Quarter Finals.

Anyway, lets hope we get past Senegal first.

[Prufrock]

Denmark won their group with the second best record of any European team, beat France home and away in the Nations League and got to the semis of the last Euros.

I'm not sure it's bias that people expected then to be good. Part of tournament football that it doesn't always play out, though.

[TANGODANCER]

Justice done there in the Argentina game (which they are totally dominating) . Messi get a feather touch and does seventeen agony rolls, ref give a penalty (after V.A.T.) and the Polish keeper saves it...Argentina, master cheats...nothing new there...still 0-0 at the break.

[BWFC_Insane]

The VAR decision to award a penalty to Argentina has to be the worst decision I’ve ever seen. I needed one look to say ‘very clearly not a penalty in a million years’. The VAR team then had about a dozen views before the ref was called over to look at the screen and watch it a few more times.

All those officials should be sacked because if you think that’s a penalty then you genuinely aren’t fit to be officiating games of football.

[Worthy4England]

Keeper got nowhere near the ball, connected with strikers face and not in control. What else do you need for a penalty?

[Worthy4England]

That said, I'm starting to think Argies are deliberately missing goals to make sure they don't help Mexico...

[Prufrock]

That's at least three pens so far this tournament where the ref has got the decision right on field not to give a pen, and then VAR have decided to get involved and then we all know what happens.

They keep saying it's not there to re-referee games, and then that's exactly what they do. An absolute farce.

[Hoboh]

That's at least three pens so far this tournament where the ref has got the decision right on field not to give a pen, and then VAR have decided to get involved and then we all know what happens.

They keep saying it's not there to re-referee games, and then that's exactly what they do. An absolute farce.

And it does make you wonder if there is a certain bit of pressure behind the scenes we don't see. No way on this planet was that a penalty how could the keeper have stopped in midair to adjust his arm? Nothing deliberate there. Still at least he saved muckys effort

[TANGODANCER]

Some quality football amongst all the fiascos. France and Argentina frighteningly good and Portugal on song. Poland go through despite hardly having any possession and no goal threat.

As for St George's lot; If we persist in our pass the parcel game in our half we'll get slaughtered. We just have to play in midfield attack and in the opponents half and hope our defence can prevent goals against us. Faint-heart never won fair maid, or a football match. I like McGuire and he isn't afraid to raid, but I might play Eric Dyer with him to cut out the predictable familiarity angle with Stones. Kyle Walker is fine, but I'm not sure if Luke Shaw is quick enough to play wing back and passing the ball back is suicidal. Trippier may be better there. No room for superstars, Mr Sterling so either a hundred percent or the bench. If it ain't broke, don't fix it for the rest and a possible visit to a church amongst the training and sight-seeing.

Amen. .

[Worthy4England]

That's at least three pens so far this tournament where the ref has got the decision right on field not to give a pen, and then VAR have decided to get involved and then we all know what happens.

They keep saying it's not there to re-referee games, and then that's exactly what they do. An absolute farce.

And it does make you wonder if there is a certain bit of pressure behind the scenes we don't see. No way on this planet was that a penalty how could the keeper have stopped in midair to adjust his arm? Nothing deliberate there. Still at least he saved muckys effort

There's nothing in the assessment that says it has to be deliberate - bit like some of the handballs which are given. For me, keeper has got nowhere near the ball in relative terms and contacted Messi's head. I don't understand why that wouldn't be a penalty...(I'm not saying I wouldn't have been pi$$ed had it been awarded against us), but if anyone wants to reference the laws and say why it wasn't a penalty, I'd be all ears!

[boltonboris]

A goalkeeper doing that is the same as a defender heading the back of a strikers head when he doesn't win the header.

[Prufrock]

Or even just jumping agaisnt him. Every single header would be a free-kick against whoever didn't head the ball with even the mildest contact.

The laws are all to do with verbs: push, kick, trip, jump into, strike.

But there is also obviously a threshold of the amount of contact for some of them. That was a brush of the finger tips, not enough for me, Jeff.

And certainly not enough to overrule the ref.

[Worthy4England]

The ref wasn't over-ruled - he was asked to look at it and draw his own conclusions.

I don't think this has come down to "jumping against him." I think it's more to do with whether you believe the challenge was careless and whether the opponent was impeded with contact. In the case of them both going up for a 50/50 header, you likely wouldn't assess it as being careless..

Given how far away from the ball the keeper was, I could see a route to giving the spot kick.

[Hoboh]

It was under any circumstances harsh, no way would kerbsize mucky have got his head on that ball even with steps so was he impeading the keeper

Anyway irrelevant, short arse missed to great cheers in my lounge anyways

[TANGODANCER]

Today's menu:


15:00
Canada v Morocco
FIFA World Cup 2022 Group F
BBC TwoBBC iPlayerBBC Sport Website
15:00
Croatia v Belgium
FIFA World Cup 2022 Group F
BBC OneBBC iPlayerBBC Sport Website
19:00
Costa Rica v Germany
FIFA World Cup 2022 Group E
ITV4ITVX
19:00
Japan v Spain
FIFA World Cup 2022 Group E
I.T.V 1 17-00

[TANGODANCER]

It was under any circumstances harsh, no way would kerbsize mucky have got his head on that ball even with steps so was he impeading the keeper

Anyway irrelevant, short arse missed to great cheers in my lounge anyways

I always thought fouls had to be intended not accidental, especially with penalties at stake. . Silly me.