One of my best friends is an Equadorian soccer nut who never tires of saying that never has there been a team like Mexico whose fans talk them up as being so great yet have actually accomplished so little.
OT: 2022 World Cup Thread
- Thread starter cshelley
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lukaku is not a great finisher, despite his 90m+ transfer fee
Really? I don’t watch him in league play but I feel like he’s been a good World Cup player for Belgium.
I thought they said he has the most goals scored ever for Belgium? I think it was 68 goals iirc.
Looking like Germany will get the boot again in the group stage. Oh well for my second team behind the US
he gets a lot of chances...he's just not as clinical as a CR7, haaland, lewandowski, kane, benzema, mbappe. he's also "old" at 29...i think he's been with the belgian national team since he was a teenager.
Wow even Spain might get the boot early now. Costa Rica just took the lead 2-1. That would mean Japan and Costa Rica go through if it sticks.
A lot of surprises at this World Cup
A lot of surprises at this World Cup
German just scored back 2-2 so Spain back in lol. Simultaneous playing is fun when scores come fast and furious lol.
Another exciting match day. Happy for Japan. In the end, 4 points for Gemany doesn't cut the Munster.
that's still in play. a lot of refs would have whistled that out and that prob wouldn't have triggered a VAR check in most cases, but them's the breaks.
The entertainment level has been through the roof and we haven't hit the knockout stage yet. The lack of break from club play is surely a contributing factor but makes for a lot of fun and upsets.
That looks like it might be in slightly…oh well
When was the last time you flung yourself violently at an artificial turf surface then rolled back and forth while clutching your ankle? The faking part is usually more painful than the contact (or no contact) that led to it. Not for the wimpy at all.
The entire thing is a drama played out to try to encourage the ref to give the other team yellow cards (or worse). Just pure gamesmanship.
I don't like it, but it's difficult to stop. People say to just penalize them, and that could be done in situations where there's no contact or the contact wasn't in the area the player's pretending is hurt. Especially if done by review after the match is over (would take too much time to review each case in the midst of the game).
But most of the time, there is some contact and it would be impossible to definitely prove the player isn't in some sort of pain, even though we pretty much know they're not in as much pain as they're trying to demonstrate w/the stupid antics. If it was easy to fix, the various leagues would've fixed it already.
Mexico is like the Miami Hurricanes of Soccer. Every year they get talked up and then the face plant when the games count.
Japan has to be the surprise of the tourney. 2 comeback wins against 2 European powers. Hats off to them. Well deserved and quite unexpected.
It IS easy to fix. If hurt, you’re out of the game. Fake injuries will cease immediately. Reason no one wants to fix it is because drawing fouls is the best shot at set pieces and goals…for both teams.
you're allowed 5 subs a game. used to be 3. there would be no one left if they made everyone who took a knock to the ankles leave the game. take a couple of stomps to your feet/ankles with a pair of cleats and see how that feels. there are guys who would get fouled and would not do the drama...guess what? they got fouled more...and more significantly...but never got calls. see: wilfried zaha and eden hazard in his prime at chelsea. it's part of the game...and it's ******, but until refs stop being inconsistent with how they call games, it's going to continue to happen. there is zero consistency from game to game on how it is officiated.
Nah. That’s just wrong, sorry.
Someone kicked hard in the ankle can easily be in pain momentarily. Or someone who rolls an ankle. Or someone who experiences what Puli did on his goal against Iran. They might writhe in pain or otherwise be on the ground for a while, then get up and get back to playing.
There is no deterministic way to know, when there has been contact, exactly what the player is experiencing and so there is no easy way to dole out a penalty for it. Like I said.
If someone, whom subsequent review shows experienced no contact and wasn’t forced off balance in some awkward way, takes a dive, then, as I said, penalize them.
Nope. Half the time they don’t even grab the same body part that supposedly had the contact. When was the last time a player was too injured to continue ? How about never. I can’t even remember anyone even limping.
If you’re writhing in pain, you are out…for your own well being (ha ha ha)
If you’re writhing in pain, you are out…for your own well being (ha ha ha)
Think the rest of the world is catching up to the traditional powers.
why don't you let all of us line up and kick you in the ankle or shin as hard as we possibly can at a home game next season?
You need to reread @mildone's post or maybe you've just never played a sport. Playing soccer I've been hit or stepped on countless times and they hurt like a mofo, but 1-2 minutes later the pain subsides. Yes there's way too much acting going on but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of actual painful encounters in every game.
Sure I know it’s a physical sport and players may be injured. But the agony, always temporary, is absurd and an embarrassment to the sport.
If the injury is real, they should come out of the game anyway. That will inform who’s hurt and who isn’t.
Might real pain be fleeting ? sure. But then don’t roll around like you got shot in the knee and pop right up the instant you realize you don’t get a call.
If the injury is real, they should come out of the game anyway. That will inform who’s hurt and who isn’t.
Might real pain be fleeting ? sure. But then don’t roll around like you got shot in the knee and pop right up the instant you realize you don’t get a call.
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Christian Pulisic, two days ago. Couldn't return after halftime.
I hope your persistence in posting so much about this isn’t a reflection of you thinking you actually had a good idea.
To make players leave the game because of any injury in soccer (or football, hockey, and a lot of other sports) would just give teams an incentive to have some of their lesser skilled players take extra shots at star players on the other team to get them out of the game.
More like holding. You know it happens on every play, but only call some, with no rhyme or reason why one is called vs an identical situation 2 min later that does not.
Always comes up in a soccer thread.
My favorite is the one where the guy grabs the opponets hand and smacks himself in the face with it (2:55) .
My favorite is the one where the guy grabs the opponets hand and smacks himself in the face with it (2:55) .
Hadnt thought of that. But all contact sports have goons and yet the sports do just fine. The sports police themselves. Fear of Quid pro quo cuts down on that.
I guess it depends how much tolerance one has for flopping whether or not it ruins the sport. To me it does. It truly is amazing how fast these guys recover
I disagreethat players should leave the game permanently, but perhaps players who go down and cause a stoppage in play should be required to leave the field until the next ball out of bounds.
Colbert Pretty sure I saw a puff of smoke behind a grassy knoll at 3:15. Did you read the FIFA commission report ?