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Round ball code talk

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Of the about 830 footballers at the World Cup in Qatar, 73 percent ply their trade in European clubs, an analysis of squad lists has found.
........
Germany’s Bayern Munich is the best-represented club, with 17 players selected for World Cup squads.
Spain’s Barcelona and England’s Manchester City each have 16, according to research published this week by European football consultants LTT Sports.

Outside of Europe, Qatari champions Al Sadd has 15 players at the tournament, opening on Sunday.

The domestic leagues of the United States and Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, each have 35 players called up for World Cup duties with a variety of national squads.

Argentina is leaning heavily on the top five European leagues by calling up 23 international club footballers, including Messi from Paris Saint-Germain, as well as others from clubs in England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France.

Italian clubs alone are providing 70 players to World Cup squads – even though Italy’s national team did not qualify for the tournament.


From the LTT Sports Twitter a/c



It’s Big-4. France is not in the same level. PSG, maybe; but not the rest of the league.
 
VAR has made it ridiculous
VAR “fixed” what wasn’t broken.

There was no need for that. The pursuit of perfection is ridiculous.

VAR should be used ONLY to revert clearly wrong decisions. Close calls are close enough to be upheld.

If it’s not immediately certain that the call is bad, the game should simply go on. Any review should take 30” at the most.

The way the offside rule is interpreted these days by VAR is s**t though. It's been overcomplicated. In an attempt to strive for perfection using video technology they've muddied the waters

This!
 
p
The 0-0 matches (including NED-SEN, whose goals happened in the end) have all been entertaining so far, haven’t they?
Denmark v Tunisia was bloody entertaining. Mexico v Poland I fell asleep late in the first half but it was late and I wanted to get a few hours sleep before the Socceroos game, but it wasn't that gripping. Netherlands v Senegal game was entertaining, and Croatia v Morocco was a bit dull until the last 6 or 7 minutes of the first half. I've turned it over as I want to watch something else.
 

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Denmark v Tunisia was bloody entertaining. Mexico v Poland I fell asleep late in the first half but it was late and I wanted to get a few hours sleep before the Socceroos game, but it wasn't that gripping. Netherlands v Senegal game was entertaining, and Croatia v Morocco was a bit dull until the last 6 or 7 minutes of the first half. I've turned it over as I want to watch something else.

Apparently, HRV-MAR went nuts since you turned it over. It’s box to box. Both teams are trying to score. I don’t know how much longer they can sustain this rhythm.

MEX-POL was nervous. It was the worst of the 4, but Lewandowski’s PK was enough to compensate.

P.S.: Modric doesn’t age!
 
Apparently, HRV-MAR went nuts since you turned it over. It’s box to box. Both teams are trying to score. I don’t know how much longer they can sustain this rhythm.

MEX-POL was nervous. It was the worst of the 4, but Lewandowski’s PK was enough to compensate.

P.S.: Modric doesn’t age!
Modric is an amazing player at international level. Have only seen a bit of him for Real Madrid the last decade.

His last 10 minutes of the first half was classic Modric. Thought to myself if he is known as Godric, or it doesn't translate in Croatian, like Modra to Godra did when he was dominating for the crows in 1993 and 1994.
 
p
It’s Big-4. France is not in the same level. PSG, maybe; but not the rest of the league.
True but Olympique Lyonnais is usually in the 16th to 25th type position in Deloitte's annual Football Money league list and Marseille used to be a powerhouse on and off the field, in the 80's and 90's. They have achieved more in champions league than PSG.

Think it gets called the Big 5 because 6th/7th/8th placed in revenue terms is about half the size of the French league. German and Spanish is about 60-70% of English League, the Italian League only about 70% of those two leagues and the French league about 75% the revenue of the Italian league.
 
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That half reminded me of the Oz v France game first half.

Both Oz and Japan play well the first 10 minutes, Oz scores, Japan scores an off side goal, then the big boys wake up. France looked too big, too fast, too strong, too skillful for Oz and Oz just kept passing backwards rather than attack France, the Germans looked too big, too fast, too strong, too skillful for Japan and Japan kept passing backwards rather than attack Germany. France and Germany had plenty of shots on goal but not much conversion. And both Oz and Japan had a chance late to equalise but both headers just miss.
 
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Our mistake was scoring first.
Should have conceded a penalty. Would have guaranteed the win
Go Japan!

The problem isn't VAR, it's the various body parts that can make you offside. Should just stick to feet.
 
another upset.

Japan did the opposite to what Oz did in the second half, they attacked, ran at Germans and had fast blokes in the forwards. #18 Asano was brilliant that half not just scoring but matching Rudiger for pace.
 
Any review should take 30” at the most.
That’s why I’m against the monitor. The referee must trust his assistant.

If the mistake is evident, VAR would simply tell it to the referee.

Then, the ref would decide if he accepts the information from the VAR or not, at his own peril…
 

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Honestly, we scored a goal and only lost by 3. Not the end of the world, pretty good effort.

End of the day we were the second last team to qualify for a reason. Im thankful we are there at all and getting experience in to Kuol etc.
Its the way we played that is the issue.

Oz soccer benchmarks ourselves against Japan and South Korea. Have done so since before we joined the Asian Confederation in 2006.

As I wrote post 2458 above, the first half of the Japan v Germany game was very similar to first half of Oz v France, both sides had a good first 10 minutes, we scored, they scored an offside goal, then the big boys woke up and were too big, too strong, too fast, too skillful and both us and Japan, started passing the ball backwards at all costs it seemed, were both under pressure and were both lucky to only be 1 goal down at half time.

Then as I wrote in post 2460, Japan did the opposite to what Oz did in the second half against these powerhouse sides. They attacked, ran at the Germans and put fast blokes in their forward half. We didn't do any of that. and paid the price.
 
Yeah. Not pretending the players did this. But that the support team thought to do it says something about respect imho.

Am I reading too much into this?

Of course I am.

Being a father of young men still at home does this to you.
I wouldnt be shocked at all if the players did this. In fact Id bet they had a hand in it.
 

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I reckon you’re right.

Take a look at what their fans did after the game



In 2014, Brazil watched this in awe. It still amazes me every time.
 
Just saw that the biter Luis Suarez is still playing for Uruguay. Looked up his wiki page to get his age, he is 35 and is back playing in Uruguay powehouse club Nacional.

GremioPower you live near the border, do you hear much of what Suarez has been up to?

If he scores in this world cup that will be 4 WCs he has kicked a goal in. When Messi scored the penalty goal the other day,I read an article that said he is the 5th to do so. Pele, Christiano Ronaldo, Klose and another German from the 60s and 70s I think.

Edit Ronaldo is out on his own now, with 5 WCs he has scored goals in, after converting a penalty against Ghana.
 
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Pommie commentator got it right in the 40th minute when he said scoreless, but high intensity game so far. Also highly entertaining. Korea dominated the 15 minutes up to that then Uruguay dominated the last 6 minutes and were stiff not to score from that Godin' header from a corner. The angle the ball hit the left post probably would have gone in if it was going slower, but it ricocheted straight out .

Good that SBS highlighted the long ball both sides have used very well a few times. Korean wingers are bloody fast and have stressed / stretched out the old Uruguayan defence.
 
@GremioPower you live near the border, do you hear much of what Suarez has been up to?

He was Uruguayan champion. He was Nacional’s main scorer.

He didn’t renew his contract. He’s decided to play elsewhere. However, I don’t know if he has already signed with a club.
 
Pommie commentator got it right in the 40th minute when he said scoreless, but high intensity game so far. Also highly entertaining. Korea dominated the 15 minutes up to that then Uruguay dominated the last 6 minutes and were stiff not to score from that Godin' header from a corner. The angle the ball hit the left post probably would have gone in if it was going slower, but it ricocheted straight out .

Good that SBS highlighted the long ball both sides have used very well a few times. Korean wingers are bloody fast and have stressed / stretched out the old Uruguayan defence.

Another interesting 0-0 draw.
 
Martin Tyler - that's the Rich in Richarlison - was a great call in video below just after 1.00.

GremioPower does he get the nickname Richo in Brazil, like he would in Oz, or is that his Brazilian football name?

Thought Serbia did a pretty good job in the first half, but Brazil turned it on in the 2nd half. Once they got that first goal they really opned up Serbia. The shots on goal ended up being 24-4, I reckon Serbia had 2 of the of those just before and just after extra time started and Brazil had probably 3-4 just before their first goal, 3 or 4 in between goals and maybe 8 or 10 after Richarlison's spectacular second goal, and were stiff not to convert maybe 3 of those after they were 2-0 up.

Vinni Jr what a player!! Casemiro was everywhere in the mid field. What a bench. 5 players come on and would probably be a starting players in every other side. Ok maybe only 28 or 29 of the other 31 sides. Fred, Rodrygo, Jesus (pronunced Jez-ooh) Anthony and Martinelli.

I know its early but with so much firepower, I think its Brazil's WC to lose.





SBS have done this well having 3, 10 and 25 minute videos of each game as well as full match videos.


 
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