No thread for this yet? Really?

So, how do You like it so far? I watched a few games. Clappies for Iceland! And Australians also fought well against France.

The team from my country, Poland, plays its first game on Tuesday 19.06 with Senegal.

My team is England 

Have to disagree there. As someone who has had a whole season watching it in action at my local championship, I've been founding it atrocious to the point of asking if it's really there. Some very serious mistakes have already been made in so few matches (Portugal and Argentina's awarded penalties merited a review, IMO, Spain's first goal was preceeded by an obvious foul, Argentina should have been awarded a clear penalty) plus a lot of minor mistakes.

Curious for Brasil today.

Mexico!!

I've yet to see a decision that went to VAR called incorrectly. There may be examples that I haven't seen where the ref has overridden VAR by his own interpretation of the video footage (but that's his prerogative) VAR is not going to prevent most instances where fouls committed outside the penalty box are not awarded prior to goals being scored. The only realistic expectation we can have is that it reduces clear and obvious errors where red cards, off-sides and penalty box infringements are not correctly called. The ref is not obligated by VAR to review any decision he has made. Similarly, if the technology fails due to a systemic fault (as it did in the Grand Final match here in Australia) the ref will still have to make the same impartial judgement he and his linesmen  have been tasked to make since the game was invented (or are you also going to blame 'lack of VAR' on VAR as well?) There has and always will be mistakes in the officiating of football matches. With VAR, there will be fewer mistakes.

This is not the World Series, the clue's in the name, the world cup, the whole world is invited.

There are over 190 countries participating this year? Damn, this thing is going to take a loooong time to sort out. 

Of the 210 FIFA member countries, 208 participated in the qualification tournament which ran from 12th March 2015 until they arrived at the 32 finalists currently competing in Russia 2018

sure. but not everyone made  the real tournament. 

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote: It's all the real tournament

 

I suspect countries like the USA and Italy may disagree. 

To be honest, I think that FIFA has not warmed up to VAR or any system that takes some of the cheating out of the game. it seems no one has explained to them that INSTANT REPLAY has not hurt the American games, and is very much a part of American Football (the fall game!), and it does not take anything away from it.

The "fear" that FIFA and other traditionalists have that it takes the human out of the game, is unfair to the players and the fans right now. None of us will complain if the foul is there, or the ball crossed the line. But FIFA does not wish to show that they support VAR, and they are merely complying with TELEVISION and its desire for a more complete game, that does not cheat the fans, which the TV can show you really quick.

As such, ten fouls on Neymar in a game, should have brought on a review more than once, and even showed a couple of cards, but it was ignored. Likewise, taking away goals, and not giving penalties when it should ... just tells you that FIFA told the referees, that do not wish to rely on VAR fo resolve games. 

Again, the old line of folks in FIFA need to be removed! The more things change over there, the more they stay the same!

As far as my choice? Any team that relies on one player, is not likely to have a good chance, and will get punished. This has been the case for many years, and FIFA has ignored that some greats are getting punished and it has been like that since Czechoslovakia discovered that all they had to do to stop PELE was to kick him in the ankles until he falls off the game altogether ... which he did, being human! And the same is still happening, and Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar will get punished hard ... unless their teams take up the difference and allow their players to steer clear of punishment ... sadly, only Messi is a great passer of those three.

I'm not sure there is a "favorite" yet, but Belgium and France look promising, but I would not rule out a Portugal or Spain ... their draw shows that they are not going to stop trying to score ... and that is not a good thing for many opponents. I can see it now ... Belgium/Spain or Belgium/Portugal and the score being 4-4! Or another 3-3!

They only approved VAR for four items in the World Cup, penalties, missed red cards, goals, and mistaken identity. So repeated cynical fouling is still just the referee and he should have started issuing yellows as soon as he realized it was a deliberate tactic. I was particularly annoyed with ignoring the rugby tackles of Kane in the penalty area that the referee saw and waved off, the VAR should have told him he needed to relook at it. The referee was awful and wasn't helped by VAR.

Kotro wrote: Before anyone else says it, I will: what a disgusting performance by Poortugal. I guess someone had to be this World Cup's Italy. Morocco extremely unfortunate to come away with nothing from the game, and yet more poor refereeing.

Portugal were an eyesore and yet they won Euro 2016 playing this way (in a not dissimilar fashion to Greece who won Euro 2004 with a brand of football so cravenly negative that it makes Italy look gauchely cavalier) Pepe's dive to the floor after being lightly tapped on the shoulder by an opponent should be worthy of retrospective punishment. I thought both teams could have been awarded penalties (Fonte's push in the first half and Amrabat's foul on Ronaldo in the 2nd both went unpunished) All said and done, it's up to the other coaches to counter Fernando Santos' stifling negativity. If Morocco had a quality centre forward....Go Panama!

Hi,

Some reflections on soccer and the WC.

it was in Brazil that I first became aware of the WC, and of course Pele, whom I got to see once while playing for Santos. But there was a huge difference in the game in those days, and the game today.

in those days, there was RADIO ... and radio had something going for everyone ... all of us had some sort of radio, and no one ... NO ONE ... skipped a game, and failed to find out the score and who scored ... and you knew Coutinho, Pele and Pepe for almost 12 years, and their abilities, long before Ronaldo, and then Ronaldinho and many wannabees since then. I do not think that Neymar is any better than any of these folks were, and mostly because Neymar is all speed, and not a very good passer and only sees his feet, not the other feet around him, which you have to do in a team game.

Fast forward to 2010 then 2014 and then 2018. I have not seen, or heard a single game of the WC. Even the highlights are taken away from ESPN, and the FIFA sites, and that means that the commercial side of the game, is actually hurting it in America even more since its VISIBILITY is simply not there. You get to see the highlights in all College and Professional Football games in America, and the same for Baseball, and that enhances their beauty and their strength on the minds and vision of the public.

Soccer, and specially American Soccer, is hurting itself, and will not grow well enough, if that visibility is not there, and the folks owning those teams think that they have to get into TV and eat up some of the fans in the other games, which I am not sure is a good idea. 

All in all, I find this lack of concern for making sure the games are heard ... a problem. it does not always matter how the information and games get to you, but knowing and making sure that you are aware of its living and its content, should be much more important than it is right now. The highlights alone, which are missing, are one of the best things in American sports TV programs ... and you get some goons talking about the game instead and you don't see anything. 

How can you appreciate a game, when you are not allowed to see it? Or worse ... pay for it, when at least half to two thirds of the world, doesn't even make that much in one month!

I'm glad that I will long be gone before stuff like that gets resolved, but the visibility that this game had for me when I was a kid, was massive, and almost just like seeing all the pro-football games' highlights each Sunday afternoon during the fall.

Sorry to ask a question about two world cups in the future, but...

when they expand the field, are they going to add more groups or just add more teams to the existing number of groups? 

Colombia were down to 10 men from the 3rd minute, the Colombians must have been exhausted. 

What a terrible result for Argentina today, horrendous play by the keeper, surprisingly lackluster performance.

I think that this is the change in the game today ... some of the "lower" teams in the world have gotten better, but the media in Europe will not accept it, and still think that all teams must be honored by one player only, and they can not compete.

Messi, deserves a lot more than he has gotten from Argentina, but their Federation is not about the best players and the best coaches ... it's about their collective ego and rich-ness, and their "control" of their servants, instead of realizing that they need to come together and make the team work well along with the coaching staff.

What was clear, is that the coach in this game was not in touch with the players, and able to adjust quickly to the stonewalling that Croatia was doing, in preventing Messi from getting the ball. And the coaching staff should have been prepared for that ... but no ... it takes Aguero out instead, a proven scorer.

Nigeria will be a good test ... Croatia stonewalled. Nigeria is going to run the 100 yd dashes around Argentina, and we hope their old men can stop the flying feet from getting to the ball and probably scoring since Argentina does not have a reliable/dependable keeper, it looks like ... but I do believe that a lot of his problems are communication with his back line ... which failed during the Croatia game.

One man teams are doomed, and I think that Brazil is next.

That's a very good question. I suspect that they will have more groups rather than add more teams to the existing 8 groups (otherwise the planned 48 teams would mean 8 groups of 6 teams = 5 matches to reach the knock out phase) The bigger nations are never gonna sanction having to play that number of games for the finals IMO. As an aside, I'm against the idea of expansion as it just dilutes quality (look at Euro 2016 if you need evidence)

As for your contention for the lesser teams doing better I still see this as a European dominated tournament, the only teams who have lost are Germany (in the shock of the tournament don't tell me they are getting weaker) and Poland who were over seeded. South America has horribly under performed with Uruguay only getting results while not being convincing. Africa has only managed one win in five games. Asia has been better with Japan & Iran getting wins but neither look that strong. 

Biggest thing for this tournament so far is parity with the big dogs, Brazil & Germany, looking off and lots of close games. 

In terms of the 2026 tournament they are going to have 16 groups of 3 teams with the top 2 going to the knockout stages so there's one extra knockout round. In terms of who gets the extra 16 spots they break out as Asia 3.5, Africa 4, N America & Carib 2.5, S America 1.5, Oceania 0.5, Europe 3, PlayOff 2. Host allocation is still to be determined.  

In terms of how weak those additional teams will be here's a look at who would have probably made it this year with that format

Asia - Syria, UAE, Uzbekistan

Africa - Congo, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Uganda

N America & Carib - USA, Honduras

S America - Chile, Paraguay

Oceania - New Zealand

Europe - Italy, Rep Ireland, Greece

Other than Italy & the USA anyone really excited about that lot being added?

Hi,

My contention is that they had studied Barcelona, and Argentina thoroughly in the film and knew the tendencies of how to get the ball to Messi ... and they found out real quick that the midfield of Argentina was a high school equivalent compared to Barcelona, and from that point on the game was just ... easy for Croatia, specially after they got the first goal, on a defensive mistake. The Argentine midfield could not find, or locate an option to change the game ... and they did not look for Aguero, and neither did they threaten with long shots to open up the defense some. 

The game, for the Argentine staff, was one that was very badly looked at and they did not study the elements that took place in the first half, which the TV set glaringly showed and the announcers were openly discussing!

My bet, is that the same thing is going to happen to Brazil, that does not exactly have a flexible staff, and a strong enough technical one.

The Germany loss, for me, is one of what appeared to be a miscalculation of the game design and propensities. The Germans did not study the USA games (for example) where Costa Rica, Mexico and others ran right past the players at such speed that they just stood there and watched. The Germans, for my liking, appeared to be a step slow compared to Mexico, a team that was pretty sure they could catch the Germans on their back feet more than once, and they did ... and pulled off the upset. Even the German aerial attack failed, and that is something that tells you that the wide defenders prevented the crosses ... or cut them down to a small number by comparison ... and that Germany, still believed they could air raid Mexico ... and they didn't!

There are always, in every WC ... some surprises. Personally, I'm glad to see these big teams take a dump and give a different country a chance. I do not dislike the big teams and countries, but I am sick and tired of their media and their opinions that they own the world and that they will get all the trophies and I want to see the David's pull games out a lot more in the WC ... sick and tired of the Goliah's.

All I inferred from Mosh's original comment re 'the lesser teams doing better' was that the only demographic remotely surprised by England being dismantled 4 v 1 by Germany at South Africa 2010, finishing bottom of their group at Brazil 2014 or being eliminated from Euro 2016 by Iceland were ....the English.

I agree that expansion will only lead FIFA down the same rocky route as UEFA where both are in danger of milking their cash cow into the abattoir. At this rate my home country (Scotland) just might nick a place in the finals after a tricky two leg play off decider with Lapland. Thanks for posting the planned tournament schedule for the 48 team WC Finals. Two from Three is a recipe for collusion methinks - remember Germany v Austria 1982?

Two from three is kind of weird, and could have collusion, if 1 beats 2, & 2 draws 3, then a draw between 1 & 3 eliminates 2.

Thanks. Groups of three is pretty piss poor IMO. But then I prefer larger groups with this pool play type system. And agreed...expansion isn't a great idea, but so it goes. 

Brazil 2 v 0 Costa Rica

If Neymar was booked in the 81st minute for dissent (after arguing his penalty award being overturned by VAR) why didn't this tally to a second yellow and a dismissal? Can someone tell me why he wasn't booked initially for simulating being fouled? (the video footage confirmed he fell backwards after the lightest touch of an opponents hand brushing his chest) It also begs the speculation: if he should have been red carded he wouldn't have been on the field to score his team's first goal. No-one can deny his talent but the media are fast turning the Seleção into Team NEYMAR Pty Ltd. Brazil were wretched throughout and had Costa Rica shown just a bit more ambition in getting forward more often....who knows?

Croatia 3 v 0 Argentina

Like any 58 year old man's tattoos, Sampaoli's birds of prey and ferocious predators are mutating daily into corpulent penguins and bloated lap-cats. From the federation down, Argentina are an omni-shambles and things behind the scenes must be that bad to make a team with this much individual talent perform with so little evident passion or desire. Messi without the ball is just one kit less that needs washing.

Go Panama!

This may be the greatest thing I've ever read here. 

Go England!

I actually think that a lot of this is happening, because they do not want the huge economic countries that bring in a lot of revenue, left out of the tournament. The USA or Japan, or Italy, or Brazil, or the like, not coming to the cup, means an incredible loss of revenue, regardless of where the Cup takes place.

UEFA being better organize as a bunch of countries, is much better positioned to see the potential in wideing things, than FIFA, who has been controlled by one person for a long time, and his design and ideas were/are more important than anything. It was one of the that said that they really needed to get Africa involved. And they did. And then they wanted Asia more involved. They did. And this is something that UEFA, knew they could not wait 4 years to get it done ... get all the members together and pool the efforts and ideas and let's see what sticks, is what they did, so that everyone could benefit from it. By comparison, FIFA has been living and stealing off its name for 48/52 years, and no one is any wiser for it.

Ideally, for me, might be to create a round robin affair at the start ... three teams is not enough ... it's just 2 games, but at least the pressure would be on SCORING, rather than a tie, but this hurts the higher level teams a lot more than the lesser teams. One error, and it is disaster for a big name/country. I, do not want to see the great teams and players out of the Cup in the first game, and neither do you.

I would probably say 12 groups of 4, and cut it down to the top 2 for 6 groups of 4, and then bring it down to 12 teams, with the 4 best teams getting a bye. This would be a GREAT idea, since it would force the bigger teams to score to get a better ranking. And in that second round, they would fly to try and get that extra goal, instead of playing for a tie, since they do not have to do anything else, and they can save players, and rest some. 

After that the quarters, semis and final as they already are. But having that second round be a much more important scoring affair, would be much more valuable ... and it might make the game more appealing, instead of the lesser results. 

However, for me, the 0-0 affairs are fine when they have that keeper with 12 saves, and that other keeper with 13 saves ... and you know that on that day, it was a keeper's game ... and that is worth it!

Speaking of respect, I almost forgot to mention that Kasper Schmeichel is a very good goalkeeper but a massive sledging c*nt.

Now now, there there.

Like father like son.

I thought both Spain and Portugal were a tad fortunate to draw their matches with Morocco and Iran respectively (any German technical staff out there might want to look that up....)

To the letter of the law Aspas' late equaliser was offside (look at where his upper body is, not his feet) To be fair to Portugal, Iran's penalty award was ridiculous as handball has to be deemed deliberate (Soares couldn't get out of the way of the ball's trajectory at such close range, he wasn't even looking at the ball never mind trying to deflect it to safety....)

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, VAR will never remove the need for an official to make a judgement call all said and done.

Enjoying the tournament so far, loads of incident (but too many soft penalties bring awarded)

We found the problem!

No German technology on VAR!

ExittheLemming wrote: ... Like I mentioned in an earlier post, VAR will never remove the need for an official to make a judgement call all said and done.

I think that it's mostly growing pains with VAR. And that too many officials don't like the intervention of the TV, but then, they are not sitting in the booth watching what the fans can see that he/she and their assistants can not ... specially the offsides situation, that is the most abused, and the one that needs to be addressed differently ... I like the idea from the old days, that if the pass came from beyond the half way line, "offsides" could not be called. It was a sort of "unwritten" rule in Brazil when I started playing.

In the end, VAR is going to win, since the TV, more often than not will support it. And the officials that ignore it and do not use it, will find themselves out on the street, which in my book, is a good thing. I do not see that instant replay hurts any game in America, and FIFA making an issue of it, is just being stubborn and stupid and not watching the games on TV now and then to see the horrible mistakes and the calls that were ignored. I hate to see a WC game change in the end, because of it.

My take, and I did not watch the games (no TV), is that both Spain and Portugal could have gotten pasted, and in some ways should have been. Many of the "low level" teams are doing well and showing folks that they are not left overs ... and that is a great sight ... and the next WC in 4 years, will be very interesting because of it. BTW, I do not think that the USA will make it again. They are STILL not bringing up youngsters, via MLS, and many of them are leaving for Europe to sit on the bench.

Not a great way to move "forward". I kinda think that Italy is going through the same thing as well. No youngsters coming up and while have Buffon on the game is nice and he is very good, it really means that a youngster is not getting better and having a chance ... guess what hurt the American team? No one to replace the ineffective players!

??

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote: On the images I saw the only part of Aspas' that was offside was his arm which isn't used in offside decisions as it can't legally play the ball, therefore onside & they got the call right. On Iran's penalty his handball wasn't deemed to be deliberate, it doesn't have to be, it was in 'an unnatural position' which is the other way a handball can be given. His arm was raised above his head and therefore it was the correct decision. I thought both calls were good calls.

For me, (and I accept this is pedantic) more than just Aspas' arm was offside and the linesman also clearly thought so (as he raised his flag despite Pierluigi Collina's dictat not to flag borderline off-sides to prevent goal scoring opportunities being converted) BTW what would the call have been if the ball had deflected accidentally off Aspas' upper shoulder and into the net? However, can you jump into the air to contest a header without raising your arms for leverage? (by imitating Punk's dance craze 'the Pogo?')

Disillusionment with Polish team's performance.

Accidentally off upper shoulder would probably be a goal but its hard to image a player deliberately positioning himself to accidentally divert the ball into the net, it's such a low probability I think we're safe :)

The jumping for a header without raising your arms is an interesting one, clearly its not possible but they've been calling it this was for year so that players don't 'accidentally' leave their hands in the air and deliberately block shot, how do you tell intent? They need to be aware of the risk and play accordingly as referee's are going to call that all day.

I was thinking that the quota of miracles for this WC was about over, until Argentina pulled the rabbit out of the hat!

Should be an interesting game, but I would not be surprised to see Argentina pull another rabbit and take France out Saturday!

If Germany is out...

If Sweden is in...

...

Then...

...

WHERE IS THE BALL???

The way the whole tournament is drawn needs some serious re-examination methinks. The scenario for Belgium v England is that the losers may actually have an easier tie in the round of 16 i.e. the team that tops Group G could face the winner of Brazil v Mexico rather than Colombia, Japan or Senegal. It only goes to show that the group seeding has suffered a disastrous harvest and that the sooner they return to good ol' fashioned 'random' selection AFTER all the group qualifiers have been decided, the better. The whole point of sport is that you really don't need to incentivize winning ffs. Trying to engineer the 'big teams' being kept apart until the latter stages is the most insidious form of corruption and only benefits the respective federations, advertisers, sponsors and the cash whore that is FIFA itself. This World Cup has been exciting and enjoyable for the fans and viewers IN SPITE of everything the corporate stakeholders have striven to ensure DOES NOT happen.

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote: The trouble with randomized is you could end up with a team getting 5 days rest playing one with zero days rest.

'Zero days rest' is playing two games on one day? That's clearly a scheduling issue - not sure what you mean by this? - just wait till all the group games are completed and then draw the knockout phase with no seeding

By zero days I mean they play the next day, i.e. no rest days between games. Let's look at the most extreme example from this WC. Last group game is today, first knock-out game is Saturday. So the worst would be one days rest. So lets assume Belgium draw Uruguay in the random knock-out round and are up in the first game. Belgium get one days rest Uruguay get 4 days rest. This is not fair on Belgium.

Like I stated before, it's a scheduling issue (solved by playing the last round of group games all on the same day). We both know the reason why FIFA don't want all the group fixtures rounds played on the same day. A 48 team WC will only camouflage this egregious expediency even more.

Belgium 1 - 0 England 

I'm still haunted by the footage of Japan not even trying to equalise v Poland in their final group match (for fear of getting more yellow/red cards than Senegal) yet they progress under the fair play rules? The irony is hideous.

Colombia have not impressed me so far (they took 3 off a wretched Polish side) so I believe England have nothing to fear. Can't the Russians just deport Diego Maradona under the pretext of reducing their toxic emissions?

Belgium 3 v 2 Japan

Orientals experiencing the sharp end of karma is somehow quite apt. However, you don't need spiritual cause and effect or Senegalese voodoo to tell you that pushing too many men forward for a corner kick is going to end badly.

Hi,

That Japan/Belgium game was a heart breaker and one of those energy drenching games watching it. 

It gets a WOWOWOWOW for sure.

Because Brazil aren't arrogant? (or any top level pro soccer players?)

I'm only judging by the game I watched. 

Maybe I exaggerated a bit, I meant no disrespect. 

I just rooted for Japan, they did a great job and lost the game at the last minute. The smirk on the Belgian coach face at the end of the game was annoying. Or maybe I'm just seeing things...

Belgium & France were two of my picks before the tournament. I don't see anyone in the bottom half of the draw beating either of those two. Croatia are probably my dark horses in the bottom half. I'll be very happy with England irrespective of how much further they get, they're good enough to make the final but also dodgy enough to lose to Sweden. I don't think England would beat any of the quarter finalists in the top half of the draw.