Croatia vs Belgium & Canada vs Morocco - 3pm GMT

[GunmaN1905]

As far as Inter is concerned, should send Lukaku back to London right away.

Always was a momentum and confidence player, this match will leave a permanent mark, might save some wages.

Just now, pearcey_90 said:

A lot of words just to agree  Should be easy win for Spain.

We were poor in Morocco match the same way you were poor against USA. Cowardly managers playing for a draw thinking it's enough and then Morocco beats Belgium, things don't go according to plan.

Last 20 minutes the team was dead and if we got subs anywhere, it's midfield, yet he was scared to sub anyone of the three even though both Kovačić and Modrić were done. Perišić also.

Edited December 1, 2022 by GunmaN1905

[eXistenZ]

Name a more iconic pair than Lukaku and fluking when it matters, ill wait. Origi would have finished at least one of them. But no, Martinez had to bring geriatric Mertens and inconsistent as hell batsman/

Hoping SI updates his important matches rating accordingly (aka 3)

 

[Haguey]

Perisic is a beast, happy Belgium are gone but feel sad for Big Rom 

[Rob1981]

TALK ABOUT MOROCCO FFS, first R16 since 1986 for them.

They deserve to be the main story and not Belgium being hopeless.

[GunmaN1905]

1 minute ago, eXistenZ said:

Name a more iconic pair than Lukaku and fluking when it matters, ill wait. Origi would have finished at least one of them. But no, Martinez had to bring geriatric Mertens and inconsistent as hell batsman/

Hoping SI updates his important matches rating accordingly (aka 3)

The biggest injustice is Doku not starting every match.

He did more than everyone else combined in 3 matches. Including De Bruyne.

[noikeee]

Belgium were bad, but they would be going through if it wasn't for the single worst performance I've seen from a striker (let alone a top striker) in a long time. It's just one of those days where everything goes against you. I feel bad for him tbh

[The_jagster]

4 minutes ago, Rob1981 said:

TALK ABOUT MOROCCO FFS, first R16 since 1986 for them.

They deserve to be the main story and not Belgium being hopeless.

They could have an appealing round of 16 tie or a dreadful draw though

[JD nawrat]

I had Belgium down to win

kinda glad they went out now though, KDB without injury, long season left, ideal for City. 

[BigV]

It's more belgiums fault than it is croatia playing bad, croatia have a knack for grinding results and clutching, their workrate is what keeps them in games and gvardiol, baller, proper defender, hope to see him reach his heights, just not for chelsea please.

I feel sorry for martinez, he shouldn't be the manager for belgium but at the same time he would've been slated for dropping some of those big old names, that whole backline is pure grandad defending. Then you have lazy ass players who aren't even motivated to play for their country- reports about a bust up recently, doesn't bold well at all, deserve to be out. 

[skybluedave]

I do feel bad for Lukaku. Coz that performance will be in WC history. Feels like it will be an (in)famously iconic WC moment that will get mentioned alot down the years

Edited December 1, 2022 by skybluedave

[GunmaN1905]

4 minutes ago, noikeee said:

It's just one of those days where everything goes against you.

It's the textbook definition of an unfit player.

You know the feeling when you're playing a sport and your heart is in your throat because you're out of stamina?

First he hits the inside of the post with his weaker foot, had to do better, but wasn't a horrible effort, Gvardiol was sliding right on the ball.

Header was bad, but surprising because of goalkeeper's mistake and the ball was out, anyway.

After that, he had nothing left.

Was late to react in every situation because he couldn't concentrate due to not being fit.

His own fault, came unfit to Inter, played two matches, got injured. Recovered, got injured again after 30 minutes.

His minutes were low last season and he never had muscle injury issues. The injury was caused by his laziness and now he paid the ultimate price.

Sounds harsh, but it's the reality.

 

Shame about this Belgium team, but they've had their chances in previous tournaments. 2016 was their chance to win it all, but they lost to Wales.

[Heartwork]

10 minutes ago, Rob1981 said:

TALK ABOUT MOROCCO FFS, first R16 since 1986 for them.

They deserve to be the main story and not Belgium being hopeless.

They won the group too. Been a decent WC for Arab World countries. Morocco win their group, Tunisia beat France, Saudi Arabia beat Argentina, Qatar were also present

[Rob1981]

Just need Ghana to hold off Uruguay and we should have three African teams in the R16 for the first time.

[GunmaN1905]

Just now, Heartwork said:

They won the group too. Been a decent WC for Arab World countries. Morocco win their group, Tunisia beat France, Saudi Arabia beat Argentina, Qatar were also present

Morocco are a great team.

Footballing wise, European team by all accounts. All of their best players went to academies of top European clubs and it shows. This will give them a lot of confidence and we could see another match similar to Algeria-Germany in the knockouts.

With German flanks being so poorly defended, wouldn't surprise me if Morocco won. I'll be supporting them.

[kpain16]

Whenever we get through the group, we reach at least the semis 

Spain will trash us most likely.

[thefmveteran86]

Never really watch Morrocon football given most of us are in our European bubble but fair play to the Moroccans

[Heartwork]

All this assuming it'll be Spain and Germany going through and not Japan and Costa Rica

[Heartwork]

2 minutes ago, Rob1981 said:

Just need Ghana to hold off Uruguay and we should have three African teams in the R16 for the first time.

REVENGE FOR GYAN

[GunmaN1905]

2 minutes ago, kpain16 said:

Whenever we get through the group, we reach at least the semis 

Spain will trash us most likely.

We avoided a lifetime of English criminal being mentioned for the rest of our lives whenever NT plays or whenever he takes charge of an EPL/CL game, so today has been an absolute win.

25-75%, but Spain isn't faultless, they're kind of slow on defense and anything can happen in one match, as we've seen on the EURO.

[Heartwork]

Just now, GunmaN1905 said:

We avoided a lifetime of English criminal being mentioned for the rest of our lives whenever NT plays or whenever he takes charge of an EPL/CL game, so today has been an absolute win.

25-75%, but Spain isn't faultless, they're kind of slow on defense and anything can happen in one match, as we've seen on the EURO.

Ok but what is the plan for Japan

[Reggiana]

4 minutes ago, Heartwork said:

All this assuming it'll be Spain and Germany going through and not Japan and Costa Rica

I can't really see Spain not going through, they're looking good.

Totally agree that Germany aren't a foregone conclusion.

[GunmaN1905]

2 minutes ago, Heartwork said:

Ok but what is the plan for Japan

Oh, that's a certain elimination, we play up to the opposition's level.

Or in that case, down to their level.

[Heartwork]

1 minute ago, Reggiana said:

I can't really see Spain not going through, they're looking good.

Totally agree that Germany aren't a foregone conclusion.

But it would be so funny

[eXistenZ]

actually expectied him to swing and miss

[GunmaN1905]

1 minute ago, eXistenZ said:

actually expectied him to swing and miss

The only saving grace I can think about is that there's that useless Supercup against Milan in January.

[Smallen]

Martinez is a truly shocking manager

[Firehouse]

I guess Im a little bit spoiled by our national team, and going through to the knockout stages is still a big deal for a country the size of Croatia, but Im not really happy with the display, should've topped this group really. But we played to get a point against Morroco and Belgium, so I guess I should really take this second place.

[m_fenton]

1 hour ago, enigmatic said:

What's worse than being 1mm away from being onside? Being onside by 9mm but still being 1mm away from being "onside"

I'd suggested 10cm as the "umpire's call" margin, not 10mm, for pretty much that reason. It's not so much about accuracy, more about what seems right to retrospectively penalise. Someone 1mm offside (like today) is not getting such an advantage that it deserves penalising, it's just overly pedantic and makes for worse games. If someone is 10.1cm offside though, 1mm past the "umpire's call" zone, it wouldn't be pedantic for VAR to disallow a goal. They'd only have themselves to blame.

Like I said, the 10cm figure is just an example. It could be 1/2/5cm etc if that worked best.

[kopsy101]

Just read that Belgium had over 3 xG  Croatia gonna need to sort their defence for the next round, wasn't impressed them them at all

[RubenJ]

1 hour ago, skybluedave said:

I do feel bad for Lukaku. Coz that performance will be in WC history. Feels like it will be an (in)famously iconic WC moment that will get mentioned alot down the years

Nah not in a group stage match. People will forget as soon as Lukaku is out of the picture. 

[enigmatic]

2 hours ago, m_fenton said:

I'd suggested 10cm as the "umpire's call" margin, not 10mm, for pretty much that reason. It's not so much about accuracy, more about what seems right to retrospectively penalise. Someone 1mm offside (like today) is not getting such an advantage that it deserves penalising, it's just overly pedantic and makes for worse games. If someone is 10.1cm offside though, 1mm past the "umpire's call" zone, it wouldn't be pedantic for VAR to disallow a goal. They'd only have themselves to blame.

Like I said, the 10cm figure is just an example. It could be 1/2/5cm etc if that worked best.

What if someone is 9.9cm onside and gets flagged? If we're letting those go, shouldn't assistants in games with the tech just flag absolutely everything to get final decisions which are actually accurate? 

(10cm is a worse margin than 10mm too. On a replays it's big enough to often be really obvious the person is offside and the linesman got it wrong not flagging and then we're waiting to see if they were 10.1cm offside or 9.9cm so the goal gets given. Makes drawing lines somewhere ambiguous on the shoulder look sensible. At least with cricket balls halfway across a bail on ball tracker is that they never actually reach that position, it's just a machine guessing to compare with the umpire guessing. For the actual objective factual stuff, snicko is far higher precision than anything in football.)

[The_jagster]

38 minutes ago, enigmatic said:

What if someone is 9.9cm onside and gets flagged? If we're letting those go, shouldn't assistants in games with the tech just flag absolutely everything to get final decisions which are actually accurate? 

(10cm is a worse margin than 10mm too. On a replays it's big enough to often be really obvious the person is offside and the linesman got it wrong not flagging and then we're waiting to see if they were 10.1cm offside or 9.9cm so the goal gets given. Makes drawing lines somewhere ambiguous on the shoulder look sensible. At least with cricket balls halfway across a bail on ball tracker is that they never actually reach that position, it's just a machine guessing to compare with the umpire guessing. For the actual objective factual stuff, snicko is far higher precision than anything in football.)

We also have a tolerance on where the ball has hit the batsman under "umpire's call" which is factual

[kpain16]

[m_fenton]

1 hour ago, enigmatic said:

What if someone is 9.9cm onside and gets flagged? If we're letting those go, shouldn't assistants in games with the tech just flag absolutely everything to get final decisions which are actually accurate? 

(10cm is a worse margin than 10mm too. On a replays it's big enough to often be really obvious the person is offside and the linesman got it wrong not flagging and then we're waiting to see if they were 10.1cm offside or 9.9cm so the goal gets given. Makes drawing lines somewhere ambiguous on the shoulder look sensible. At least with cricket balls halfway across a bail on ball tracker is that they never actually reach that position, it's just a machine guessing to compare with the umpire guessing. For the actual objective factual stuff, snicko is far higher precision than anything in football.)

Nobody's suggested flagging people who are 9.9cm onside though, I don't get the point you're making.

If decisions keep being made as quickly as they generally are at this WC, then there's not going to be a lot of waiting around. What's up for debate though is how pedantic to be about calling offsides. I'm suggesting that calling people 1mm offside, with images like the one shown in this match, is pretty unsatisfying and not good entertainment. Quick decisions, with a bias towards awarding close calls as goals instead of disallowing them, would be preferable.

[enigmatic]

1 hour ago, m_fenton said:

Nobody's suggested flagging people who are 9.9cm onside though, I don't get the point you're making.

The point I was making is that if the tolerance is only for people who actually are offside, any remotely sensible match official should just flag everything remotely close and let the technology decide. Who wants to be the guy whose error overrules the technology, especially when they're making the decision from 50 yards away in real time and a few million other people are watching it it zoomed in on superslomo, when putting their flag up always ensures the correct decision is made

(There are obvious downsides to the tolerance not being one way only too...)

 

1 hour ago, m_fenton said:

I'm suggesting that calling people 1mm offside, with images like the one shown in this match, is pretty unsatisfying and not good entertainment.

I'm suggesting it won't be any more satisfying waiting to see if someone who in replays is clearly offside by more than the width of their boot gets away with it or not, possibly by a margin as slender as 1mm. Especially since a lineman's call obviously won't eliminate the possibility of a player being given offside (or onside) by 1mm either. Only way you're going to eliminate 1mm calls is to eliminate the tech (or the offside rule) altogether. 1mm tolerance unless the linesman doesn't flag in which case it leaps to large enough to be really obvious in replays  isn't an improvement

And frankly refs at this World Cup seem to be having trouble with the bits of the offside law that aren't objective but have very clear guidelines like the interfering with play rule. Not sure why we'd want to add to their power to screw things up and be wildly inconsistent by letting them randomly overrule technology that's 100% correct.

 

Edited December 1, 2022 by enigmatic