The Official Football Thread

[SidVicious]

Another nice game.
Argentina is done and Messi is a mess.

[Toukairin]

Messi is such a train wreck of a player on the international stage. Regardless, Argentina have been utter trash and they are paying the price of their manager's foolishness.

[Sakuratsuki]

Please throw Messi out of the team, Argentina can survive without him. Right now Argentina is a train wreck.

[Kakurin]

Originally Posted by Toukairin

Messi is such a train wreck of a player on the international stage. Regardless, Argentina have been utter trash and they are paying the price of their manager's foolishness.

Messi will get a pass as everybody's darling as always, but all nominations for the Argentinian team for the World Cup had to be greenlighted by Messi. So he's also partly at fault for this trainwreck that calls itself a team.

[Sheba]

I laughed b4 the 3rd Croatian goal at that Argentinian defender raising him hand in the air as if he threw the towel.

[James Rye]

This seems to be the Cup of the "small" football nations. I am afraid of the Sweden game on saturday now. Come on, Germany, break the curse, break it, you need a win!

[Kakurin]

Originally Posted by James Rye

This seems to be the Cup of the "small" football nations. I am afraid of the Sweden game on saturday now. Come on, Germany, break the curse, break it, you need a win!

Germany is done. The team has no hunger anymore and on top of that broken apart by faction-forming. Looking at Germany - Mexico has reminded me a lot of Spain - Netherlands four years ago, only that the Mexicans sucked at finishing their counters. Germany is following the footsteps of France 2002, Italy 2010 and Spain 2014. They'll probably drop 0-1 or 1-2 to Sweden and are out of the tournament after only two matches. Löw is too full of himself to adapt to changing circumstances, he needs to go.

[Guido]

I'm glad that Argentina is on the brink of getting eliminated in this World Cup. Honestly, their game play sucked since their first match against Iceland, moreover, somebody needed to deliver a reality check to the Argentine boys, particularly Messi who was in cloud nine.

As for the Aussies, they truly deserved the draw. Their game tactics and style helped them a lot for the second half of the match to put the Danes in their place while not only keeping the draw but also attempting to create more goal chances. Unfortunately, for Australia, they had to deal with a sturdy, Danish defense that seemed it wouldn't budge at anytime.

Originally Posted by Kakurin

Looking at Germany - Mexico has reminded me a lot of Spain - Netherlands four years ago, only that the Mexicans sucked at finishing their counters.

I'm neither sarcastic nor mocking with my following statement rather thanking you for your comments and feedback. Seriously, for once I want to see my nation's team qualifying to the next phase by winning two matches in a row in the group phase. I just don't want to see the Mexican team getting full of themselves and on cloud nine against South Korea for Saturday's match, hence, I'll be keeping my expectations low and in check just like I did in the previous match against Germany.

[SidVicious]

Ugly game.
Bad game.
Horrible game.

[Last Sinner]

Germany sure left it to the last minute to beat Sweden. And they did it with 10 players.

Nigeria stand a good chance to get out of their group unless Argentina finally wake up.

Belgium look to be in good form.

[Eisdrache]

Goddamn Sweden, I don't understand how you get the instant equalizer right after the break and foul someone right next to the goal area in the last 5 seconds of the game.

[Toukairin]

Originally Posted by Eisdrache

Goddamn Sweden, I don't understand how you get the instant equalizer right after the break and foul someone right next to the goal area in the last 5 seconds of the game.

Just sheer inexperience, I guess. That Swedish side has little to no experience on such a big stage.

On the other hand, Germany started the match by replacing most of the names I wanted to see gone after the Mexico match. However, one needs to explain to me how they can be that bad at the back. It was as if there was no actual defensive leader out there. If anything, Germany relied on their attack to find the goals... but what a free kick by Kroos that. It was one of those moments when you have to say "take a bow, son."

On other matches, I was expecting a much better finish from South Korea for all the times they entered the Mexican final third. However, it seems that no one knows what to do there except for Son Heung-Min.

As for Belgium, they could definitely have scored a few more goals if Romelu Lukaku wasn't injured. That team along with Croatia are well-oiled machines at the moment.

[Guido]

Originally Posted by Toukairin

Just sheer inexperience, I guess. That Swedish side has little to no experience on such a big stage.

On the other hand, Germany started the match by replacing most of the names I wanted to see gone after the Mexico match. However, one needs to explain to me how they can be that bad at the back. It was as if there was no actual defensive leader out there. If anything, Germany relied on their attack to find the goals... but what a free kick by Kroos that. It was one of those moments when you have to say "take a bow, son."

On other matches, I was expecting a much better finish from South Korea for all the times they entered the Mexican final third. However, it seems that no one knows what to do there except for Son Heung-Min.

As for Belgium, they could definitely have scored a few more goals if Romelu Lukaku wasn't injured. That team along with Croatia are well-oiled machines at the moment.

Almost all of your predicted line-up for the German team came true in the match against Sweden. Just too bad Low didn't use or substitute for Goretzka and Süle, and a shame Boateng got expelled at the end of the match. As for Müller, hope he doesn't become the German Messi but getting humbled by the match.

South Korea had few talents that were true threats against Mexico particularly Son Heung-min persisting over and over until he paid off at the end of the match, and I was dreading at the possibility of Korea scoring an equalizer just at the two last minutes before the end of the match. Furthermore, Moon Seon-min and Kim Young-gwon had speed to offer in the field, however, aside from those three, the Korean team play had little to offer or lagging for most of the match.

Had Lukaku played, then there would have been not a heck of a chance for Tunisia scoring at all against Belgium.

[Eisdrache]

Originally Posted by Toukairin

Just sheer inexperience, I guess. That Swedish side has little to no experience on such a big stage.

With all due respect I don't think you need experience to not foul someone in the proximity of the goal area, these free kicks are always dangerous. Even more so when they can have more defenders than the Germans have attackers. As for getting a goal right after coming back, this in my opinion is more an issue of still being asleep more than anything else.

[justavisitor]

Portugal is in!! They can't beat anyone, but they can't be easily beaten either. Now what I consider the hardest part (group phase) is done. Now just one game at a time. But the talent in this team seems like even thinner than 2 years ago...

The new way to score now is to drive into the penalty box, complain a foul, surround the referee for the VAR review in their favor. Soccer is a contact sport, and when you magnify the slightest misdeed committed by the defender to the million times + billion of people are watching, what can the referee do?

[Toukairin]

About today's matches, the thing I was mostly furious about was the referee's performance in the Morocco/Spain match. That Uzbek prick called the softest things in favor of Spain while he found himself often impeding Moroccan players. Meanwhile, Gerard Pique got away with nothing on a two-footed flying tackle and on a couple of hand balls; it's like Stamford Bridge in 2009 all over again. On the Spanish goal that made it 2-2, there were a few things:

1. The ball went out of bounds before Rodrigo crossed that in, leading to the corner.
2. The referee pointed the corner to be taken on one side, but then it was played on the other corner.

How the fuck can you miss all of that and not have the VAR to reverse the call? That's beyond me. After the scandal from the Morocco vs. Portugal match, you'd think FIFA and refs would start tightening up their asses to avoid blatant mistakes. But, no! Now people are free to speculate that the incompetent referee was a ploy for FIFA to take revenge against Morocco's accusations.

[Kakurin]

Originally Posted by Toukairin

About today's matches, the thing I was mostly furious about was the referee's performance in the Morocco/Spain match. That Uzbek prick called the softest things in favor of Spain while he found himself often impeding Moroccan players. Meanwhile, Gerard Pique got away with nothing on a two-footed flying tackle and on a couple of hand balls; it's like Stamford Bridge in 2009 all over again. On the Spanish goal that made it 2-2, there were a few things:

1. The ball went out of bounds before Rodrigo crossed that in, leading to the corner.
2. The referee pointed the corner to be taken on one side, but then it was played on the other corner.

That's garbage.

1) Morocco's players were playing over-hard. They were lucky Irmatov decided to be more lenient in the second half. You could have easily made the case for one or two Moroccans having to leave the game with a second yellow.

2) Pique got the ball first and then barely grazed the Moroccan who made a big deal out of nothing.

3) These were not hand balls. Do you even understand the rule? It's only a penalisable hand ball if you deliberately play the ball with your hand and these were clearly not deliberate.

4) There is no angle to show that the ball went fully out of bounds when Rodrygo crossed it. As long as part of it is still on the line it is considered in.

5) It's not within the VAR's competence to rule over the correctness of a corner kick.

The only reason why conspiracy theory may come up would be of people with little-country bias who don't understand the rules.

[Toukairin]

Anyway, Spain sucks as a team. I'll be more than happy when Uruguay will whoop their asses.

Originally Posted by Kakurin

The only reason why conspiracy theory may come up would be of people with little-country bias who don't understand the rules.

I support Germany and Japan, so don't sell me that crap of yours. I have seen more than enough football to know when something is fucked up.

[Kakurin]

Originally Posted by Toukairin

Anyway, Spain sucks as a team. I'll be more than happy when Uruguay will whoop their asses.

I support Germany and Japan, so don't sell me that crap of yours. I have seen more than enough football to know when something is fucked up.

Spoken like a true conspiracy theorist. Once countered with arguments, resort to deflecting and insults instead of addressing those arguments face-up.

And just for your info, just because they are on the same peninsula doesn't mean that Portugal and Spain are interchangeable. The one playing Uruguay is Portugal.

[Sheba]

Most of the matches are when I'm at work excepted those on evening so I really cant form an opinion. My eyebrows were twitching over the attitude of some people on twitter who couldnt help but throw snide remarks, of the racist kind, toward the Japanese team during their game against Senegal.

THANKSFULLY, there are people like this guy

https://twitter.com/JohnSulo/status/1010954239999401984

A french Senegalese supporter meeting Japanese supporters and singing One Piece OP out loud with them.