Laivasse

Honestly David James was never this consistently bad IMO...

Beats me, I thought it was given for the keeper decking a forward in the head with an attempted punch, after the fumble. Pretty sure there was enough of a foul in that scramble to blow for the pen anyhow.

Just now, penguin said:

Agree. Reminds me of Huth all season. Will charge the ball with his arms outstretched, making himself a big an obstacle as possible, so when the ball hits one its technically not 'deliberate' but hes sure as hell is getting an advantage from it. The rules need further detail I think.

That last one was far more nailed on than the first shout. Landing from an aerial challenge with your arms up is arguably a 'natural' position, but charging to block a ball with your elbows flared just gives the ball more chance of pinging off them, penalty all day imo.

I was rooting for the underdogs, but to be fair if you play for penalties you usually don't win and that's deserved. They showed they could play, so they had to try and go for it at some point earlier than the 24th minute of extra time.

Massive credit to them for getting to the QF though.

The refereeing was bad but I don't think it was worse than, say, France - Chile.

Brazil have been cynical and shit, but for me Colombia just haven't done enough. Terrible decision making and delivery in the final third. Would have loved to see them progress but they just didn't earn it in this game. Brazil had 2 good set pieces, Colombia offered very little to speak of.

I counted 6 minutes in the penalty buildup and Neymar treatment alone. 5 is pretty easy on Brazil.

Yeah, penalty all day there.

This is a bit shit. Isn't physical endurance part of the test as to who the better team is?

My thoughts exactly. Also it seems dubious to me that 15 minutes further exertion in heat like this would present a serious health hazard. A 'break' is what half time is for.

As Hoddle implied, this all just seems like a trial run for the even greater heat in Qatar.

Brazil fully deserved to get through, they were the only team looking to win in the second half and extra time. Chile contributed to a wonderful first half of football but got more negative as the game went on. 

I thought Chile came closest in ET with that shot thundered onto the bar.

Great call and a brave one. GJ the linesman and Webb.

Bradley still looking like a college player

It's strange because I actually rated him a little and think he didn't get a fair shake at Villa. Having not watched him in a while and now seeing him at this WC, he looks utter wank.

That pitch in the Japan game looks proper shit. A Colombian just stacked it over on a divet and face planted while dribbling.

Two great balls toward the channel from lampard so far.

Dunno wtf they are on about, it was a rare nice build up from England but the defender just got between sturridge and the ball. Never a pen.

Every time Wilshire gets anywhere near the ball he does something that makes me want to punch him.

I was literally just about to post 'Bradley hasn't impressed me, seems like he struggles with the pressure of this kind of game', then he goes and underlines it all for me.

Drama!

Was beginning to think they didn't have it in them!

Their crosses are all terrible or from too deep. I'd like to see Ghana try and thread it through on the ground more like that ball which Howard had to race Gyan to in the first half.

Great block.

 

 

Surely that makes it even worse? He kicked Dempsey in the face whilst both were jumping, how is that not dangerous play?

 

his leg came up because of the contact after he'd left the ground, he's going horizontal in mid air, its not his jumping technique thats caused his leg to come up, its dempsey jumping in to him, not sure what else he could do

 

 

I understand it's not intentional, and I'm not saying he should have been sent off, but if you're kicking someone in the face, it's dangerous play. Yes, he gets a nudge, but he could try control his leg better, his leg goes so far up because it's already swinging upwards before the nudge, he's completely uncontrolled and reckless, therefore it's dangerous.

 

Dangerous play refers to an intentional move that happens to be dangerous. There's no such thing as unintentional dangerous play from a rules standpoint. For instance if a player successfully challenges for a header and clashes heads very hard with a player he didn't see, then that's literally 'dangerous play' but the term would be meaningless in that context. Much the same for a normal kick that turns into a high leg because you've been shoved backwards.

**** why, first P. Neville and now Savage   Come back Jon Pierce, all is forgiven.

I'm watching on the Iplayer and it's still 2-0.

Check the scoreboard in the stadium, Jon.

"I thought it was in, Martin." He sounds like he's about to cry   

Looked like a pen to me. Missed the ball and hit Toure's trailing leg, but because he tried to stay up it looked like he just miscontrolled. Should have tried 'clever play', I suppose.