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Discuss :o
I'm rooting for Belgium now.
Good game today. I like the fact that England have gone into this without the usual "OMG we're going to win it" followed by inevitable disaster ... instead this year we've gone in with everyone having an attitude it seems of "well we're shit but lets get on with it". Any victories seem like a bonus.
I was really rooting for Saudi Arabia.
Also I'm impressed with Iceland's team; it's like they are half-assing into this but play like pros.
For some reason I'm betting on Argentina.
Any victories seem like a bonus indeed. Yep there seems to be far less hype behind the team this year. Even the pub I was in was 3/4 empty last night - unheard of for an England world cup game.
Despite a strong start from England where we could have been 3 or 4 up, the team descended into a bit of a quagmire, repeatedly farting around on the edge of the box trying to get through 8 Tunisians rather than playing it out wide.
Still, possession was good and that counts.
Iceland are an incredible team from a more incredible country. I've been there and its a gorgeous country and I'd strongly recommend to anyone its a lovely place to go on holiday. From Europe Icelandair is a very good and cheap airline to fly with and stopover there on the way to the USA or Canada (probably the same vice-versa too).
I believe that 10% of the population of Iceland are currently in Russia for the tournament. That's incredible.
Wow. We're not even in it and the pubs were pretty full when i watched. It's nice to be in an international city - i even saw a group of Iranians partying in the street last Friday :p
Now fingers crossed for Poland as my girlfriend is polish :) high hopes and low expectations!
Holy balls that was a painful own-goal to watch.
Argentina 0 -3 Croatia
A real clanger from the Argentine goalie ...
Brazil 2 Costa Rica 0
Volatile match and it was looking like a 0-0 draw. Brazil find the net in the 91st and 97th minutes.
Controversy mid-way through the second half when Neymar goes down in the box after a touch from a defender. Ref points straight to the spot. Then think better of it and goes to watch the video replay. Decides it wasn't a penalty and revokes it.
Wasn't sure about the introduction of option to review video replays, but I think there's merit on the big decisions.
Was Neymar booked? In a situation like that its generally either a penalty or a dive. Or was it neither a penalty nor a dive?
Be interesting to see a dive where VAR switches a penalty to a yellow card.
It was a grey area. It was a slight foul (defender's arm brushing Neymar's chest), and it was a dive too from Neymar, who fell backwards as if he'd been punched.
VAR allowed the ref to see which was more prominent - the foul or the dive - and make the decision as he best reads it.
He wasn't booked for the dive, no.
If its a grey area then fair enough.
Its been funny a few times where in cricket an appeal has been made for LBW, denied by the umpire and the fielding team have used a review so its gone to the third umpire who has said actually it was a No Ball that the on-field umpire originally missed. So the fielding team got punished by their review rather than getting the wicket they wanted.
LOL.
Incredible game Germany v Sweden. Was hoping Sweden would hold on but Germany deserve the three points for their grit and determination.
Sweden always deflates after the first goal against a strong opponent. No faith in their ability to win. The game against Mexico is gonna be bananas.
Mexico look like they deserve to win your group sorry.
Wow. Lingard's strike from outside the box was an absolute beauty.
England 3 - 0 Panama.
England aren't looking too crap.
And just as I was typing that it's 4 - 0. :)
I think you mean 5-0 ;)
Easy group but both England and Belgium are looking good, I'm very curious how their head to head will turn out.
My feeling is Belgium would edge it. They look v strong.
Still, England will take some confidence from this, that was a quality first half, mediocre opposition notwithstanding.
All the wrestling going on in the Panamanian box is ludicrous. :|
I'm starting to think Panama will have trouble winning this one.
Weak opposition but wow 6-1. Qualified with a game in hand, the Belgium game should be very interesting now.
Given how clubs like Germany, Argentina and Sweden are struggling this is looking like an interesting tournament.
Poland knocked out, they're ranked 8th on the FIFA rankings but I'm surprised they're that high to be honest.
They played extremely bad.
Fifa ranking in general is a joke, yes, but Poland did win a lot during qualification, ranking isn't just based on the big tournaments.
That's what I don't understand, virtually every team that's qualified has won a lot during qualification (I believe from memory we had a 100% record which Poland didn't), but against really weak opposition primarily. Where they've faced tougher opposition they've never recently that I can see done anything special. EG getting knocked out in the group stage (last world cup, again like us) or struggling in qualifiers in recent years against Denmark and Germany.
Like I said, fifa ranking is a joke. This one is a bit better: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_...ll_Elo_Ratings