2018 FIFA World Cup XXI

[Jagartrott]

Contrary to the British press, I'm far from impressed by this England squad. Won 3 matches - against Tunisia, Panama and Sweden - one draw and three losses. Scored most of their goals from set pieces and looked quite sluggish in defense.

The score could've easily been 4-1 today, if Lukaku had remembered how to control a football.

By the way, that saved Meunier shot around minute 75 came after perhaps the most beuatiful attack of the tournament. Gorgeous.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

The VAR system is a joke.....

 

[fauniera]

Croatia clearly better, but the ref won't allow them the win. Has already gifted two goals to France.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Harsh on Croatia this, two very debatable goals from the French in the first half. Credit where it’s due they have been clinical up front in the second half.

 

[ebandit]

let me sing a song for ya.....................

nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, luka modric...

talk about injustice...........

Mark L

 

[hfer07]

Congratulations to France for her 2nd World Cup title, despite the rather controversial arbitrage....

FIFA must work very hard on the referees, because there were crucial matches decided by grave mistakes/misinterpretations made by them.

Overall I'm extremely pleased with this World Cup - Congrats to France & special Congrats to RUSSIA for hosting such magnificent even.

 

[macbindle]

Re:

Contrary to the British press, I'm far from impressed by this England squad. Won 3 matches - against Tunisia, Panama and Sweden - one draw and three losses. Scored most of their goals from set pieces and looked quite sluggish in defense.

The score could've easily been 4-1 today, if Lukaku had remembered how to control a football.

By the way, that saved Meunier shot around minute 75 came after perhaps the most beuatiful attack of the tournament. Gorgeous.

They got to the semi-finals, albeit partially via a very fortuitous draw. That hasn't happened for 28 years. Give them some credit. They were much better than any recent England team.

They just can't score goals in open play against decent opponents

 

[del1962]

Re: Re:

Contrary to the British press, I'm far from impressed by this England squad. Won 3 matches - against Tunisia, Panama and Sweden - one draw and three losses. Scored most of their goals from set pieces and looked quite sluggish in defense.

The score could've easily been 4-1 today, if Lukaku had remembered how to control a football.

By the way, that saved Meunier shot around minute 75 came after perhaps the most beuatiful attack of the tournament. Gorgeous.

They got to the semi-finals, albeit partially via a very fortuitous draw. That hasn't happened for 28 years. Give them some credit. They were much better than any recent England team.

They just can't score goals in open play against decent opponents

Young team not expected to get to semis, so a result. Still lacked a truly world class playmaker like the Croats, we had one in 1990 albeit with a capacity to self destruct , they got where they where by there teamwork which is good.

Of course there will be the snipers, but they have there own agendas and where always waiting for England to fail, I guess in the end they where happy though I wouldn’t put much store in a 3rd place game

Anyway hopefully a world class playmaker can arise one can arise and take them further because the team as a whole are solid, though they need to cut out defensive lapses particularly when they have the ball

 

[Brullnux]

Croatia clearly better, but the ref won't allow them the win. Has already gifted two goals to France.

Croatia were better but both goals were valid, if soft. Brozovic touched Griezmann's left foot which cause/prompted his fall (so a foul, if a soft one) and perisic's arm was both in an unnatural position (who jumps with their arm at a right angle to their body?) and moving towards the ball.

Very weird game. Subasic apparently can only save penalties, anything else be they free kicks or especially long shots, he's useless at. Lloris was due a howler. Croatia were better but still created little, France I think had no clear cut chance in the whole game, just two long shots and perhaps that mbappe chance. And yet, it had the most goals in 90 minutes sicne 1958.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Has a single player been booked for diving in this entire tournament?

 

[Robert5091]

Congrats to France - skrappy at times, but with Griezmann & Pogba good in the middle & Giroud has proven that Wenger really messed up not playing him more.

England were in desperate need of a Modic or Griezmann. Without a playmaker in the middle it was all very slow and predictable.

 

[Brullnux]

Also, it's worth people understanding how VAR actually works. The assistant referees describe what they are seeing in the video, and the referee hears this description. The referee then can say: no, I saw that and I don't think it was ...(whatever), or I didn't see that, and that could be an issue - the referee on the pitch decides what to review, with the help of theirassistant. Here, the Video Assistant Referee would have described that the ball struck Perisic's hand in a manner that could lead to a penalty. The referee could say: 'I saw that it hit his hand, but I don't think it was a penalty' and not go to to review it, since in his mind it wasn't clear and obvious. However, the referee could also say (and in this case probably did say) 'I didn't realise it struck his hand, I will have a check'. This, no matter the outcome, is a clear and obvious error - he didn't see that it hit his hand. He checks the video footage, and at this point he can decide whether or not it was a penalty - again, perhaps being guided or helped by the VAR. Here, he decides it was. This was Pitana's decision, not the VAR's. There have been occasions in both serie a and this world cup where a referee has gone to look at the footage and kept his on-field decision. In the end, the final decision is at the referee's discretion. It is help for the referees rather than instruction.

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

Has a single player been booked for diving in this entire tournament?

No, and none for making the tv signal either. In all honesty, barely anyone has been booked this tournament full stop. Dembele got away with three or four tactical fouls in the semi, as did Lovren. 3.4 yellow cards per game (4.1 is the average), and only four red cards.

 

[Forever The Best]

Mbappe winning after his antics in SF, ugh...

 

[BullsFan22]

Croatia the better team, more chances, more organized, more corners, more fight...two wrong calls, two goals. I know people will say 'yes, but France scored two more, so it doesn't matter...' well it does matter, it changes the complexion of the game completely. One bad call already changes things, two bad calls, in the same half, completely changes everything.

As I was watching, I kept thinking 'nowhere have I seen a team leading by 3-1 and then 4-1 deserve it less.' France have a young, talented team, but Croatia was controlling the match, the midfield has been so strong, so rock solid for them all tournament.

It's a damn shame they lost the way they did. A couple of French counter attacks and that's it. Fortune did not favor the brave today, that's for sure.

 

[BullsFan22]

Croatia clearly better, but the ref won't allow them the win. Has already gifted two goals to France.

Croatia were better but both goals were valid, if soft. Brozovic touched Griezmann's left foot which cause/prompted his fall (so a foul, if a soft one) and perisic's arm was both in an unnatural position (who jumps with their arm at a right angle to their body?) and moving towards the ball.

Very weird game. Subasic apparently can only save penalties, anything else be they free kicks or especially long shots, he's useless at. Lloris was due a howler. Croatia were better but still created little, France I think had no clear cut chance in the whole game, just two long shots and perhaps that mbappe chance. And yet, it had the most goals in 90 minutes sicne 1958.

Griezmann was already going down, he was going down no matter what, a clear dive. He was grazed, but was after he started falling. That was pathetic. Then the own goal off of that undeserved free kick was pure luck.

The handball to me looked obvious at first, but then looking at it again in slow motion and the BBC analysts talking about it, changed my mind. At best 50-50.

 

[BullsFan22]

Re:

Has a single player been booked for diving in this entire tournament?

Don't think so, just warnings and telling the players to 'get up and continue.' It's a shame, because FIFA can really make a huge difference, not just in these top, big international games, but it can help clean up domestic and local leagues as well. If people see big stars like Neymar or Ronaldo or Griezmann or Mbappe getting yellow's for simulation, they'll have to at least think about doing it before doing something. FIFA of course has little to no intention of actually enforcing that. It's going to continue, I am afraid.

 

[King Boonen]

Anyone who thinks the Griezmann free kick was a free kick is really deluding themselves I think. I was sat in a room of French people, in France and even they were looking embarrassed at the decision. It was about a clear a dive as they come and it was obvious even at normal speed. The penalty was 50-50, didn’t look obvious but his hand was at a weird angle. Maybe just trying to keep it down.

 

[del1962]

Re:

Anyone who thinks the Griezmann free kick was a free kick is really deluding themselves I think. I was sat in a room of French people, in France and even they were looking embarrassed at the decision. It was about a clear a dive as they come and it was obvious even at normal speed. The penalty was 50-50, didn’t look obvious but his hand was at a weird angle. Maybe just trying to keep it down.

The Griezmann free kick may not have been a freekick, but it was given, so you get on with it. It wasn't a penalty or a super dangerous position, teams will get a number of free kicks in those thoughts of areas, the French just got lucky with the free kick thats part of football

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

Anyone who thinks the Griezmann free kick was a free kick is really deluding themselves I think. I was sat in a room of French people, in France and even they were looking embarrassed at the decision. It was about a clear a dive as they come and it was obvious even at normal speed. The penalty was 50-50, didn’t look obvious but his hand was at a weird angle. Maybe just trying to keep it down.

I thought it was a dive initially, and from two of the replay angles it looks like a dive, but from one of them you can see brozovic's left foot make contact with griezmann's left foot. It's probably not enough to go down, but i'd still say it is a foul.

Edit: having seen another angle again, it's an optical illusion. Griezmann somehow times his foot being blocked perfectly with brozovic's step.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

I understand that a couple of decisions went France's way in the first half but that doesn't mean Croatia were a better team. When Croatia supposedly dominated in the first twenty minutes, they managed a grand total of zero shots. Not shots on target, shots period. Maybe it's a dive by Griezmann (I haven't seen the replay of the foul) but then again if Croatia didn't foul France every time they tried to counter, maybe Brozovic would have had the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Croatia could have defended a fairly routine free kick without puting it in the back of their net.

As for the Perisic hand ball, I think it's a penalty. Now I understand why some people don't agree and certainly the way it went down with double checking VAR leaves a sour taste for everybody. It's not France's fault that FIFA after all these years still can't get a consistent ruling on hand balls and that Perisic was flailing around with his arms. Perhaps people could try to give Griezmann some credit for scoring a penalty with such calm despite the stakes against arguably the premier penalty stopper in the world (check Subasic's stats for stopping penalties in his career they're insane).

Btw, the goals from Croatia: a comical error by Lloris (props to Mandzukic for continuing to press the keeper despite all the work he did in previous games) and a deflected strike from Perisic, so it's not like they didn't have some luck on their side. France simply made fewer mistakes on the day. Croatia only had one other shot on target in the entire game. Their gameplan of chucking crosses into the box was never likely to work against Varane and Umtiti. On the other hand, Croatia never found an answer for Mbappé's pace. After a great tournament, Kanté was completely out of sorts and once Deschamps sent Nzonzi on, Croatia never really threatened again (apart from that Mandzukic goal I guess).

I find it baffling that after the best world cup final in a long while with three beautiful goals from Perisic, Mbappé and Pogba people prefer to talk about referee. France are deserving world champions. Nobody could even stretch that team to overtime and they trailed for nine minutes in the entire tournament. For all the talk of how much they prioritize defense over offense they did end up with 11 goals in four knock out games (Spain won the world cup with a grand total of 8 goals over the entire competition for comparison).

Great respect for that Croatian side that just never gives up and has great ability all over the pitch. While they were second best to France, they showed over that tournament they were clearly a class above the rest of the field in terms of how well they played and how well they carried themselves. They did themselves and their country proud and I hope they have one more run in them at Euro 2020. Kalinic should be ashamed of himself for letting that team down.

 

[42x16ss]

Re: Re:

Has a single player been booked for diving in this entire tournament?

Don't think so, just warnings and telling the players to 'get up and continue.' It's a shame, because FIFA can really make a huge difference, not just in these top, big international games, but it can help clean up domestic and local leagues as well. If people see big stars like Neymar or Ronaldo or Griezmann or Mbappe getting yellow's for simulation, they'll have to at least think about doing it before doing something. FIFA of course has little to no intention of actually enforcing that. It's going to continue, I am afraid.

I found it very disappointing that they weren’t called. A number of players (particularly Neymar) kept diving more and more blatantly in an attempt to finally win a free kick, which strangely enough, fell into defenders hands. By the knockout stages it reached the point where if Neymar took on a defender they would simply pull him down and they probably wouldn’t get fouled because Neymar never stayed on his feet anyway - his constant falling counted against him, even though there were some blatant fouls.