World Cup : Round of 16

[maqroll]

The real smart money is on Sweden of course

I think Sweden will be confident for this and I think it's possible that the England players start to play under more pressure than ever. As ever, the question for England is can they handle the pressure? So far so good and I think Southgate deserves a lot of credit, but after the Colombia dramatics and subsequent media hysteria...I anticipate an excellent game.

Great **** world cup on the whole.

[bobzy]

11 hours ago, Xela said:

Well they see things wrong 

Messi is one of the few who doesn't throw himself around like a salmon. Hand of God aside (and a huge 'aside' it was) Maradona was never one to play-act or cheat. He had lumps kicked out of him. 

Maybe its my hazy memory but it seems to get worse every tournament. 

We dived 3 times against Colombia (potentially 4 if you count Henderson clutching his face after being headbutted in his chest). I think that’s been more than any other side I’ve noticed. Harry Kane also played straight out of the Grealish/Snodgrass book of taking any touch and hitting the deck. 

 

But yeah, deffo the South Americans  

[bobzy]

15 hours ago, BOF said:

I think they genuinely are conditioned differently. Different society.  I remember reading after Luis Suarez's cheat to deny Ghana on the goalline that it is regarded as clever in a positive manner, and honourable where he's from, to do that.  Win at all costs is good.  They don't see tricking the ref as cheating and they're baffled when teams like England make a big deal of it.  It's seen as a skill.  So they're effectively brought up to cheat, and to admire cheating ways.

Always amuses me that Suarez is held up as having cheated for this. How did he cheat?! He stopped a goal-bound shot with his hand and got a red card. It’s not cheating. He didn’t con anyone to get an advantage (and it worked, so fair play). 

[MrDuck]

1 minute ago, bobzy said:

We dived 3 times against Colombia (potentially 4 if you count Henderson clutching his face after being headbutted in his chest). I think that’s been more than any other side I’ve noticed. Harry Kane also played straight out of the Grealish/Snodgrass book of taking any touch and hitting the deck. 

 

But yeah, deffo the South Americans  

 

Henderson was pretty clearly headbutted on the chin.

From where I'm sitting, Kane seems to try his best to stay on his feet in any situation, he's been literally wrestled to the floor on many occasions.

Maguire's dive was a shocker though! Can't say I really blame them tbh, by the second half I think England took the approach of if you can't beat em, join em.

[MrDuck]

6 minutes ago, bobzy said:

Always amuses me that Suarez is held up as having cheated for this. How did he cheat?! He stopped a goal-bound shot with his hand and got a red card. It’s not cheating. He didn’t con anyone to get an advantage (and it worked, so fair play). 

It's hardly sporting behaviour is it? Purposefully stopping the ball on the goal line with your hand because you know there's a chance they'll miss the penalty is pretty bloody cynical. I was always under the impression only the goalkeeper is allowed to use his hands... so calling it cheating seems a pretty fair call to me.

[Stevo985]

9 minutes ago, MrDuck said:

 

Henderson was pretty clearly headbutted on the chin.

From where I'm sitting, Kane seems to try his best to stay on his feet in any situation, he's been literally wrestled to the floor on many occasions.

Maguire's dive was a shocker though! Can't say I really blame them tbh, by the second half I think England took the approach of if you can't beat em, join em.

Maguire did get straight back up and tell the ref he didn’t get touched so I’m not sure that really counts. If that was a Colombian the game would have been stopped for 5 minute. 

And I agree that I think the England antics were reactionary. The ref was a **** joke so they were trying to make sure they got their share of the decisions.

England did the odd dirty play in that game, but the claims here that they were worse than Colombia are honestly laughable. 

Edited July 5, 2018 by Stevo985

[Stevo985]

On 04/07/2018 at 06:06, Zatman said:

looks like going wide

 

[Vive_La_Villa]

Interesting comments about South Americans ‘cheating’ to try and get any advantage possible. 

I wonder how their own respective countries media report their antics and if they actually get slaughtered for not taking advantage of certain situation or for being too honest. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

Bit late to this group and it was quite a few games ago. But why didn’t the Denmark player get a red card for a professional foul when Croatia were about to score?

[MrDuck]

4 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Interesting comments about South Americans ‘cheating’ to try and get any advantage possible. 

I wonder how their own respective countries media report their antics and if they actually get slaughtered for not taking advantage of certain situation or for being too honest. 

In the case of the England game, the Colombian media thought their team was conned out of a well deserved win by a cheating England and a racist ref.

[Stevo985]

7 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Bit late to this group and it was quite a few games ago. But why didn’t the Denmark player get a red card for a professional foul when Croatia were about to score?

Some new rule that means a team don’t get punished multiple times for the same incident. 

Personally im against it. How fouls like that can not be a red card is ludicrous. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

32 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Some new rule that means a team don’t get punished multiple times for the same incident. 

Personally im against it. How fouls like that can not be a red card is ludicrous. 

I thought that but then the same thing happened in the Sweden game and he got a red.  The need to properly define this rule. 

[Ingram85]

5 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Yep. Thought he was excellent. 

Someone during the game in here commented that he was an absolute liability. Not sure where that came from. He won everything all game and looked the most comfortable on the ball of all the CBs

 

When I posted it was during ET and he was losing his cool, losing his temper and was giving away possession multiple times. He was like this during he last 20 minutes as well.

[tom_avfc]

51 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I thought that but then the same thing happened in the Sweden game and he got a red.  The need to properly define this rule. 

I believe it's do do with the intent to get the ball. As the ref considered the Denmark player to be genuinely attempting to get the ball then the double punishment rules kicked in and he didn't get sent off.

In the Sweden game, the Switzerland player made no attempt to go for the ball and just deliberately pushed the Sweden player over when he was in on goal which makes it still a red card.

The fact that the intent of a player is pretty difficult to judge makes me think this rule isn't really helping. Additionally, the Croatia player had an open goal so it was a definite goal without the foul. As Modric missed the penalty, the punishment of a yellow card doesn't really sit right with me.

[Zatman]

4 hours ago, maqroll said:

I don't think another Andres Escobar thing will ever happen again in Colombia. The whole country has moved on from that time.

Sanchez has received death threats already in thr tournament

[osmark86]

9 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Sanchez has received death threats already in thr tournament

as did Jimmy Durmaz for us after the Germany game we lost in the group stages. Some football "fans" are **** scum of the earth troglodytes.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-worldcup-ger-swe/swedes-take-stand-against-racism-after-durmaz-abuse-idUSKBN1JK04Z

[Straggler]

14 hours ago, sne said:

Still one of my favorites 

I was at that game, at the end that this happened. Saw the whole thing and at no time did anyone around us think that the ball had hit him in the face. Refs can be such twonks.

[Zatman]

Pretty much killed his top level career. Barca released him after World Cup then he failed in Milan

[sharkyvilla]

47 minutes ago, tom_avfc said:

I believe it's do do with the intent to get the ball. As the ref considered the Denmark player to be genuinely attempting to get the ball then the double punishment rules kicked in and he didn't get sent off.

In the Sweden game, the Switzerland player made no attempt to go for the ball and just deliberately pushed the Sweden player over when he was in on goal which makes it still a red card.

The fact that the intent of a player is pretty difficult to judge makes me think this rule isn't really helping. Additionally, the Croatia player had an open goal so it was a definite goal without the foul. As Modric missed the penalty, the punishment of a yellow card doesn't really sit right with me.

True there was absolutely no way the Denmark player was doing anything other than hacking the striker's legs away so he wouldn't tap it in the net but proving it is very difficult.  I've generally been an advocate of introducing a sin bin for tackles that are more serious than a yellow but not quite a red like this.

[fifamad]

4 hours ago, Ingram85 said:

When I posted it was during ET and he was losing his cool, losing his temper and was giving away possession multiple times. He was like this during he last 20 minutes as well.