The Real Football Thread

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England have certainly been that
 
Looks like the Netherlands will have the easiest path to the final despite finishing third in their group.

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I'm quite happy with this; there's a high chance that one of the Netherlands, Austria and Italy will reach the final.
Our terrorbal getting rewarded. Shame If we were good we should have a great shot at at least making the semi. But then again, we're shite

Having said that, I think Austria is getting a bit overhyped right now, I don't think they created that much against us outside of us just not even bothering to defind on occasions.

Bottom half is anyone's game really. Top half is just all about that Spain vs Germany game, and I think the winner of that will likely win the tournament.
 
The Belgian teams can be so frustrating. even their so called "golden generation" were such a disappointment. I know they came third in Russia Something is missing..i feel. Can it be pride playing for Belgium?..i dont know..
They are missing a striker who can score goals. I watched slovakia against Belge in Frankfurt and saw lukaku miss 3 easy chances right in front of me in 15 minutes. Put balitelli or someone actually good there and Belgeum will win everything.

All lukaku goals in qualifiers are against farmer teams like Estonia
 
Oh look it's the big favored countreis committing plain robbery again. Disgusting refereeing every single tournament

Well doesn't the first goal being disallowed kind of counter that narrative?(for what actually, I coudln't tell, not meaning it was wrong just I didn't see anything noteworthy) Also the handball penalty afaik was according to the current rules. If those rules are fair, that's a whole different debate.

Also: Havertz alone should've sunk them and Denmark was really lucky not to concede at the beginning of the match. Once they couldn't park the bus any more it was over.

I do think the thunderstormbreak helped us, but the interruption can't seriously be argued with.

So I get why you'd be upset with the ref, but I don't understand why you think Denmark was robbed. The goal they scored was offside, even though by a very small margin. The rules say that's not okay. I think the rules are to tight due to measurement errors, but well, that's nor robbery that's VAR doing normal VAR things.

That beig said: I don't think the ref was good and I didn't understand a lot of the decisions going either way.
 
The way that disallowed Danish goal was followed so quickly by the penalty to Germany felt extremely unjust to Danes on a basic intuitive level, but both decisions were correct. As was the cancellation of two German goals.

The penalty was clear cut, in a situation like this the responsibility of avoiding the use of arms and hands for blocking the ball shoud always lay with the defender. Even though current interpretation of the rule is somewhat different (and leads to more confusion and inconsistent decision making), the ref still had every right to give the penalty there.

The offside was the kind where the current black-and-white interpretation gives greater advantage to defensive side than the original rule intended to. The current interpretation offers strong consistency and clear understanding, but can quite often leave a sense of injustice in the air.
 
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The offside is fine, it's just the way the rule is but it looks more ridiculous when the player moves forward to touch the ball.

The handball was taking the absolute piss. Guy was just running and doesn't even have .1 seconds to dodge a ball hitting his hand for what looked like a pretty bad cross. It's obvious he was just aiming for the hands. And you're not gonna tell me every team is gonna get a penalty for that.
No point acting like it was a situation where there is only one correct decision possible. It's completely fine to disagree with that penalty, but calling it a piss take and a robbery, is just hysterical overreaction. Imo, the natural or unnatural position of arms is just an extremely poor basis on which to judge handball situations on.
 
The problem is that VAR is being used to cover rules of the game that are specifically designed to be interpretive, i.e. handball. Offside is easy enough to work with, but handballs are interpretive. It has become clear that sides do target striking the ball into opponents' hands to get cheap penalties, but at the same time defenders need to react to that and minimise the risk; the Dane having his arm out like that made an easy target, and also when they slow it down for VAR it makes it look worse (there was a youtube channel that did a comparison of the use of the video ref in soccer vs. rugby - may have been TiFo or someone like them - and showed rugby referees, in incidents where interpretation is an element in the decision, watching the slow motion replays to ascertain the offence, and then asking to be re-shown the event in real time to judge reaction time).

It was very similar I thought to the penalty decision in the Croatia-Italy game; other hand in that it was the outside arm, but similarly it was a strike into the arm from relatively short distance and a defender with their arm extended (but not fully). That one went against the bigger team.

I feel like we might be overdue a rule like in ice hockey here the last attacking player to touch the ball (or the player fouled) has to take the penalty. There's way too much manipulating handballs or manufacturing contact because players don't trust themselves in front of goal from open play as much as they trust their star striker from the penalty spot.
 
Has there ever been any national team in the top competition that look as clueless as England? And I don't mean only now, it's been going on like this for years, even before Southgate. No fluidity, let alone creativity, no inspiration, no clear plan at all.
 
Has there ever been any national team in the top competition that look as clueless as England? And I don't mean only now, it's been going on like this for years, even before Southgate. No fluidity, let alone creativity, no inspiration, no clear plan at all.
Southgate is a genius of failing upward. How he's managed to accidentally manipulate the tournament brackets so they always play at home and end up on the easy side of the draw every time to get further than they deserve has sustained him through multiple tournaments of taking great players and playing absolute anti-futebol dreck.
 
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TBF Kučka should probably have been off well before that too, but yes, Bellingham has been pulling out Arjen Robben-level blatant simulation this tournament and that one in this game was especially egregious because the defender didn't even trail their leg out there.
Saka too in that ET half. English football has historically prized physicality from its forwards more than, say, Spanish or Italian football, and so their pundits and fans like to act like they're above diving, but they're probably the worst offenders on the continent nowadays.