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OT: Official 2018 World Cup Thread

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RU848789

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Jul 27, 2001
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AreYouNUTS said:
Rooting for England is 10 times more frustrating than rooting for the USA or Greece!!
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True, lol. But at least they pulled it out at the end on Kane's header, which was brilliantly directed just inside the post. Looked they were going to blow Tunisia out in the first half, but they kept missing golden opportunities and then that really stupid foul for the PK by Walker (borderline call, but completely unnecessary). But a win is a win.
 
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CERU00

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rutgersguy1 said:
Then root for the underdog in Tunisia like me haha. England just can't finish which doesn't seem to be unusual for them in recent times.
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Seriously. Theyve lacked finishers for a very long time. Even Rooney never really scored much in international play.
They need to have sterling on the bench. But Thank God for Kane...
 
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CERU00

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Feb 10, 2005
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RU848789 said:
True, lol. But at least they pulled it out at the end on Kane's header, which was brilliantly directed just inside the post. Looked they were going to blow Tunisia out in the first half, but they kept missing golden opportunities and then that really stupid foul for the PK by Walker (borderline call, but completely unnecessary). But a win is a win.
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Whats the deal with tackling Kane during corner kicks? Very blantant on multiple kicks. Ref completely ignored it!
 
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RU848789

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Jul 27, 2001
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CERU00 said:
Whats the deal with tackling Kane during corner kicks? Very blantant on multiple kicks. Ref completely ignored it!
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Yeah, that kind of thing goes on a lot more than ever gets called (probably because sometimes the player being "tackled" is embellishing), but I recall the 2nd one looking really bad and thought there should've been a PK.
 
MadRU

MadRU

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Jul 26, 2001
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CERU00 said:
Seriously. Theyve lacked finishers for a very long time. Even Rooney never really scored much in international play.
They need to have sterling on the bench. But Thank God for Kane...
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Agree, Sterling should not start, I’d give Vardy a chance to run with Kane. Also for me Ashley Young was poor in this game. And Lingard wouldn’t be a starter for me either.
 
A

AreYouNUTS

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Aug 1, 2001
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Japan/Colombia:

How on EARTH Did they come up with +5 at the end of the second half of this game? No injuries, no pk’s, 2 subs, only a single goal. Who the heck came up with this amount of time?
 
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RU848789

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Jul 27, 2001
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AreYouNUTS said:
Japan/Colombia:

How on EARTH Did they come up with +5 at the end of the second half of this game? No injuries, no pk’s, 2 subs, only a single goal. Who the heck came up with this amount of time?
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There were some short stoppages for cramps/injuries, but figured it would be 3 minutes. Japan held on to win though. Bigger question is wtf was the Colombian guy thinking when he threw his arm up to block the Japanese shot in the 3rd minute? Automatic red card and Japan scored on the PK. Did he think he was Maradona and nobody would notice, lol?
 
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AreYouNUTS

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FIFA #8 Poland in BIG Trouble versus Senegal. Down 1-0 and they’ve looked not even close to being a top 30 team let alone #8. Completely dominated this half IMHO.
 
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rutgersguy1_rivals

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AreYouNUTS said:
FIFA #8 Poland in BIG Trouble versus Senegal. Down 1-0 and they’ve looked not even close to being a top 30 team let alone #8. Completely dominated this half IMHO.
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BTW is Poland really worthy of #8? This is what I mean by my questioning of the rankings above but at the same time just a pedestrian soccer fan. A lay person might be surprised to see Belgium up as high as they are but I know they have talent and have done well. Is Poland like that? I'm kinda surprised and then you see a team like Spain at 10?
 
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AreYouNUTS

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rutgersguy1 said:
BTW is Poland really worthy of #8? This is what I mean by my questioning of the rankings above but at the same time just a pedestrian soccer fan. A lay person might be surprised to see Belgium up as high as they are but I know they have talent and have done well. Is Poland like that? I'm kinda surprised and then you see a team like Spain at 10?
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Poland is good - a Euro 2016 quarter-finalist - But they’re nowhere near the number eight team in the world right now. They essentially game the system and played a lot more international contest, the past year, to improve their ranking, than most nations regularly play in a pre-WC season.
 
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AreYouNUTS

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WOW WOW WOW 2-0!!! Very arguably an incredibly unfair play, as a player who had come off for injury was sent back onto the field, in the middle of the play moving downfield, and he just ran right to the ball with nobody defending him, but nonetheless this is stunning! An OWN GOAL and now this crazy!!!

Bottom line, however, Poland isn’t even getting shots on net. They just look lethargic and uninspired to be honest.
 
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RU848789

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Jul 27, 2001
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AreYouNUTS said:
“This World Cup is a set piece orgy”

- A Lalas


Gotta luv’ him!!
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I really like Lalas as a commentator. My soccer friends don't like him at all, including @mildone, but he's not quite right in the head. :>)

Was off Friday and Monday and went in late today, so Poland-Senegal is the first match I've completely missed. Might take Friday off, too, with a really attractive set of matches in Brazil-Costa Rica, Nigeria-Iceland, and Switzerland-Serbia.
 
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mildone_rivals

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RU848789 said:
I really like Lalas as a commentator. My soccer friends don't like him at all, including @mildone, but he's not quite right in the head. :>)

Was off Friday and Monday and went in late today, so Poland-Senegal is the first match I've completely missed. Might take Friday off, too, with a really attractive set of matches in Brazil-Costa Rica, Nigeria-Iceland, and Switzerland-Serbia.
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I appreciate the euphemism. I may be not quite right in the head like an elephant is not quite as light as a feather, but Lalas still totally sucks as a commentator.
 
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RU848789

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mildone said:
I appreciate the euphemism. I may be not quite right in the head like an elephant is not quite as light as a feather, but Lalas still totally sucks as a commentator.
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And you surely know what that makes you - WRONG!!
 
A

AreYouNUTS

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Aug 1, 2001
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Being the home team is advantage enough. Drawing Egypt and Saudi Arabia into your group, and then as your first two games, man does that make life easy playing in front of Putin ha ha #dadvladbehappy
 
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RUHotTrumpetMonkeyLove

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Aug 7, 2001
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AreYouNUTS said:
Being the home team is advantage enough. Drawing Egypt and Saudi Arabia into your group, and then as your first two games, man does that make life easy playing in front of Putin ha ha #dadvladbehappy
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I thought Egypt would be more of a challenge for Russia. Curious to see what happens when Russia plays one of the top teams.
 
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wcfan10

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Feb 22, 2010
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AreYouNUTS said:
Poland is good - a Euro 2016 quarter-finalist - But they’re nowhere near the number eight team in the world right now. They essentially game the system and played a lot more international contest, the past year, to improve their ranking, than most nations regularly play in a pre-WC season.
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Areyounuts is correct in the sense that Poland gamed the FIFA ranking system to be a top 8 and thus getting seeded over Spain at the time. Portugal is the actual seed in Group B and not Spain. While Poland was the top seed in their group.

The .FIFA rankings are frozen about a month ors o before the World Cup groups are done in December '17. Since Poland was about a 8th seeded and Spain was either 9 or 10 at the time, Poland got seeded and Spain did not.
However, once Poland did have the 8th rank it stopped playing friendly games during 2017 until after the seeding & groups were completed b y FIFA. Afterwards they played friendly games in 2018.

Is what Poland did ethical? Maybe not, but everyone knows the rules and if they decide to play the rankings game what can be done about it..

I've read several articles about Poland playing the seeding game and generally it was criticized, but there is nothing illegal about it.

Is Spain a better team than Poland ? Probably. Would it have been more fair for Spain to be a seeded team? Probably, but the best teams always rise to the top and end up playing in the knockout rounds. We'll find out soon enough which are the best teams..
 
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AreYouNUTS

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Aug 1, 2001
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And the Iranians are taking flopping To a whole ’nother level. Italian fans should just watch them and imagine they’re in blue ha ha
 
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AreYouNUTS

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Aug 1, 2001
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Wow about 90% Peruvians at this game; their first Cup in 36 years Couldn’t even hear Frenchies singing La Marseilles there are so few in the stands.
 
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