OT: Official 2018 World Cup Thread

[rutgersguy1_rivals]

I work at a Distribution Center. Lots of excitement Monday for Brazil v Mexico, some more excitement for Colombia today. And they all want to see England lose.

I suppose silence from the cafeteria now. England wins 4-3 in shootout.

First PK miss from Colombia was something I never like with PK shooters. Force the goalie to make a save. He hit the frame and it bounced out. Only thing worse are the ones that go over the bar. Get it on target, if the goalie makes the save..tip your cap and move on but to essentially give a pass is inexplicable at this level.

Good drama at the end with the equalizer but the game itself wasn't so great for me.

 

[CERU00]

England dominated play for most of the first 90. Colombia couldnt match and fouled heavily. The better team won. Winning on kicks is a big confidence booster. Now they just need someone other than Kane who can finish. Lord knows Sterling and Lingard can't.

 

[Ru0822]

England dominated play for most of the first 90. Colombia couldnt match and fouled heavily. The better team won. Winning on kicks is a big confidence booster. Now they just need someone other than Kane who can finish. Lord knows Sterling and Lingard can't.

Game was pretty even and that penalty was borderline

 

[rutgersguy1_rivals]

England dominated play for most of the first 90. Colombia couldnt match and fouled heavily. The better team won. Winning on kicks is a big confidence booster. Now they just need someone other than Kane who can finish. Lord knows Sterling and Lingard can't.

I think England was better but I don't think they were loads better. It certainly wasn't the team that we saw in the group stage. Really though they don't need to be much better than they were today Sweden, Russia, Croatia (probably the best of the bunch) don't require it. They can be knocked off but at the same time they don't have to play spectacularly to advance either.

 

[mdh2003]

I thought Columbia deserved that game. They pressed most of the last 40 mins.

 

[rutgersguy1_rivals]

Just saw this article on yahoo about Japan and its fans. Classy, especially after such heartbreaking loss.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/japane...-even-devastating-loss-belgium-150835246.html

 

[CERU00]

I think England was better but I don't think they were loads better. It certainly wasn't the team that we saw in the group stage. Really though they don't need to be much better than they were today Sweden, Russia, Croatia (probably the best of the bunch) don't require it. They can be knocked off but at the same time they don't have to play spectacularly to advance either.

England created many more chances. But they looked shell shocked in the 30 min overtime. Looking forward to a competitive gain vs Sweden.

 

[MadRU]

England were the better team, not by a lot. After Columbia scored they had the momentum but did not capitalize any further.

Not sure where the controversy was on the penalty, the defender road Kane, clear penalty. Thank Tunisia for all the penalties when they buried Kane in the first match twice with no calls, the refs were told to look for all tackles and holding in the box. The players were warned many times, bad play by the defender.

With that, the ref had a bad match all around.

Harry Kane he's one of our own!!! COYS!!!!!

Edit:

Is there a player with a worse first touch than Raheem Sterling?

 

[DHajekRC84]

I thought Columbia deserved that game. They pressed most of the last 40 mins.

and grabbed, cheated, faked, and complained the other 80+.

Great example of why the avg. USA sports fan won't embrace this. Greatest athletes in the world from the waist down who constantly trip over a blade of grass for advantage. THANK YOU USA ref who wouldn't put up with that crap.

 

[Ru0822]

and grabbed, cheated, faked, and complained the other 80+.

Great example of why the avg. USA sports fan won't embrace this. Greatest athletes in the world from the waist down who constantly trip over a blade of grass for advantage. THANK YOU USA ref who wouldn't put up with that crap.

Henderson and maguire participated in the same antics..it went both ways. Stop with the biases. This game was even and either winner would have been deserved.

 

[RUPete]

and grabbed, cheated, faked, and complained the other 80+.

Great example of why the avg. USA sports fan won't embrace this. Greatest athletes in the world from the waist down who constantly trip over a blade of grass for advantage. THANK YOU USA ref who wouldn't put up with that crap.

The sport does not need the average American sports fan, whoever that is. It has actually grown in popularity in this country and it is still the most popular sport in the world. It’s interesting to see that as the years go by and with each World Cup people tune out soccer haters more and more.

 

[MadRU]

Did anyone notice when the penalty was called and everyone from Columbia was yelling at the ref, one of the Columbian players went over to the penalty spot and start scuffing up the grass/dirt right at the area. He should have been booked for that.

 

[cicero grimes]

England survives and has a good chance to go through to the Final. I am pulling for them but they certainly benefited from the Belgium loss being placed in the weaker side of the draw.

 

[CERU00]

Henderson and maguire participated in the same antics..it went both ways. Stop with the biases. This game was even and either winner would have been deserved.

Not even close. Even my wife, of colombian heritage, agreed. Ref took a while to reign it in.

 

[BigTenRutgers]

American World Cup TV ratings are down a staggering 42%:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...cup-ratings-united-states-20180703-story.html

 

[Knightmoves]

Will be very surprised if anyone matches up with Brazil.

 

[hoquat63]

American World Cup TV ratings are down a staggering 42%:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...cup-ratings-united-states-20180703-story.html

Probably due to fact that US is not in it

 

[WhiteBus]

Will be very surprised if anyone matches up with Brazil.

Come Friday we will find out. Ga Rode Duivels!

 

[RUbacker]

Not even close. Even my wife, of colombian heritage, agreed. Ref took a while to reign it in.

So glad Columbia lost. I saw every game and Columbia by far were prix , bullies especially to the ref and just a bunch of whining a holes. Good riddance .

 

[RU848789]

Been staying away from the board and this thread for the past couple of days, since I was DVR-ing the games, except for Belgium-Japan, which I watched while playing poker in the casino yesterday. Way too many people prematurely counting Belgium out in that game both here and at the table - best offensive team in the tournament with 3 great goals in that comeback and could've had 2-3 more.

Can't wait for Belgium-Brazil - potential to be a wild one. I had Belgium as my "dark horse" to win it all, so rooting for them here - I also just love watching Hazard, Lukaku and De Bruyne. But they have to play better defense against Brazil, especially with Neymar playing very well.

Very happy to see England finally win one on PKs - thought they dominated regulation and were a bit unlucky to not close it out. Sweden is going to be tough for them to beat, as they're very sound defensively and good on the counterattack - will be an interesting strategy match.

Lot of intriguing match-ups, even without some of the usual favorites. France-Uruguay could be like England-Sweden with a great offensive team vs. a strong defensive team. And one would think Croatia should beat Russia, but look what happened to Spain. Glad I took Friday off, so I can watch both games.

 

[RU848789]

England were the better team, not by a lot. After Columbia scored they had the momentum but did not capitalize any further.

Not sure where the controversy was on the penalty, the defender road Kane, clear penalty. Thank Tunisia for all the penalties when they buried Kane in the first match twice with no calls, the refs were told to look for all tackles and holding in the box. The players were warned many times, bad play by the defender.

With that, the ref had a bad match all around.

Harry Kane he's one of our own!!! COYS!!!!!

Edit:

Is there a player with a worse first touch than Raheem Sterling?

Agree with this entire post (even the Sterling comment) - well said. England was a bit better, Kane was mugged, and the ref lost control of the game. Amazing save by Pickford on that last Colombian PK and Ospina probably should've saved the last English PK to keep it tied.

 

[Doctor Worm]

American World Cup TV ratings are down a staggering 42%:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...cup-ratings-united-states-20180703-story.html

Probably due to fact that US is not in it

And two other reasons:

• The 2014 Brazil World Cup had matches in prime time in the US. This one does not.
• The ratings include only TV and not digital streaming, which is more prevalent now than in 2014.

 

[RUbacker]

Agree with this entire post (even the Sterling comment) - well said. England was a bit better, Kane was mugged, and the ref lost control of the game. Amazing save by Pickford on that last Colombian PK and Ospina probably should've saved the last English PK to keep it tied.

Not happy with that Ref losing control. Kept yelling at the TV to throw the Colombians out that were swarming and intimidating him . There were s couple of refs I wanted working the game As they would have put the columbians in their place . It all ended well anyway.

 

[Doctor Worm]

FiveThirtyEight.com projections to win WC:

Brazil 30%
France 15%
England 15%
Croatia 12%
Belgium 11%
Uruguay 6%
Sweden 6%
Russia 5%

62% chance that the winner will come from the left side of the bracket.

 

[Ru0822]

Not even close. Even my wife, of colombian heritage, agreed. Ref took a while to reign it in.

Did you not see maguire blatanly dive to win a pen? No one metions falcao got cleated in the head? Ashley young had a 50/50 challenge on the ball where he went studs up and caught the colombian player’s ankle and it somehow ended up as a foul in favor for england? The ref was horrid, the colombians did not keep composure thats true but they were hard done by the ref so their frustration was understandable.

 

[T2Kplus10]

World Cup tanking in the US, ratings in the toilet:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-2018-world-cup-ratings-are-down-44-from-2014

 

[MadRU]

Did you not see maguire blatanly dive to win a pen? No one metions falcao got cleated in the head? Ashley young had a 50/50 challenge on the ball where he went studs up and caught the colombian player’s ankle and it somehow ended up as a foul in favor for england? The ref was horrid, the colombians did not keep composure thats true but they were hard done by the ref so their frustration was understandable.

You did mention it above, and I said that the ref had a bad game. You brought up the ones against Colombia and they are true, but the Colombia players totally lost their cool, number 5 Barrios (sp?) head butted into Henderson's chest then lifted up into his jaw, Henderson played it up by going down but it was a stupid head butt into the chest to start with.

Your opinion is just that your opinion, I respect that and agree it was close imho, but I thought England had a slight advantage through most of the game. Colombia really wasn't dangerous until they scored, then finally came to life for a short period, then in extra time it started to settle down and Danny Rose and Eric Dier both had good looks at goal to win it.

I agree with #'s Eric Dier's penalty was the one to save, its almost as if the goalie decided he was going to his right, dove that way but then thought I have to remember down the middle and almost short armed his dive, at full extension I think he stops that shot.

 

[DHajekRC84]

Henderson and maguire participated in the same antics..it went both ways. Stop with the biases. This game was even and either winner would have been deserved.

there was certainly some but NO WHERE near the level of what and how often the Columbian team was ... 6 yellow cards vs. 2 for England.

 

[Ru0822]

You did mention it above, and I said that the ref had a bad game. You brought up the ones against Colombia ad they are true, but the Colombia players totally lost their cool, number 5 Barrios (sp?) head butted into Henderson's chest then lifted up into his jam, Henderson played it up by going down but it was a stupid head butt into the chest to start with.

Your opinion is just that your opinion, I respect that and agree it was close imho, but I thought England had a slight advantage through most of the game. Colombia really wasn't dangerous until they scored, then finally came to life for a short period, then in extra time it started to settle down and Danny Rose and Eric Dier both had good looks at goal to win it.

I agree with #'s Eric Dier's penalty was the one to save, its almost as if the goalie decided he was going to his right, dove that way but then thought I have to remember down the middle and almost short armed his dive, at full extension I think he stops that shot.

Understandable and agree that the Colombians lost their head. My beef wasnt necessarilly with you, but with those who said that the English were clearly superior and that the Colombians were the only ones engaging in the terrible antics. Its the Euro-bias that gets me, especially for a country like England that takes jabs at us whenever they can.

That said, this ref should not be allowed to call any games going forward. He clearly cannot control the flow of a game, and too much will be on the line for teams as the tournament moves into the later stages

 

[Caliknight]

England survives and has a good chance to go through to the Final. I am pulling for them but they certainly benefited from the Belgium loss being placed in the weaker side of the draw.

Columbia was very dirty all game. The ref lost control.

 

[Ru0822]

there was certainly some but NO WHERE near the level of what and how often the Columbian team was ... 6 yellow cards vs. 2 for England.

Thats the point though? There were yellows given out that should not have been, and vice -versa.

 

[MadRU]

Understandable and agree that the Colombians lost their head. My beef wasnt necessarilly with you, but with those who said that the English were clearly superior and that the Colombians were the only ones engaging in the terrible antics. Its the Euro-bias that gets me, especially for a country like England that takes jabs at us whenever they can.

That said, this ref should not be allowed to call any games going forward. He clearly cannot control the flow of a game, and too much will be on the line for teams as the tournament moves into the later stages

The funny thing is the ref was from NJ, USA. Not a good game for him.

 

[DHajekRC84]

The sport does not need the average American sports fan, whoever that is. It has actually grown in popularity in this country and it is still the most popular sport in the world. It’s interesting to see that as the years go by and with each World Cup people tune out soccer haters more and more.

who said it did? Of course it is growing in this country with the increased diversity and the fear of American football injuries. I coached both boys and girls teams for 11 years. NO EXPERT and do like the game....just don't like the grown men acting like pu$$ies.
There are clearly GREAT matches that don't involve such unsportsmanlike antics.

 

[MadRU]

Being a Spurs fan I have to give a shout out to Harry Kane. The guy somehow gets the job done. He is not the fastest or strongest player, but he has the instincts, feel for the game, and the smarts.

He can shot with both feet and use his head equally well, and usually gets the ball on target. But a couple of things that gets over looked in his game is his passing and his ability to hold the ball. He uses his body to shield it, makes himself bigger and takes the tactical foul. He did that repeatedly during the later stages of the game. The Colombian players tried to get the ball from him but had to go thru him to get it, Kane felt the contact, went down and got free kicks for the team.

I like the Colombian player number 20, think he has a chance to go to bigger teams in Europe and earn more money.

 

[Ru0822]

Being a Spurs fan I have to give a shout out to Harry Kane. The guy somehow gets the job done. He is not the fastest or strongest player, but he has the instincts, feel for the game, and the smarts.

He can shot with both feet and use his head equally well, and usually gets the ball on target. But a couple of things that gets over looked in his game is his passing and his ability to hold the ball. He uses his body to shield it, makes himself bigger and takes the tactical foul. He did that repeatedly during the later stages of the game. The Colombian players tried to get the ball from him but had to go thru him to get it, Kane felt the contact, went down and got free kicks for the team.

I like the Colombian player number 20, think he has a chance to go to bigger teams in Europe and earn more money.

Kane does the little things, believe he won 9 fouls last night. Im also a spurs fan, think all our guys played well (kane, trippier, sanchez), though Delle Alli was not at his best yesterday

 

[MadRU]

Kane does the little things, believe he won 9 fouls last night. Im also a spurs fan, think all our guys played well (kane, trippier, sanchez), though Delle Alli was not at his best yesterday

Dele has had an up and down year, this year. But he does have a really hot girlfriend, Ruby Mae.

 

[RUbacker]

Understandable and agree that the Colombians lost their head. My beef wasnt necessarilly with you, but with those who said that the English were clearly superior and that the Colombians were the only ones engaging in the terrible antics. Its the Euro-bias that gets me, especially for a country like England that takes jabs at us whenever they can.

That said, this ref should not be allowed to call any games going forward. He clearly cannot control the flow of a game, and too much will be on the line for teams as the tournament moves into the later stages

Euro bias ? It’s called one team acted like jerks all game long and lost their cool on the biggest stage. No bias we call it like we see it . Why is there always someone calling bias etc when bad b3havior gets criticized?

 

[rutgersguy1_rivals]

Being a Spurs fan I have to give a shout out to Harry Kane. The guy somehow gets the job done. He is not the fastest or strongest player, but he has the instincts, feel for the game, and the smarts.

He can shot with both feet and use his head equally well, and usually gets the ball on target. But a couple of things that gets over looked in his game is his passing and his ability to hold the ball. He uses his body to shield it, makes himself bigger and takes the tactical foul. He did that repeatedly during the later stages of the game. The Colombian players tried to get the ball from him but had to go thru him to get it, Kane felt the contact, went down and got free kicks for the team.

I like the Colombian player number 20, think he has a chance to go to bigger teams in Europe and earn more money.

Like I said not a big soccer fan but thanks for enlightening me on what Kane does. Tactical foul is what it's called huh? Not a fan of that "tactic" and him frankly. It's not a flop per se but it's looking for a sort of "legal" way to flop and have it be bought be the ref. If it's real hard contact and you go down sure call the foul but if it's just way to make it look good eh I'm not a fan.

Really not familiar with much of the English team and never heard of Kane until this World Cup but I saw many of those tactical fouls you mention and it's a turn off for me personally.

 

[Terry_2426]

And two other reasons:

• The 2014 Brazil World Cup had matches in prime time in the US. This one does not.
• The ratings include only TV and not digital streaming, which is more prevalent now than in 2014.

TV viewership in 2018 World Cup matches is up 1% when compared to 2010 World Cup matches not involving the US. Funny how selective certain outlets are being when cherry-picking their numbers for ratings.

 

[MadRU]

Like I said not a big soccer fan but thanks for enlightening me on what Kane does. Tactical foul is what it's called huh? Not a fan of that "tactic" and him frankly. It's not a flop per se but it's looking for a sort of "legal" way to flop and have it be bought be the ref. If it's real hard contact and you go down sure call the foul but if it's just way to make it look good eh I'm not a fan.

Really not familiar with much of the English team and never heard of Kane until this World Cup but I saw many of those tactical fouls you mention and it's a turn off for me personally.

Too each his own. Another explanation of a tactical foul is stopping the player who is advancing, holding him back to stop the attack, happens all the time.

Kane is far from a flopper, look at Suarez, Costa and others for that. Kane plays the game the right way, doesn’t flop doesn’t complain. He is a professional footballer.