World Cup match chat

Mark Lawrenson?, is that the best BBC can do? - I've switched to the Irish RTE commentary

Come on Panama!

Red button has 5live commentary. Conor McNamara and Dion Dublin are a better choice than Mark ‘I don’t really like football anymore’ Lawrenson.
 
Lrsume
Hate to say it - but that was an example just there in the Sweden/South Korea game of VAR actually working. Ref misses a stonewall penalty....VAR picks it up.

Been coming because the Koreans have been tackling like beserkers!

As an aside - is it just me, or has the finishing been absolutely terrible at this tournament?!? There's been some great free kicks and wonder strikes, but I've lost count of the number of simple chances missed - either due to a terrible finish or an even worse final ball.

Presume var was switched off tonight
 
Earlier on in the game, Maguire had a similar experience to Kane, but was strong enough to win the header and the players fluff the chance in front of goal. The Tunisia players were playing the rules from minute one - credit to them for that. But VAR is there to minimise the mistakes
 
So sixteen matches in, and everyone has played once.

Pluses:
It's been thoroughly unpredictable. Four out of the Five bookies favourites failed to win, and every confederation had at least one winner.
No 0-0 draws.
Only one red card (and that's going to happen if an outfield player decides he's going to play in goal. In the third minute)
VAR hasn't completely ruined the tournament.....mostly because they seem to be avoiding using it wherever possible
Doesn't appear to have been any trouble so far. In fact the crowds have mostly been big, colourful and noisy

Minuses:
Could do with a few more goals from open play.
Finishing and final ball has been mostly terrible (of course fixing this will fix the first minus as well!)


And now a whole hour to wait until the second round of matches start. Salah vs. the Russkies. Tasty.
 
So sixteen matches in, and everyone has played once.

Pluses:
It's been thoroughly unpredictable. Four out of the Five bookies favourites failed to win, and every confederation had at least one winner.
No 0-0 draws.
Only one red card (and that's going to happen if an outfield player decides he's going to play in goal. In the third minute)
VAR hasn't completely ruined the tournament.....mostly because they seem to be avoiding using it wherever possible
Doesn't appear to have been any trouble so far. In fact the crowds have mostly been big, colourful and noisy

Minuses:
Could do with a few more goals from open play.
Finishing and final ball has been mostly terrible (of course fixing this will fix the first minus as well!)


And now a whole hour to wait until the second round of matches start. Salah vs. the Russkies. Tasty.

I did see a stat today prior to the Colombia v Japan game that 53% of goals has been scored from set pieces. The ones that haven’t have been good quality though - that Mertens volley will live long in the memory.

Perhaps it’s just me but the stands haven’t looked as full as I thought. A fair few empty seats. It’s notbing on 1990 though - entire tiers empty for that World Cup!

One item that’s missing either for better or worse is the hilariously violent central/South American team. Panama are too nice for that. We need a bunch of headcases like Honduras to fight their way to no points from their group!
 
So sixteen matches in, and everyone has played once.

Pluses:
It's been thoroughly unpredictable. Four out of the Five bookies favourites failed to win, and every confederation had at least one winner.
No 0-0 draws.
Only one red card (and that's going to happen if an outfield player decides he's going to play in goal. In the third minute)
VAR hasn't completely ruined the tournament.....mostly because they seem to be avoiding using it wherever possible
Doesn't appear to have been any trouble so far. In fact the crowds have mostly been big, colourful and noisy

Minuses:
Could do with a few more goals from open play.
Finishing and final ball has been mostly terrible (of course fixing this will fix the first minus as well!)


And now a whole hour to wait until the second round of matches start. Salah vs. the Russkies. Tasty.

I would say that a minus has been the poor standard of the African teams (wasn't it Pele who said that an African team would win the WC by the year 2000?)

The South American teams have not been particularly good either (honourable exception being Mexico).
 
The tournament gets more interesting now, sides can go through/out on the result of the match being played.

I think it has been a decent tournament, football in general has become tighter and better organised, that happens as team sports get older, the knowledge accumulated over the years allows lesser sides to equal the odds somewhat.

No real standout team so far allows everyone a bit of hope, it’s not easy to pick a winner.
 
I would say that a minus has been the poor standard of the African teams (wasn't it Pele who said that an African team would win the WC by the year 2000?)

The South American teams have not been particularly good either (honourable exception being Mexico).
... Who are central American ?
 
I would say that a minus has been the poor standard of the African teams (wasn't it Pele who said that an African team would win the WC by the year 2000?)

The South American teams have not been particularly good either (honourable exception being Mexico).

If I'd written my post yesterday, I'd have said that a minus was the poor standard of the African and Asian teams.

And then Japan & Senegal went and beat more fancied opponents in Group H, and that got thrown out the window a little.

Senegal in particular I think could be dangerous (and I said as much before the tournament started). There must now be a fair chance England faces them in the last sixteen, and that certainly wouldn't be easy.

South American teams being not particularly good is a plus, I'd say! :p
 
f**k doing that at the kassam, we get nothing for what we pay over the odds for anyway.
 
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