Football: The Winter Break

[Padraig]

7 hours ago, 3CityApache said:

1974 and 1982 World Cups beg to differ. And I even personally remember watching the latter, so you can probably imagine how it pains to watch them this century. 

Hah.  Fair point.  Maybe they will have a great last game.  The Saudis impressed me more today than against Argentina but they seem to have used up all their goals in the first game.

Denmark will be kicking themselves that they couldn't do better against Tunisia previously.  Denmark looked decent today but Tunisia were poor against Australia.  I may be doing the English Championship level a disservice but the latter game was at a level I would expect to see at a lower level in England.  A passionate encounter certainly.

In fact, African teams have disappointed so far.  The Senegal Qatar game was the worst i've seen.  And none of the other African teams have been good either.

France are weird.  I'll always remember their capitulation against the Swiss in the Euros.  So far here, they gave away a goal against Australia and let Denmark back in this game.  Obviously a dangerous side but they will give teams a chance.

[Spockydog]

14 hours ago, Raja said:

Klinsman with an absolute unhinged white dude rant on BBC, prompting this respons from Queiroz

"Unhinged white dude rant" is somewhat hyperbolic. I was rubbing my hands at the prospect of this former Spud getting cancelled for being a big fat racist.

But here's what he actually said...

Quote

After Friday’s 2-0 win over Wales, the BBC presenter Gabby Logan talked about Iran’s “gamesmanship” and said they just stayed on the right side of the law before handing over to Klinsmann. “Yes, that’s their culture,” he said. “Their way of doing it, and that is why Carlos Queiroz fits really well [with] the Iranian national team.”

The former Germany international added: “[Queiroz] struggled in South America, he failed to qualify with Colombia and then he failed with Egypt to qualify and then he went back and guided Iran, who he worked already with for a long, long time. So this is not by coincidence, this is done on purpose.

“This is just part of their culture and how they play, then they work the referee, you saw the bench always jumping up, working the fourth official and the linesman, constantly in their ears, constantly in your face. Kieffer Moore will probably tell you more after the game about little incidents that we didn’t see.”

Sounds like Klinsmann has beef with Queiroz. The behaviour he is describing could be applied to almost every single team at the tournament. The Iranians shouldn't take it personally.

[The Sunland Lord]

41 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

"Unhinged white dude rant" is somewhat hyperbolic. I was rubbing my hands at the prospect of this former Spud getting cancelled for being a big fat racist.

But here's what he actually said...

Sounds like Klinsmann has previous beef with Queiroz. The behaviour he is describing could be applied to almost every single team at the tournament. The Iranians shouldn't take it personally.

Here's the video

 

[Consigliere]

The Japanese coach is a fucking moron. Imagine resting your best players in a game against Costa Rica where a win would have guaranteed qualification. Quite likely this ends up being a massive blunder.

Costa Rica the first CONCACAF side to win a match at this WC.

[Winterfell is Burning]

19 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

The Japanese coach is a fucking moron. Imaging resting your best players in a game against Costa Rica where a win would have guaranteed qualification. Quite likely this ends up being a massive blunder.

Costa Rica the first CONCACAF side to win a match at this WC.

And Costa Rica won with only one shot on goal. That's precision there, my friends.

[Spockydog]

53 minutes ago, The Sunland Lord said:

Here's the video

 

 

Show me a football team - at club or national level - that never employs gamesmanship. 

I shan't hold my breath. 

[Spockydog]

Morocco robbed of a perfectly good goal. 

Eta: Maybe not. Who the fuck knows anymore. 

[Consigliere]

Correct decision.

He was offside when the ball was played in and whether he touched the ball or not is irrelevant - he was very obviously interfering with play.

[Heartofice]

That different countries have different footballing cultures and norms I would have thought was obvious. Just think of the different reactions to diving in the UK to other nations, Brits seeing it as hideous cheating but other nations seeing it as smart play. Of course Brits also saw breaking someone’s legs as good defending so there is that.

Either way, hardly surprising it’s the usual outrage merchants doing the outrage 

[Corvinus85]

2 hours ago, Spockydog said:

"Unhinged white dude rant" is somewhat hyperbolic. I was rubbing my hands at the prospect of this former Spud getting cancelled for being a big fat racist.

But here's what he actually said...

Sounds like Klinsmann has beef with Queiroz. The behaviour he is describing could be applied to almost every single team at the tournament. The Iranians shouldn't take it personally.

Yeah, but he's equating this behavior with their culture. I wonder if he said the same thing about the host nation.

[Spockydog]

2 hours ago, Winterfell is Burning said:

And Costa Rica won with only one shot on goal. That's precision there, my friends.

My latest betting win at this world cup. 20/1 was the price at half time. Stuck a fiver on and went for a shit and a shower. Happy days. 

I also had Japan to beat Germany @ 8/1, Iran to beat Wales @4/1, and Saudi to beat the Argies @ 28/1. Lol. 

I never bet on the favourite. My stake is usually two or three quid per game, maximum a fiver. Up about £200 so far.

ETA: Lol. I forgot about this one, placed when Japan were 1-0 down, but looking far from beaten.

 

[Spockydog]

1 hour ago, Corvinus85 said:

Yeah, but he's equating this behavior with their culture. I wonder if he said the same thing about the host nation.

English football pundits say similar things, week in, week out. And when the likes of Graeme Souness refers to diving Italians or Portugese being 'cute' (another word for cheating), he's talking about Italian or Portugese footballers, not the Italian or Portugese people as a homogeneous mass.

So, Jurgen. Yes, it's perhaps a little xenophobic, but to call this out as an "unhinged white guy rant" seems a bit strong, considering the fucked up state of the world we currently live in.

It seems he's more interested in attacking Queiroz. 

 

[Spockydog]

Come on Morocco!

[Consigliere]

FIFA rankings favour European sides a tad too much. There's no fucking way that this Belgium team is actually the #2 ranked side in the world.

[Corvinus85]

Belgium definitely has been disappointing. Canada will likely regret not having done better against them.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Spockydog said:

 

Show me a football team - at club or national level - that never employs gamesmanship. 

I shan't hold my breath. 

Yeah, that's my take on it as well. He probably has a personal beef, but he's just saying they complain a lot. Everyone has watch teams across sports that have a reputation for bullying the refs.

52 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Morocco robbed of a perfectly good goal. 

Eta: Maybe not. Who the fuck knows anymore. 

I still don't get why people don't take more issue with this. It feels like the need to be 100% correct takes some joy out of it. The only time that's fun if you're a neutral observer is in tennis.

[Corvinus85]

2-0. That's done. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

That was pretty. Through two games Belgium has looked nothing like I expected.

[Spockydog]

31 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Come on Morocco!

Cher-ching! Lol. 

[3CityApache]

Yeah, this was a surprisingly toothless Belgium second time around. This time they didn't pull it through and given the amount of pure talent per square meter they have in the field, it is kinda weird. 

Now they will probably have to defeat Croatia if they want to advance and I don't see it happening with such a play.