OT: We may win the World Cup in 2026
- Thread starter brad1218
- Start date
I'd disagree. Maybe not from the heads of FIFA, but from the refs.... ABSOLUTELY. I've been saying for years there is CLEAR anti-US bias when it comes to FIFA and the World Cup, in particular. So much so that, when the games start, I'm always VERY interested in seeing where the refs are from to see if the US will get a fairly officiated game.
As an outside observer, I'd say this has been a successful World Cup for team USA already?
I'd also say this tournament has been successful in terms of capturing this countries attention. Even if it is just what the worlds fans are up to. Lots of people seem to be talking about that.
Obviously looking fwd to US vs Belgium.
But after watching that England Congo game, which was good fun, I have England vs Mexico circled as well. Think I'll be rooting for our neighbors in that one.
I'd also say this tournament has been successful in terms of capturing this countries attention. Even if it is just what the worlds fans are up to. Lots of people seem to be talking about that.
Obviously looking fwd to US vs Belgium.
But after watching that England Congo game, which was good fun, I have England vs Mexico circled as well. Think I'll be rooting for our neighbors in that one.
Meh, England had a brutal call go against their star player yesterday.
Bad calls happen.
A bad call in one game, shouldn't affect that players eligibility in the next game. It's ridiculous that an awful reffing decision in-game costs us the next game as well. That rule needs to change.
Imagine the NFL allowing an official in week 13 to eject a star player and that automatically means he's out in week 14 as well based on one ref's opinion.
Imagine the NFL allowing an official in week 13 to eject a star player and that automatically means he's out in week 14 as well based on one ref's opinion.
The college football targeting rule is similar. If it happens in the 2nd half, you miss the first half of the next game.
I think England is in trouble.
I was so happy to hear the US will be in Seattle. Best possible location for this game.
England, literally, does not know what it is in for. They do not know what it is like to play Mexico in a must-win game in the Azteca.
BWAHAHAHA NO HE DID NOT…. what the **** were you watching?
Round of 16 = back in where the team was on 1994. No progress over the past 32 years.
The offsides rule is dumb as well. Just keep it simple and make it a line, like in hockey. Bad offsides calls routinely ruin games.
Checking the history we have reached the round of 16 quite often. 5th time in the 2000's.
I figured it was once in 100 years.
Shows my level of knowledge on the subject.
Move past where it is now? You mean the most popular sport in the world?
And have we not seen more egregious calls in the NFL playoffs?
This is idiotic. When it comes to offsides, the size of the playing surface matters a lot. Soccer fields are significantly larger than hockey rinks. And one on ones in soccer are different than in hockey so cherry picking becomes a bigger issue. Also, offsides technology has become super precise so not sure what bad calls have ruined games. Any examples?
I don't worry about bad calls as much as it clearly just limits offense. By design apparently. The world loves 1-0 for some reason.
This is just not true. We hosted in ‘94 and it was a big success and we got to host Brian now and so far it’s been a big success
FIFA wants us to do well as our market is huge not only for USA but lots of foreigners rooting for other teams here - USA good in soccer is good for FIFA
nowhere this is bias is in European clubs looking past American attacking players
I can’t root for Mexico as they treat our players so poorly when we play there - fans throwing objects at our players taking corners etc. I hope they lose
We often get to round of 16 so success is quarters IMO
Exactly this. I was just listening to WFAN and Evan And Shaun who are both not really soccer fans watched the game. They were saying how stupid it was for the player to get suspended for the next game for this call. I agree 100%.
Agree with NUTS (as usual). It was not a good call to take a team's top scorer out for what everybody knows was completely incidental and not intentional. (We can all have different opinions on that, but to me it was rather clear)...
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Why do people make comments like this without checking the data first? 2.99 goals per game during group stage this year.
BTW - scoring shouldn’t be easy.
From a report this past January, soccer has moved past baseball as the 3rd most popular sport in America.
1. American Football
2. Basketball
3. Soccer
4. Baseball
It sure looks like he came down on his ankle stopping him from running.
The penalty is absolutely BS. Ejected…I get it. Suspended from the next game..total horsesh#t rule. And with all the players flopping this is why soccer sucks.
Soccer is only more popular than baseball once every 4 year for a month.
Yeah, the rest of the world, it's either soccer, cricket or auto racing. Not many choices to choose from.
England knows what it's like to play in a rabid away stadium in a must win game - they do it every 4 years in the Euros and most Euro countries HATE the English.
Sure I was exaggerating for effect.
but Group stage includes mismatches which skew the stats.
We'll continue to disagree on whether there is something system with FIFA refs. Can't say I ever notices a pattern, but I will say the ref last night did appear to favor BH on the red card call and on at least two significant shirt pulls from behind that have automatically been yellow cards in this tourney, but were only given as regular fouls. I view this as an exception, overall, though.
2.6 GPG thus far in the round of 32. Wanna try one more time? You don’t like soccer. It’s OK. Just say so instead of making things up.
I like top former ref Clattenburg's comments on this from the link below, which is similar to what I was saying last night. Unfortunately, there's no mechanism to appeal the one game suspension though - the only review is whether or not it should be more than a one game suspension, which Clattenburg sees as unlikely. FWIW, I talked to two soccer playing folks after the game (one is my brother) who played, coached and reffed soccer and they both thought the red was deserved. Obviously, I disagreed as do many others, but clearly there is a faction, including that ref and the VAR from last night, who feel the red was deserved. Time to move on and figure out how we'll play without Balogun.
"When I watched this in real speed, I thought it was a coming together of two players," Clattenburg noted on World Cup NOW. "What you see is Balogun’s challenge does catch his opponent on the back of the leg, and when [his foot] comes down, it catches [Muharemović's] ankle. The problem is, the requirement of the red card [means there] has to be some speed, some force and some malice. This lacks that." He further explained why he disagrees with Balogun's red card.
"But what it does have is," Clattenburg continued, "it endangers the safety of the opponent because of that foot-on-foot challenge, which could’ve acted and ended with a broken ankle. However, in my opinion, this didn’t endanger the safety of the opponent. Balogun doesn’t even look for the foul. It was an accidental challenge, and this doesn’t reach the [requirements] of a red card."
Due to the nature of the process, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee will still review the challenge and decide what comes next for Balogun — specifically, more than a one-match suspension.
For Clattenburg, Balogun’s challenge did not seem worthy of a red card, or further consequences of a multi-game punishment.
"FIFA disciplinary will look at this challenge [Thursday], and if they deem this a dangerous challenge which could have endangered the safety of this opponent, they can upgrade it," Clattenburg said. "I doubt it, in my opinion, because I believe that this was an accident, and they believe it was worthy of a red card. And that’s where they steer the red card. It should not be upgraded."
https://www.foxsports.com/stories/soccer/world-cup-red-card-balogun-can-usa-appeal
Is professional baseball still a thing? It's so boring I haven't watched in years.